Have you heard the chatter?

Well, I have a new friend and her name is ChatGPT.

The top three concerns for me and ChatGPT is she has a reputation for:

1) Inaccuracies and Bias

2) Lack of Creativity

3) Formal or Robotic Sounding Writing

Our relationship is new, so as we develop together, I am hoping we can work through these issues and find a way in which Chatty (don't you just love a nickname?) and I can produce writing that deals with my grammatical issues without changing my writing style or creative world view.

For the past decade, I wrote in this flow state; edited by reading it aloud; and then had Paul, who doesn't suffer from my grammar problems, edit the final version. He is able to make suggestions without making demands. I may read my last draft out loud ten times before I release the BLOG.

After ten times, you would think it would be a polished product. Once published I will go back and read it again. This time I am also looking to see if it is readable by phone as well as desktop.

You know what I find? Well, if you are one of my early readers you know exactly what I find. Even with all that editing, right after I release it, I often find a missing "it" or "an" or "to". Seems in my world, small critical words, are spoken even when they are not there.

Truth is my radio copywriting background dominates my writing. I have no issue with single word "sentences" or "fragments". Many visual creatives, like you, take in content at hyper speed and are only reading the key words to form their thought responses. The rest of the formal language is just white noise. 

                              (Photo during my radio days at Murray State University)

On Chatty's first review, she complimented me on my writing style, my creative insight and clever use of words. She seemed especially drawn to "digital decay". Then she promptly rewrote those sections and dropped nearly everything that made my writing, my writing. Digital decay became digital trash and then digitally vanished.

Digital decay was the best part of the entire piece. It ties in the photographer's fascination with urban decay and makes my point, so memorable. I know this, because Chatty told me so before she made it vanish. Oh, Chatty, we need to talk.

First Attempt with Chatty. Click HERE!

With some of her suggestions in place, I sent the draft back to her for a second edit.

This time, she said that my style was mixed with this very informal and talk to the viewer style that worked well and these awkward more formal sentences that didn't.

I laughed.

She laughed.

I learned my lesson.

We will see if she learned hers.