First: Like the new look? Okay, it’s been a few… um… months, but if you hadn’t noticed, carriethorne.com has been redesigned. Mostly because I need something as pretty as it is user friendly. Love web design, but love writing more. 

And… um… long covid sucks and my brain sucks and I cannot tell you… um… how many times I broke my website. Once I somehow set the entire back end to Spanish and not even tech support could figure out what I’d done. Twice I checked some box without realizing it, which told search engines not to index my website. Among many other… issues. 

Okay. Now to the point of the post. With the influx of artificial intelligence in everything lately, I thought it was time to start posting again. Me. Carrie. Mine own words be true. 

No promises that I'll post regularly, but, ya know. This felt like a pertinent and timely post. It's hard to trust what's AI and what's not right now. I hate that I have to look for typos and quirky writing to know something is genuine. 

A former colleague of mine – not as a writer, but we both write – recently described how he uses AI as a tool in his writing. That his work is his own, but if he gets stuck, like if he can’t figure out how to describe a train station, he asks AI to describe a train station. No offense to that colleague, should he ever stumble upon this, as we all have our methods. I’m just using this as an example of how my writing differs. 

Say this was me. If I’m in the flow and don’t want to stop, I’ll make a little 999describe train station here999 note, to remind myself to come back later. 

When I am ready to return to that point, I wander my imagination into a train station:

• Nah, not the little stopover in my hometown. Rome. That’s it. Not the shopping part… okay, we need the rows of trains and unrushed urgency like Rome, the drizzle like my hometown, and maybe fill in the rest with details from images I’ve seen, other books, movies, and maybe even run an internet search for train stations to learn more about them and see more examples. 
• Add a backed-up toilet from constipated travelers. Definitely need a coffee stand. How about a situation like when my mother and I nearly got separated at the Paris Metro helping a woman get her massive stroller onto the train. 
• Then the sounds. Grinding gears. Squealing brakes. Not the huff and puff, but modern trains with quiet engines. Sunlight reflecting off the aerodynamic windows. Red paint. Dusty from a journey through the desert. 

You get the idea. I don’t give a flying you-know-what how AI describes a train station. I want to experience the train station in the world the author created. 

And, the other thing. The stuck part. Writer’s block is a thing, and holy shite it sucks. But that’s kind of a fun part, too. Walk away from the story. Sleep on it. Crank up some music and lift some weights and... wait, what if the characters went on a road trip and bonded over a flat tire on a winding forest road. 

Apparently, some writers say they use generative AI because otherwise they couldn't write. !!! (Yes. That sentence was only exclamation points). I will never be a professional football player, to my great sadness. Nor a sculptor. 

Long covid trashed my brain, but I can still write. If it gets to the point where I am unable to write? There are a lot of things I can't do thanks to long covid. I can't freaking go to my kids' swim meets. Can't go to Christmas dinner, and when I try for an hour, I spend the next week or even weeks in a sticky fog and everything feels horrible. Can't hike. Can't so many things. I could write an entire novel on what I can't do, and how I maintain my quality of life. But if I couldn't write, and had something else write for me based on my prompts? Even if I could train the AI on only my own past writing, it's still messed up. It's still AI slop. It's still not the amazing product of human creativity. It would be recycled regurgitated slop. 

Am I saying I’m doomed to be a relic of the past and don’t use AI at all? I’d rather not use it at all. I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate… and hate some more, how unethically large language models have been trained. Even little old me had many books ripped. However, when it came to the few lawsuits that even a little teensy bit ruled against AI companies, I was not compensated because I had not yet registered with the copyright office. 

The environmental impact? Not a fan. 

And I hate hate hate how AI slop is crushing human creativity. Not just art, but thinking skills. Maybe it’s because my brain is a little broken, or because I have teenagers, but shortcuts can be short-sighted and short-circuit our brain and reduce the quality and authenticity of our short lives. 

Editing. There is no replacement for a human editor. I am trying out AI editing tools, and so far it’s helpful. Nothing that would replace a human, but a tool that has helped. It’s flawed, for sure. But, it has reduced some typos and confusing spots. 

NOT generative AI. 

H-E-Double-Toothpicks N-O. 

