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Guide to writing fiction with AI
I started this journey out of frustration. I’ve had a story languishing in my mind (one of many!) that wouldn’t stop nagging me each night. So, one day, I decided to let AI write it for me by sending it my storybeats (description or outline) with the dialogue I have of each chapter.
Since then, I got more and more curious about the process. I started wondering out loud if writing fiction with AI is as evil as the writing community made it sound.
Experimenting with AI fiction writing made me more aware about my creative writing processes. This helped me clarify what processes I will outsource to AI, and what I will keep.
🌿If you’re following my website via RSS or subscription, please note that this is just a “seedling” or a post where it is a work in progress.
This guide will be updated as I explore this topic, so do bookmark this page and return to it. Below is the list of essays about this topic.
You can als bookmark the page with the tag “Fiction writing with AI” or follow it with an RSS reader like Feedly. Just copy that link and feed it to your RSS reader.
Note: Some of these posts are only for subscribers to the blog. I usually only reserve posts where I get personal for them. Subscription is free.
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Fiction writing: What tasks will I outsource to AI?
🌸 P.S. Follow the guide on my experiment writing fiction with AI—it includes a list of all the posts about it.
In my previous post, What my AI fiction writing experiment taught me about my creative process, I mentioned SJ Pajonas’ post, “The Joy Factor: How to Use AI Without Losing What You Love About Writing”. In that post, she talked about how we need to find the parts of our writing process that we loved, and the parts where we didn’t.
The parts that we don’t, we can outsource to AI.
Why do this? If we outsource tasks that we don’t like or cognitively drain us, we will be able to save that cognitive energy for tasks we value and love.
Tasks I will outsource to AI
Brainstorming outlines
Note: Brainstorming, not creating! I find AI’s plots pretty pedestrian, to be honest. Besides, I want ownership of my plots.I’m a discovery writer, or a pantser. I may have the whole story in my head, but there are gaping holes in it. I find it hard, sometimes, to understand how my story goes from point A to Z. So, sometimes I get stuck because I write myself to a corner. AI will help me brainstorm a way out. I hope to explain my brainstorming process in a future post.
Editing and proofreading
Despite being a professional editor in real life (once for a national newspaper, at that), proofreading drains my cognitive batteries like no other. I just prefer to write! AI will help me massively in this. My tool of choice is Prowriting aid, which I have paid a lifetime subscription.Creating story bibles and “fact-checking”
I like coming up with character arcs and plots, but that doesn’t mean I like write about them.I find the work to create story bibles tedious, so I’m glad I have AI to generate the copy I need for my outlines, character descriptions and more.
With the story bible, I can ask AI to ensure consistency and accuracy in character names, places and plot lines, something I truly hated to do in the past – fact-check my own fiction!
Marketing
Book blurbs, social media promotional posts — I am more than happy to outsource this to AI, thank you very much.Book covers
This is controversial, but I may do this.One of the biggest stumbling blocks for me is that I write in genres where pre-made covers are just not that great or even readily available: Science fiction, and the unique Chinese genres of wuxia and xian xia.
In the past, I tend to rely on pre-made covers as I don’t have the energy nor the money to work with an artist to create specialised covers.
My previous attempt with a cover artist was not great. I sunk RM500 into th ewhole thing but it was a disaster because the cover turned out awful, and I never used it in the end.
If I do use pre-made covers, I spent countless hours searching through the catalogues of cover artists. Most of the time I had to settle with what I could find at my budget.
In the end, I thought of creating the covers myself, but the stock images for science fiction novels are generic and overused. I remember the dismay I felt when, after paying a pretty penny for a premade cover, I found the same exact cover being used by another author.
So, yes, I probably will use AI to generate the image for my ebook cover.
Tasks I will keep because they give me joy
Coming up with the actual plots and character arcs
AI can pry this from my cold, dead hands.Writing the prose
I read with interest, people who generate first drafts and then rewrite them. I did try that out of curiosity, but I think it was so awful, and the rewriting work so much, that I don’t think it’s worth it. Apparently, you can train the AI to write in your voice, and while I did try that and the results were much better, I still felt uncomfortable outsourcing this part of the process to AI.Because my biggest joy is to write prose, and to learn to write better prose. I’m a craftsman who enjoys the process of improving my craft.
There are moments when I’m so inspired that the text just flies off the keyboard for me, and writing the entire chapter is effortless.
But there are moments when I cannot seem to write a word because my brain is so bored with writing necessary scenes and just wants to write the “fun bits”.
AI would be helpful in making that “rough ugly first draft”. However, I must supply it story beats (rough outline of the scene) and dialogue. Without it, that first draft would feel like too much work, not mine, and an unsatisfying exercise.
Somehow that first draft enables my brain to get over that inertia and finish and even extend the chapter. There’s probably some neurological hack at work here, which I hope to explore in the future.
Conclusion
So, in conclusion, you can see that “using AI to write fiction” is a lot more complex than just the act of generating raw text, do zero edits, and then slapping it together into an e-book format and publishing it on Amazon.
