Say it with me: MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS.
You cannot tell me that the algorithm isn’t literally damaging our brains.
I open up Instagram and LinkedIn (and I don’t even go near TikTok) to see the following in this order:
“I asked ChatGPT”.....
Wherever you are on your book writing adventure, you’ll find what you need here…
What to do if you’re just starting out on your Author Adventure: planning, preparation, and dealing with your Inner Dickhead
Say it with me: MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS.
You cannot tell me that the algorithm isn’t literally damaging our brains.
I open up Instagram and LinkedIn (and I don’t even go near TikTok) to see the following in this order:
“I asked ChatGPT”.....
Things I don’t miss about the past:
Cassette tapes getting tangled up and ruining the mix-tape you made
DJs talking over the end of songs when you tried to record the Top 40
Rotary phones (who has time to wait for it to click all the way back round from 0)
Things I do miss about the past:
Since I was a small goblin child, I’ve been obsessed with the acknowledgements in books.
They’re a little piece of the story of how the book was created and the minds behind it and gratitude is always a delight to see anyway, right?
And, if I’m being totally honest, part of me was hoping to see my name there, too.
If you have ever looked closely at a fully alive and enthusiastic chicken, you’ll know they evolved from dinosaurs.
When Jurassic Park came out, I was like WELL OF COURSE BIRDS EVOLVED FROM DINOSAURS LOOK AT THEM. I did not understand why this was such a controversial idea.
Anyway, I am kept by chickens and they are 100% little dinosaurs. Velociraptors.
There's a bunch of things you don't need to write a book like a degree in English Lit or a neurotypical brain. Here's what you do need to write a book...What do you think? Sounds doable?
The first time I picked up The Heretics by Will Storr I got about 25 pages into it — not even past the introduction — before I had to put it down because I got so angry.
It’s about people who think the Earth is flat, who believe homeopathy can cure cancer, who think they’ve been abducted by aliens.
Lockdown, 2020.
I was a copywriter who also helped people write nonfiction books, but the world had just shattered + shut down.
And who the hell was going to indulge writing a book when the ship was sinking?
It was decision time: do I crash and burn? Or go all-in on what I really want to do?
This here is Toby Tortoise, who I take care of sometimes.
He lives just along the lane from me and he has strawberry on his face (living his best life!).
All he needed was a little sunshine and warmth to do the thing he does best: eat and snooze.
What do you need to do the thing you do best?
Find a daffodil and look at it. Look at it until you remember how beautiful the world can be.
Stand in the sunshine and let the sun soak into your face, until you remember that there are more people who want the world to be kind and gentle than those who want to spread fear.
Then, pull your socks up, buckaroo, and get writing.
You’re a writer. You are, or you wouldn’t be here reading this.
So I have a question for you today: how do you feel about big tech AI companies stealing your work?
If you’re in the UK, please read on — then take action.
My face is one giant grin right now because I’m reading the reviews coming in from yesterday’s Find Your Funnybone microworkshop.
Julia’s starts with:
“The “find your funny bone” workshop had all the elements of a perfect workshop…”
Do you know what your most powerful weapon is in fighting the current rise of fascist ideas and literally saving the world?
It’s your brain. Your voice. Your ideas.
The words you use and how you put them together to subvert and combat misinformation, cruelty, and outright lies.