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AI Will Never Be Able to Replace This
I’ve been paying attention to AI and using it to help with my business strategies and planning. While I still have misgivings, I feel I need to understand this technology and the role it plays now and in the future.
For those of us who LOVE ideas, AI is a no-holds-barred spree of possibility. The plans! The ideas! It’s all so…vomitously overwhelming.
For someone who loves ideas and loves executing on them, more ideas are not valuable to me. It gets vomitous when I am hosed with so many possibilities that I am paralyzed. I have pages and pages of ideas for promoting Her Lisbon Colors. So many that they are rendered useless. I’m left not with a great plan but with more confusion than when I started. We don’t need AI to trigger indecision swirl, do we?
If you like floating endlessly in idea land, great. Enjoy that! If you want the deep satisfaction of bringing ideas to life, read on.
Using AI for project vetting and development
I recently used ChatGPT to bounce my idea of a limited series Stumbling Toward Genius podcast based on the themes of my novel. Chat was super helpful for:
- Discerning whether this was a good idea or not given my goals. (I always tell it to not fluff me up or flatter me but give me real data.)
- I gave it the topics I had and asked what be interesting to my listeners.
- I asked what was missing or needed strengthening. This prompt gave me the most helpful input. It offered new perspectives and challenged me.
- Deciding to go ahead with a limited series of short episodes, I generated a table of contents for my podcast based on my existing topics.
- Chat also gave me ideas for how to post the podcasts on YouTube as well.
I’ve got scripts that I drafted as social media posts, I have a plan and I have all the ideas for how to implement.
What’s missing? I’ll wait while you guess…
That’s right! Actually taking action on these genius ideas and plans. How’s that going to happen?
I can do what I usually do – set a deadline. These are often based around travel. I leave for Lisbon and Paris on September 25th, so ideally all episodes would be done and published/scheduled.
As a seasoned coach and maker of things and experiences, I know I can do this. But what about other projects that have a higher emotional burn? The stuff that I’m scared to do? For that, I need support. Someone to help make me do what I say I want to do. And I suspect you need that kind of support, too.
Here’s where AI completely fails
I’ve coached hundreds of creatives over 25 years, and almost every single client has cited accountability as the main reason they hire me. Sure, they need a thought partner, a hand-holder, an emotional support person. All of that is valuable. And, super important is someone there on a regular basis to make sure they actually do what they say they will do.
There is nothing wrong with needing this. We all need accountability. We are human, complex, messy, distractible, and emotional.
There will always be the weeks when the shit hits the fan. Contrary to what we’d like to believe, there is no ‘normal’ week. Always, always, always there will be something planned or unplanned that disrupts our ‘write every day from 8-10’ schedule. What happens then? More ideas from AI will not save your bacon.
This is where my clients thrive with me. I am always helping my writers and artists:
- adjust expectations
- process disappointment
- reset according to current conditions
- make satisfying progress on their terms.
No AI can do that in any meaningful way.
AI Cannot Replace This
AI will never be able to replicate what happens in a 1:1 or group coaching environment. Group coaching has the power of the collective. I’ve been leading versions of my popular Write ON for a decade now, and I am 100% certain that the magic and connection that happens there is not in AI’s skill set.
Many of us join groups not for the leader, but for the companions who will travel alongside us. We gain so much from others’ experiences.
Working alongside others helps us:
- normalize the ups and downs of the creative life
- learn from how others do it – a springboard to reflect on our own processes
- gather valuable resources we would not have found otherwise
- and quite simply but quite powerful – have more fun.
In Write ON, we work in weekly sprints. We focus on gathering insights on how we best navigate the ebb and flow of our creative lives. I coach us through it, week by week. And, I paddle alongside with my own project, sharing the challenges and wins in real time.
And guess what happens at the end of our Write ON cycle? A ton of progress, that’s for sure. Here’s something AI will never deliver to you:
- confidence in your abilities
- satisfaction that comes from doing the work
- personal and creative empowerment that you’ve cultivated by showing up
- earned experience and wisdom that you can apply to anything you create in the future.
I’m not worried that AI will replace me and my coaching. Sure, you can ask AI for ideas and even a detailed plan. But someone alongside you helping you grow and glow as you make your beautiful things, that’s for us humans.
Enrollment is open for Write ON, which starts later this month. We have a few spots left – I cap enrollment so there’s no chance to hide in a sea of participants.
This is a 16-week adventure for those with a project they need a container for. It’s a small group, so there’s no back row to hide in, no ‘falling behind’ and no wasting your money on another program that gets you nowhere.
It’s fun, effective and just the right amount of demanding. Get all the details here.
P.S. This article was entirely written by me, Cynthia Morris. AI helped slightly with Grammarly, but mostly I ignore those suggestions.
P.P.S. Please do not use AI to outsource your writing! Guess what? It shows! I can tell when someone’s social media posts are written by AI. AI is great for marketing, interpreting legal documents and wasting a lot of your time sucked into screen mode.
The Author Care Kit I Wish I’d Given Myself
What a month! I almost feel like a different person. After launching the novel, I slid into what authors know is the inevitable letdown. It makes sense – for 2.5 years, I have had quite a force of momentum. Writing, editing, and publishing Her Lisbon Colors consumed the bulk of my creative energy. It also gave me a lot to focus on and quite a bit of meaning.
I’ve moved out of my funk and have shifted to promoting the book. It would be easy to move on! People ask, “What’s next now that the novel is out?” Making sure it has a life! It truly is like a baby that needs a lot of nourishment to stay alive. I’m committed to a year of putting the word out there.
This requires a lot of bandwidth, courage and focus. For all the hard work of writing and turning a manuscript into a book, the work of promoting is much harder. I am sharing about this through December at Stumbling Toward Genius. Are you subscribed?
