In the world of journalism, I am a prinsaurus (dinosaur in print). I’m a millennial who puts out daily ‘pages’ – the A3 sized page that is losing its luster by the day. Anyway, I shared this to give an idea of how I work and my relationship with writing.
I don’t know how things work in school nowadays, but in my day we used to read stories, underline difficult words, and try to use them in sentences. Some words/phrases currently in my vocabulary have backstories.
For example, the word “exile” sounded familiar to me when I heard it on television as a child, in the context of the whereabouts of a popular political leader. This was because in The Lion King II, Simba, in an authoritarian tone, judged Kovu, his daughter’s friend and his rival’s son. ‘Exile!’ he shouted as punishment for Kovu.
Then, at school, I read the word “wrath” in Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale” when Hermione’s husband stormed out of the room after his best friend agreed to extend his stay at Hermione’s request. ‘Entourage’ appeared when we were reading a short article about a Vietnamese girl, who was photographed while escaping a Napalm attack.
The word “drag” has an interesting history. There used to be a video game called Hitman. Once the job was done, if you clicked on the body, you had two options: leave the body there or drag it.
In those days, when we came across new words, we tried to introduce them into our essays and other writing exercises. Sometimes it would be perfect and sometimes the teacher would explain how we misunderstood the word. Before the computer took over and bulky dictionaries replaced CDs, learning to find a word in the dictionary used to be a fun adventure.
So when we write, we see it as a form of prayer, nervous about using our skills correctly. We remain cautious and question whether we have done justice to the words. And that is the reason why we read articles with disgust when we realize that they are written by AI, or at least that is what I used to do before.
To me, the writer meant: ‘prompt giver’? – overlooked the long hours spent figuring out what his piece should look like.
Fortunately (or is it too early to say this?), my bubble burst when a friend in finance said that AI-backed writing tools made his life easier. I protested, but he said that to him those tools are like a calculator: why do calculations have to be done on a sheet of paper when a calculator can do it in seconds?
Remember the little ‘1’ we used to write before our unit value when we borrowed from the number on the immediate left while performing subtraction? Most of us have even forgotten the extra zeros we would put in to complete the division. Of course, a mathsaurus might be rolling its eyes, silently cursing us for our stupidity and dying love of basic math operations.
AI is a reality (bonus for readers: there is a podcast called Unpressedented on YouTube where speakers have done a great job comparing the good, the bad, and the ugly of AI). And at some point, we all have to accept it, including, yes, writers.
The debate is not whether a writer should use AI; The debate is whether those who do not see writing as art can use it to present their opinion to the world. Does it really matter if your text has a high volume of words like ’emphasize’, ‘deepen’ or ‘additionally’? Should we roll our eyes when we read the phrase “in conclusion” in the last few paragraphs?
I understand the need to control, but if we analyze how the content is treated, our fears and criticisms lose ground. In this fast-paced, highly connected world, people don’t have time to wait for writers who spend hours polishing their writing. We’ve already gone from having a 25-episode season to a short 10-episode web series. The goal is to do things quickly and a lot!
My personal best score so far has been 10,000 words in one day. I don’t know how I did it, but I sat down in front of my computer and never stopped. This best score was during the time when he had to write 3,000 words a day. Now, the minimum requirement for content companies is 5,000 words, an increase of 66%.
If daily production increases by more than 60%, naturally the income associated with it would increase by the same percentage, at least for content companies. If I insist that my creativity requires me to think and take time, why should anyone invest in me?
I want to hold on to the art of writing, desperately. But frankly, my attachment issues have no place in an ever-changing world. We have already let machines replace great artists. So is it time for prinsaurs like me to take a ‘we read and don’t judge’ approach? Is it time to say goodbye to the art of writing?
The writer is an assistant editor at The News. She tweets/posts @manie_sid and can be reached at: [email protected]
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of PakGazette.tv.
Originally published in The News