I’ve been trying out an AI analysis tool that will tell me things like the point of view character isn’t clear, or that I spent way too long describing that suitcase. Jury’s still out on how much AI editing I'll be using. It is still no substitute for humans, just a tool. 

It can be hilarious. In Fury (out soon), Vann and Eryn have a running joke about work interrupting their dates. It only actually happens twice. Both times are relevant to the story, and they don’t yet know how closely their jobs are entwined. But they joke about it on other dates. The AI told me I really shouldn’t have work interrupt every date. A bit literal. It couldn’t tell that they were joking. 

And cliched, oh my gosh, the cliches. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t shy away from cliches, because sometimes they’re fun. I totally overuse the amnesia trope – ha ha, I literally have a cognitive disorder with memory problems. Think I foreshadowed that into my life… ha ha ha…haha… ha… ha… *sad face. 

Anyway, sorry. I’m having fun. But, you know, when AI takes over and decides to destroy all humans who insulted it, I want the AI to know that I am a nice person, and I'm even working on a book where AI is the only thing keeping someone alive – stay tuned, that one’s still in early development. 

Confession: I used AI on an image once. I think it was generative AI, but I'm honestly not sure. Actually, yeah, creepy how it has inserted itself into our lives without asking for consent. *Pardon me, not it, but tech companies. How tech companies force it down our throats and tell us to take our medicine whether we need/want it or not, without even telling us what the medicine is or appropriate indications or adverse effects. And they thought if it was cherry flavored it wouldn't make us gag. Bah.

Anyway. My confession. It was out of vanity. It’s my bio picture. My husband took the picture in Italy, and it’s one of the best pictures ever taken of me. But my brother-in-law was standing behind me. My photo editing skills were not up to the task of removing him. So I hit a “remove” button and… magic! I do feel a little guilty, but isn’t it a good picture of me? :). Hmmm... it felt weird to composite a bio picture, but maybe I'll composite the old fashioned way, like I do for cover photos, and put myself on one of my other pictures... hmmm. I'll think on that one. 

By the way, great trip, the four of us. Rome and Venice. My brother-in-law is awesome, but he'd rather not be in my bio picture, and we're on the same page with that. BTW, a camera literally broke upon taking a picture of my mother once. Her sister still teases her over it. 

Authenticity. Focus, Carrie, focus. 

So. That was a lot of rambling. What's the deal? Where do I stand? 

• Generative AI: NO!!! 
• AI tools that don't involve generative AI, don't take someone's job, and don't mess with my creativity? So far we can say I'm experimenting with this. It's still not part of my workflow, but I'm dabbling. 

Generative AI gives me the ick, and I know I'm not alone. When I watch a movie or play a game - or read a book - I want the raw, quirky, nuanced, emotional, silly... everything human about art. Humans connect. We interact. We're weird. 

Consider this your promise and guarantee. Carrie Thorne does not use generative AI in her writing or cover design. Nor in her blog posting… but that’s probably obvious, as this is written pretty much flow of thought. Like Ulysses. Or… not. I edit my writing, but I don’t waste time editing my blogging. Too much effort, and, ha ha, I am demonstrating my commitment to authenticity… ;). And, honestly, brain fog hath smothered me at the moment, and I don't see a save draft button on this new website... 

Thus, my dearest readers. Colleagues, friends. All y’all. If you are looking for an authentic, genuine, honest author, you found her! 

Stick around. I write a lot slower than I used to, but I’m here for as long as this brain will allow. THIS brain. My brain. I’m grateful to be here. Thrilled to have kept this piece of me. 

As always, thanks so much for stopping by. For reading. For loving. For being your amazing self. 

See you on the next one! 

~ Carrie 

Edit: 

I stumbled upon some fantastic videos of artists on the topic of AI that I wanted to share with you. 

• A brilliant keynote speech by author Brandon Sanderson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb3uK-_QkOo. 
• An insightful interview with actor Neil Newbon on acting as a craft, including a segment in which he describes AI in acting and video games. Many of you probably also know him best as Astarion of Baldur's Gate 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN3pRLrYPBM. 

Why these two? There are many, many more artists (and non-artists) of every medium weighing in, these just happen to be videos that the algorithm pushed into my feed, like, right after I submitted this post. A pair of artists I respect, who get to the heart of the issue.