My Last Word on Using AI for Writing

This is why I will never use AI to write fiction or anything else that really matters to me:

By generating text in response to prompts, I would give up my writer’s voice. Text resulting from a prompt would not be written the way Audrey Driscoll writes. I don’t want to expend energy on trying to turn a mass of AI-generated text into Audrey Driscoll’s writing. I have no idea how I would do that, because I have no idea how I produce that writing myself. I just do it. Sentence length, rhythm, word choices, proportions of nouns and verbs to adjectives and adverbs—all that constitutes my voice, determined by my brain drawing on everything I have ever read, thought about, and dreamed.

Text, once assembled, has its own staying power. It resists change. (That’s why we see all that advice suggesting we cut words and phrases, kill our darlings, etc.) I would rather work to improve text generated by my own mind, rather than edit clumps of scraped-up words assembled by a computer model, all the while wondering if it sounds like me.

Think about it: if the large language models are mashups of everyone’s writing, no wonder their products are bland and cliché. Imagine dumping all kinds of foods into a blender and whizzing it up. I’ll bet the results will be a flavourless pulp. Would it be worthwhile to try making that pulp into something tasty?

Here are a few other reasons:

You can’t trust it, because “hallucinations.”
It uses huge amounts of energy and water.
Those LLMs are “trained” on human-created writing, often without permission from its creators.

I can acknowledge that AI may be useful for quickly assembling text for something routine, like instructions or some sort of boilerplate. Fact-checking would be needed, because of AI’s tendency to fill gaps with so-called “hallucinations.” But for any writing that needs originality, authenticity, and heart, forget it.

I’m not opposed to all uses of AI. It’s a valuable tool for many purposes, such as analyzing masses of data, identifying patterns, etc. But there’s no point in using it for creative writing endeavours.

Bye-bye AI. You may be fast, but you aren’t cheap, and for creative writing, you are definitely not good.

Thumb down photo by cottonbro from Pexels. Featured image assembled by A. Driscoll using Canva elements.

Two More New Beginnings

Early last September, I had a real surprise in the front garden. An urban doe who has been around for years had produced two fawns. There they were, new and tiny, emerging from behind a clump of asters. After the first day or two I saw nothing of them for months, even though the doe appeared a few times. I wondered if the little guys had met a bad end. There was a theory going around that maybe she was just fawn-sitting for another doe.

Then, just before Christmas, all three showed up. The fawns are about four months old now, and happily partaking of local plants.

Notice the pink ear tags on the doe, with the number 101 on them. (My neighbour calls this doe “101.” I call her “Pink Tag.” Silly, but it makes sense.) The ear tags, as well as collars on some does, were part of a multi-year and recently concluded contraception study carried out by the municipality. Unfortunately, there has been no decision to restart the practice, and the drug wears off after about 3 years. We expect the deer population to increase, with these two being a start.

I have mixed feelings. On the one hand, I worry about cars. Another doe who used to pal around with this one, who I called “Yellow Collar” (guess why) turned up with a broken foreleg last April. She was able to move around, so was not dispatched by police or conservation officers, but I have not seen her since and assume she has died. On the other hand, given these two additions to the local herd, I will have to be extra vigilant with netting and deer repellent.

Amazon’s Changes to DRM

I haven’t seen any discussion of this issue on any of the blogs I follow so thought I would post this for those who may not be aware of it or who are having trouble deciding what to do.

Anyone who has published ebooks on Amazon probably received an email in December with the subject: New eBook Download Options for Readers Coming in 2026.

The message begins thus:
“Starting January 20, 2026, Amazon will make it easier for readers to enjoy content they have purchased from the Kindle store across a wider range of devices and applications by allowing new titles published without Digital Rights Management (DRM) to be downloaded in EPUB and PDF format. If you take no action, the DRM-status of your previously published titles will not change but the EPUB and PDF downloads will not be enabled for existing DRM-free titles. If you want to allow reader downloads for these titles, follow the directions below on or after December 9, and select the option not to apply DRM.”

It goes on to describe how to choose one of the options. Note that taking no action is also an option.

While trying to decide what (if anything) to do with my ebooks on Amazon, I found a quite fulsome explanation at the Kindlepreneur site. Here is the link: https://kindlepreneur.com/amazon-drm-epub-downloads/

Persistence, Beautiful Exits, and New Beginnings

Winter is said to be the garden’s resting season. It’s true that not much goes on after the leaves have fallen, but here on the fortunate west coast of Canada, some plants are still active or starting new growth.

Click on the smaller photos to enlarge.

Some persist, continuing to bloom or at least looking good out of bloom.

Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii foliage is durable and looks good year round. The semi-tropical Cuphea “Vermillionaire” is still producing its little orange “cigars” (one of its common names is Cigar Plant) that attract hummingbirds all summer. In the second photo it’s looking good alongside Jacobaea maritima, otherwise known as Silver Ragwort or Dusty Miller. The last photo is of a few Borage flowers on a plant that looks tired, but is persisting.

Then there are plants that look great (or at least interesting) as they exit the scene.

Such as Aster “Pink Cloud,” whose many pale pink flowers have turned into fluffy little seed heads making a pleasing contrast with the bright yellow leaves.

