Fastlane Opportunities for Writers

[MJ DeMarco]

Been so impressed with Jarvis that I signed up to be an affiliate. Looks like a great program too with residuals. Great for someone with a forum, blog, or some type of audience, could ramp up passivity on top of a core business.

 

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[superamit]

Very happy that you joined, Amit! Some impressive names testing your early prototype.

I have a few questions:

1. How did you manage to avoid the "sensitive content" limitations of GPT-3? Jarvis is almost unusable for any adult fiction because even if you paste a clean piece of a story, it'll most likely generate something considered "sensitive" and will refuse to compose more content until you remove whatever word triggered it (and often, you don't even know what it is). That's one of the main reasons why after my initial infatuation with the tool I don't think I'm going to keep using it (while I'll definitely keep using Sudowrite).

We've worked really hard with Open AI to have our own safeguards in place here that don't limit fiction writers. When using the default safety filter we found the same thing you did: way too content was being erroneously tagged as sensitive/toxic.

2. Any timeline when you're going out of beta? What's your main concern/number one obstacle from going from beta to a public version?

Not yet. We may throw the doors open so people can sign up easily right away in the coming months, but the software will likely be 'beta' for a while. All that means is that it's likely to change a lot as we improve it.

The only obstacles we have stopping us from going completely open right now are:

1) We want the product to be better. We want the first-time experience to be easier.

2) We have some limits in place from OpenAI's side. As they gain trust in our filtering (see #1 above), those should be lifted.

3) Pricing/costs -- We've optimized entirely for the quality of output and stayed away from cost-cutting. Unfortunately, that means that while quality is high, it's quite expensive to run. We may create multiple pricing tiers or change pricing before throwing the doors open to make the numbers more tenable. (Will grandfather in existing subscribers as long as possible.)

3. Any new genres you plan to add to your twist tool? Why is it even separated into these genres? I guess I have to play with it and see what type of twists it generates for each genre but just curious why you need to choose your genre first.

We do some prompt engineering to prime GPT-3 to provide relevant twists based on genre. But mixing and matching works well. What genres would you like to see added?

4. Is your mind still blown from all the incredible outputs your tool creates? I'm sort of joking with this question but also not really. I still can't believe how human-like it can sound and how incredible ideas it sometimes generates. It's even more impressive than GPT-3 tools that help write regular articles because these can be written through the model's knowledge while Sudowrite is purely imaginative while still making a lot of sense.

Yes haha. It feels like science-fiction. When James and I started playing around with this tech last year we couldn't believe what I was capable of.

5. Not a question, just an observation—it's pretty clear that you aim to help writers be more creative (and write faster) but not necessarily make AI write for them (for example, Jarvis's angle is more about the tool writing for you). I really love the creative ideas Sudowrite gives, particularly when using your "Labs" features like Feedback or What If (just started testing it now). Like @MJ DeMarco said, it practically erases writer's block. I'd also add that it dramatically helps speed up brainstorming and the rewriting process (you can ask AI for feedback instead of hiring an editor; this is still so super crazy to me).

Yep! I think the best writing is going to be created not by humans alone or AIs alone, but by collaboration between the two. We want to sit at that intersection and enable humans to go further, faster.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Yep! I think the best writing is going to be created not by humans alone or AIs alone, but by collaboration between the two. We want to sit at that intersection and enable humans to go further, faster.

Interesting dynamic with respect to how one creates a great story.

This would appear to take a lot of the writing craft out of the equation, and instead put the weight on the author to come up with unique stories, plots, and twists.

Kind of like building a house and the AI is what is behind the decorative details, but it is up to the author to layout a blueprint and frame the house accordingly.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Y'all turning to Jarvis to write, but Jarvis turning to me...

 

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[BizyDad]

So I signed up for Sudowrite. As a side thing, I've been writing on weekends. Mostly for me, but if I actually write something worth publishing I'll give it a shot. I suppose it'll qualify as YA, expect my protagonists aren't 16. I'm kind of working on writing the stuff I wanted to read when I was 16. To date I wrote a 337 page pile of flaming garbage. It took me over a year of writing on Saturday mornings. And that's ok, because I wrote it and finished it and it sucks so bad I have no desire to edit it because it just won't work. I haven't told anybody about it, so this will probably be the only place I mention it.

I didn't write it to be good, I wrote it to be finished. I am pivoting to some new ideas and am hopeful Sudowrite will help me with that process. But like Stephen Pressfield suggests in The War Of Art, I'll shut up about it while I'm working on it. I don't want to be someone who is endlessly writing the great American novel, I want to be a guy who writes novels. If they ever get published, or I published them, cool, but that's not my intention. I have to write. It has always been a life goal, and I am really happy to actually be doing it, finally.

For my agency we just started playing around with Jarvis to create content. I'm documenting some of that process here, but will update this thread as we learn more, allowing for time. I have an employee doing this work, so my "insights", such as they are, will be second hand.

