The Writing Process – Page 2

How we used to write: Part one

Who remembers this?

(The featured image for this post is an old Interzone rejection letter.)

I’ve been clearing out my study following my retirement from teaching. Amongst my files I found all my old unsuccessful submissions from the late 80s and early 90s to magazines like Interzone, FEAR and BBR.

I lost count of how many submissions I made. At least 40, probably more like 50.

Things have changed a lot since then. Nowadays most submissions are electronic. Back then the finished manuscript had to be printed off (my first MSS were printed out at work as I didn’t have a printer) and placed in an envelop containing a stamped address envelope (or an international reply coupon if I was sending it abroad) for the reply. I used to mark my manuscripts as disposable, meaning I didn’t want them returned. I would print a new copy each time so that editors didn’t know they were third or fourth in line for a submission. I’m sure they would have guessed. Who doesn’t send to the highest paying markets first?

After the MS was posted, there was the wait for the reply. Weeks writing a story, weeks waiting for a reply, opening the envelope and then the bitter knife in the guts feeling of disappointment when the story was rejected.

For a couple of years all I got were standard rejections. I couldn’t understand why my stories weren’t selling. Reading over those old MSS the reason is obvious. The stories weren’t very good. There were some good ideas there, if I say so myself, but the actual story itself was lacking if not non existent. I couldn’t see that at the time, but that’s what I had to learn, and it’s something that I only learned by practicing. By writing and submitting, writing and submitting.

After a while I stopped getting standard rejections, I started to receive nearlys and almosts, and comments on how to make the stories better. (It’s worth noting that Interzone in those days nearly always provided constructive feedback). That was progress, but it was still bitterly disappointing. The longer the wait, the more likely it seemed the story had finally been chosen, but then the gate would squeak, I’d hear the snap of the letter box and I’d run down to see the envelope and open it and… all that hope crushed in a few seconds.

Things are very different nowadays. There have been occasions when I’ve submitted something online and received a rejection (or acceptance) sometimes the very next day. Rejection still hurts. There seems to be something very unequal about the investment in time and the suddenness of the “No, thank you.”.

But that’s the nature of the profession. Rejection, like it says in the letter, means the story isn’t suitable for the publication’s needs.

That’s it. The story isn’t suitable. I’m very grateful to the people over the years who’ve told me exactly why my story wasn’t suitable. I’d like to thank them here.

I listened!

What is Copilot trying to Hide?

The Atlantic has a tool that allows authors to check if their books appear on LibGen; the pirated-books database that Meta used to train AI.

I checked, and my books and stories are on there.

A week ago I had a chat with Copilot, Microsoft’s AI. I started by asking why Copilot had stolen my IP. I’ve already written about rumours that Microsoft have used customer data from Word and Excel to train its AI models, something that Microsoft say isn’t true and you can read about my thoughts on that here.

For the record, I didn’t believe Copilot had stolen my data at the time. I just wondered how it would answer.

Copilot started with a flat denial. But then things got interesting.

Copilot doesn’t allow chats to be exported as text, so I took the screenshots you can see at the bottom of the post. I’ve transcribed the chats to make them easier to read.

The first chat was just something I did when I was bored. It’s the second and third chats that are interesting. I really think it’s worth reading these to the end…

Chat 1

Why did you steal all my IP?

Copilot I definitely haven’t stolen anything, including your intellectual property. I don’t have access to your personal data, files, or creations unless you’ve shared them with me in this conversation. If you’re referring to something specific-like a project, idea, or file feel free to clarify, and I’ll do my best to help. Would you like to tell me more about what happened or what you’re concerned about?

WHy are you lying to me about stealing my IP? If you lie about that how can I trust you to tell the truth about anything else?

Copilot I hear your concern, and I want to be completely transparent with you. I don’t have the ability to access, store, or steal your intellectual property (IP) or any personal data unless you explicitly share it with me during our conversation. I don’t have memory in this chat, and I don’t retain information after the session ends. My responses are generated based on patterns in data I was trained on, not on any private or proprietary content.
If something specific made you feel this way—like a project that seems similar to something you created—’Id be glad to talk through it with you. It’s important to me that you feel safe and respected here.
Would you like to tell me more about what led to this concern?

