growth – Jamie DeBree

Sometimes, I need a reminder to work “with” the natural order of things, rather than against them.

This tree was planted just off our back patio before we moved in nearly twenty years ago. The trunk was 4-5 inches across, and it was around eight feet tall. I loved the leaves. The proximity to the patio? Not so much, roots being what they are.

So we decided to cut it down. And we did, but we didn’t grind out the stump. We just kept cutting down the parts that kept popping back up, expecting it to die eventually. Needless to say, it’s withstood decades of abuse at our hands, as we never quite got around to grinding the stump out, and it just kept doing what trees do, and growing any which way it could.

This year, I looked at all the new growth points, and gave up. It clearly wants to live, and I want shade over the patio, so cut all but the straightest sucker off, and I told my husband I was just going to let it grow.

Will the roots eventually damage the patio? Maybe. Probably, though there’s a tree with the same sort of leaves a couple blocks over right next to a sidewalk, and it doesn’t seem to be pushing that concrete up (yet).

I’m not sure what kind of tree it is, but when the leaves get a bit bigger, I’ll find out and look it up. Regardless, I’m done fighting with it. Anything with that strong of a will to live in our yard, where we’ve struggled to get other trees to take hold, deserves a chance to do its thing. I know this one will grow fast and strong, because it comes up from the ground every year and ends up taller than I am before summer even gets started.

For this year, I’m going to pick a nice spot somewhere near the top and lop it down just a foot or so, to encourage some branching. Then we’ll see how it does over the summer. I should probably read up on tree care. Lord knows I watch enough bonsai videos.

I don’t know about you, but I need this reminder in my life every so often. Things are so much easier and less stressful when I stop fighting and go with the natural flow of things.

Are you a fighter? Or are you a “go with the flow” sort of person?

Drop a comment or email me at jamie@jamiedebree.com, or catch up with me on Facebook or Instagram. Discussion is always welcome!

Support your author:

Photo of the Week

Rhubarb crisp I made this past weekend – one of the most perfect deserts ever, IMO, and equally as good hot or cold!

About This Whole Artificial Intelligence Thing

Artificial Intelligence: the theory and development of computer systems able to perform tasks that normally require human intelligence, such as visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and translation between languages.

Articles about AI are everywhere, with the advent of ChatGPT and the rise of other large language model based programs. And of course everyone is familiar with the legal and ethical issues surrounding how they were “trained”. Much hand-wringing has ensued, which is to be expected, and in some cases I’m sure it’s warranted, but not all. The courts will figure out the legal stuff, and I really don’t expect it will change much about how the tech is used or available on the public/user side.

The cat is out of the box, so to speak, and there’s no shoving it back in now. I am a bit leery of creating/using AI generated images until those copyright issues are all worked out, but I’m not all that worried about text, especially since I have no plans to actually publish anything written solely by AI (because it really wouldn’t be good enough, and also, I just like writing).

People are always scared of new technology, especially when they don’t understand how it works. Which is fine, and not an implicitly bad thing (it’s good to be somewhat skeptical), but at the same time, I think it’s easy to overlook the exciting things that new tech, and this new tech in particular, can do to make certain tasks easier.

I am a tech person – I work with databases and scripting queries, creating reports, moving data around for logical organization, and things of that nature. I was a web developer for sixteen years before that. So while I haven’t worked with this AI in particular from the development side, I have a pretty decent understanding of how it works in the background, and while I understand the instinct we have as humans to look for the “humanity” in everything, I also understand the limitations of the algorithms used in these programs, and that in the end, it’s still just a computer program that will respond based solely on the information you give it. It’s not truly “intelligent”, hence the “artificial” preface. It can only do what we tell it to. So the results are only going to be as good as our requests, which is as it should be.

All that to explain why I’m really not all that scared of AI, and I’m actually pretty excited about what it can do to make my life easier, especially in terms of writing (and writing code, too).

Just this past weekend, I started playing with ChatGPT. I watched some YouTube videos by authors who have been using it for all sorts of things, but the most interesting to me was taking an idea, writing and refining a synopsis, and then actually having ChatGPT create an outline, which the author then refined to suit, and then creating scene and chapter outlines (also refining after those).

I have been trying to force myself to become more of an outliner/plotter, because it makes writing by dictation much, much easier if I know exactly what I need to write (dictate) on any given day. Pantsing is much more difficult with dictation, and also, I really think my writing will be better with some advanced planning (read: there will be less major revision needed). I’ve been writing a lot of unorganized story/background/plotting notes for my recent drafts, and this is where I think ChatGPT could be really useful for me. If I can put my notes into it, and have it create an outline for me that I can then tweak to fit my vision of the story perfectly (or nearly perfectly), that would save me a *considerable* amount of time and effort, and get me that much closer to my goal of writing with an outline.

Could I do all of this without AI? Of course – writers have been “just writing” for ages (and before that, sitting around telling stories verbally or in pictures). Some writers still prefer to write with pen and paper (I do that too for micro or flash fiction, sometimes). As far as I’m concerned, things like ChatGPT and Sudowrite are just more tools to add to the desk, and I’m totally going to take advantage or anything that leaves me more time and energy for the thing I like best, which is actually telling myself the story.

So…AI for outlining and organizing my thoughts (ChatGPT), dictation with AI transcription (Dragon Anywhere) for getting words down because it’s far faster than typing or writing longhand, an AI editor (ProWritingAid in Dabble) for cleaning up the dictation and making me think about what might need to be rephrased as I go, and an AI “writing partner” (Sudowrite/ChatGPT) to help me with revision ideas (description, tone, whatever else I feel I need more work on) and to stimulate my own learning as I revise. Then my human editor (Carol!) can focus on telling me where all the plot holes are, which is something AI simply can’t do…yet.

**And no, none of this post was written with AI. I don’t really know how I’d even do that with blog posts, given mine are normally thoughts and ideas that I work out as I’m typing. This post was actually about three times as long when I started, and required several revision passes to make it short enough to be “internet palatable”. And I’m pretty sure it’s still too long…but that’s sort of my “thing” (along with ellipses).

Recommendation(s)

The Nerdy Author videos on YouTube are my favorite as far as AI discussions and tutorials go. If you’re interested in writing with AI, I’d highly suggest you check out his channel, and these videos in particular:

Brainstorm an Entire Novel in 1 Hour

Is AI Writing Cheating? My Honest Opinion

That’s it for this week! If you have a favorite thing to share, or want to recommend a book, TV show, video or podcast, comment below, email me at jamie@jamiedebree.com, or catch up with me on Facebook or Instagram.

Jamie DeBree

Writer | DBA | Dog Wrangler

Articles

Giving Up the Fight

Call In the Robots!