Anyways, I just wanted to say thank you for everyone contributing to the thread for spurring this action in me. It's been super helpful and exciting. What a time to be alive!

 

[Kid]

it's Amazon, so you're 100% dependent on them and their policies,

I think the question is how entrepreneurial write is.

I like the thing that George Lucas did when creating first trilogy
of Star Wars.

Namely he didn't want big check for it but smaller one plus 10% of sales of toys, action figures and other things that weren't movie itself.

People in industry hopped on for such a deal and it happened
to be like George Lucas planned: sales of toys and other gadgets related to Star Wars
made him billionaire much faster than directing movies and selling tickets.


So going back to amazon - i wouldn't rely on them but use them as a way to get known and get movie and TV series deal.
Even, write good books for lower price to spread out the word, having end goal in mind.

That's how i would sum up situation of writers.

 

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[MTF]

So going back to amazon - i wouldn't rely on them but use them as a way to get known and get movie and TV series deal.
Even, write good books for lower price to spread out the word, having end goal in mind.

In theory it's a very good idea.

In reality, your chances of becoming a successful author are slim.

Your chances of becoming a successful author who sold movie/TV show rights to their books are very, very low.

Your chances of becoming a successful author with a movie/TV show deal that is actually produced are almost non-existent. (Many authors sell the adaptation rights but the movies/shows are never created)

Your chances of becoming a successful author with a movie/TV show adaptation that becomes a blockbuster are... Well, non-existent.

 

[MTF]

Been brainstorming ways to scale your own writing income or just making conversation with the good people of the forum?

Both. It's interesting to learn how people use their writing skills and it's possible it'll also give me some ideas.

I studied copywriting many years ago (read everything by Gary Halbert, a lot of old stuff he recommended and Jay Abraham as well) but in the end I couldn't find myself doing this.

Writing for others is too difficult for me. My writing usually sucks if I'm not invested in a project.

I hired writers for my businesses as well and while it was easy to judge who got the skills, I didn't enjoy the job of managing them. It felt literally like a job, not running a business. That's why I limit my options to solopreneurial ventures—I've learned that "standard" entrepreneurship doesn't work for me.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Is it me, or are you too hard on yourself about this?

Not really sure. Maybe, maybe not.

I'm just reflecting on how many times I've heard "I didn't buy your book because of the title, it was only until it was recommended by 3 people I respect." When I hear that, and it is quite often, I wonder how many thousands of sales I lost because of it ... that I needed 3 people to recommend the book to secure a new reader, to me, speaks to negative skew, rather than a positive one.

You chose a striking title. You wrote an impactful book. You built a personal brand in a space that's crowded with personal brands.

That's something. That's something special.

Thank you, yes I try to remind myself that my work has been read by millions and it is something I can be proud and grateful for.

 

[Lex DeVille]

Figuring out how could also mean radically changing the system.

What if you pulled people onto an email list with the start of a story in a FB ad that continues by email? What if it was some kind of pick-your-own-path story where the user gets involved? Where their choice to click button (A) over button (B) affects character outcomes?

What if it was subscription-based? What if you added micro-transactions users can purchase within the story that affects the storyline, and other transactions that are social-based so people get points for sharing that can be exchanged for story-benefits. Maybe one share gives the character a fork to fight the dragon while 10 shares will give him a sword?

Not saying do this (even though it is possible to create right now), but I don't think tomorrow's publishing successes are going to look like what they look like today. The stories don't have to change that much, but how they are delivered and consumed probably will.

 

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[BizyDad]

Unfortunately these numbers are irrelevant today. 2016 and 2017 were VERY different in self-publishing compared to today. There was less competition and Amazon promoted your books for you as long as you got some traction first (selling 500-1000 copies in the first week was enough to convince the algorithm to promote you heavily).

I'm pretty sure that if he surveyed the same authors today most of them would have much lower average incomes. The authors I know or recognize from bestseller charts who started several years ago are all making less money than they did in the past, if they're still publishing. Many stopped altogether.

So?

It's like I said, if you want to see hope in those numbers you will.

The going is getting tough you say? Gee, what's that like?

The world is a different place than 2016. "Everything" has changed.

Do you know how often I hear, "oh my business has so much more competition, and Google is making it harder to get results"?

So freaking what?

Best selling authors are quitting.

So freaking what?

Like Lex said, there are absolutely people crushing it right now in these spaces.

Do you want to listen to the doom and gloom crowd or do you want to get results?

Well,maybe you answered that:

Good point, and I'm probably too much of a donkey to change my mind and try these creative solutions. Maybe I should write a book on how NOT to end up like me.

Don't be a donkey, be a racehorse. Go faster. Or be a zebra, stand out from the crowd. Ok, I'm out of equine themed analogies.

