I’m always comparing my sloppy first drafts with other people’s heavily-edited published work. So it’s no wonder I’m down on my own stuff; this is a completely unfair contest of my own making.

That’s why I’ve found Dan Harmon’s advice enduringly helpful:

💬 Switch from team “I will one day write something good” to team “I have no choice but to write a piece of shit.”

In other words, ‘perfect’ is for editing, not for writing.

I’ve been asking what comes after content?. Here’s one possibility, dreamed up by Burnout from Humans.

More at The Wild Chatbot. HT: Rowenwhite.

A paragraph discusses addressing the dangers of AI and the idea of resisting and transforming the extractive logic that created it.

Nothing is immune from the law of fashion: what looks cutting edge today will date very quickly. Before long, AI-generated ‘content’ will be what you won’t be seen dead wearing. So what comes after content?

A dramatic scene depicts a couple embracing as a zeppelin and biplanes engage in an aerial battle above a fiery explosion.

💬 This quote from Thus Spoke Zarathustra seemed to land for me.

💬“I had in my mind to write three books about the world as it was, using concepts and images almost like characters. But I ended up making a long detour.” — Italian author, Roberto Calasso. (Source).

Long detour” is an apt summary of a writing life, and fitting inspiration for my latest project.

closeup photo of waterlillies on a pond

Ironically, I just saw this message from 2013 on the same day I heard Microsoft has announced it’s retiring Skype.

I guess my superpower is Late Adoption.

Text on a blue background reads, "It's time to update Messenger to Skype!"

📷 It’s always amazing to be reminded we’re living on the surface of an exquisite marble. Thanks Firefly! (Also a comforting reminder we can just visit the moon - beautiful in a different way: ravaged and bleak.)

A view of Australia from space, with a dark background and a light flare on the right side.

A nice little book launch today for our anthology. Destinations & Detours. I guess it was also the launch of Detour Editions 😁.

It was great to see this many people and to have some deep conversations.

A woman is speaking to a seated outdoor audience in a garden setting.

💬“If something happened that struck me, I would write a note — sometimes just on a little scrap of paper — and would slip these pieces of paper into a folder… Especially if I got stuck, I would take another piece of paper and say, ‘You’re stuck on this damn paper, so write about why you got stuck.’” — Peter Elbow, author of Writing with Power, 1935-2025.

(HT: Chris Aldridge)

”Just as no one can be Charles Dickens these days, very soon, no one will be able to market anything that looks like what AI could produce.”

What comes after content?

I’ve found writing on Wordpress a bit of a chore. Plenty of features when all I wanted to do was post a little article. These days micro.blog suits me very well.
If you use Wordpress but would enjoy a simpler editing interface here are two newish options:

HT: John Jonston

What comes after content?

The decline of Hollywood has been attributed to the rise of AI-generated ‘content’, leading to a potential cultural shift towards more authentic human creativity. This article explores what comes next and points out the radically new may not be quite as new as it appears.

The Lost Medieval Library Found in a Romanian Church medievalists.net

Old news, but new to me. I’d love to find a lost medieval library in a tower somewhere, but I might be on the wrong continent for that kind of discovery.

HT: @glynmoody@mastodon.social
Image: Ropemaker’s Tower, Mediaș, Romania (Source. CCby SA4.0)

My notes were full but my heart was empty. Doug Toft travels beyond progressive summarization

Doug Toft discusses his struggle with summarizing reading notes and suggests that writing about what you read, as opposed to simply taking notes, can enhance understanding and retention.

Well the book arrived this morning. Now I really am publishing slowly!

A collage displays a book titled "Destinations & Detours" in various views, including its cover, spine, open pages, and several copies packed in a box.

Finished reading: Nothing Left to Fear from Hell by Alan Warner. 📚

This was so piteously moving. The lost cause, the delusional hopes, the petty snobbery, the misplaced loyalties, the few quiet voices of reason, and oh, that startling, poignant ending. The Young Pretender like you never knew.

A black and white print showing Bonnie Prince Charlie crossing to the Isle of Skye in a small boat with Flora Macdonald, surrounded with dangerous waves.

Publishing slowly

I’m writing so slowly that you might be wondering if I’m ever going to get anything published.

Well wonder no more. I’m happy to say extracts of my memoir, ‘The Green Island Notebook’ are published in the anthology Destinations & Detours: New Australian Writing.

Published by Detour Editions, the collection launches here in Sydney on Sunday 2nd March 2025, and if you happen to be in the vicinity, I’d be delighted to meet you in person.

Book Launch 2pm, Sunday 2nd March, at Randwick Literary Institute, 60 Clovelly Road, Randwick NSW

The book cover of Destinations & Detours features a bird inside a yellow circle, with the authors' names listed below.

Watch out too for news of how you can get your hands on a copy, wherever in the world you find yourself.

And this isn’t the only news on the publishing front. I’ll be sharing details of some further publishing adventures very soon.

But don’t worry, whatever happens, I’ll still be writing slowly.

A stylized illustration of birds surrounded by foliage is set against a yellow circle, accompanied by text highlighting an anthology of short stories by five Australian writers. The text reads, Five Australian writers journey through memory, time, and space in this anthology of short stories and reflections that take us from rural Australia to Ireland, China and back to the very heart of the vast continent they call home.

Randwick Literary Institute, the venue for our book launch, celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2025. Here it is in 1957, and it hasn’t changed much since then:

A historic black-and-white street scene features a tram on tracks beside the Randwick Literary Institute building, surrounded by power lines and nearby pedestrians.

A dimly lit Randwick Literary Institute building is partially obscured by tree shadows under evening light.

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To care is to disobey

The book Pirate Care discusses how the act of caring for others has been criminalized, and it advocates for a grassroots political practice of solidarity against oppressive legal measures.

I’ve found Natalie Goldberg’s writing prompts to be especially helpful. Maybe it’s the pleasure of a deck of cards I can shuffle and deal.

A card deck titled "Writing Down the Bones Deck" by Natalie Goldberg, designed to inspire and enhance writing skills, is shown alongside detailed views of individual cards and the packaging.

A great strength of youth is to be able to say, with naive but powerful conviction: “How hard could it be?”

I wrote comics as a child and as a teenager I wrote poetry and plays. It wasn’t hard, I just did it.

What did you achieve then that you doubt now?

It’s worth leaning into that.

A quote asking "How hard could it possibly be?" appears above the website name writingslowly.com, with a yellow underline beneath the URL.