Here is a Modern Play, Written a Modern Way, on a Modern Page
Subject: AI, writing, life. Characters: me and my thoughts.
Scene 1
I sit down to write but can’t write. There are too many distractions.
A thought enters as the First distraction and asks me if I should be writing instead of finding ways to make money.
Thought: Your rent is due, you don’t have money to pay it. How will you pay?
Me: Shut up. I don’t live my life just for money. There are other reasons I live.
Thought: List those reasons.
I try to think of those reasons. I think of a lot of things. I use reasoning to generalize them. I settle on Joy and happiness.
Thought: List the ways you can be joyful and happy.
I imagine a house near a sunny city, near the beach where I am with my family. I think of traveling. I imagine myself writing.
Thought: List the ways you can make that happen.
I think of money. That thought of money pulls me out of the imagination and brings me to the present. I begin to think of ways I can be joyful and happy today. I think of family and traveling. I think of rent. I think of writing. I come to money. I think of money. I think of rent. I think of writing. I try to write. The thought of money returns. I try to fight it by writing. ‘I just want to write. Writing makes me joyful and happy,’ I say. The thought of money returns. I try to fight…thought of rent…I try to write. I get stuck on money.
Me: Okay, money is important. My rent is due. But right now I just want to write. And this is what makes me joyful and happy.
I write a few words. The thoughts of rent and money return.
I try to write.
I can’t write.
Rent…money…Rent…money…Rent…money…Rent…money…
I can’t write.
Thought: (laughs)
Me: Okay, money is important. My rent is due. But right now I just want to write. What if I shut up and write and I make money from what I wrote?
Scene 2
I start writing but can’t proceed. There are too many distractions. Second distraction is a thought that asks me if I should be writing at all in the age of AI.
Thought: What did you say, make money from writing???Haven’t you heard about ChatGPT and AI? I thought we read about it!
Me: Yes, I remember reading about all that. I also remember concluding that AI can never replace writers. It would be paradoxical. It would be irony.
Thought: You forgot what Scott Galloway said.
I recall what I read this morning about AI and writers.
Me: But that was about TV writers, I am not one. I am a normal internet writer.
Thought: (laughs) Internet writer? You mean ChatGPT? (laughs louder)
Me: No, I mean those writers who are successful and consistent on Medium, blogs, Substack.
Thought: Those are nonfiction guys. They are not even writers, they are journalists. Even their days are numbered. And by the way, don’t you wanna write fiction? Remember Hemingway, Dostoevsky, Vonnegut, Mark Twain? I thought you wanted to be one of those.
Me: Yeah, after I become successful online.
Thought: (gets angry) Don’t you get it? There is no writing success online. Look at your Medium stats. It is garbage. Even Medium is failing. Don’t you remember the website ranking check? Medium was something people did when they were on a lockdown and had to keep themselves sane.
Silence.
Me: But I just want to write. It makes me joyful and happy. Don’t I have the right to be joyful and happy?
Thought: Yes, you do. But more importantly, your rent is due, you don’t have money to pay it. How will you pay?
Silence.
Me: I don’t care. I will keep faith in my writing. I will first write and then think about all that stuff. At this moment, I will just write.
Scene 3
I begin to write and forget everything else. Money and AI seem to be taken care of. They weren’t problems after all.
After a few minutes:
Thought: Hey, listen.
Me: Don’t disturb, I am writing.
Thought: Fuck it. Listen to what’s playing in the other room.
Me: No.
Thought: Listen, I said. Someone is watching something. You might not want to miss knowing what they are watching. On top of that, you have to see and experience new things as a writer, remember?
I give up and listen. I hear a video playing.
Me: (to my thought) What?
Thought: Written texts are dead. Now is the time of video.
Me: I don’t care. Nothing can replace texts. Texts are the most advanced technology. They have survived TV and TikTok.
Silence.
I write.
Scene 4
I am writing but get distracted.
Me: I have an idea.
Thought: What now?
Me: I will write for audio and video. While I love to write, I also feel the importance of money. What if I write with the idea of later turning them into podcasts or YouTube videos?
Thought: Forget it.
Me: But, why?
Thought: Videos are dying too.
Me: What do you mean?
Thought: You forgot what you read about VR, AR, BCI?
I recall.
Scene 5
I spend the next few hours reading about potential new jobs, AI, AR, VR, BCI. I then search for jobs that are available and even apply to a few.
The job finding process silences me.
I feel the urge to sit down and write — without the pressure of money, without the AI, video, BCI confusion. Just write…
I write
But
Half-an-hour later
the
first
distraction
returns…
End