Brian Sanderson wrote 13 novels before he got his first publisher. That's the kind of stick-to-it'veness that someone determined to be successful needs. Dedication to the craft. Now other authors refer to his "rules for magic systems".

Do you think 15 years ago he set out to be a YouTube influencer?

Along the way he's learned a ton about the industry. About his genre. The dude became a thought leader. And he is still trying new things and innovating. Adding new marketing channels. Became a university professor. Dabbling in self publishing. I bet it's just a matter of time before we see him on TikTok.

He's probably one of those people whose results you'll say are impossible to duplicate.

But just because I won't duplicate Jeff Bezos doesn't mean that I shouldn't get into e-commerce.

And it doesn't mean that I can't learn from the mindset and build my own systems and processes.

Adopt Sanderson's approach to trying new things.

When Amazon expanded beyond rare books, people thought he was crazy. When Amazon started selling cars, people thought he was crazy. When Amazon started getting into data centers, people said he was crazy.

Now when Amazon gets into supermarkets or shipping people say oh oh.

Do you think Brian Sanderson is making less money now than he did in 2016?

Point is, you want to be one of those easily deterred, overanalyzing donkey types, or do you want to exemplify the thoroughbred fastlane mindset?

Seriously, you have money. Which means you have the resources to try new stuff. You don't have to worry about "making a living".

Stop talking like a forum noob. Go be crazy. Try new things.

Playing devil's advocate but...

Is there a need for another good romance? Another epic fantasy? Another thriller? You can choose from THOUSANDS of excellent books already written. And since books satisfy a similar need that a movie or a TV show can satisfy, you're not only competing with good books but also other types of good stories in different formats.

As for non-fiction, it's similar but instead of movies/TV shows you compete with blogs, courses, YouTube videos, coaching, etc.

Yes. There is a need.

Playing devil's advocate, but the world's population is bigger than it's ever been. Therefore the opportunity for writers is bigger than it's ever been.

We just had a worldwide quarantine where more reading was done than in the last 10 years. And you're going to tell me every author's income is down?

Well, pivot.

This thread is about fast lane opportunities for writers. How does writing a novel compete with movies and TV shows, when novels often form the basis for movies and TV shows?

You want to be anonymous and make lots of money? Start writing some scripts.

More money is being spent on content for movie/tv shows than ever before. If YouTube people are getting Netflix deals and Twitter streams are being turned into movies, then Hollywood is starved for good content.

Therefore the opportunity for good writers is greater than ever before.

Reading poetry is as much of a torture for me as watching stage plays.

But can you write stage plays?

Because that's where such fast lane names as Aaron Sorkin, David Mamet, Lin Manuel Miranda got started/noticed.

I'll leave you with this thought, from the Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams:

Everything you want is on the other side of hard.

 

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[Simon Angel]

I haven't read the whole thread yet, but I've been a copywriter for the past 8-9 months, earning good money.

I stumbled (well, more like force-entered) into the video game writing industry recently after contacting an important person in the space. I won't say who, but they're one of the most successful and well-known video game writers. We had a nice conversation over email.

I used said interaction with that person as leverage to get a writing role in a VERY big video game project.

And although it's a community project (meaning a mod i.e additional content for the original game), it's amassed a huge following and interest in it.

But here's where it gets, well, interesting.

This project was actually completed and released on Christmas. It was deemed a "technological marvel" considering the extensive use of the game engine, but most fans were NOT happy.

Why? Because the writing, for a lack of better wording, sucked.

So I contacted and joined the development team for this project intending to become one of the people who would help them take care of their biggest pitfall - the atrocious, cringy writing.

The reason I did so is because game studios are constantly on the lookout for talent (whether that's coding, graphic design, or writing) and it's not uncommon for people to be recruited following such a project.

Especially from such a high-profile one.. and especially after everyone knows the writing sucks and you volunteered your time to redeem the project in the fans' eyes.

And yes, you bet I'm using that as leverage to contact the big boy game studios in the future and turning this fastlane!

Oh, and it's not just about the money - I've always wanted to get into game development. I just had no idea I would be a writer.

 

[MTF]

Great intel, thanks for the warning. As you know I write articles for my industry/business and I cannot misattribute a quote without losing all credibility. But I am often stuck at how to restructure my own work and this looks like a way to speed up brainstorming, almost like having a pal who's a writer do some work for you but you can't fully trust him! Haha.

The world we live in these days... wow.

Yes this isn't for getting quotes at all and you have to be careful with the facts and numbers it provides. But the general structure and its suggestions can be incredibly useful.

I gave Jarvis just the paragraph above, gave it the title of the article "How AI can help you write faster" and entered as description "An article on how AI can help with writing". Then I hit "compose."

