Category: Writing Tools - Mala Naidoo's Book World

AI or the Human Touch

Whether we accept it, remain neutral, or deny it, it’s already present.

When it comes to creativity, how do you balance AI and the human touch?

Ernest Hemingway said, There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed. If this is so, why is AI necessary when the writing process is humanely natural?

For centuries, storytelling has been a cultural tradition in every corner of the world. Who is the best at sharing their personal experiences through storytelling?

Is it possible for AI to display raw emotions?

Some argue that it’s authentic, while others contend that it’s programmed and thus not genuine.

The subjectivity of creativity begs the question: can it be programmed?

The dilemma is that some humans conceal truths and wear masks to create a fake identity. The theme of appearance vs reality in Shakespeare’s plays exposes how easily humans can be deceived. Will AI be yet another mask for machine-generated creativity? Who receives credit for the positive reception of AI-generated work? Another door to truth and ethics is unlocked.

Be curious and informed before leaping.

Artists create. They can express themselves through art in a multitude of ways — painting, writing, music, fashion, architecture, machinery, transportation, and beyond.

Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Leonardo da Vinci, Picasso, Mozart, and other masters of their crafts possessed scintillating minds and remarkable imaginations before AI.

How does AI affect the human brain and heart when it takes over our inherent rights to uniqueness, growth, and creativity? When AI ‘generates’ creativity, do artists’ voices and works lose their uniqueness that only the human touch can produce?

The books and authors that writers admire inspire them. Their mentors, past and present, guide them in honing their skills and style to create unique storylines. Imagination and voice make up a writer’s unique human fingerprint. It captures the reader’s attention. Have we reached a technological level where AI can imitate a writer’s style and imagination?

Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine, and at last, you create what you will. – George Bernard Shaw

AI is a part of our daily lives, but we often overlook it. Bots have butted into our lives before we had a name for them. Just whisper ‘Ok Google,’ or ‘Alexa’ and they are ready to provide us with the answers we seek. Does this make the human mind lazy if we don’t physically do the research?

The uniqueness of a writer’s voice lies in the manner in which they tell the story. AI can mimic the tone and intonation of the human voice, but can it replicate the character and personality of the human soul to articulate life experiences?

Creativity is seeing what others see and thinking what no one else ever thought. – Albert Einstein.

As an artist, you live your passion, share your talents and skills, and develop with every piece of art created.

The ways and reasons for entering this brave new world of creativity are widely debated.

The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt — Sylvia Plath

Be curious and cautious to guide your choices in a rapidly evolving creative sphere.

Please share your views in the comments below.

Creative Process – Longhand Writing

Writing with a pen or pencil in hand has the natural rhythm of heart, mind, and soul, working in sync.

When creative thought emerges, there is no schedule. It arrives on the wings of Mother Muse who transports the message for the composer to pick up.

Longhand novel drafting and writing has been my process from the middle of my third book. I tested the shift to handwriting, and the creative process flowed with ease and gained momentum sooner on story advancement. While this is positive for creative flow, additionally time has to be built into the deadline to type up the longhand manuscript. Essentially this is like a second draft if writing entirely in longhand, then type on Word or other preferred platforms. There are pros and cons to the process. The toll on the wrist for one — writer’s occupational health matters. The positive side is that before the first full self-edit, the dried leaves, dead wood bits and pieces are swept away as the typed word hits the digital page.

How do we maximise the pros to meet deadlines, and create a polished piece? Dictating from longhand onto Word is a great way to save the old wrist issues. This takes time and will be near accurate when voice recognition is on the mark, or there will be more to clear up than just the longhand manuscript flaws.

Scrivener dictation is great across all devices and allows easy transition to a Word document. There are countless other ways to dictate the handwritten word to the digital format.

The brain engages differently when handwriting, compared to keyboard writing. Memory is enhanced with handwriting, a great way to keep track of sequence, characters, scenes etc in their contribution to the whole novel/story. Memory alone will not suffice to keep track of such, note making and journaling are an important part of the process. Scrivener helps the digital tracking of all the parts that make up the sum.

Handwriting, according to psychological studies, is therapeutic for coping with trauma, and to process emotions — the physical formation of letters to words to sentences to paragraphs is undistracted with handwriting, it settles the mind and spirit. This has the benefit of capturing emotional scenes in novels with authenticity to enhance reader engagement.

… handwriting like playing a guitar or preferred musical instrument, it is thoughtful and mindful.