It is more of a collaboration between AI and human. Think of AI as that research assistant, cover artist, writing buddy or beta reader or proofreader that will never get bored of your requests. It is someone who will tirelessly work with you at your side as you hammer away at your book.
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Digital decluttering: Marie Kondo-ing the content I consume
Information overwhelm has been a long-standing problem with me. I find it so difficult to choose which content to focus on; partly because I feel like supporting every writer I see, but I have to admit that I just cannot do read everything.
I no longer look at geopolitical content as much as I used to—thank God. I don’t even know why I was so obsessed with them before. Now, I’m thinking of reducing my blog feeds and Substacks. I need to reduce them significantly, but I don’t want to lose contact with all the wonderful blogs I’ve found.
Personal guidelines to manage information overwhelm
The big question: what guidelines do I need so that I don’t end up following enraged by my feed?
Although I enjoy reading about the many use cases of AI, right now, there’s so much toxic discourse around the subject that I have to avoid my Substack Notes feed altogether.
I like following AI content, but only the kind that is positive and nuanced. But the Substack algorithm is a mess – I can’t curate it like I can on Mastodon. Nor is it as ‘obedient’ as those on Xiaohongshu (Red Note). It has an agenda of its own.
One irresponsible click and I’m suddenly being recommended outrage content: Posts that are performative moral grandstanding, Restacks that are thinly-veiled attempts at bullying people, outrage, moral panics…
Posts that make me itch to respond with an angry retort…
So I have to come to the sad conclusion that the best way to manage this is…
Removing Substack from my phone
So, recently I wrote this on Mastodon and Notes:
Notes isn’t fun anymore. I’ve deleted the app (again) because it’s just too toxic. I lack the discipline not to peek at the FYP feed. Each time I do it’s a test of wills: Can I resist engaging with yet another rant? (Spoiler: Often, no. 🥲)
This isn’t an airport—you don’t need to announce your exit. That’s always been my philosophy when leaving platforms.
But this is for people who follow me on notes and whom I interact with often: I’m limiting my time on Notes
Moving forward, I’ll focus on my newsletter and your comment sections instead.
I’m realistic enough to know I can’t quit entirely; there are still actual humans that I enjoy talking to. But lately, I am being forced to read, or end up having to reply to debate bros or moral scolds.
I don’t enjoy ideological trench warfare.
Pre-Notes Substack was so much more cosy and community like. Now it’s just a rage buffet where I’m constantly bracing for hostility just for having the “wrong” take. It’s like Twitter, but with essays.
As a non-American, the relentless US culture-war spillover is exhausting. My interests (Chinese culture, AI) sit at the intersection of every hot take imaginable, and I refuse to performatively hate [insert topic] to prove my “purity.”
The collective blood pressure here could power a small city.
Substack needs Mastodon-style guardrails: keyword filters, limited reply visibility, etc. Right now, posting feels like poking a raw nerve into the open air—will this spark a great convo or attract harassment? I’m tired of the gamble.
I have periodically withdrawn from Notes before but I think after receiving two back-to-back rude comments today from people who claim to be morally superior than I am, I am totally done.
See you in your newsletters, friends.
I have removed the app from my phone and tablet. I mostly retained the app because I liked its read aloud function, and I enjoy listening to Substacks as I do my chores or go out for my walks. But I can use ElevenReader for that, even if it’s more tedious.
From now on, I’ll only access Substack from my laptop. If I want to reply, it will be from my laptop and I will only engage in people’s newsletters and not look at the ‘recommended’ feed any more. I will only follow people who do not write or recommend outrage/moralising posts.
I need to avoid using my smartphone too much anyway. I currently have tennis elbow and each time I use my phone or type too much, it sends me stabs of pain as a warning. In a way, it’s a nice alarm system!
Wrestling with Feedly
My philosophy: To funnel all content to one inbox. That inbox is Feedly, my RSS reader.
My current problem is that my feed is flooded with content I don’t look forward to anymore.
Here’s the thing: every time I open Feedly and see 35 blog posts, I feel like I must read them all. Even when I tell myself I don’t have to, I still feel compelled.
It’s time to do some serious Marie Kondo decluttering.
Will Substack remove its RSS function one day? Most probably, seeing how it’s trying so hard to be social media. Folks like me are an inconvenient stumbling block.
If that happens, so be it, I guess.
Weekend information workflow
I’m also implementing this workflow – it’s not the fastest way to read content, but perhaps this is the friction that I need.
Throughout the week I will scan my Feedly for articles I’d like to read, and compile it in my Obsidian vault.
Every Friday night, I will compile everything from Feedly into an eBook and read it in a café on the weekend.
I do this via Obsidian, which not only packages this into one document but converts it to epub. I will then read it on my tablet or e-reader in a cafe on Saturday or Sunday.
Remember the ritual of slowly going through the Sunday paper over coffee? What, only me? Well, I used to do this, and I guess this is the 21st century version of it.
