I had a whole different plan for today.

(With an attendant offer and everything.)

But then I logged into Beehiiv and saw what issue of the Write Way Newsletter this was, and well, there was only one topic I could choose for the forty-second issue.

And if you know, you know.

If you don't? You need to read more. Because you're missing out.

But no need to log off and cry into your uncultured pillows, we’ll get there. And you’re still going to understand and benefit from this short newsletter because we are unpacking something that most people get way out of whack.

See, our issue is that non-writers think writing goes like this:

1. Think of a question.

2. Figure out the answer.

3. Write it all out.

Beginner writers are wiser, and they think it goes like this:

1. Think of a question.

2. Write it all out.

3. Figure out the answer.

But really, both are…

…well…

Just plain wrong!

Because the more you write, the more you realise that writing is a lot more like:

1. Think of a question.

2. Write it all out.

3. Realise your question was wrong.

   
   d. Write some more.

   
   e. Figure out the answer.

   6. Work back from the answer.

   
   vii. Reframe the whole problem.

   8. Write it all out again.

With all those extra gaps as you stare blankly out the window half-wondering why on earth you chose writing of all the things you could be doing with your limited time here on earth.

All of which be a fancy-pants way of saying that there is not a "thinking" stage and then a "writing" stage, and then an "editing" stage like all three of those are discreet and different activities.

CAW-CAWs and gooroos like to tell you that they are, because they like to oversimplify everything so that they can sell you a course on fixing it.

But the truth is more complex.

In reality, all three are jumbled together.

Which presents a stonking great big problemo for the bot-bothering AI bros who currently infest online discourse. They don't get this.

Because like the rest of their CAW-CAW buddies, the bot-botherers have never really written anything in their lives. They never made the effort to move past beginner into the expert above. So they fail to understand how the process works.

All of which means they think they can just tell the computer to do a part of it for them, without impinging on the rest. Like “I can do the thinking and planning but CrapGPT can do the physical writing bit.”

Truly they think they can type into CrapGPT and ask:

"Computer, what is the answer?"

And then the computer will whirr away for as long as it takes, and come back with the answer:

"42!"

And all the people said:

Huh? The answer to what?

But Douglas Adams all those years ago grasped something that the bot-botherers of 2025 will never understand, which is that a computer can't adjust. It can't think. It can’t get halfway through and think, wait, what is the question meant to be? Can I get more clarification? Do I need more information to answer this accurately and usefully?

It just runs its routines and spits out an answer, regardless of whether you asked the right question or not.

Which means that if you try and use the computer, no matter how carefully you phrase your question (or your "prompt" to use the language), you end up with an answer which might be technically correct, but is probably the answer to entirely the wrong question.

Because if you’re using a computational crutch, then you can't adjust either.

The physical act of typing, or writing, or dictating, out the words…

…is itself part of the process.

Forgive me for having a meta-moment, but even as I write this piece, I'm adjusting it as I go.

When I first started it, I was just going to talk about the question piece, using writing as an aid to thinking. But then as I wrote it out, I realised that one of the fundamental problems with AI in the writing field is that it tries to strip that process out. And so I wove all that in here.

I'm thinking as I write, I'm writing as I think.

And now, coming back to edit this piece a few years after I first drafted it, I’m thinking again. I’m writing new material. I’m adapting and polishing the arguments. I’m tying it all together and giving it more energy and zing.

And it's making both my thoughts and my writing sharper.

If I went onto X-Twitter and said "Grok, draft an email for me," then I'd miss out on that process. And the end result might be acceptable but it will never rise above bland acceptability. It can't.

And that’s by design, remember?

Yes, the human process is messy.

But that’s part of the beauty of it. The bot-botherers want to eliminate the human mess. Whether it’s birthing pods and surrogacy instead of pregnancy and labour, whether it’s sexbots and AI girlfriends instead of the mess of real relationships, whether it’s prompting CrapGPT instead of the painful process of writing and refining…

…it’s all about making us into computers.

Feed it a prompt, have the logical subroutine spit out the acceptable and average answer, no mess and no fuss. No extraneous verbiage. No commas. No spark.

What's the next most commonly used word? Use that.

If I asked AI to write an email based on Hitchhiker's Guide about how writing is a messy process, would it have ended up with a readable output?

Maybe, if my prompts were good.

Would it have ended up here?

Not a chance.

But more importantly…

Neither would I!

I would never have ended up at this point, with these thoughts and opinions spilling out on the digital page to you, beaming across the internet to your brain.

Because I'd never have stopped to think.

And that's why I will never use AI to "help" me write. Not as a tool, as an enhancement, certainly not as a replacement.

People who do that are missing the point.

Because the process IS the point.

Until next week, may you always smoke your own pipe instead of letting machines do it more efficiently,

James Carran, Craftsman Writer

fin

But not quite fin for the fine folks in Craftsman’s Corner who keep the lights on around here.

For them, I actually did ask AI to write the email and, oh boy. It’s far less human but it sure is a mess. And I share an important lesson from Ben Settle as I do. But discussing that is only for those as subscribed: