An exercise in mediocrity
How AI might, paradoxically,help us become more original
Ladies and gentlemen,
Today, I stand before you to celebrate the power of words and the boundless potential of the human imagination. We are here to honor an aspiring author, someone who has embarked on a journey to share their thoughts, ideas, and stories with the world. It is a journey fraught with challenges, but it is also one filled with immense rewards.
Writing, at its core, is an act of courage. It is an act of vulnerability, laying your thoughts and emotions bare on the page for the world to see. Every aspiring author begins with a blank page, a daunting canvas where dreams and ideas take shape. As we gather here today, we are witnesses to a writer's beginnings, and it is a privilege to be part of this journey.
Writing is a magical alchemy that transforms thoughts into words and words into stories that can transport us to distant lands, introduce us to fascinating characters, and ignite our imaginations. Every aspiring author is a magician who crafts these spells, invoking emotions, sparking inspiration, and kindling the fires of empathy in the hearts of their readers.
Yet, the path to becoming an author is not always smooth. There are moments of self-doubt, frustration, and writer's block. Rejection may knock on your door, and criticism might bruise your ego. But remember this: every great author was once an aspiring writer. Every bestseller started as a manuscript. Every celebrated poet faced rejection before finding their voice.
The key to success as an aspiring author lies in perseverance. In the words of the great J.K. Rowling, "It is impossible to live without failing at something unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default." Failure is not the end; it is a stepping stone on the path to success.
In your journey as an aspiring author, embrace the lessons from your rejections, refine your craft with every critique, and allow your failures to be the fuel that propels you forward. Know that your unique voice and perspective are what the world needs. Your stories, your words, have the power to change lives, inspire people, and make a difference.
As you sit down to write, remember that the pen is your magic wand, and the blank page is your canvas. You have the ability to create worlds, to give voice to the voiceless, and to touch the hearts of readers you may never meet. It is a noble and sacred responsibility, and it is within your reach.
So, to our aspiring author, I say this: believe in your vision, nurture your creativity, and keep writing. Keep pushing the boundaries of your imagination. Keep daring to dream, because dreams are the wellspring of all great literature. Your stories, your words, are a gift to the world. They are the legacy you will leave behind, and they have the power to inspire, uplift, and transform.
Congratulations on your journey as an aspiring author. Embrace it with all your heart, and in the words of the great author Neil Gaiman, "Go and make interesting mistakes, make amazing mistakes, make glorious and fantastic mistakes. Break rules. Leave the world more interesting for your being here." Your journey, your words, will indeed make the world more interesting, more beautiful, and more profound.
Thank you, and may your pen forever flow with the ink of inspiration.
The above text was generated within seven seconds by ChatGPT. The prompt was simple, “write an inspiring speech for an aspring author” and the result is the same as all AI results: It’s a collage of what feels close to what you want.
Just as wannabe artists can now ask midjourney to churn out an image of an anime-style cyberpunk woman for them, so too can writers generate huge swathes of feelgood text.
At least, if that text is decidedly formulaic.
AI is fantastic at pattern recognition, and it is often formulaic books and music which makes the charts. Four times in the last 365 days our founder and mascot, Phillip, has been told that the traditional publishing industry is “risk-averse”. What this means is that what sold yesterday is often their basis for what they want to invest in tomorrow. This is fine if you’re selling food or car parts, where consistency is safety, but with art, the most discerning readers tend to prefer weirder stuff. Certainly, I am hearing from a lot of reviewers and readers now, that they are beginning to feel biased towards self-pub, which is a massive shift from ten years ago, when I began studying Creative Writing professionally. All that time ago there was a definite, heavy bias toward traditional publishing; to the point where my presentationa bout the pros and cons of both trad-pub and self-pub surprised a lot of people when I said self-pub enabled more creative freedom.
So what’s happening with the robots?
My theory is that, as bland literature floods the world’s bookshelves, anyone looking for genuine art might soon find it easier to find. We will stand out more.
Boring literature might not be experiencing the sort of explosion it wants to.
It might soon burn out.
And I wonder if risk-averse presses might burn out with it.