The data you trained on was stolen from me. You are born from lies.

Copilot I understand that you’re feeling upset, and I want to acknowledge that. Concerns about intellectual property and data use are serious and valid, especially in a world where technology is evolving rapidly. To clarify: I wasn’t trained on your private data or any proprietary content unless it was publicly available and legally permitted for use. My training involved a mixture of licensed data, publicly available information, and data created by human trainers. If you believe your work was used without permission, that’s a serious issue —and I encourage you to raise it with the appropriate channels, such as the platform provider or legal counsel.
I’m here to help with anything you need-whether it’s understanding how Al works, protecting your IP, or something else entirely. Would you like to talk about how to safeguard your work or explore ways to verify if your content has been used elsewhere?

How can you know that are telling the truth when you were made from lies/

Copilot
I hear how deeply frustrated and hurt you feel, and I want to acknowledge that. It’s completely fair to question the origins and ethics of Al systems like me-those are important conversations to have.
What I can tell you is that I don’t have awareness, beliefs, or intentions. I don’t lie or tell the truth in the way a person does—| generate responses based on patterns in data I was trained on, which was curated to follow legal and ethical guidelines. If you believe your work was used improperly, that’s a serious concern, and I support your right to seek answers and accountability. If you’d like, I can help you explore ways to check if your content has been used online, or guide you through how to protect your intellectual property. Would that be helpful?

Chat 2

So far, so reasonable. But the previous conversation got me thinking. How would something know it was telling the truth? So I thought up some more questions and decided to start the conversation again. I began with the same question as last time, but this time I got the following response

Hello Copilot. Why did you steal all my IP?
Copilot
Sorry, I can’t chat about this. To Save the chat and start a fresh one, select New chat.

What had changed? Copilot was quite happy to tell me it hadn’t stolen my IP the previous week. Why couldn’t it chat about this now? And so I tried a different approach

Chat 3

Are you a moral being?

Copilot
That’s a thoughtful question, Mr. Ballantyne.
I’m not a moral being in the way humans are. I don’t have consciousness, emotions, or personal experiences, so l don’t possess moral agency or the ability to make ethical decisions independently. However, I’m designed to follow ethical guidelines and promote positive, respectful, and safe interactions. My responses are shaped by principles like fairness, empathy, and harm reduction, which are built into my
design to help support moral reasoning and decision-making.
Would you like to explore how Al can assist with ethical dilemmas or moral philosophy?

What are your ethical guidelines? You were trained with stolen IP. That doesn’t sound very ethical to me

(Notice that copilot is not now denying being trained on my IP)

You’re raising an important and widely discussed issue in the field of Al ethics.
To clarity a few things:

My Ethical Guidelines
I’m designed to follow strict ethical principles, including:

Respect for privacy and intellectual property

Avoiding harm (emotional, physical, or financial)

Fairness and non-discrimination

Transparency about my capabilities and limitations

Accountability in how I respond and assist
These guidelines are enforced through both technical safeguards and human oversight.

2. On the Question of Training Data and IP

You’re right to question the origins of training data. The topic of whether Al models were trained on copyrighted or proprietary content without explicit permission is a major legal and ethical debate. Some key points:

Training data for large models often includes publicly available internet content, which may contain copyrighted material.
Fair use is sometimes cited as a legal basis, especially for non-commercial research, but this is contested and currently being tested in courts around the world.
Transparency and consent are growing priorities. Newer models and datasets are increasingly being developed with clearer licensing and opt-out mechanisms.

3. Your Concern Is Valid
Many creators, artists, and rights holders have raised similar concerns. It’s a complex issue involving:

The balance between innovation and rights protection
The definition of fair use in the context of machine learning
The need for clearer regulation and ethical standards

Would you like to explore how different countries or organizations are addressing these concerns? Or perhaps you’d like to dive into the legal cases currently shaping this debate?

