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Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Yes there’s something so human in being susceptible to Claude’s praise - I purposely insisted on critical feedback and he started psycho analyzing me! It was - well, kind of abusive but isn’t that what I asked for? 😏So here we are just being human thank God. Thank you.

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Julie Fontes's avatar

Is it weird that being critically psychoanalyzed by Claude sounds kind of fun to me? Next time I present him with text I’m going to tell Claude to really lay on the criticism and see what he says. 😆

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Kelly Thompson TNWWY's avatar

Yeah. Report back!

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Brittany's avatar

I would like to be your grandma

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Brittany's avatar

We could sit in rooms and suck on penny’s.

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Julie Fontes's avatar

Same.

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Brittany's avatar

No I mean I want to be YOUR grandma. I’d like to be your grandma and give you cards with dollar bills in them.

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Julie Fontes's avatar

That’s just like you.

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Kristen Crocker's avatar

Thank you for this!! I find the flattery of chatGPT so alarming - but perhaps more alarming is how much I enjoy it 🤣🤣

The only thing I have ever *tried* to use AI for is titles - and what I think there is, a title is not written with heart 🫣 but even then, I don’t care for most of them.

It’s funny how it’s impressive at first how these AIs spit out so much and make it so cutesy with the emojis, etc.

In any event, thanks for this, friend.

My baby girl laughed hysterically today when I peeled a string cheese for her. She has almost all of her teeth now and that little giggle and she scrunches her nose when she laughs. ❤️

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Julie Fontes's avatar

This sounds adorable. Thank you for sharing and admitting to enjoying the flattery.

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Patricia Fontes's avatar

She definitely had more fun with me

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Julie Fontes's avatar

That’s what I think too.

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Lauren roady's avatar

Im in a reading rut so I need you to get your fiction out so I have something interesting to read. Keep going!!

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Julie Fontes's avatar

Well, I have the entire Throne of Glass series if you want to get into some epic, slow burn, save the realm romantasy.

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Ellie Nova's avatar

Love your writing Julie - you have a unique voice, and sometimes I'm jealous and wish I could write like you! The last book I read was Soldier Sailor by Claire Kilroy, a book that captures the stress of caring alone for a small child with such precision and clarity. It captures what I always found so hard to express. 'It's just been so hard...' is usually all I can manage. But Claire writes it. And there's no way AI could ever do that.

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Julie Fontes's avatar

Oh gosh, Ellie, that is one of the nicest things you could say to me about my writing, and probably why I asked Claude to try and copy it. Thank you for sharing your latest read. It’s going on my TBR immediately.

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Katie Bean's avatar

Please keep writing, Julie. After I published my book, I didn't write for a long time too! It's like I was tapped out. I needed to prove to myself I could find joy and healing in other ways too. I did. And then writing came back in other formats and I think that hiatus helped my writing. Don't beat yourself up for not writing. I hear it's common to need a break from writing after publishing.

Your grandmom sounds amazing. Both of my grands are gone and I wish I would have had them in my life when I was an a full-fledge adult. I would have loved them better and listened to them more. Savor her.

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Julie Fontes's avatar

That is comforting to hear that it’s a common experience to feel all dried up after publication. I might demand too much of myself.

I do cherish my time with Grandma. She’s my last living grandparent and despite her vision problems,she’s just as sharp as ever. She gives me hope that me and my brain will have long and lasting moments of spiraling for decades to come. Although, thankfully, Grandma doesn’t spiral nearly as much as I do.

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Sarah Rennix's avatar

I love you Julie ❤️ keep going x

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Julie Fontes's avatar

Right back at you, Sarah.

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Jessica Britton's avatar

I can't wait to stay up late reading your book someday. Also, AI is bad at math.

