Creative Writing in the Age of AI

Host Mookie Spitz — fresh off finishing his second novel — takes a sledgehammer to the hysteria that AI is the death of creative writing. In this unfiltered deep dive, he argues that the heart of any good writing is timeless: storytelling driven by human experience, emotion, and characters you actually care about.AI? A useful and enthusiastic sidekick. But it can’t live your life, wrestle with your scars, or dream up the flawed, hungry people who drive real narratives. Mookie spells out exactly how he used large language models like ChatGPT as a supercharged research partner and idea spark, never as a ghostwriter. From diving down quantum physics rabbit holes to generating slick alternative phrasing and Gen Z lexiconography, AI helped gamify and expand his process — but it didn’t (and couldn’t) write his book, or propel the characters creating the drama through their organic interactions. Highlights include:Why great writing isn’t about ideas — it’s about people. Plot, world-building, even brilliant lines of prose all crumble if they’re not anchored by raw, emotional stakes.How AI shines at the polish. Need sharper metaphors, wilder speculative tech jargon, or a gnerational twist on dialogue? The models deliver. But they don’t know your characters or your lived your shit — that comes from you.The trap of chasing your idols. Mookie confesses how years trying to write like Pynchon or play guitar like Yngwie wasted time he could’ve spent finding his own voice, and analog for relying on others (or bots) to do the lifting. Why sci-fi often gets it wrong. Too many writers let clever concepts suffocate real human drama. Mookie’s approach starts with flawed characters, then layers on the heady stuff as window dressing for added thrills and spills. His quirky three-line paragraph style. Like lyric poetry, it forces precision and rhythm, shaping stories that read almost like song lyrics or tweets -- enabling him to actually tweet the whole book! Check out @JonnieFazoolie.Throughout, he makes it clear: AI can’t replace a writer who has something real to say. But it can dress up your story in new colors, hand you fresh angles, and let you explore ideas at warp speed. It’s a turbocharged thesaurus and research librarian, not an author.So if you’re scared AI is coming for your soul — relax. If your story is good, it’ll stand on its own. And if it isn’t? No amount of machine learning will save it. Listen in. Then get back to telling your own damn story — because no bot ever lived your life.Send the host a text! Let him know what you think Support the show