Image by Thought Catalog on Unsplash (Left), and AI response (Right)
At 26 we’re always looking to explore this question through our creative writing projects, training and events programmes.
As writers, we’ve devoured books (We, Me, Them & It by John Simmons is rather good), attended courses run by, amongst others, Dark Angels and 26. We’ve had writing buddies or been part of a writing group. If we were really keen, we might even have taken ourselves off to do a degree.
And today, we can add to this rich mix, AI in all its emerging glory – ChatGPT, Claude, Pi, Grammarly Pro, Aitoolreport.com, Zapier, Genius Prompts (the list goes on).
Next year at 26 we want to embrace these tools as part of your writing repertoire, to continue to address the question, how can I become a better writer and find my voice?
We’re going to do 2 things: run creative writing projects using AI to help us to play with it. Then, we’re going to stage some sessions for reflection and discovery around the subject of writing alongside AI.
A Creative Writing Project: Page 26 Line 26
Part 1
Paul White and his 26 buddies from New Zealand, have been playing with the idea of taking a line from a book (page 26, line 26) and using that as a trigger to create their own 260-word story. When done with a group, the variety of responses is always thrilling.
We would like to invite you to do the same with this specially plucked line from a mystery book on Paul’s bookshelf:
For instance, it is nearly dawn…
The brief is simple. Your story can go in any direction, be in any genre. It can include dialogue, a monologue, or be written in rhyming slang. What matters is that it represents a piece of writing you’re proud of. And it must be precisely 260 words long, to include the sentence given above. So far so easy.
Part 2
‘Commission’ AI (ChatGPT, Claude, Pi – your choice), to write a story based on the same opening line with the same word count. Just as we might re-focus and refine our own story, so we ask that you do the same with AI. What are the prompts you give AI to refine its story or take it in a more interesting direction?
By this stage the project will have fulfilled its ambition to get us all to play with AI and discover what it can do for us. But there is a part 3, if you’re interested.
Part 3
Please send us your two stories – yours and AI’s – by 14 November (26 days from the project’s announcement at Wordstock last week!). Do name them; this isn’t a competition to see if people can spot one from the other! And, let us know a little about your experience – how was it for you? What worked and what didn’t?
If you’re happy, we would like to publish your two stories in 26’s November newsletter. You will be amazed at the different directions we have taken and indeed where AI has gone as well.
If you have any questions, please drop me a line and, of course, send your stories to: alastair@creamerandmilliken.com
– Alastair Creamer