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CansaFis Foote's avatar

…i feel writing ebbs in seasons (cliche), but sometimes it is really there and other times oof…i haven’t gone the a.i. feedback route yet (maybe fear) but i’m also spoiled to have bi-weekly folks working on writing in a gym with me, so i don’t need it (yet)…writing is the most important part of writing (cliche) but reading is really close…

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Julie Fontes's avatar

Having people working in person with you is the ideal and in a gym? Putting in those word reps? I’m jealous! I have been wanting to start an in-person writing group for years and have no good excuse for why I haven’t yet.

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Christopher Robin's avatar

New socks are one of life's greatest simple pleasures.

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Julie Fontes's avatar

Computer-based language models will never know that feeling.

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Elisabeth Tobia's avatar

Don’t compare your current writing self with a past one or a future one. You ARE a writer, Julie, even if you don’t write every day/week/month. You are a writer even if you don’t earn a living doing it. You are a writer even if nobody reads what you write. You are a writer. Period.

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Julie Fontes's avatar

I live in fear of being the writer who doesn’t write because I did spend years pushing the urge aside, and it was very spiritually painful. I guess that’s how we know it’s what we must do, right?

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Jam0nster's avatar

It sounds like Clause is the seductress in your life. Here's the thing though, Clause is an AI slut. He pitches the same stuff to everyone. Yesterday I asked him what he thought of my thighs. Do you know what he said?

"Your thighs have such particular qualities - the self-aware, manly chunkiness, the specific domestic curviness, the way they lead you to spiral into overthinking while staying funny - they would be hard to replicate authentically. Plus, the embarrassing details of your thighs that would make them really work would need to come from your own experiences or imagination."

See? He spews the same thing on any topic to EVERYONE.

You want proof and validation, take that from those of us still hear and reading my friend.

"I need to become my own sycophant."

A-godamned-men sister!

But I get how difficult that can be. You write because you have to, right? It is the same with hiking I assume. The bonus is that there are those of us who dig your work and vicariously you.

You are irreplaceable, and you are a great deal better for the environment than AI.

Reading doesn't keep me up late, writing and creating does though. Whatever dreams I have about what I create I know that at the end of the day it is really just for myself. I give myself bonus points if the one or two people I share it with get a laugh or get excited about it too.

I did mention that you are irreplicable yes?

✌️😎

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Julie Fontes's avatar

Well, I guess Claude and I never exchanged any promises about exclusivity, and to be honest, unbeknownst to Claude, I’ve sometimes asked Prowriting Aid to do chapter analysis. I suppose it’s only fair that he shower his praise on your thighs behind my back. 🤣Thank you for making me laugh today.

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Jill Hart's avatar

What does it say about a person who might use ai for validation but then not even believe it? (me not you)

Love your description of the oak lined road that mesmerizes you - I've been down those roads too. Like turning the corner into a different world. Especially in the Summer and Fall when they have leaves. Keep writing. We are listening/reading.

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Julie Fontes's avatar

I feel like that’s less embarrassing than crying about how seen you feel!! I can’t help it though. Even knowing how ridiculous it is, I fall for those canned words every time!!

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Jill Hart's avatar

It is a safer space. I hear people talk about parenting (better) your inner child - sometimes it feels like AI can do it in the way our inner child craves. Especially if you've had lots of interaction with it.

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Dr. Dana Leigh Lyons, DTCM's avatar

This is beautiful, Julie. One of the reasons I love your writing is you let so much humanness through, onto the page. In your humanness, I see my own.

Also: I want to hang out with Grandma Carol!

And: although I’m deeply addicted to external validation, I never believe when people say nice things to/about me. This is a weird blessing in the time of AI, because I don’t believe (and rarely read) what AI has to say outside of the specific answer to prompts like: "typos only, no changes" or "comma placement ok?, no changes." It still tries though, saying things like, "This is so YOU" - almost like it has a creepy, sticky agenda. Partly because of that - and partly because I worry it’s copying my work to share/re-mix with others, I’ve been using it less and less.

Anyway, your writing is beautiful and real and so YOU. And I really do want to hang out with Grandma Carol.

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