This lacecap hydrangea (growing in a pot whose soil is alkaline enough to make its blooms pink rather than the blue ones of its planted-in-the-ground neighbour) has developed all sorts of foliage colours as its flowers have faded to white. It’s never done this before, but I was happy to take photos of it.

Some plants produce new growth in winter and die back in summer.

Arum italicum, an ornamental plant (albeit with weedy tendencies in some places) does this. It sends forth its marbled leaves in fall. They persist all winter, dying down after the unspectacular (and smelly) flowers appear in mid-spring.

Ivy-leaved cyclamen, Cyclamen hederifolium, blooms in early autumn and then grows its abundant patterned leaves, which persist through the winter and die down in spring.

Then there are the true winter-bloomers.

Iris unguicularis, the Algerian iris, is a surprising sight in December. Weather permitting, it blooms sporadically until March. Snowdrops are also starting their long blooming period. I have no idea what the species or varieties are at my place, but they have spread throughout the garden. Hellebores (like this one with lime green flowers) are budding up, and the Winter Jasmine has been blooming since mid-November. Its yellow flowers attract Anna’s hummingbirds, who are year-round residents here.

I took almost all these photos on December 21st and a few on the 23rd.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Post-Christmas Presents from WSW

Tired of holiday hype? Bored from too much leisure time? Here are two items from Writers Supporting Writers to inform and possibly amuse:

First, the latest in WSW’s series of video chats. This time we discussed the place of villains in fiction and how to create credible and interesting ones. The ever-popular topic of reviews and reviewing also made a reappearance. Watch or listen HERE.

Second, a follow-up post by Mark Paxson with an idea for a different way of producing and selling print books. Read it HERE.

I’ve closed comments here, but please add them to the posts at WSW. (And in case you’re wondering why I haven’t reblogged in the usual way, it’s because the usual way no longer incorporates the beginning of a reblogged post with a link to the rest.)

Looking Forward

I’m trying to simplify life for the last few weeks of the year. That means taking a break from writing new posts here until January.

Happy holidays to everyone who celebrates, and a satisfying month of reading and writing!

American robin and cotoneaster bush full of berries. Blurry bird image.

Featured image from Pixabay; photos by Audrey Driscoll

But wait, there’s more! Here is an ebook sale that lasts until the end of December. No chance of running out of books to read!

Browse thousands of books HERE

And my books HERE

November Writing Report #4

Final week (plus one day) and wrap-up. The month is finished, but the writing is just getting started. There’s a long way to go.

November 23rd to 30th:
Work #1: 9 pages, 4,000 words.
Work #2: 1 page, 500 words.
Total for the week: 10 pages, 4,500 words.

Totals for the month:
Work #1: 14,500 words, consisting of approximately 20 scenes and a lot of notes added as I worked out ideas. The thing has a definite shape now.
Work #2: 1,750 words, 5 scenes, plus a lot of notes. I didn’t expect to make much progress on this one; it needs research and more mulling.

Bonus autumn scene: snowdrops poking up among fallen leaves. Photo by Audrey Driscoll.

That’s it for these reports, but I intend to keep going now that I’ve built writing time into my days and made a good start on one of the works-in-progress. Many thanks to all who read these posts and contributed encouraging comments.

Featured image from Pexels.

November Writing Report #3

End of week 3. Writing time is now a habit, but has not become a compelling priority.

Work #1: 6 pages, 3,000 words.
Work #2: 1.5 pages, 750 words.
Total: 3,750 raw words.

This week’s thought: If I have no idea what happens next, or how a novel will end, does that mean readers won’t either? Will they keep on reading to find out, or will they roll their eyes and throw the book at the proverbial wall? Haha! No spoilers expected for reader or writer!

Here is another bonus: My three favourite reads on Shepherd, October 1st 2024 to September 30th 2025.

Featured image from Pixabay; photo by Audrey Driscoll

November Writing Report #2

End of Week 2. The writing is rolling along, with a few bumps and pauses. I have put in at least the minimal time at the desk every day.

Work #1: 7 pages, estimated 3-3.5K words. I have some doubts about whether all these scenes will be useful, so I’ve written alternates and notes with ideas to be explored.
Work #2: 1 page (estimated 500 words) and half a page of notes.
A total of 3,500-4,000 raw words.

At times, beavering away on a scene, I start wondering if I’m just cranking out words to fill up that day’s page and put in that day’s hour of writing. These thoughts have a negative effect on momentum and motivation. I have to tell myself not to waste time thinking about something that will be dealt with once I have a complete draft. When I am transcribing the handwritten text into a document on the computer, I will recognize useless padding and dead end scenes.

The opposite of this is the what-the-hell-just-write state of mind. Images and ideas pop up and are turned into words on the page. I suppose this is “pantsing,” but the term “discovery writing” describes it perfectly. The work creates itself as I write in a way that would never happen if I sat there trying to think up an outline.

This week’s output qualifies as an “ugly draft.” I reread K.M. Allan’s post about ugly drafting just now, and found it most reassuring. It’s definitely worth it to make a Notes file or list while ugly drafting. I tamp down my inner editor while scribbling along, but every now and then it taps me on the shoulder and says, “Make a note to check/fix/expand on this later!” So I do that, and scribble on.