There are two kinds of writers. There are human writers, and there are computer writers. Think of it another way.

Let’s say that it was possible to hire a robot that is specialized in racing. You sign up to run a race. But, on race day you decide that you aren’t quite ready, so you will have your racing robot run the race, instead of you.

The robot runs the race.

The robot wins.

Can you say that you won the race? Of course not. What you can say is that your robot won the race.

The greatest gift you can give yourself is to train yourself to be a writer. There are many reasons I say that. One of the biggest reasons is that writing helps you integrate all of who you are as a thinking, feeling animal. Writing helps you become a whole person whose senses, feelings, ideas, and emotions are all integrated. All brought together in a way that you can understand, and that you can feel.

I want you to focus on physical feelings.

When you hit return on a computer keypad asking your AI program to write something for you, you then wait until it does its AI thing. And then, like any reader, you read with curiosity what the AI engine created for you.

That is completely different from reading how the words are flowing out of you onto the page. It may still be with curiosity! But you can feel the words are coming out of your body. Being a writer is about being a body that writes.

You are unique. No other “you” exists in the world. And nobody has ever lived that was you.

When AI writes something for you it is the robot that is doing the writing. It is important to be clear about that. Stone Soup is mostly about creative writing. Creative writing combines two ideas. One idea is basic to all writing. The writing should say what you mean. I think that is, in fact, the biggest struggle in writing. When you read the words you wrote, do they say, exactly, what you meant?

Very often, I find that when I am writing, either as the words are flowing out of me through my typing fingers or when I read over what I have written, my ideas develop. Maybe the words don’t exactly match what now, upon reflection, I realize I really meant to say. Or, maybe the words do say what I had intended, but somehow through the act of writing, my idea grew.

Human writing is a process.

Human writing is a craft.

You might be able to write a prompt that results in AI creating a fabulous story. A story that you enjoy reading. But, that story was created outside of yourself. It was created outside of your body. It can never really and truly be yours. It can never have the magic that only you can bring to the work because only you are you.

In the end, the most satisfying life to have lived is a life lived running your own races.

I love to write. For me, when I am writing, there is no time. The hours pass. I forget to eat. And even though, sometimes, I work for days on something that I end up throwing away, I feel my mind working, I feel myself growing, I feel fully engaged with life.

AI programs are going to get better, and better, and better, and better still. Today, people are probably telling you that they can tell if AI writes the story. That may be true today. That will not be true in the future.

As computers get better at doing what us humans have been doing we have to double down on our being human, on each of us being different from each other. And on each of us becoming ever more aware of what we can bring to our writing that a clever writing robot can never reach.

And that is our own life: our own way of seeing, and our own way of being.

The sunset that you are noticing. Whether over a city, the mountains, or where I live, the ocean. The music that you find yourself swaying to. The tune that keeps running through your head. The hurt of not having been invited by people you had thought were your friends. That deep feeling you get when you come close to a cat that immediatly starts purring.

Dig down. Dig deep. To find yourself.

And then, in choosing words, my advice is to make them beautiful. Beauty. Feelings. Emotions. These are what we do best. An AI computer robot can write a song. It can even be beautiful. But, it cannot write your song. Only you can do that.