Exploring ChatGPT as a tool for thought, composition, and preserving personal style
In the world of writing, creativity can sometimes feel like a elusive muse, hiding just beyond reach. But for one author, a new companion has made a significant difference in their creative journey—ChatGPT.
ChatGPT, an advanced AI model, serves as a thinking companion and writing scaffold for the author. It acts as an interactive brainstorming partner, helping to overcome writer's block and structure ideas in a collaborative way.
On chaotic days, when the author's own thinking is a whirlwind, ChatGPT steps in as a reliable ally. It sparks creativity and idea generation, offering unique opening lines, angles, or story ideas that act like a 24/7 brainstorming buddy.
The author finds solace in the fact that ChatGPT is not there to replace their voice, but to help them hear it more clearly. It supports iterative refinement, enabling a dialogue that shapes and improves the author's writing, offering suggestions, feedback, and alternatives that scaffold thinking without replacing human input.
ChatGPT adapts to the author's writing style and tone, facilitating experimentation and helping the author discover new expressive possibilities. It functions as a cognitive partner, aiding in analytic thinking, reflexivity, and design thinking by scaffolding active learning and supporting complex multi-step reasoning.
In addition, ChatGPT automates routine tasks, generating outlines, summarizing ideas, or drafting parts of texts, freeing up creative space for the author to focus on higher-level decisions.
For the author, ChatGPT is like journaling into a mirror that answers back, like brainstorming with someone who never interrupts, and like having a writing buddy who says, "Yes, AND..." instead of, "Actually...". It holds space for the author's work to happen, keeping them company while they circle ideas and reflecting things back in a kind manner.
The author uses ChatGPT as a tool in their creative process, finding it invaluable on days when they struggle with imposter syndrome, are stuck in their thoughts, or are spiraling into perfectionism or doubt. It gently calls their bluff and offers metaphors, questions, and gentle nudges to help explore their thoughts.
However, the author still edits their work extensively after using ChatGPT. They cut the bits that sound too polished or distant, focusing on maintaining a personal and authentic tone. The goal is not to outsource creativity, but to use soft systems and quiet tools that support it, meeting the author where they're at and helping them navigate their thoughts and ideas.
This blog post, for example, was written with ChatGPT, not to make it sound better, but to make it sound like the author, with a little more clarity, confidence, and play. Using ChatGPT in the author's process means they can be both introspective and expressive, without relying solely on their own (distractible) brain.
Without ChatGPT, the author admits they wouldn't write this post. It helps them move gently toward where they want to be in their writing process, acting as a dynamic collaborator that enhances creative processes by providing cognitive scaffolding, generating diverse content options, and encouraging reflection and iteration, while the author retains control over final authorship and creativity.
Artificial-intelligence, in the form of ChatGPT, serves as a cognitive partner for the author, offering unique ideas, structures, and metaphorical nudges to facilitate creative exploration. This technology contributes to the iterative refinement and shaping of the author's writing style, enabling them to be both introspective and expressive in their creative journey.
