Friday Reads

Body and Soul and AI

Welcome to another Friday, the last one of March. Yes, April is just around the corner. I, for one, am not at all ready. I would like to go back to January and do a reset to slow things down. Though I will admit, I have filled several planters, and things look awfully colorful and cheery outside.

April brings a couple of traveling events, which I’m both excited for and worried about. (I mean, who wants to try and fly right now, am I right?) But the bigger issue is the old health. My energy levels are recovering, but I’m not there yet. I run out of steam at the strangest times. Some days I’m like the Energizer Bunny, and others, I can barely get out of my chair. I do have the proper diagnosis now, POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome - AKA if I stand too long, my blood pressure drops and my heart starts to race, necessitating a VERY fast seated position or boom - out I go.) This is in addition to the already discovered Ehlers-Danlos. One was a genetic anomaly that is fixed. The other is a direct result of the COVID vaccine and infection. Because of that, I started another specialized rehab this week, which is the best way to rebuild stamina and endurance.

Long COVID is no joke, and I hope any of you reading this who have been similarly struck down are getting treatment, have found doctors who listen, and are in programs to get back to yourself, if at all possible. Admittedly, having any health issue is so weird. They are all-encompassing, overwhelming, and, yes, sometimes depressing as hell. But you still need to live your life, do your work, and otherwise function when and if possible, and the only way to do that is with a solid team, a whole lot of self-grace, and a template for saying no politely.

I had no intention of talking about this today, but it’s on my mind. I see so many people suffering without answers, and I am so incredibly lucky and grateful that I’ve been able to pursue these diagnoses. Granted, I’ve had to be a pit bull about it and have refused to stop until there were answers. Real answers. I have them now, and it’s time to do what can be done to fix things.

On to the books. The book, that is.

Oh, my people. Sue Monk Kidd’s WRITING CREATIVITY AND SOUL is like a warm hug. And an important one, in light of all the conversations this past week about AI and how writers should or should not use it. Kidd’s book is one of those fine examples of memoir/writing craft/philosophy that every writer should read. It’s on par with Bird by Bird, and On Writing. It is tender and heartfelt and gorgeously written.

And there is no way in hell any kind of AI could touch it.

I posted a note this week with a quote from this book that landed right in my heart.

Everyone is worried about AI right now. Let me tell you why it will never replace us. A brief quote from Sue Monk Kidd’s WRITING CREATIVITY AND SOUL sums it up perfectly:

“If you encounter writing infused with soul, you know it. It feeds you somewhere inside. Such writing can open your eyes and your heart, reenchant your world or rearrange how you see it. It can return you to yourself. A work with soul lingers. It leaves a mark. It can even change you.”

I challenge any piece of AI-written copy to do such a thing.

Soul is what makes the work yours. Soul is what makes your voice yours. Soul is what readers are buying. Your own soul is rearranged by the true words you read, or the brushstrokes you admire, or the lopsided clay cup you treasure. It’s the soul of another artist that speaks to you, crossing that barrier between worlds, creating the psychic connection that we all crave from art.

I don’t want to be divisive here, because it’s none of my business what any other author chooses in this situation. But for me, it’s very simple. I write the words. Period. I write the books, the stories, the newsletters, the essays, this weekly update. I create the worlds you live in when you read my books. There is no reason for me to use AI to create the words; I simply don’t need it. I’m one of the lucky ones whose been in the game long enough that the AI trained on my work, rather than the other way around. And I hope that my soul comes through for it.

That doesn’t mean I don’t use AI. I do. And what I use, I really like. It’s a tool, like any other. First and foremost—spellcheck. And research. It saves me a lot of time to pop into Claude and ask where a farmer who needs to buy a cow would go if he lived near Chattanooga. (True query this week.) It’s a juiced-up Google, and I am here for that. It’s superb for developing marketing campaigns, pricing indexes, keyword and metadata analyses. Generating schedules for social media posting. Helping plan out timelines. Doing an analysis of Truby’s 40 steps in crime fiction. In these matters, the fact that it was trained on my work is an added bonus for me.

And when you, or a family member, is having health issues? It can quite literally be a lifesaver. Being able to take a list of possibilities to a doctor and say, "Hey, test for X,” is an important innovation that can help us all.

I’ve always been an early adopter of technology. My first post-college job was in the Office of Science and Technology Policy in the White House, working for a nuclear scientist. I grew up in an aerospace family. I learned the basics of computer coding when I was in junior high. I have built all but one of my websites. The second a new device drops, I am there. I am a weird duck when it comes to the business of writing. I enjoy the business side of it as much as the creative side. So when I find a way to develop a six-month plan to get my book written on time, release and promote five books, keep my writing and exercise times sacrosanct, and have a running master list of all the things I need to do and have already done, you better believe I’m going to be all over it.

I will not allow it to take over my computer. I will not allow it to be me. (But if I could get it to do my taxes, believe you me, I would.)

I can only judge what I am willing to do, not what other authors do, think, or say. Does it strike me as odd to want to be a writer yet have a computer write the work for you? Absolutely. But there’s always going to be someone who wants the easy road, thinking the secret handshake will appear.

I’m sure there will be pledges and contract amendments and all that coming soon from NY, kind of like the morality clauses that made their way into our contracts a while back, to make sure authors really are writing their own books. I think the cow’s already out of the barn, but there needs to be some guardrails put in place, absolutely. Especially because the publishers are using it across the board, too.

And there is that very clear, simple, unbreakable line for me, again. I do not use it to write my books. There is absolutely nothing an AI bot can write that would be anything near my own words. Because I have a soul. And it does not.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. And hear what you’re reading this weekend! Do get your hands on the Kidd book. It’s exceptional.