Human-authored

In response to the slew of machine-generated books swamping retailers and filling up agents’ and editors’ inboxes, the Society of Authors in the UK has launched the ‘human-authored’ website and logo, for writers to confirm that their works were produced 100% by them (including human writing partners etc), and not by a machine.

It applies to any book released after 2020, and you have to sign a declaration and be vetted before you can use the logo.

I’m proud to confirm that all my books since 2020 are certified human-authored, and all those to come will be, too. The ones that came before (the Godblind trilogy) are also human-authored, but for that, you’ll have to take my promise for it.

Anyone who’s seen me talk about my writing process or follows me on social media will know that my process is, shall we say, organic in nature. Could a machine write such chaotic first drafts? I think not.

To which, the detractors will no doubt cry: “so why don’t you use the lying machine (they wouldn’t call it that, of course) to ‘write’ it for you?”

And to which my answer is, and always will be: where’s the fun in that? Where’s the challenge in that? Where, in there, would I have those moments of epiphany, those massive plot twists, those sudden revelations and reversals of fortune that make my work MY work? Why, for the love of writing, would I want to outsource the imaginative, creative, frustrating, hilarious, grinding drudgery, moments of elation, chaotic, fun part of writing to something that has no concept of art or story? To a pattern-recognition machine regurgitating a pallid shadow of the millions upon millions of words it has illegally eaten?

That’s a serious question, by the way.

WHY WOULD I WANT TO LOSE THE PART OF WRITING THAT IS WRITING?

I’m not in this solely for the end product. I’m in this to discover what I think and feel about the world, how I interact with it, which parts of it make me furious, how I would change it. I’m in this to test myself, challenge my beliefs, challenge my skill to improve. I’m in this BECAUSE the work is hard. There was an American president worthy of the title who said something similar about the moon landings, I believe.

So, there you have it. This human wrote their own books. And will continue to do so. Forever.

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