In an era where speed is the demand (a mixed blessing) anxiety levels have increased across all generations. Handwriting is akin to playing a musical instrument, think of the strokes on a guitar to produce the sweet melody. Notice the musician’s facial expression, lost in moments of pleasure. Handwriting is markedly slower than tapping a keyboard, and thus intensely calming. The very act of handwriting like playing a guitar or preferred musical instrument, makes the process thoughtful and mindful.

As a teacher and writer, spelling benefits from handwriting without spellcheck, free of predicted text that can at times mumbo jumbo intention/meaning.

If you’re a digital only writer and need a conversion test, start small.

Write out your daily or weekly home or work plan on a bedside or desk notebook.

Poets don’t draw. They unravel their handwriting, and then tie it up again, but differently~ Jean Cocteau (French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker)

Now sit back and watch your creativity grow!

Happy handwriting. Let it flow!

What’s your best writing practice?

Please share, like and comment in the message box.

A Fine Art or Brutal Chop

As I work through cleaning up my latest manuscript, a first in series, I am weeding out those darling crutch words, scene shifts, and other hidden gems (I thought they were gems until I read them with an unemotional, critical eye) to clear the wood for the trees to have a better view of where my characters are and what they’re getting up to. If I don’t have a clear, error free, sense of my story, how will the editor? Worse still what would the reader do?

It’s not easy after several self-edits to handover your baby for professional scrutiny. There’s no getting away from it, self-editing is turning the eye inward without a tear, first the incision then as you pass judgement, the brutal chop of your precious, crafted words, emotions, descriptions, settings, characters, and whatever else might need adjusting in your created world.

very, really, rather, quite, in fact… do you need them?

So, how many steps are there during the self-editing phase? (These are the steps I follow which varies from writer to writer)

First, line by line, chapter by chapter, on the computer screen change the double word use, missing words, etc.
The second step is to correct timelines if there are errors.
During the third phase, put the manuscript through editing software such as Grammarly, and Pro-Writing Aid — excellent to pick up flaws the naked eye missed — spelling (American or British?), grammar, repetitions, and general style especially when that sneaky passive voice creeps in.
The fourth step is reading your manuscript out aloud and recording the story for playback editing. Rhythm, the cadence, and sense become distinct during this process which directs you back to the screen to fix those snags.
The fifth phase is print a hard copy of the manuscript and rip though it with the colours of the rainbow to show you what is working, and what needs another chop or perhaps another trim.
The sixth phase is formatting an eBook in Scrivener to read through in a different form — anything that slipped through the self-editing cracks screams out, in a new form, for rectification.

Now the manuscript is ready for the professional edit although I might enlist a trusted, closely held, proof-reader to check through once before the professional submission. Then proofreaders step in for the final check.

During the process of self-editing do not rely solely on your gut experience in making changes. Consult those in the industry that you admire, read or use as a role-model . An editing guidebook, and a thesaurus is a must have on any good writer’s desk.

When working with an editor, it should be a negotiation on necessary changes, but be prepared that there could be changes suggested that might not sit too well with you, but for the success of the book, within reason, you should take the suggestions on board.

What is the editing timeframe?

There are many ways to do this , some say spend three months drafting, three months editing. However, some write a book a month — at best I could get through two to three in a year as a part-time writer. Remember, the professional editor could ask for a month to check your manuscript.

I generally veer to three months writing, three months editing, but sometimes life makes its call on time and energy so that varies year to year, book by book.

What are your self-editing tips? Let us know how you do it your way.

Collaborate + Consider + Cooperate + Change = an excellent MS ready to go.

Best wishes with writing, editing, and publishing.

The First Draft

When a story takes hold, leaving you sleepless, daydreaming… the first words trickle in, you write them, and you can’t stop going back, creeping back to your laptop or journal to write a bit more. When the writing bug bites, it’s there to stay, calling you wherever you are.
There’s an excitement, a thrill, the adventure behind closed doors… just you and your characters. With each line, you get to know more about them, then it’s almost as though the characters lead you into their stories.

The first draft is an exhilarating experience even if you have written a few books. You can’t stop thinking about it, you wake up at 3 a.m. with a jolt of inspiration, and if you don’t write it down, it’s gone… I have had a few lost… gone… but a 3 a.m. journal, a gift from my daughter, is safely ensconced on my bedside table, close to my reading lamp, capturing the late night unexpected bouts of inspiration that intrude upon restless sleep – not even a blaring alarm clock can do this on any good day!

Starting out

Starting out as a writer, I had two stories competing for attention. Thinking that this might be the one book I will write, I merged the stories, hooked them as plot and subplot. Across Time and Space pulled and tugged at intrigue, unexpected encounters, crime, romance and human rights issues.

