Posted in AI and Creativity

Yes, I Think AI Can Write Better Stories Than Me. Here’s Why That Doesn’t Scare Me.

A Humorous Confession to Start Us Off

There was a morning not too long ago when I typed what I believed was a cracking first line, something sharp, moody, and self-assured, and I leaned back with the satisfied air of a man who still knows how to swing a hammer. Then, with the casual bravado of someone who believes he’s in no danger whatsoever, I asked the AI to “have a go too.”

What appeared on my screen wasn’t just good. It was annoyingly, almost cheekily good. It had rhythm. It had a spark. It had that little shimmer of confidence you get from someone who turns up to the party already knowing they look great. I remember staring at it and thinking, “Alright then… show-off.”

And that, rather unexpectedly, was the moment I realised I could either pretend this hadn’t happened or just admit the truth: sometimes the AI writes better short stories than I do. And instead of spiralling into panic, a curious part of me, the same part that once got me into teaching, podcasting, writing, self-publishing, and YouTube, quietly leaned forward and said, “Now this is interesting.”

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Posted in AI and Creativity

Is AI the New Imagination? A Grandad’s Guide to Navigating Wonder

I still remember the first time AI genuinely surprised me. Not the usual mild amusement you get when a new gadget works as advertised, but a proper jolt, the creative equivalent of discovering a forgotten ten-pound note in an old coat. I was in my shed, rain machine-gunning the windows, halfway through a cup of tea that had already gone cold thanks to my talent for distraction.

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Posted in AI and Creativity

When Six Images Became a Mini-Film: Testing Midjourney + ElevenLabs 

How two AI tools turned still pictures into moving art, and why this is just the beginning

This week I tried a small experiment that turned into something surprisingly delightful. I took six still images created in Midjourney and asked it to turn each one into a five-second video. Nothing fancy, no complicated prompting, just a simple “animate this” test to see what it could do.

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Posted in The AI Drabble Challenge

When Two Images Became a Story

An experiment in AI rewriting, reflection, and creative growth.

This week’s AI Drabble Challenge began with a simple idea: combine two images and ask an AI to tell a story. I’ve used images before as creative sparks, but this time I wanted to see what would happen if I merged two, not just visually, but emotionally.

The result was a story that didn’t just emerge from AI; it evolved through it. What started as a neat 100-word piece became something richer, deeper, and strangely more human.

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Posted in AI and Creativity

Why Some Writers Feel Uneasy About AI

Every time I post something involving AI, I know what’s coming. A few writers(often my writer friends) will tell me, quite firmly, that they’ll never touch AI “with a barge pole.” Others worry that using it might dull the human brain, or that writing with its help feels like cheating, like handing in someone else’s homework. Some say it produces “soulless” words, and that real writing should only ever come from real people.

And honestly, I understand every one of those feelings. Writing is deeply personal. It’s how we make sense of the world, and of ourselves. When we sit down to write, it’s our emotions, memories and imagination that shape the story. So when a machine suddenly enters that creative space, it can feel like an intruder, a cold, logical guest who doesn’t understand what it means to struggle for the right word or to feel that spark of inspiration.

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