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 …
Tag: writing
Finishing again, new tools acquired for next time.
I finished The Red Palace (TRP) again today. How many times does a writer finish a book? A lot, in my experience. But I’ve only done this a few times. The attributionless experiment is over, who says what is now clear. More than that, revisions and rewrites have been included, small excisions, small elaborations. I …
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Rules and Rebellion: An Attributionist’s Diary
Disclaimer: This was written for my own amusement and is not meant to be taken seriously as writing advice, only my opinion on some writing advice I want to ignore, perhaps because I’m lazy, so I’m going to rationalize my laziness into an act of courageous rebellion. He said guiltily. Just realized I haven’t put …
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The Red Palace: 1st Draft Complete
Hi folks. Another crazy day in the multiverse. The Armageddon tango twirls on, ever escalating. So, aside from civilization ending in Iran tonight, what do you have going on? I finished the first draft of The Red Palace over a week ago. Been sitting on it, letting it very briefly rest, because I don’t want …
Absentee action and the challenge of illogic.
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! I’m back, in a time of war. Of course, on this green earth it is always a time of war. Always. And every New Year we listen to Imagine, and every New Year it seems an impossible dream. Some years more obviously than others. Another war. More children …
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Blogging or Writing? It’s Writing For Me.
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! In January 2023 I started blogging regularly again, initially spurred by my concerns about AI in writing. You can read them here and here, and see how my concerns match up to where we are three short years later. I haven’t re-read them as I write this column, …
The Triumph of Acceptance over Sabotage, and Updates on my Media Consumption
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Stayed up too late last night. Lingering fatigue. Alice in Borderland season one. I normally do not go for mystery box constructed stories, but after watching 2046 recently and remembering my love of Asian cinema in my youth (Hong Kong 80s cinema, Chinese 5th wave and Kurosawa plus …
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Through a Glass, Darkly
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! The Thief and The Demon is on sale this week. Thief gets in trouble, then more trouble, then more trouble, then more. Every choice can lead to death, but he seeks freedom, and, eventually, redemption. The Demon also seeks freedom, but primarily craves power. The two are bound …
A Good Weekend
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Progress. Never as much as you want. Always motivated when I need to go to bed. It is January. I’m not dieting, just trying not to eat as much. I am doing the basic rehab exercises for my knee(s) every day. 30 years in nursing (I’m counting my …
2025 Happened.
Hello, my friends and the occasional relative! Here we are at the end of 2025! It has been a year, as they say. A writing retrospective. I published my third novel this year, which pleases me no end. Having three novels to my name does make me feel much more established as a writer. I …
Roderick T. Macdonald 