Discovery

From that first draft of my first book to the first draft of my fourth book (locked in editing as we speak), my process has morphed along the way. While being between a plotter and pantser, I moved from laptop screen drafting to handwriting some chapters in a journal.

This sped up the drafting time, I was writing by hand with speed, more naturally than the words that filled my little laptop screen as I tapped my way forward. I then started writing in my little journal, my second arm, traveling with me wherever I went. No backspacing, just scratch and keep going… forward… ideas gushed, building up at a faster pace.

The benefit

Having a chapter crafted by hand gave me so much more to work from and editing, stage 1 began as I typed up the manuscript. I noticed the difference from those chapters that went from head to screen from a basic ‘pantser plan’ to those chapters that were handwritten – less cleaning up and more ideas emerged and flourished to grow the plot.

As each handwritten chapter was completed, the digital chapter was typed no longer than a day later. The ideas are fresh, too much of life and its distractions have not happened in twenty-four hours or less, (fingers crossed) so there’s no fear that distractions will play havoc with the handwritten chapter, all that happens is a bit more spit and polish.

Am I converted?

I can’t quite be sure on that but I have stacked up on the journals that I feel comfortable writing in – the easily portable type, the ‘anywhere journal’ when inspiration strikes, even at 3 a.m.

How about you? Do you write from head to screen or are you a paper and pen person first?

Please share your thoughts in the message box below.

Happy Reading, Happy Writing.

Tell your remarkable story today to touch a life or many lives through storytelling.

Where to go for writing support?

Often writers feel alone while tapping out the stories that come tumbling out of imaginative worlds with a benevolent muse guiding the next brainwave.

Writing starts out feeling like a lonely affair and the actual writing will always be a lone love affair with your writing tools – however, the number of support communities available to writers is phenomenal. Facebook groups with experienced authors and authorpreneurs abound.

You can choose to actively engage in these forums or lurk a while until you find the courage to ask a question or respond to someone’s question. There are local groups such as Writers Around Australia created by Lisa Braun and Tina Bonett who generously share posts and ideas. The New South Wales Writers’ Centre to keep up to date with advice and events. The Professional Association I find immeasurably beneficial is ALLi based in the UK, established by Orna Ross with a team of talented and experienced authors, with a worldwide membership.

The Platform for Building Authors and Authorpreneur Mastermind by the Winsome Media Group, established by Juliet Dillion Clark is inspirational and provides valuable advice on how to grow your author platform to get noticed to drive sales.

An excellent inspirational forum to enhance your speaking skills (as authors we are inclined to be introverts) and seek speaking opportunities to add another stream of income to your job as a writer, is Big Impact and Income Speakers under the helm of Amondarose Igoe. Here you will find inspiration and support to build confidence and grow your author business – both Winsome Media Group and Big Impact and Income Speakers are US based.

The SPF community established by author Mark Dawson is a great sharing and advice UK forum with worldwide membership. Women Writers Women’s Books is a supportive, informative network of authors created by Barbara Bos. BooksGoSocial Author’s Group run by four dedicated administrators offers advice to authors through sharing ideas and is great for marketing your books.

Following a range of podcasts and signing up for webinars allows authors to connect with developments in a rapidly changing publishing landscape.

I religiously follow The Creative Penn, ALLi and SPF Podcasts and select topics from a range of presenters on other forums as the need arises – quite often I might add! Smart Author podcasts with Mark Coker from Smashwords publishing platform offers solid advice for authors starting out. So you want to be a writer (Australia) with Valerie Khoo and Allison Tait covers a range of topics from local to global writing and publishing trends.

Digital publishing platforms that are providing excellent services to authors are Draft2Digital with a range of great features for new and established authors. Kobo offers distribution to Canada and the Netherlands. KDP is a prominent publishing platform from the dawn of eBook publishing. (2007) – the choice is vast, you eventually find your comfort zone and work with your chosen publishing platforms. Reedsy, UK based, provides a range of vetted services as does ALLi from editors, to cover designers and Reedsy provides an advanced formatting book service. For an Australian based formatting/cover design service go to WorkingType.

For POD, IngramSpark and CreateSpace/KDP provide excellent platforms to get your print book out into the world.

There are many more services and professional author bodies available, after trying them you eventually settle on your ‘favourites’ because you can’t possibly follow all. Being selective ensures you are not doubling up and eating into your writing time, the most crucial aspect of your writing career.

There’s an oasis of supportive networks out there, reach out and you’ll be amazed at the wealth of advice you will receive.

I hope you find the platforms I respect and trust beneficial for you on your writing journey.

Happy Writing!