Mastodawn

#WordWeavers 21/4: Does the change of seasons affect your writing at all? If so, how?
It used to, when most of my work was for outdoor magazines, guidebooks, &c, and usually in tandem with photography. Naturally it profoundly affected what and where.
Not so much now, though better weather means more temptation to get outside and leave the laptop behind.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon

Jon Sparks 1h ago

#WritersCoffeeClub 21/4: What's a (maybe silly) hill you're willing to defend?
Nothing silly about opposing the industrialised plagiarism and degradation of creativity that is AI.
But also… I often find myself shaking my head at ‘writing advice’ that people trot out. One the other day that I particularly recoiled from was ‘know your elevator pitch before you start writing’. I can barely stomach the concept of the elevator pitch after the book is done.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon

Jon Sparks 1h ago

SuzyShearer 7h ago

#WritersCoffeeClub - 21st Apr. What's a (maybe silly) hill you're willing to defend?

The use of 'em' dashes!! (And never using LLM, ChatGP, AI, etc wherever possible).
Am I the only one who turns off AI features in search engines, uninstalls Copilot, etc, never used Alexa, Siri, etc?

Jon Sparks 1d ago

#WritersCoffeeClub 20/4: What have you tried to immortalise in your writing?
Don’t know, never think in those terms. I’m just trying to tell good stories that maybe make you think a little.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon

Jon Sparks 1d ago

#WordWeavers 20/4: What is your MC’s relationship to obtaining and preparing food?
Growing up, Jerya was directly involved in: tending beehives, minding goats. Now she could easily leave it to others, but likes to keep herself grounded. See the first chapter of Book 7, for example, where she prepares a fancy sort of eggy bread for herself and Evisyn.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon

Jon Sparks 2d ago

#WordWeavers 19/4: If your SC was going on a trip, would they pack light or take too much?
Which SC? There are a lot to choose from, but Railu was the first. As a veteran of the First Crossing, she knows something about travelling light, and she’ll match her baggage to the circumstances—but she’ll always take as much medical kit as she possibly can.
#books #writing #writersofmastodon

Jon Sparks 2d ago

allison 2d ago

i guess fundamentally i'm not convinced that whatever amount useful functionality has emerged from generative AI (and i think the jury's still out on whether that amount is non-zero) couldn't have been achieved in more cost-effective, equitable and sustainable ways by having taken the money and resources we've shoveled into gen AI and investing them elsewhere

("sustainable" in the sense of environmentally sustainable but also "can we keep this in a working state" sustainable)

Jon Sparks 2d ago

Qasim Rashid, Esq.3d ago

To the people complaining these sex abuse cases have created a world where men now have to think 10 times before they touch a woman.

Yes, that's the point.

It's called consent. Welcome to human decency.

Jon Sparks 2d ago

Chad McCullough 2d ago

I fucking hate AI.

I just watched a video of a dog doing something that I thought was cool, and then someone pointed out to me that it was generated with AI. I hate that we have to research every new video, every new image, every new song, every new everything, to make sure it's not AI generated.

AI is ruining everything.

#noai #fuckai

Jon Sparks 2d ago

Brian Bilston 3d ago

Today’s poem is called ‘Utterly Betrayed’.