Here's what it wrote next:

Over the past few years, artificial intelligence has undergone a massive boom. It's arguably not just benefiting tech companies but people all over the world too. With AI building blocks such as natural language processing (NLP) being used in many applications - from chatbots to voice assistants like Alexa and Siri, there is no surprise that AI tools have made their way into other industries too. Writing for a blog or publication has been changed forever with the rise of what is known as an "AI ghostwriter". This piece will give you an insight into what the technology can do for you and how it works. But first...what does this mean? According to Wikipedia :

A ghostwriter is a hired person who writes books, articles, stories,

This is all factually correct, interesting, and so well written you could take it as it is and just keep writing. I still can't believe it's not just copied from some article. But the crazy thing is that it IS NOT. It's completely unique, generated by AI based on the context and what it knows about the topic.

I almost feel like a mythomaniac giving these examples here because it really sounds like BS that it's not written by a human and is not plagiarized from somewhere else.

This is such a huge game changer and these tools are only beginning to emerge. The ones who learn them today will win big in the future.

It's like Kevin Kelly said:

“This is not a race against the machines. If we race against them, we lose. This is a race with the machines. You’ll be paid in the future based on how well you work with robots … It is inevitable. Let the robots take our jobs, and let them help us dream up new work that matters.”

 

[LifeDeathTime]

I said it doesn't matter. If it did, I wouldn't be working on a six-figure copywriting deal right now. It matters even less for creatives.

I've got nothing but respect for you @Lex DeVille . I made multiple hundreds of thousands directly after reading some of your threads back when you spoke about Odesk (pre Upwork) around ~2014/15.
(Old fastlane account)

That being said, this doesn't make any sense to me. I say it matters more than ever.

Working on a six-figure copywriting deal has nothing to do with the fact that, as of last year there's publicly available A.I. systems that are 10 times better than what was available before. Literally 10x. The next best thing was Microsoft's natural language-based system and it had 10 times less data points than openAIs. (And getting better exponentially)

That's a miniscule copywriting deal in comparison to what any of these major companies are now, and are going to be, putting into these systems.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not down playing your personal success, I'm just saying that, for example - people were still buying Yellow Page ads when Google search ads were pennies on the dollar (2000-2010). Sure, you could still make them work for a while, even when it was obvious that it was going to be obsolete soon.

Looking back, if you could give somebody advice in the early-mid 2000s knowing what we know now, you'd say stop putting anything into yellow pages and put everything you have into Google ads

That's what I'm saying now.

If you're manually doing any sort of writing, start leveraging AI writing assistance immediately.

Especially for creative writers. I agree with @MTF and the quote from KK - The future is going to be predicated on how humans work with machines. People can fight it and stubbornly argue against it, but I think that's the same mindset as the people who thought the internet would never replace the yellow pages.

Saying "it doesn't matter" is short-sighted advice IMHO

 

[MTF]

What are you thinking of retraining for?

I kind of wish I could become a machine learning engineer and not only deeply understand how such a futuristic technology works but also be able to build stuff on top of GPT-3 myself. But I don't have the intellectual capacity. And even if I could do it given enough studying time, I don't think I'm ready to invest so much time and effort into it.

So rather, I'd just like to learn how to work with machines well and capitalize on it while very few people use it and pay attention to it. Perhaps dedicate myself to keeping track of the most exciting AI software dedicated for end users (user-friendly stuff like Jarvis) and teaching others how to use it best? Or just focus on Jarvis? No idea.

It's been a long time since I've been this excited about anything in business so maybe it means something. Or maybe it just appeals a lot to my inner slacker.

Thank you for talking about the Jarvis.AI . I had tried it last month on free trial but didn't take the time to learn it. Dismissed it without fully understanding it.

I started using it again yesterday and it is a game changer. I'm currently using it to answer questions on Quora. It takes me 10-15 minutes to create a 300-800 word response that's pretty decent.

It really does make it easy to seem like a professional. I realized today if I take a little bit more time in learning the software the answers I create can also be used as future blog posts. It's realistic to expect to spend 30 minutes creating a 1,000 blog post.

It definitely requires a lot of practice to get good at using it. But as you can probably already tell, the more you use it, the better you understand it, and so you give it better prompts and it provides better answers.

Ethics: Using this software has felt like cheating. It's almost too easy. At the same time, with 7 million blog posts being written everyday there's no way to be 100% original. Even if I wrote something by hand it would probably sound like the 1000 other blog posts on the same topic. The content produced passes plagiarism checks so it's not stealing.

I'm going to gain more experience and invest a little more time in each post to produce quality content.

I'm sure that the first people who used e-mail also thought the same. No need to write in longhand/use a typewriter/print it? No need to buy an envelope and a stamp? No need to go to the post office? That's cheating!

That's what I'm saying.

I'm in the middle of putting together a case study for this forum on some results I've been getting from this.

Will share soon.

Looking forward to it!

I bought a month subscription to Jarvis's Boss Mode and played around with it for a bit. I'm a content writer, and wow, this is going to save me so much time!