My author self-care kit for publishing a novel
Oh I wish I had an ‘author care kit’ of sorts! In retrospect, I know what I needed, and I will share it here. This is for the sake of helping me debrief and sharing with you in case my bloops are of service to your own projects.
1. Take a break with rejuvenating treats. It really felt like I was zoomig on a highway for months and months and then exited. But I still had the feeling of movement, like I needed to keep working toward the launch deadline. I went away with Steve for a hot springs weekend and it was bliss to be offline and soaking in the water.
2. Lower expectations I have informally renamed myself the ‘lower the bar coach’. I know that our high expectations do nothing but turn around and bite us hard.
I don’t know what I thought – that I would get rave reviews right away? All I know is it felt very quiet for the weeks after the launch. A lot of friends said “I’m reading your book and loving it!” and then weeeeeeeeeks passed and I didn’t hear anything.
My inner critic had all kinds of stories about this, mainly that they didn’t like the book and didn’t know what to say. (Tip for friends of authors – say nothing until you’ve finished reading!)
3. Stay connected to the original impulse. Why MUST I put this book into the world? When we put stuff out there, we are now connecting our ideas and values and creative soul with the world. This is the cool thing about art – once it’s out there, it has a life of its own.
Staying connected with my WHY helps me know that the book is important to me, no matter how it is received by the world. I loved writing this book, I loved how it turned out, and my job is to keep loving it.
4. Have therapeutic supports in place. If you know me, you know that the reason I help creative people bring their bright ideas to life isn’t just for the sake of getting stuff done.
I believe in stretching and growing as humans. I love coaching people through the fears and insecurities we all face. I was so focused on all the details of making and launching a book, I didn’t take time to tend my emotional self. Luckily I have therapeutic support in place now and am feeling much more grounded and sane.
5. Forgive yourself for not doing everything, and for not doing everything RIGHT. My goodness, there are a million things involved in getting a book out there! We’re advised to stay focused on a few avenues of promotion, but it’s hard! I have made so many mistakes and I often still feel ‘all over the place’.
6. Make a plan for ongoing promo. I was sitting poolside on a Friday afternoon when clarity around how to stay on track with my novel promo came to me. I felt that recognizable spark of enthusiasm light in me. I made notes and now am on week two of 100 days of Book Promo.
With a million things to do, coupled with the emotional labor of that work, it’s easy to lose steam and do nothing. Having structure is vital for me, and I suspect for you, too. (This is why I love Write ON so much! Structure + camaraderie hosted by a certified coach = much more writing joy.)
What surprised you from this list? What would you add to your own author care kit? Tell us below.
Why the stories you write are boring
I was in Lisbon when the total blackout hit the Iberian Pennisula, removing power from all of Spain and Portugal for the better part of a hot April day. This was interesting! Nothing like this had ever happened to me. Of course I would write about it.
I made notes that day and night to capture the sensual experiences of being without phone or light or access to my rented apartment. I wrote a draft of the story back in Denver.
But then I blundered into territory my clients and I always stumble into. I was three pages into telling the details of the blackout – trams stalled in the streets, all shops dark and locked, no cell phone access at all. Three pages in and still was not even close to getting to why this mattered.
What went wrong? We all think our stories are good – and they are! These tales are interesting to us, but are likely only mildly interesting to a reader. I’ve identified the problem. It’s a case of anecdote versus story. Here’s an example.
Anecdote versus story or boring versus life-changing
Anecdote: On the way here, I saw a performing monkey! It grabbed my beret and put it on and played the accordion! It was so funny!
Story: On the way here, a performing monkey grabbed my beret and played a song on the accordion. The song was the one I always have in my head when I think of my French life. All this time I had been in love with France, thinking the song and the beret made me more French. But my facade was easily taken on by a street monkey. I had never felt so cheap and superficial in my life. Now I question the things I love – am I such a cliche? Or was the song a sign? Did my beret hold the song about Paris but also all my hopes and dreams?
Do you see the difference? A story has a deeper meaning, something more important to the narrator than ‘isn’t that funny?’
We tell anecdotes to fill time and space and share an experience we had. We write stories to understand something on a deeper level and to convey some meaning to the reader. As writers, we have to work to excavate the meaning.
The blackout story was just an anecdote. Until I dug deeper for a reason to tell this story, it wasn’t worth continuing. I was bored adding up all the ‘and then this happened’. (If you get bored writing, chances are your reader will be bored reading.) I didn’t have the bandwidth to really delve in to discover what matters, why it matters to me, and how it might matter to you, the reader.
People telling anecdotes mostly just want someone to hear their story. People writing stories want to move the reader with a new insight, feeling, or idea. They want to be moved themselves.
If you are stuck in anecdote territory, wondering if it’s interesting to a reader, dig deeper.
Three ways to make sure your stories aren’t boring
Check into your values. What is meaningful for you in this story? I couldn’t find many of my values honored in the blackout story. But the piece about speaking Portuguese while in Lisbon? I had at least 8 values in that story. Writing it felt alive and meaningful.
WAIT. After you’ve pecked at the story a bit, take a break. Ask yourself Why Am I Telling this story? Why does it matter to you?
Who cares? When we get stuck, we often think, who will find this interesting? Who cares? If you know who you are writing for – and you should – it will be easier to know if your reader will care and if so, what they will get from this.
What do you want for the reader? Why MUST they read this story?
When drafting my novel, I had to cut many major chapters. Whole sections! I loved these scenes. But they were merely interesting, not essential to the novel. Editing skills are as important as drafting skills.
Get your copy of Her Lisbon Colors here.
I hope this has helped you to improve your storytelling skills. Please let me know what this illuminated for you in a comment below.