The Beginning
When there was a massive shift among jobless youth in Kenya to adopt ‘content writing’ as a profession, Western countries quickly recognised the prestige of Kenyan writers, much like how virtual assistants became associated with Filipinos. The market boomed. I jumped on that bandwagon and began earning money writing articles. By the end of 2021, I had written more than 600 different articles. Where they ended up on the internet? I do not know. My rent was paid.
By beginning of 2022, I completely shifted to focus on legal research and writing which was more alined with my profession and to which I found interesting, challenging and analyticals, and now looking back, I couldn’t be more proud of making that decision to shift.
Two years later, we have AI. The writers are not happy. The true musicians feel silenced while those banging on pots and pans believe they have composed symphonies.
I want to talk about it.
AI’s Lousy Writing
The idea that you can simply drop a thought on AI and compel it to write an award-winning, The Anthropocene Reviewed likes of work off from it is simply … unfathomable.
Poorly written, extremely black and white, it is generic, It’s surface level.
It has no creative flow, is not persuasive, be selective with your words, create a super compelling read, the subtleties of tone, a perfected play of words, the art of storytelling and the emotions that tie a piece together.
AI doesn’t make anyone say wow with AI-generated work forget about the “wow factor”
it lacked the touch of humanity that was inherently mine
The Good Writer’s Standard
Writing is a skill and craft and this one man has perfected it.
Whenever I think of a good piece of writing I think of John Green’s writings. John Green has to be one of the best writers of our time. Through his choices of words he takes control of his reader’s emotion, he brings life to fiction, perspective to nonfiction, he attaches his audience to the narrative and it is the sort of narrative that hangs over your head for weeks. He inspires readers to want to be writers and makes it impossible for them to put down his book.
Not only is John Green an accomplished writer, but every time he speaks whether it is randomly defending Indiana or talking of tuberculosis, you can tell from the way he articulates himself, that he surely does live up to… Quite simply, John’s green work is admirable and beautiful to read. He in fact inspires me.
So what makes up a good writer’s standard or a sort of framework to compare the work? It is the ability to surrender to the creative flow, be persuasive, be selective with your words, create a super compelling read, the subtleties of tone, a perfected play of words, the art of storytelling and the emotions that tie a piece together.
There is the use of very strong English. By this, I do not mean vocabulary-populated writing. It is the choices of words, the flow of these words and the way it has been put together that makeup very strong English.
A literary critic’s perspective
A literary critic will certainly be able to tell a bad piece of writing. But Joyce, isn’t what defines good writing subjective? Sadly for our pot bangers, good writing is objective. Good writing is still good writing. Bad writing cannot pass for good writing. You may dislike the narrative, the flow of the story or the creation of the idea, but if the writing is good, you cannot contest that. A Literary critics know how to tell the difference.
You may dislike Paper Towns by John Green perhaps because you find the content objectionable but a literary critic will still be able to see the technical value of it and put his personal tastes aside. This is to say good writing, however, does not necessarily make a good story, that becomes subjective.
Will writers be phased out?
The truth of the matter is that AI has and will continue to affect writers whether or not they employ the use of AI. It is going to be up to the readers disearn for themselves, and for as long as there exist readers in need of well-written work, good writers will have work. it will
Good writers will never be phased out because there are good readers there are out in the market for reading good quality well-written, thought-provoking pieces of writing.
If a writer believes that their AI-generated work is of high quality, it suggests they may not be as skilled a writer as they think. The same goes for the reader, if a reader passes off an AI-generated piece for good writing, it indicates they may lack a discerning eye for quality writing as well.
The End
When AI may assist some masquerade as ‘writers’ the true test of a good piece of writing is the ability to connect with the reader. Readers are very selective on what they choose to read. articles written by humans tend to perform much better than those written by AI.
Watch out for my next article, ethical legal writing.