The output takes some editing and fact-checking, but man, there's nothing like typing "write a funny story about [article's argument]" and getting one ready for the article.

Also, getting the AI to write an extra sentence or two to unblock me when I feel stuck is another huge timesaver.

Awesome to hear that. We'll probably uncover new uses for it as we keep playing with it.

Can that AI thing summarise well? It seems quite verbose.

I’m a fan of one liners and my goal is to find to get to the aha moment in as few words as possible.

In addition to what @Madame Peccato posted, there's also "Content Improver" that rewrites a piece of content to make it more interesting, creative, and engaging though it's unlikely to shorten content.

Pretty sure we'll be able to leverage a "Written by ACTUAL human beings!" USP real soon.

And that USP will be sort of like "withdraw your money from a REAL human being" when everyone would rather use an ATM.

I just bought a month's subscription last night in order to write some articles, but it didn't help too much because the articles are really fact-based, so I still have to do the research and put everything into my own words. Astoundingly, it's able to generate facts that sound completely legit but are actually 100% false, which is kind of scary because someone might use something like this to pump out false facts into the world, not out of malice but just ignorance/carelessness.

Yes, you need to be very careful with the "facts" it provides as it's an excellent bullshitter. But if you give it more facts, it's more likely to produce real facts, too. Also, you can still use it for introductions, summaries, brainstorming, everything marketing-related (stuff I personally hate writing), etc.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

I wonder how many college students will turn to this for essays.

Since facts and research don't matter anymore and since nobody reads essays anyway, seems like a game changer for students.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

@MTF and @superamit to clarify, Sudowrite is for fiction writers only and is not useful to non-fiction (articles)?

I have Jarvis Boss mode and my output is through the roof. It doesn't write anything for me, but it just prompts me in the right way to keep going. I do more of my own writing because of Jarvis.

Should I be experimenting with any other AI or stick to Jarvis? I ask it now because I am thinking of just getting 12 months subscription (save 2 months as freebie). Thanks!

I hope that the time I save on writing isn't lost on the time I spend on making the output not sound like AI. My first run through read a bit "AI-ish" and I had to spend a lot of time editing and fixing. To be honest, I think it is user error as I haven't quite figured out how to maximize/best use the tool.

 

[LifeDeathTime]

The people who are going to kill it in content generation (ie writing) in the next few years are going to be the people who feed the A.I. systems that already exist.

They're already dominating many spaces without much of the general public realizing it.

How much have you played with GPT-3 based systems? Have you tried out something like Jarvis.ai?

I don't think most people realize how good these systems are becoming.
I personally know people who've hired content "writers" (More like A.I. dog walkers at this point) who essentially feed the system facts, names, places, specific products, etc and are able to crank out 100,000+ words per day.

It's not at all what it was three, four, five years ago. I've been trying out these automated writing tools for 10 plus years and they were always pretty terrible and gimmicky for the longest time. In just the last 12 to 18 months it's got to the point where I almost can't believe it.

This is content that is indistinguishable from human written content.

Just go read the GPT-3 Wikipedia. In their studies it was like 50% of people couldn't choose when comparing two different writing samples side by side. Meaning it's essentially 50/50, a coin flip to even differentiate machine written content and human written content.

Of course these systems aren't perfect and there's a learning curve to figure out what patterns to feed them and how to properly organize the facts and figures you feed the system but once you get it down you can produce a ridiculous amount of content.

This is going to be the present and future opportunities for "writers".

So glad I sent you down this rabbit hole @MTF
This thread has gotten way more interesting than I thought it would.
Very cool you brought the cofounder of another AI tool onto the forum.
Thank you for all the initiative. I wish more people I know in real life would pick up on this stuff. The average person I know just glazes over and doesn't believe me when I tell them they're reading AI-written content without even knowing it already.

Interesting dynamic with respect to how one creates a great story.

This would appear to take a lot of the writing craft out of the equation, and instead put the weight on the author to come up with unique stories, plots, and twists.

Kind of like building a house and the AI is what is behind the decorative details, but it is up to the author to layout a blueprint and frame the house accordingly.

I hope this is true.

I'm worried though that this is just our human egos believing we're more important than we are.

I've yet to come across a language pattern or story which can't be traced back further from another story. Back to the birth of written language like Sumerian, Egyptian, etc. The stories just repeat and repeat.

The Egyptian Horus, like Jesus (or Jesus, like Horus),

• born of a virgin
• had twelve disciples
• walked on water
• delivered a sermon on the mountain
• performed miracles
• rose from the dead
• ascended into heaven

... all the same patterns.

For a time, yea, it's going to be a partnership between us and AI but very quickly, on exponential growth terms I don't think we can't truly comprehend, the rate of improvement will far outpace what we could ever hope to add to the system.

Not trying the fear-monger, just looking at this from the most logical point of view I can.

