Have machines stolen our dreams? It was a line from a Queensryche song, long ago. Similar enough, anyway.

It was hard enough dealing with the human.

But of course our current AI is all too human, in design (hallucinations) and use (theft).

There are voices in academia, and online, who confidently say every story has already been told. Of course they come in from 5 to 30 archetypes. Because inevitably we made a pattern and a list of them.

Nothing, therefore, can be original.

Except you, and me.

As writers and readers we are unique.

I believe we can still be original. All the possible stories had been told before Agatha Christie was born, before James Joyce was born, before James Baldwin was born.

So nothing they wrote was original, clearly. That’s the rule, right? Every possible story has already been written, we’re only creating variations on themes. We’re going to ignore that the variation is in itself, a new thing.

Do not surrender to the idea that there is nothing new under the sun. Do not.

And do not believe that formulas are the secret to success. Formulas are bound by rules, and our all too human AI can follow rules very well.

Following a formula to finding your own voice? Please.

Saving the cat to be an original? Join the production line.

Everyone wants to sell you a short cut. Advise you to follow their path to success, just join their club, pay their low subscription, share your data.

Understand structure, sure, but don’t be its slave. Identify formulas, but take what you can use, leave the rest.

It may take time to find your voice. But when you do, you will be an original, one of a kind. Your voice and no other.

AI will try to steal it, if you are successful, even if you are not. Industrial theft is the malady of our age, it seems.

But AI is currently has no imagination. And its users? The jury is out.

Believe in yourself, in your story. Understand that you will not be perfect the first time, probably not ever, but it is the effort that makes us better. Don’t take shortcuts.

And then you might produce something wonderful, something original, and those tired categorizers of everything that has already been done will have to add a new item to their list, and pretend it has been there all along.

I pity them. They have lost the ability to dream.

Do not join them. Do not.