An Old-School Writer Takes Us On Her Journey into AI
Editor’s note: This piece from my talented college friend homes in on learning and breakthroughs. Here’s more on having a breakthrough.
By Kathleen Majorsky
Change is the only constant in life. Yet, historically, I’ve resisted change. These days, I’m taking a different approach as I integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) into my writing world. My mantra: Dig in. Embrace it. Get comfy with being uncomfy.
It’s part of my learning journey in my life as a writer. I’ve tried my hand at any type of writing you can imagine: content marketing, social ad copy, email newsletters and drip campaigns, landing pages, website copy, technical writing, creative fiction, nonfiction, journalism, spoken word poetry, podcast scripts, and ghost blogging. Writing has been woven into my identity for as long as I can remember.
And I’ve always considered myself an old-school purist in taking up the craft. I follow the grammar rules. I’ve taught writing to teenagers. I even have a master’s degree in journalism (magazine writing, specifically). I take notes and write drafts with a good ol’ fashioned paper and pen. A Pentel EnerGel X 0.5 pen to be exact. #writingnerd
So it was natural for me to feel resistant and fearful about what’s happening with AI and writing recently. The same questions circulating among my writer friends swamped my buzzing brain: Will AI replace me? Will AI be a better writer than me?
Stepping Forward and Facing My Fear
I wrestled with these questions for months — until a tipping point happened in March. From a marketing writing newsletter, I learned of a free virtual event, the AI for Writers Summit, hosted by the Marketing AI Institute. It was taking place over a couple of hours in an afternoon. I didn’t have any commitments then.
At that moment, the choice was clear. I could continue to resist AI and bury my head in the sand or I could approach AI with an open mind. I decided to attend this virtual event — and learn.
One presenter shared tools designed to help writers be better writers (in the opinion of the presenter ;) My brain percolated about what I could do with these tools. Here’s what came to me:
“Why not face my fears of AI tools by documenting my beginning-ness?” Since the beginning of April, that’s what I’ve been doing. No matter how uncomfortable or awkward it feels. Because I was willing to bet that I wasn’t the only one silently grappling with my AI fears. And I thought maybe my LinkedIn writing community would benefit from the vulnerable act of being an AI beginner.
My New Practice
Since that virtual event, on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, I’ve shared text in my LinkedIn posts with context and a link to a Loom video of me exploring each tool for the first time. My reactions are genuine and often comical. I focus on the user experience and functionality. Mainly, I’m trying to figure out how the tool might help or hurt me as a writer. This video is a good example of my discovery process.
On Thursdays, I provide my LinkedIn community with a wrap-up post of the tools I reviewed that week.
Fridays are my favorite posts, although they don’t attract as much attention as my tool posts. On Fridays, I write about an AI risk and safety topic. I’ve fallen down some interesting rabbit holes in my research. For as much as people are excited about AI, it’s equally important to discuss its potential harms for society. The AI risk and safety posts might not be sexy, but they are necessary if we are going to move forward in an ethical and grounded way.
Key Tools and Learnings
Below are a few tools I fancy so far. Ethically and professionally, I could never use AI-created text verbatim. But I can see how these tools can make the writing tasks I don’t enjoy more palatable and efficient. I think of them as writing assistants.
Lately.AI - Good for writing 30-50 versions of social text taken from long-form blog posts you provide. You can integrate your social channels to plug the results right into your profiles.
Hyperwrite - For writing ideation and brainstorming.
GlossAI - For turning long-form content into video shorts.
Lavender - It’s your real-time sales email coach. It scores your business development emails and tells you how you can improve them.
Frase - Helps with SEO optimization.
Here are some more things I’ve learned from my exploration:
When we sit down with our fears and maybe invite them over for tea, we learn they aren’t so bad. AI isn’t so bad. There are flaws. No tool is perfect. Humans are still very much needed. If companies believe otherwise, then they are sacrificing quality for cost, which will ultimately lose them the trust of their customers and clients. Companies need to be better. Help writer/content creator employees upskill using AI tools. Develop your employees. They are your greatest assets.
People value consistency. I post every business day, generally around the same time with the same format. Like clockwork. Like Starbucks. The audience knows what they are going to get.
Either Friday isn’t the best day to post, or people aren’t all that interested in AI risk and safety. Either way, I’m still going to continue these. They are important to me.
I haven’t checked out ChatGPT yet (I will), but the AI writing tools I have checked out are very similar to one another with similar functionality.
The tool creators respond to my posts! They appreciate the user testing and feedback. I get excited when the tool creator engages with my posts.
Being genuine in my beginning-ness beats posing as a self-proclaimed expert any day. Vulnerability is cool.
This content-creation experiment has attracted cool opportunities, and I’ve engaged with and met some brilliant people so far. But the best thing I can say — the act of creating these videos and posts brings me joy. If just one person finds my work helpful, then I’ve accomplished my goal.
It’s been a wild trip so far. I don’t know how long I will do this or where it will lead, but I’m going to keep going as long as I’m having fun, learning, and making friends with my fear. Here’s to being uncomfortable and embracing change.
Kathleen Majorsky is a multifaceted writer, covering everything from marketing content to technical communication trainings to creative fiction. She leaps into AI tool exploration as a self-proclaimed beginner. Her AI adventure inspires opinions about the tool's user experience, thoughts on how the tools could help her be a better writer, and what the world could look like with ethical and humane AI use. She works with many clients and remains open to a full-time writing role with a company that aligns with her values. Visit her portfolio on her website and on LinkedIn.