Still doing the best I can (as fast as I can) now with all the tools at our disposal. I'm just crossing my fingers that some radical jump (GPT-4, some 3rd party API, etc.) doesn't make it all in vain.

Either way, let's all have fun with these tools while they're relatively new and the general public isn't even aware. Exciting times!

 

[superamit]

…instead put the weight on the author to come up with unique stories, plots, and twists.

Kind of like building a house and the AI is what is behind the decorative details, but it is up to the author to layout a blueprint and frame the house accordingly.

Exactly, I think it'll abstract the writing process to a higher level. There will still be people who excel in wordcraft, but most will pour that time and energy into better concepts and elevate the art. As the tools get better, we expect more from the artists.

I think of it like the effect of photography on portrait artists. Painting a portrait was once the only way to 'record' an image of a person for posterity. Sometimes they were done perfunctorily, sometimes artistically. When photography became possible, it was at first quite crude. Hardly a replacement for portrait painters. But of course, that changed over time.

At some point, photographs became even 'better' than portrait paintings -- in that they were more 'realistic' depictions of the subject, anyone could create them, and they required only a single button to create. But the story doesn't end there. There are of course many famous art photographers and they push the same buttons any novice would -- but their art is in the higher-level concepts. They're paying attention to the subject, the setting, the lighting, the mood, what the photo says about the subject, etc.

The machine does some of the work, freeing the artist to focus on their creative vision. I see something similar happening with writing as the technology improves.

 

[MTF]

Funny thing... I started using Jarvis to help with a few e-mail replies. He seems very good at "rewrite" part for what I need.

I think that a lot of its usefulness depends on your creativity.

I now primarily use it for filling in the blanks when writing fiction or when looking for something cool and unpredictable I wouldn't think of myself.

For example, let's say I write this:

The old, haggard man sat on a wobbly stool with its white paint peeling, cleaning his dirty yellow fingernails with a rusty dagger. He took a swig of ale and set it aside on a heavy oak table. The items laid in front of him suggested he was a mercenary. There was

I want more details to make the scene richer. I can think of these myself or I can give Jarvis this input and see what he comes up with. Here's his first try:

The old, haggard man sat on a wobbly stool with its white paint peeling, cleaning his dirty yellow fingernails with a rusty dagger. He took a swig of ale and set it aside on a heavy oak table. The items laid in front of him suggested he was a mercenary. There was a shield with a crest of two knights standing over a black wolf.

A rusty short sword, its hilt from a brown wrapping around iron wire and chunks of silver on the pommel. A bow leaned beside him that had an arrow knocked in place, ready to fire at any moment. And he was wearing old leather armor with arrows poking

Here's the second try:

The old, haggard man sat on a wobbly stool with its white paint peeling, cleaning his dirty yellow fingernails with a rusty dagger. He took a swig of ale and set it aside on a heavy oak table. The items laid in front of him suggested he was a mercenary. There was a suit of leather armor, a worn out sword and two daggers. The old man rose from his stool and walked over to the corner of the room where an oak chest was stored away with various other weapons and items. He retrieved a long bow that was strapped behind it in the chest.

He sat back down on his wobbly

This of course requires some clean-up but it's an incredible starting point. Doesn't it nicely paint the guy as an old mercenary ready for whatever?

I also use Jarvis for brainstorming ideas. For example, you can give him a command like "Come up with a list of names for a fantasy kingdom" and it's an excellent starting point, too. For anyone wondering who doesn't have Jarvis, here's the first output after this command:

- Silverhammer

- Whiteshield

- Stormwind

- Scarletmoon

- Burningheart

- Darkshore

- Ironforge

- Blackrock

- Stonemaul

Of course you'd have to make sure none of these are used in notable fantasy works but it's still super useful.

That's basically mostly how I use Jarvis now. I considered canceling my subscription since I don't write non-fiction anymore (and I thought it was primarily useful for non-fiction) but when I discovered how I can use it for fiction and it has already helped me a lot a few times, I'll probably continue using it. As for Sudowrite, I use it for richer description and in general so-called better "treatment" (rich descriptions, metaphors, etc.).

 

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[StrikingViper69]

Maybe I'm too frustrated today but I'm starting to think that writing is such a commodity skill today that it isn't worth much anymore.

There's way too much content and people no longer value it. There's also much less interest in thoughtful content and way more in bullshit clickbait/outrage/entertainment stuff. Just look at the rise of platforms like TikTok and YouTube shorts getting millions of views.

What's the point of trying to deliver excellent content if a stupid 10-second video gets all the attention?

I agree, which is why I stay away from those platforms, but, there are people after the good stuff.

I write long form posts for my blog on guitar playing, anything from 2,000 words to 5,000 words plus.

I have an article that is several thousand words on one bizarrely specific music theory subject... people read it... and Google is slowly recognising the articles and boosting me in search rankings (top 5 results for multiple niche search terms now).

