Does anyone else start singing “Love Shack” while waiting for their Substack dashboard to load? SUB-stack, Substack, ba-by!
This platform has blown up with exponential vigor since my first post more than three years ago. Substack, for me, replaced a Blogger blog AND a mailchimp newsletter. Double trouble. These days, if you’re a writer without a Substack, it’s like being a novelist fifty years ago without a typewriter. A caveman scribe without a cave.
So, what’s next? Tiktok is potentially on the chopping block. Facebook gets hacked every other minute. Don’t even get me started on Musk’s X and the mass ex-odus from the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Maybe MySpace will make a comeback? Sort of like bellbottoms and lava lamps—homage to a goofier time.
Thing is, for artists (musical, visual, word-oriented), we’re now not only swimming upstream in a river clotted with humans fighting for the chance to be recognized for our art, robots are now part of the competition. Yep, the dreaded AI (I mean, just the name: artificial intelligence!) Apparently, AI-generated dupes have infiltrated the publishing world at such a rapid-fire pace, it brings to mind the multi-headed hydra syndrome. As soon as you bash one down, another pops up. It’s as if robotic Cliff Notes are hiding in the bushes staging Jack-in-the-box strikes at pre-recorded intervals.
Speaking of strikes, remember the Hollywood strike of 2023? A lot of the negotiations were centered on intellectual property and the AI-appropriation of artists’ voices and talent. Thankfully, the new contract features guardrails in how the technology can be used in film and television projects. Now do books! (As I type this, the Writers Guild is indeed taking this on.)
We live in interesting times, do we not? While technology has made it easier than ever to reach an audience, it’s also seeded the digital landscape with landmines. So, what’s a writer to do? Write the next book and hope for the best? Yes. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. My tiny office cave is my love shack. Just a funky old shack and I gotta get back.
Ergo, my latest Web-warren search for narrative fodder. Such a vast array of possibilities for modern-day character features and complexities built on flummoxing AI appropriation. Behold, a character who makes a living huxtering religious Easter resurrection story egg sets.
It all feels pretty overwhelming. And I've just started hearing favorable AI spots on music radio, too. Doing your Substack (and other writing) from your cave-shack sounds like the very best idea!
Huxtering! ❤️