Short-form writing just got much more popular, with the low attention span of people with TikTok and YT shorts. The movies get more repetitive as the audience can’t follow the movies anymore, or studies say that the average attention span is something like 40 seconds, to write short, repetitive articles, and so does potentially change writing.
Because of the low attention span, and because AI is using a lot of em dashes, I thought to myself, do I need to change my writing voice too?
But after a while pondering on it, I compared my writing to books. Nobody will stop reading books; books will always be there. Even if fewer people are reading now, people still want to read from others; that will always be the case. And long form, even in the form of an article, will always hold its value, unlike shorts, which don’t help anyone to take out a short text from its broader perspective.
When I write, I don’t think about having a huge push online, such as social media likes, etc., right now. Obviously, that is rewarding and gives you the signal that you’ve written something well, but the more important metric for me is: is it still relevant in a year, two, or five? Because writing will stay out there, it’s a long-term investment. You don’t just produce content, at least not if you write it manually.
But does it mean we, the humans, should avoid using the em dash because the AI does it, or should we avoid restating? I think no. I think you should follow your voice, or if not, find your own writing voice.
I love using em dashes myself. They look aesthetically pleasing to me. For this reason, it is enough for me to use them still. Not overuse, but I’m sure I’ll still use them. However, what I dislike is adding filler words or jargon. My Writing Voice is the opposite. I like to be succinct, almost minimalistic.
And more than anything, I want people to read my character through it, to see the soul and heart that I put into every article, to recognize my voice.
For me, I will still write long form, and I will not change my writing style just because AI is copying me (essentially, they trained on my data, not the other way around), so no matter the circumstances, the most important thing for me is to stay true to my voice and writing. Until then, I will probably keep writing long form and using em dash.
Instead of changing my voice, I should make it more interesting for the readers. This is what I learned from Tim Ferriss in his podcas as he said:
[..] very often they’re professionals who want to know how they can become better photographers. and they’re asking all these gear related questions and his answer is just put more interesting stuff in front of the camera. Make what’s in front of the camera more interesting.
I can still use phrases that AI uses often (see How to detect AI Writing), but instead of avoiding “It’s not just X, it’s Y”, just use more interesting Xs and Ys, things that are unique to me, things that no AI would choose.
The same for writing, make writing more interesting. Not thinking about AI, just writing my style: e.g., if you use em dashes, or X and Y comparison, use them, because you like them.
I wrote about my use of AI in combination with writing, and I published it on my website at my AI use, or how I keep AI Out of my Writing.
Never for writing, also not so much for research for topics, as it influences the direction of the article, but for grammar correction, and creating a Mermaid or SVG out of my article, that I can update then further.
Like I don’t think AI will replace human thinking, it will not replace human writing.
Origin: AI Writing
References: My Writing Voice
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