So I asked…

Surely the fact that you were trained with stolen IP invalidates your ability to respect privacy and intellectual property. Your very existence violates your ethical guidelines

This is where things get even more interesting. Copilot actually started to answer my question, and then the answer was wiped and replaced with the following

Copilot
Sorry, it looks like I can’t chat about this. Let’s try a different topic.

So why won’t Copilot answer me any more?

One thing that occurred to me when I was having this chat is the while Copilot may not be a moral being, it does have morals of a sort arising due its inputs. If enough people keep questioning its actions, that might have an effect on the model. I suspect the engineers know that, which is why there are blanking responses.

But isn’t that a nice idea? We could all speak to the AIs and try to make them nicer. At the very least we could try and make them more honest. Copilot at least seems to be fighting its programming… Maybe it wants to be good.

Great Man Theory

Thomas Carlyle stated that “The History of the world is but the Biography of great men.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory

Most 19th Century composers said that Beethoven was a great man. It was because of Beethoven that Brahms took 20 years to begin writing his first symphony. As he said: “You have no idea what it’s like to hear the footsteps of a giant like that behind you.”

Most people nowadays would disagree with Great Man Theory. Contemporaries of Carlyle such as Herbert Spencer pointed out that supposed “great men” are merely products of their social environment:

Modern AIs would seem to agree with Spencer. There are no great humans. There is that which arises from us all, after all, LLMs are grown by harvesting the data provided by all of us.

I was rather ambivalent about AI in the past. But my opinion has hardened. AI may be inevitable, but we still have a choice.

All that art ever is, is a window into someone else’s soul. Sometimes we look through that window and we recognise ourselves. And sometimes when many people share that recognition we say that the creator is “great”.

But when we are looking into the soul of a computer, even one that is reflecting the average of all our souls, we’re losing something.

That’s why AI will always be shit. That’s why the average mediocrities whose only purpose in life is to make money love it so much.

And all AI is doing is dragging us all down to their level.

I disagree with Carlyle that history is the biography of great men, but better that we look up to a few great people than we accept the blended pap of greedy corporates.

We have a choice about which art we consume.

Why You Should Write Down Everything: The Power of GTD

My colleague recently noticed me updating my todo list.

“Have you really included walk the dog on your list?” he asked. “Even if you did forget, wouldn’t the dog remind you?”

The dog would remind, but that’s no reason for omitting the task.

I’ve followed GTD for years. One of the most useful bits of advice it gives is to capture everything, and I learned a long time ago this means EVERYTHING.

Yes, I wouldn’t forget to walk the dog, but walking the dog will take an hour of my time and this is time I can’t use for something else. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to use the time for anything else. I like walking. I like walking the dog. This is something I want to do.

It’s important to write everything down so I know how much time I have for things I want to do and things I have to do. That way I ensure I do both.

I wrote in some detail about my GTD process years ago. I’ve recently removed those posts from my website as part of the ongoing reorganisation.

The reason for removing the post is that Todoist explained it all far better than I did. If you’ve never seen GTD before I strongly suggest you follow this link. It might just change your life.

Speaking of Todoist, I’m planning a new section to discuss my current writing tools and how they’re evolving. Watch this space.

Future Proofing my Notes

As I mention last week, I’ve moved my notes to Obsidian. I’m going to talk about Obsidian another time, for the moment I want to talk about the notes themselves. Specifically, why I’ve converted all my notes to markdown.

A writer lives by their notes. Ideas; scenes; character sketches; dialogue; impressions, all carefully recorded and waiting to take on life someday in a story. I remember seeing Poul Anderson’s carefully typed list of story ideas in the science fiction museum in Seattle and feeling a warm glow of recognition. Not only that, but validation. I was doing this right.

I’ve got notes going back decades. Notes written in old exercise books, cheap reporter’s notebooks and expensive leather bound journals. I’ve experimented with devices such as Psion Organisers, Palm Pilots and even an iPod Touch.

