My Thoughts on GenAI

by benmweilert Comment Closed
When Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) started becoming popular a few years ago, I stood at the sidelines and eyed it with skepticism. It was a neat trick that used neural networks to create pictures of people who didn’t exist, funny lyrics for songs based on a keyword, and (allegedly) scripts for TV show episodes that bordered on absurdist humor. I incorporated some of these ideas into my writing, like the main character in “The Last Immortal” using something akin to thispersondoesnotexist.com for dating profile pictures, or my month of writing 10 short stories being based on the outputs of a “neural network”—which was just a clever way of saying my own brain (which is a neural network) created these stories. Then there are the more controversial applications of GenAI. Thinking about all the propaganda, misinformation, and damage that can be done with deepfakes was one of the sub-plots in Buried Colony (the novel I wrote in 2017 and published in 2022...
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Saying Goodbye to NaNoWriMo

Saying Goodbye to NaNoWriMo

by benmweilert1 Comment
15 years ago, I didn't consider myself a writer. That all changed after I heard about National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). This annual challenge to write 50,000 words of a first draft of a novel in the 30 days of November showed me that the impossible was indeed within my capabilities. Fast forward to today and I've now published 11 books, written 9 more on top of that, won multiple writing awards, and built an amazing group of fellow writers I consider my friends. I've introduced others to the NaNoWriMo concept, and they also found that they are writers as well. I still have a huge backlog of ideas I plan to write for many years to come. Unfortunately, after this year, I will no longer be doing so using any of the NaNoWriMo events. It is sad the organization has crumbled to this point, but it was probably only a matter of time before something would take it down. As...
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Why NaNoWriMo Works for Me

by benmweilert1 Comment
Just over a decade ago, I had never thought about writing a novel. As someone who had only written short stories up to that point, something like a novel felt so big and insurmountable to me. Then, talking with my cousin at Thanksgiving, I learned about National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo for short). Since then, I have participated and won the challenge 12 times in a row and am now nine years into my role as a Municipal Liaison (ML) for my local region. I almost exclusively write the first drafts of my novels during this annual challenge, and I have published at least five manuscripts that started out as a flurry of late nights writing in November. Before we continue, let me set the stage by answering the first question many people have: what is NaNoWriMo? Founded in 1999, the NaNoWriMo challenge is to write 50,000 words of a first draft of a new novel in the 30 days...
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Writing shouldn’t be solitary

by benmweilertNo Comments
When people say "writing is a solitary activity," they do not refer to the entire process. Yes, nobody but you will sit down and put the words in your head onto the page. I know I've written a lot about how a self-published author can "do it all," but it's important to know the value of community as an author. The best-written works of all time hardly existed in a vacuum. Even if the actual process of writing can be solitary, it can become isolating if we don't connect with others who have this same experience. Writing should be an experience. Not everyone has the same process or hangups, but there are enough similar highs and lows that you can empathize with when you talk about your craft with fellow authors. We understand the highs of selling our work or getting a glowing review as much as we know the pain of writer's block or critical feedback. Sometimes a close group...
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