I would never ever have seen Sanderson’s reply on Reddit-- I didn’t know about the kerfuffle- but WOW am I grateful you included the link... some beautiful quotes that are going into a commonplace book. Thank you!
I think the worst thing you can say about Sanderson is that he's shamelessly formulaic - which is, ironically, a difficult skill to master. It's what allows him to write a hundred books a year. But I suspect he'll be first in the firing line when A.I. writing really picks up. You can cajole ChatGPT into writing a knock-off chapter from Mistborn or The Way of Kings quite easily. You can't do the same with, say, McCarthy or Borges.
Great point. Following Ricks I’m currently tempted into the idea that using cliches is part of being a great poet and I would love to see the extent to which ChatGPT can or cannot do that. The proper integration of cliche might be more subtle than it seems.
A knock off chapter wouldn't satisfy. An understated merit of Brandon's work is his use of foreshadowing. AI inherently can't plan ahead in the way needed to plant the seeds that allow for the "surprising but inevitable" moments that make Brandon's books great. What he lacks in sentence structure he far surpasses in his use of writing mechanics to create a satisfying story experience. Many of his books are better the second time when you are clued into the plot and see the foreshadowing blended into the smallest details.
I think great writing has ro walk the line between 'gripping' and 'scintillating'. Unfortunately that line is a tightrope, and so many writers fall off on one side or the other.
I would never ever have seen Sanderson’s reply on Reddit-- I didn’t know about the kerfuffle- but WOW am I grateful you included the link... some beautiful quotes that are going into a commonplace book. Thank you!
Pretty good huh!
I think the worst thing you can say about Sanderson is that he's shamelessly formulaic - which is, ironically, a difficult skill to master. It's what allows him to write a hundred books a year. But I suspect he'll be first in the firing line when A.I. writing really picks up. You can cajole ChatGPT into writing a knock-off chapter from Mistborn or The Way of Kings quite easily. You can't do the same with, say, McCarthy or Borges.
Great point. Following Ricks I’m currently tempted into the idea that using cliches is part of being a great poet and I would love to see the extent to which ChatGPT can or cannot do that. The proper integration of cliche might be more subtle than it seems.
A knock off chapter wouldn't satisfy. An understated merit of Brandon's work is his use of foreshadowing. AI inherently can't plan ahead in the way needed to plant the seeds that allow for the "surprising but inevitable" moments that make Brandon's books great. What he lacks in sentence structure he far surpasses in his use of writing mechanics to create a satisfying story experience. Many of his books are better the second time when you are clued into the plot and see the foreshadowing blended into the smallest details.
Reminds me of Michael Dirda saying he wished modern novelists would read Agatha Christie so they could learn to plot
The endless debate between the plain style and the ornate!
I think great writing has ro walk the line between 'gripping' and 'scintillating'. Unfortunately that line is a tightrope, and so many writers fall off on one side or the other.