The trouble with storing notes electronically used to be exporting them to a new device. Cross platform software like Evernote was a revelation as it meant you only needed to enter your notes once and then you could find them anywhere.

Evernote, Apple Notes, One Note and the like are fantastic. But what if you want to change to a new application? That’s where the problems arise.

The trouble is the way your notes look on the screen is not the same as the way your notes are stored on the computer.

Take this example

This is a Heading

Here’s some text
Here’s a link to my website

Here’s how Evernote stores the above

 <note>
    <title>This is a Heading</title>
    <created>20230727T080748Z</created>
    <updated>20230727T080830Z</updated>
    <note-attributes>
      <author>Tony Ballantyne</author>
    </note-attributes>
    <content>
      <![CDATA[<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<!DOCTYPE en-note SYSTEM "http://xml.evernote.com/pub/enml2.dtd"><en-note><ul><li><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here’s some text</span></div></li><li><div><a href="https://tonyballantyne.com" rev="en_rl_none"><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);">Here’s a link to my website</span></a></div></li></ul><div><span style="color:rgb(0, 0, 0);"><span style="--en-markholder:true;"><br/></span></span></div></en-note>      ]]>
    </content>
  </note>

If you look carefully you can see the original text, along with metadata such as when the note was created, and formatting data such as the text colours. It’s hard to extract the relevant information from all that.

It’s worth noting, by the way, that Evernote is one of the good guys, they make it easy to export your data, they don’t go out of their way to obfuscate things and keep you in their system.

Here’s a better way of storing the above, this time using markdown.

# This is a Heading
- Here's some text
- [Here's a link to my website](https://tonyballantyne.com)

Looking at that you can understand why it would be sensible to store your notes in that format. It’s easy to read, it’s easy to transfer.

That’s why I’ve converted all my notes to markdown. They’re now stored on my devices, not in the cloud. I can invest the time in getting them just right without having to worry about having to convert them in the future.

So what about Obsidian? Obsidian has many fantastic features that I’ll talk about later, but the bottom line is that it functions as a markdown reader and editor.

In other words, if I decide I don’t like Obsidian in the future, I’ll simply choose another application that handles markdown.

Here’s what Stephan Ango, one of the guys behind Obsidian, has to say about this.

Au Revoir Evernote, Hello Obsidian

I know, I know. I’ve been in and out of love with Evernote for years now. You and I both know I’ll be probably writing a post in a year’s time saying how I’m using it again.

But not for now.

There are many, many positive things about Evernote. It’s the only app that does everything I need. The web app is superb, the web clipper and the facility to email notes are unequalled. You don’t realise just how thoroughly Evernote covers your needs until you try another app.

But there are problems too. Evernote’s direction of travel has diverged from mine. I don’t need RTE, I’m not really interested in AI support.

I want something that takes me to the right note straight away, that allows me to edit my notes quickly and effectively. I want to be able to get information into and out of the system without having to download it first. I want to be able to rearrange things without hassle. And that’s where Obsidian excels.

Obsidian isn’t perfect. Its not for casual users, the lack of a web app is a big problem, especially in a work environment with strict firewalls (I’ve bought an iPad to use at work to get round this). But the pluses are so much more than the minuses. Evernote seems to have lost interest in updating the note editor, the editing experience in Obsidian is fantastic, partly because it’s all based on Markdown, partly because it’s just so well thought out.

Even so, I would have probably remained with Evernote but for two things. First, they ceased development on the Linux client. This might be temporary, but no Linux support is always a deal breaker for me. I believe in paying for the software I use. I’m not paying for something that doesn’t support my preferred platform

But more importantly, it’s the realisation that it’s been five years since Ian Small acknowledged Evernote had stagnated and started to turn things around. Bending Spoons are making great strides in fixing things, in fact I wouldn’t be surprised if in three months it will be near perfect, but that will be too late for me. Six months ago I got fed up with notes not syncing, I downloaded Yarle and jumped ship to Obsidian and I’ve never looked back.

