You have no idea how tempted I was to have Marla answer "Annoying Customer."

So #writing #bookstodon and other fedi folk & friends...

A few years back when we were all staying much closer to home than we do now, I decided to tackle that bucket list book I knew I had in me. I wrote a YA SciFi. It's been sitting dormant for a couple years and could probably use a few more workings over but I would like share it with universe now, just for fun.

What would be the best way to do that? I have it in my google drive as a pdf but wasn't sure if that was the best / most anonymous route. Feedback welcome!

Fighting the urge to describe every little action my characters perform. Like, this guy just found a thing hidden in a cardboard box in a drawer. He's got the thing.

I do not need to say that he re-closed the box, put it back in the drawer where he found it, and then closed the drawer.

Right? I mean, sure, the difference between someone who puts things back the way they found them vs. just leaving shit all over the place is important, but I don't need to say *this*. Right‽

AI Can’t Gaslight Me if I Write by Hand

This is an excellent essay by Deb Werrlein.

There are so many excellent thoughts spread throughout about writing not just as a result but as a process and how the process is what makes it writing as opposed to reading or editing.

It talks about how writing is a process of discovery because you never know where your thoughts will take you or where the story will lead.

This is an essay about the work and the joy that goes into actually writing.

The physical act of writing serves as the distraction that lets the ideas flow. But also, and perhaps more importantly, writing forces the writer to think very slowly, only allowing the brain to move through an idea at the speed at which each individual word can be written. Perhaps that elongation of thinking gives the brain the time it needs to have new realizations. So much discovery happens as a piece of writing evolves that, like many writers, I often set out to write with the purpose of finding answers and prompting evolutions. In this way, writing itself functions as a generative act, a process of discovery and learning that far exceeds the simple recording and communicating of already formed ideas.

Composing on the computer happens delightfully fast, but I wonder: if writing is a process of discovery and learning, then what discoveries did I lose by speeding up the process? What connections haven’t I made? Is there a level of richness or complexity I haven’t achieved because I’ve spent less time engaged in that magic writerly state of mind and therefore, less time exposed to the possibility of revelation? I can’t escape the thought that if slowness is key to writing, and writing is a way of thinking, perhaps each tech-driven acceleration of the process has chipped away at my depth of thought.

Writing is hard, so I see why some might be tempted to let a machine do the initial composing. The blank page represents the most difficult phase of writing because this is when the writer must engage with their topic most fully. In the absence of time or energy, AI might sound like a great solution—just as past innovations felt like godsends. But AI brings changes far more dramatic than those of the typewriter. If I let an LLM compose my first draft, only to edit and shape it and supposedly make it my own afterward—as I’ve heard some writers suggest—then I would have skipped over that initial composition process, that period of intense intellectual engagement through which we enrich our ideas. I would sacrifice the element of discovery, learning, and creation in favor of the LLM’s regurgitation. If the future offers a world filled with AI-produced prose, who knows how much we will collectively lose to writing created without all those unique incidents of epiphany and realization.

And the final paragraph has a wonderful revelation.

And I wonder if perhaps we’ve gotten confused, thinking we should always use the extra time technology affords to do more things faster rather than using it to do fewer things slower.

Summer '73
recount languor became public fuss
admission first Dutch nude beach

#MastoPrompt
#tell
#dailyhaikuprompt
#languid

#haiku 7/9/7
#senryu
#poetry
#SmallPoems
#writing
#photography

@stevencudahy @dailyhaikuprompt

Nude Beach Contrast - Aobram

Between last night and today I reread all of my current WIP (book 3). I found a couple of spelling issues, and one plot issue - now fixed. Coming together nicely.

I have a debate in my brain that I often get stuck on that hopefully #society may fix by the time I get there in like a decade:

I really want to work in #medicine in some form or another, whether it be a nurse or some kind of counselor for #addiction or other ideas I have.

I am very hyper focused on #health and #biology and they're my biggest nerd interests, and love helping.

Yet I really don't want to #work in a corrupt system that profits off of mandatory suffering.

I’m planning the death of two of my characters.

Working through 'Writing A C Compiler'

https://jollygoodsw.wordpress.com/2025/03/13/working-through-writing-a-c-compiler/

Jane’s best friend lost her husband. This was just the other day, the day before yesterday. Jane is my wife. One minute, the husband was fine, or so everyone thought, and the next he was gone. Collapsed in his own house. Lights out. A snap of your fingers.

#Writing #Medium #Death #Memoir #Philosophy https://medium.com/ellemeno/what-to-do-with-whats-left-781e9afaf392

I said this and I will say it again. After the AI hype cycle is over, we writers and developers have to come in to mop up the mess.

Look, AI is great for some use cases. One uncommon narrative that should be said more is that it helps people with cognitive impairments or who are neurologically divergent cope better in a world not set up for them, especially if they are knowledge workers.

But AI as content/code generators and replacements of writers and devs? Can we just move on from this already?

https://substack.com/@travelbugg/note/c-132683979? and https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyvm1dyp9v2o

I think many people struggle with procrastination and find other things to distract themselves with, so they can avoid sitting down to write. I do the opposite. I look for opportunities where I can shirk my other responsibilities and find a little time to write. It’s not as if it’s paying the bills. It’s not keeping the lights on.

I do it for myself.

#Writing #Medium
https://medium.com/ellemeno/the-waiting-game-c85ad0fb705f

"Well beyond the rarefied world of polo, the match is hailed as historic. This is the first time anyone has played a polo final on six identical horses, let alone won with them." —Matt Reynolds for Wired

https://www.wired.com/story/cloning-came-to-polo-things-got-uncivilized-cambiaso/?src=longreads

I missed last month's #solarpunk essay from @AndrewDanaHudson , but I think the 10-year-check-in is a worthy read:

https://www.solarshades.club/p/the-political-dimensions-of-solarpunk10

The world has changed. Solarpunk influenced it, even without a single Masterpiece. We are continuing to build from multiple sides.

People are doing a lot on the ground - whether in the North or the South - and we're finally getting a language which can share their stories.

what can i tell you
Mr. Butters needs to eat
24/7

#haiku #poetry #writing #PoetryCommunity #WritingCommunity #MrButtersTheCat

#MastoPrompt #tell
@stevencudahy

The #MastoPrompt for Saturday 12 July 2025 is:

#tell

The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.

@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.

If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.