Sure my articles will never be as popular as some hotty shaking her butt, but that doesn't mean there aren't people searching for what I'm doing.

 

[Chx]

@MTF the self-improvement youtuber "Hamza" (link) has talked about this struggle too.

On his main channel he posts flashy 2-5 min videos filled with entertainment, persuasion tactics, and dopamine. But you won't learn much from these videos.

The real value is in the 30+ min videos on his second channel. But people don't watch those until they've been hooked by the short-form content

Maybe you can do something similar. I'm personally inspired by your discomfort theme and believe you could make some very "sexy" short-form content about cold showers / jumping off planes / whatever and once people have seen those and are invested in you, THEN you can tell them what you really want to say.

Roy Furr (a-list copywriter) calls it the "Trojan Horse" method. What people need to hear the most is NOT what they'll click on the most. Some clickbait is necessary.

 

[Andy Black]

One super interesting thing I learned from that SEO video I linked to is that keyword tools can't give accurate estimates for long tail keywords. The guy from the video said that they wrote articles for long tail keywords that supposedly got 0-10 searches a month (according to keyword tools) that are actually generating hundreds to thousands of visitors a month to their website.

We tell clients to ignore the estimates and run a data gathering Google Ads campaign to count impressions.

 

[Lex DeVille]

I've watched a few of their videos as well and learned a lot. People are saying that pretty much all of the content from their paid Project 24 program is available as free YouTube videos (it's just not organized well).

I've paid for Project 24. A lot of their content is available free on YouTube and not organized well as you said.

They have a strong community of blog creators inside. You instantly can tell when someone's blog is created using their approaches because those blogs usually also use their Wordpress theme. I think it's called Avacado or Acabado or something like that.

They have a ton of course material inside their membership (at least they did when I joined) and it was pretty valuable stuff -, especially the YouTube course.

I've ranked several sites at the top of Google using their approaches. Mostly it's about creating good content in longer formats and then waiting forever (like 6 months) for that content to pick up and take off and then leveraging non-Google display ads + other products to create income systems.

They strongly promoted creating a YouTube channel for each blog site, even if the production quality sucks as long as they answer specific questions.

 

[MTF]

If your copywriting is good, then you can sell your own courses, coaching, and training even to people who have never heard of you. This includes courses and coaching that are not about copywriting. This can potentially reach the millionaire mark before you have to scale into a team of copywriters, VAs and salespeople. You can also team up with companies that need to offer writer training. That way they can sell your training for you as an affiliate. This path requires taking on additional leadership/coaching roles (usually).

Is there any way to go about this without you becoming the face of such a business? Write the content but not necessarily plaster your face all over the Internet trying to sell it?

Can't beat Amazon's name directly, but you might take up the "Erotic Romance Store" position in the market mind.

There used to be such a niche store. It was called All Romance eBooks (and sold both romance as well as crazy erotica that wasn't allowed on Amazon). It operated between 2006 and 2016 when it went bankrupt. I suspect that Amazon was the final nail in the coffin, though the way the shut their business also spoke a lot about how it was managed.

 

[Antifragile]

Do you mean a platform where other authors are allowed to sell as well or a platform for my stuff alone?

I mean only you. You’d need to earn a niche market “celebrity status”, so that your followers have a strong conversion rate when you publish new books.

I used to be friends with Sy Sperling (founder of Hairclub for Men) until he passed away from cancer. He and I spent a lof of time together and I recall this conversation vividly. We were having lunch at a local restaurant in Vancouver and waiting for the food to arrive. Had a few sips of beer:
- Sy, what do you think about doing what you love for business?
- What exactly do you mean?
- I mean the concept of having to love what you do for a business. The concept of if you love what you do, you don’t really work, that kind of stuff.
- You see this salt and pepper shaker?
- Yes
- If I can build and scale a business selling salt and pepper shakers that make me millions while I sleep, it’s the sexist business for me and I love it.

We had many chats like that. He shared how hard it was running three locations and yet how easy it became when he had 30 and national presence.

The relevant part here to writing is this: you love writing and you are trying to do both, create the freedom to write for fun and do so by earning profits from writing. Nothing wrong with that, but it is just not Fastlane.

Platform that sells your books is leverage, it’s like getting a bicycle when before you only had running shoes. You can move a lot faster but it is not a car and definitely not an airplane. Even with a bike you can cover long distances, just slower that’s all.

 

[Black_Dragon43]

The drawback here is that it's very hard, if not impossible, to make residual income from coaching. You can write a book and keep making money from it for years. You can't get a coaching client and keep getting paid without actually spending your time coaching them. Unless you make up for it through charging rates that are so high that selling your time is worth it. I guess that most Fastlane entrepreneurs would be fine charging $10,000 per hour of their time lol.