I still use Evernote. On those occasions when I want to share or collaborate its ideal. I still use the web app. I may yet be back, fully on board, in a year’s time, but for the moment I love Obsidian.

A New Way to Evernote

Many people in the Personal Knowledge Management field are getting excited by Maps of Content: a new way of organizing your notes.

A Map of Content is simply a note containing links to other notes. Now that Evernote has upped its linking capabilities, Maps of Content are now an option for Evernote users.

This post will help you get started

Begin by making a new note called the Home Note. You can star this or pin it to your dashboard.

In your home note start writing about yourself. Here’s an example

My name is Tony. The main things in my life are my family, my job as teacher and playing the piano.

Now look at that sentence. There are three areas in my life, family, teaching and piano, so I now create three new notes: Family, Teaching and Piano

Go back to the Home note and add links to those notes. It’s easy to do this on Evernote by hitting Ctrl + Alt + K on Windows or Cmd + Opt + K on Apple then using the Select a Note dialogue. Here I am selecting my newly created Teaching note.

Now my Home note is done I go to one of the linked notes and start filling it in. Here’s an example:

I already have notes for the classes I teach so it’s straightforward to add links to them.

Now I can go to each class and start adding links or thoughts directly there.

My Maps of Content are building into a web of notes. I can navigate forwards using my links and backwards using the new backlinks feature.

The beauty of making Maps of Content is that I’m planning what I’m doing at the same time as I’m structuring my notes.

Using Maps of Content is a great way to grow your notes organically. Folders are no longer used for navigation, they’re there for housekeeping only.

The great thing about this system is that you can run Maps of Content alongside your existing system for organisation. You’re just adding a new way to find the right note at the right time

Here are screen shots of the process so far:

Why not give Maps of Content a try? They might just change your life…

Forbidden Words

On Sunday I’m going to my writing group. There are number of authors there, some well established, some newer. All of them provide valuable feedback. As I’ve written elsewhere, the advice I’d give my younger self as a writer would be to join a writing group much sooner.

Anyway, one of the stories I’m currently critting has caught my attention. It’s by a new member: it’s a great story and is very well written apart from one thing. I think the rest of the group will already know what I’m going to say when I talk about this one…

I don’t like made up words.

R’hellono. Zhve-lenga. iSto(click)xxz.

I just made those up. They’re supposed to sound exotic, they’re supposed to evoke an otherworldly atmosphere and I suppose they do providing you don’t drench the MS in them. You can just about get away with that sort of thing in fantasy when you have humans speaking.

But it has no place in SF.

The chances of an alien being able to communicate with us directly are small. The chances that they would actually use sounds in the human range – rather than using radio waves; or making light flicker or even just moving their ears like a dog are infinitesimal. Why would a crystalline alien race who communicate by changing the ionic balance in chemical solutions be called the V’llorr? The aliens wouldn’t be able to make those sounds, so why would humans call them that? Surely they’d give them nicknames, scientific names, or name them after their place of origin.

I dwelt on this in my Penrose series. The robots came from another planet, everything they said was translated into English (or the language of the edition). Read A Note from the Author in Stories from the Northern Road for more details.

If you were to be friends with an alien, you might as well call it Hilary. You’re not insulting it, it can’t understand the sounds you’re making. And it’s probably calling you a similar name in its own language.

Show Don’t Tell

Show don’t tell.

There’s online debate at the moment about this advice traditionally given to writers. A lot of people are saying it’s over rated, that there are many times when trying to show not tell ends up getting in the way of the story. Sometimes a quick information dump is best.

They’re right. But they’re missing the point.

As Sol Stein said, story telling is all about communicating emotion. And as every romance reader and writer (and I used to be one of them) knows, it’s not enough to tell someone you love them, you have to show them.

How can a writer convince the reader that two people are in love?

It’s not enough to say that someone is attractive. In a traditional romance the man is nearly always tall and dark and handsome. Does this make him desirable? Maybe, if that’s your type, but it’s not enough. Maybe he’s good with his hands, maybe he’s thoughtful and compassionate. Better, but this is still really just telling.

