The "Style Guide" in My Pocket: Creativity, Constraints, and Cold Coffee
Navigating the murky waters of ethically trained tech.
(Heads up: This isn’t the process of ‘How I write my Substack’ post -which is coming- but it’s the one about the tools I use. Hope it’s helpful.)
I was getting coffee with my friend Anthony this morning, navigating the Hell’s Kitchen gauntlet of sidewalk trash and tourists. As Morris was busy sniffing the disgusting black slush on the pavement and enthusiastically peeing on every vertical surface he could find, Anthony asked me a question that stopped me:
“Devil’s Advocate: Why don’t you just punch your ideas into an AI and have it generate writing if you find it so hard?”
He wasn’t being accusatory or rude about it. He wasn’t discounting my abilities or suggesting I’m a hack. It was a pragmatic question born ofthe fact that he knows I find writing to be the most difficult thing I do. I have trouble calling myself a “Writer”; I consider myself someone frantically trying to figure out how writing works, constantly clutching my copy of Strunk & White’s Elements of Style like a life raft and finding a way to hit ‘publish’ without needing a shot of whiskey.
I read more than I write. I have inhaled every book on the craft I can find: Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird, Mary Karr’s The Art of Memoir, and I even sat through David Sedaris’s Humour Writing Masterclass, taking copious notes. But despite all that, writing remains a slow, painful process of unknotting the spaghetti bowl of my own brain.
To cope, I’ve developed a “style guide” on my Notes app. Every time I figure out a consistent quirk in my voice, a specific way I use an em-dash (or don’t) or a recurring bit of vernacular that feels uniquely “me” -I add it to the list. Anthony thinks this is constrictive. He asked if it cages my ability to grow. I tend to think the opposite: I believe creativity within confines is a mercy. I work best when there are guardrails; a style guide isn’t a cage, it’s a map that keeps me from wandering off into a forest of day-old oatmeal prose.
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Anthony also asked what other tools I use. It’s a fair question. We live in a world where new technologies are appearing faster than I can install the updates for the old ones. I know I often sound like an AI doomer- I’ve written extensively about how AI is hollowing out the creative economy and taking work away from everyone, from white-collar workers to my fellow illustrators.
But I want to be open with you: I am not a Luddite. I don’t think it’s hypocritical to criticise unethical models while still using tools that respect the “human wobble” in the line. I have my scruples intact, and I shop for my tech the same way I shop for anything else- based on ethics.
If you want to see the “Mean Editor” in action and get the full breakdown of the specific, ethically-trained tools I use to keep my sanity intact, consider upgrading to a paid subscription for just $1 a week. It helps keep the ink flowing & Morris fed…