This is true, but that's why coaches develop group coaching programs. Get all of you into a Facebook group for example, and provide on-the-go content at SCALE, + answer questions live, that type of thing. It still takes up your TIME initially, however, the bigger you grow, the more you can bring other experts into your group, and the less of your own time it will consume. And as you grow, you can even TRAIN other people to coach for you. Then you take yourself out of the equation for the most part. Think of people like Dan Sullivan or Tony Robbins - rarely coach themselves, mostly it's other people. And then you can still offer 1 on 1 stuff... but charge for it so that it's worth it haha... $10,000+/hr!

Again, it's not the knowledge that people are missing, it's applying it. The point of all these programs, even though many are still marketed from the angle of "learn the secrets" is to get you to APPLY what you learn, and have the support of a community... get yourself IMMERSED in it.

For example, let's take marathon running. You know you have to run to train for it, but you don't, or you can't get yourself to run enough. Because what happens... that voice in your head, after you run 3 miles, is like "I can't take it anymore, let's stop and go back. Need to rest, I'm too tired today". So unless you really work on yourself and train yourself to talk back to that voice, you WILL quit. And that's most people. And it happens in the short run (in a single practice session) and in the long run (why am I doing all these runs? I can't do it, I'm not made for it, etc.).

Now take this same person, and suppose a coach is running with them, and when that chatter goes on, he tells them "you actually have more to give, but I know it feels like you can't go on anymore... but you can. Try to find that strength, and let's keep going for 1 more mile". Suddenly, they push themselves. What's different?

In both situations the guy may rationally believe he can keep going, but in the middle of the pain and struggle, when that voice comes on, all the reason goes out the door. Because a different part of the brain, the limbic brain, takes over. A switch happens, and the neocortex is hijacked by the limbic brain. In those moments, it is the limbic brain that uses the neocortex to say whatever it wants to say to you. Now, if you have someone else coaching you, suddenly THEY provide that voice that's required for you to keep going when you can't provide it for yourself. That's all they do. They speak back to the limbic brain, and get the neocortex back in charge.

Here's a classic case... web designer does 20 cold calls, gets zero clients, and the voice starts... "this isnt working man! What are you doing? You're wasting your time here and making a fool of yourself... it's never going to work out". And unless this guy is trained, he can't separate and talk back to that voice. So he will be taken over. Now if he's in a group like the Fox Web School for example, he will say those negative thoughts, and @Fox or someone else will tell him "look dude, you're not doing enough cold calls. You have to keep going, it won't keep sucking if you keep going".

Also, check your avatar. What if the guy who quit had a coach, talking back to his limbic brain when it took over? Will he have quit then?

 

[Antifragile]

Would you say that creating products for my list would be Fastlane?

Yes and no. A book is already a product. Adding one more should not change your list’s loyalty. But the concept of using your list as a leverage to generate profits - that’s Fastlane.

Based on your other comments, that fact that you know your list isn’t super loyal means your attention should be spent on figuring out why. Then fixing it.

Because my main business is so different from writing, I have to rely on MJ as example here to demonstrate my points. So, why an I loyal to MJ? I never met the guy. I wouldn’t recognize him if he sat next table enjoying dinner. And he’s not the wealthiest person I know either, so it’s not his success. Then what makes me pay for INSIDERS on this forum? Buy his books instantly, even if I can’t read them right this moment?

The answer is simple. He already helped make me millions. He gave me to tools to do better in my own business. The value he gave me already is so far above anything I pay for a subscription or a book that’s is laughable.

Your list is telling you something. And I’ll turn your own words on you “think 80/20” - what could you do to turn your 20% into enough profits to ensure everything you publish is profitable? Because I am sure that not all MJs followers are instant buyers of his books and that it’s likely only 20% that are.

You said that in theory that’s all great but you made more money on Amazon. In no way do I suggest that you only leverage your platform. But if your writing fails without Amazon, that’s not Fastlane, you lost control.

One more thing from my many meals with Sy Sperling. He felt that his most important skill was marketing. In your case you said “lead generation”. Even if you have the best book that’s ever been written, you must have a way to let the world know.

 

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[MTF]

And if I sell a $97 150 page guide, in e-form, a pdf, which proposes to teach people how to do something, how exactly is that different than a book?

Is it the fact that it's on clickbank? Would it become a book if I sold it on my own website?

You seem to be adamant about your own terms, but I read the definition you shared, and the lines are pretty blurry these days.

I won't defend myself anymore because you got me here

I agree that the lines are pretty blurry these days. My definition needs updating.

Nice rhetoric work and thank you for your post. It got me thinking.

 

[BizyDad]

I won't defend myself anymore because you got me here

I agree that the lines are pretty blurry these days. My definition needs updating.

Nice rhetoric work and thank you for your post. It got me thinking.

Sometimes I make a post like that and things unfortunately go sideways. I have great respect for your contributions here, and was nervous my comment/tone might not reflect that.

So thank you for taking it in the spirit it was intended. And thanks for starting this discussion too.