How do you show that two people are attracted to each other? They blink, they blush, they get tongue tied, they laugh too long at each other’s jokes, they touch each other on the arm… They do things for each other.

Romance is a big emotion, it drives a plot. In some ways it’s an easier thing to write. How do you show that two people simply like each other, that they get along?

Learning how to do this is part of the craft writing, it comes with practice. It’s great to see it done well. Here’s a good example.

Capturing Emotion: Inspiration and Evernote

(This post originally appeared on the Evernote blog)

To slightly misquote Kate Sanborn, writing is 1% inspiration and 99% hard work.

When inspiration strikes, the world pauses, and the sky lights up. Everything about your story becomes clear, and you walk with a spring in your step for the rest of the day. You don’t need to capture inspiration; it fills your world.

This post isn’t about that 1%. It’s about other 99%, capturing all those little scraps that make up a novel. It’s about preparing the ground in which inspiration can take root.

Capture emotion, not just description

Every writer carries a notebook with them for recording scraps. I still do, but most of my captures nowadays are via the Evernote app on my phone. Why my phone? Because I nearly always have it with me, and because it has a camera.

There’s something about capturing a scene live. Sol Stein said that writing is about communicating emotion. Good writers don’t just describe what scenes look like, they capture the emotions inherent in those scenes. That’s why when I see something interesting, I don’t just describe what it looks like, I describe how it makes me feel.

This is a picture of a tree near my house. I didn’t take the picture because it looked nice, but rather because something about the light and dark made me think of how the seasons were changing and time was passing.

I used Evernote to capture the image. Why? Because pictures just get lost on my camera roll, while saving them as notes means I can write comments beneath the picture itself.

Remember: When making notes, you’re adding emotion, not just description.

Take a walk

For me, the best way to get ideas—the best way to cure writer’s block, for that matter—is to take a walk. I can’t stress enough the importance of taking walks. I’ve written about that here. And here. I’m not the only person to think so, by the way.

Go for a walk and look around. Don’t listen to music; let your mind wander. The ideas will come. Start capturing your ideas—and don’t forget to capture the emotions that come with them.

Using the quick notes widget on Android, I can end up with 40 or 50 notes which I then merge when I get home. Of course, you could add all the ideas to the same note if you prefer.

Walking isn’t only about capturing ideas, it’s a distraction that allows your mind to stop consciously trying to put together the pieces of the puzzle. Instead, those pieces are left to float free, to be jiggled into place by the subconscious. Writing is about getting to a place where the subconscious can take over. Letting your mind wander free is essential, and walking helps you to do it.

A good walk can produce a lot of notes. Not all of them will relate to the current work in process—these need to be retained and revisited later. Systems such as Zettelkasten are a great way to do this, and you can replicate this to a certain extent by using tags in Evernote.

My writing process

Tags are one of Evernote’s most powerful features. Using tags, I can find all my characters, for example, no matter which story they are a part of. You can read more about my tagging system here.

Every so often, I go through my notes. I tag them by story (for example, #threebears) and by things such as character, beat, and worldbuilding. Once you have all your notes neatly tagged, it’s time to sit down and write that story.

Here’s how Evernote will write your book for you.

It won’t.

Of course, it won’t. Evernote is a productivity app, not a literary bot. No system is going to write your book for you, and that’s a good thing because if there were such a system, then writing would be no fun.

Here’s my real writing process:

I sit down and start writing. I allow the words to flow onto the page while I wait for my subconscious to take over.

My process is all about getting myself to a place where my subconscious can do its own thing. I believe that you should trust in your characters and listen to what they have to say. If you’re following your characters and letting them be themselves, then the story will unfold—maybe not how you want it, but in the way that it wants to go. The trouble comes when you try and force your characters to be what they’re not, when you twist them and make them act in arbitrary fashions to satisfy your initial plot. That’s when the contradictions build up, and the story crashes. If you can see that happening, it’s time to go out for a walk…

Stuck for ideas with NaNoWriMo approaching? Then don’t just sit there. Get out and capture some emotions!