If I want to respond to people, I’ll write it in my paper notebook first, then reply from my desktop. Tedious, yes. But worth it if it keeps me sane and prevents me from typing something in anger.
TL;DR: My information consumption workflow**
Substack
- Delete the Substack app from my phone. Goodbye Notes, but you’ve been terrible.
- Only access Substack on my laptop and engage within newsletters I follow.
- If I reshare anything to Notes, it is comments to the newsletters.
- If I want to reply to something, do it on my laptop—never on my phone.
Have check-in times for social media
- Check all feeds once a day at 3 p.m.
- During that time, review:
- WhatsApp messages
- Substack posts
- Any other important feeds
- Only do this on my desktop.
Feedly
- Remove or archive feeds I no longer look forward to.
- Move “interesting but not essential” content to a Bookmarks page/folder.
- Keep only:
- Career-related content
- Chinese drama content
- Content from friends
- Political content → Bookmark it instead of keeping it in Feedly.
- Daily: Scan for content I’d like to read and compile them into Obsidian.
- Friday: Compile them into one doc, which will be converted into an ebook.
Weekly Reading over coffee
- On Saturday or Sunday, take that eBook to a café and read it on my tablet or e-reader.
- If I want to respond to something:
- Write the reply in my paper notebook first. (Gives me time to think and not give in to outrage!)
- Type and send it later from my desktop
Platforms that stay
- Mastodon.
- Reddit – only some subs (currently only 3 that I go to regularly)
You know, compared to a lot of people, I’m pretty much a social media hermit!
Smartphone Use
- Avoid excessive smartphone use (tennis elbow).
- Remove any social media apps that tempt me into reactive reading or arguing.
I need to remind myself:
- I cannot read everything.
- That energy responding to rude comments can be used to create beautiful things
- To consume content that improves my life, lifts my spirit or genuinely excites me.
- Avoid toxic, outrage-inducing content
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What my AI fiction writing experiment taught me about my creative process
🌸 P.S. Follow the guide on my experiment writing fiction with AI—it includes a list of all the posts about it.
In my last post, I wrote about my experiment using AI to write fiction.
The whole exercise was born out of curiosity and frustration. The story, Forever, at last, was just one of many that I could not finish, but it refused to leave me, literally haunting me when I try to sleep.
What I discovered
This experiment has made me realise a few things about my creative writing process:
Reading a story generated by AI, even it I had written the story beats and dialogue, was unsatisfying to read.
I enjoy writing a large part of my fiction, like 90%. Taking that away from me would make writing fiction a truly passion-less and boring exercise.
I am far too territorial with my writing to use AI copy wholesale.
I have a Hemmingway-ish style of writing, thin on description, minimalist and economical. And there’s nothing wrong with that. (I ended up cutting away a lot of the content AI generated.)
Most of the enjoyment I have when writing fiction comes from writing the dialogue. In fact, I think I am more of a scriptwriter by nature than a prose writer.
Understanding my process
I have come to the conclusion based on my experiment with fiction is that I need to write the dialogue (which I enjoy), detailed storybeats with a light description of the scene (which I don’t enjoy) before even using AI.
I will then dialogue with AI to find ways to improve my description which I am weak at.
I seem to love chatting with the AI on how I can improve the existing descriptions or the descriptions it generated. The act of learning is very enjoyable to me.
I do not judge anyone who wants to generate first drafts and rewrite them – some people are satisfied with just rewriting, but I realize I want a lot more ownership, and that I need to vividly visualise the scene and create the dialogue. That is the only way I can use AI without sacrificing my enjoyment of writing fiction.
However, I don’t mind asking AI for help in improving my sparse descriptions of settings.
Understanding what parts of the writing process I like or don’t like
What I love:
- Imagining and visualising the scenes vividly in my head, and then writing the storybeats
- Writing dialogue (I’m especially territorial about this!)
- Creating character arcs (This is my second most territorial thing)
- Creating the entire plot
- Learning how to improve my fiction prose writing
What I don’t enjoy:
- Writing detailed outlines
- Writing descriptions of characters, settings and action scenes (only because I take too long thinking how to do them. I have a feeling once I master this, I’d enjoy it too.)
- Creating story bibles
- Proofreading
- General admin work related to creating the ebook and uploading it to websites
- Marketing the damn book
To me, writing fiction is all about the craft – writing sentences that convey emotion, story flow, character arcs …
I have very little interest in marketing the book or even distributing it for others to read. I have a very interesting approach to my creations. Once I create a novel or piece a fiction, I tend to forget about them and move on to the next. I don’t check up on them, read the reviews, or see how they perform. To me, the piece of art is done, and it’s time to create another.
So, it’s no wonder that I find the latter half of the process incredibly tedious and unfun.
Outsourcing what you don’t enjoy
Here’s what I tell authors: Identify your pain points — the parts of the process that are most annoying and aggravating. Then let AI handle the majority of the work in those areas. – SJ Pajonas, “The Joy Factor: How to Use AI Without Losing What You Love About Writing”
“AI-positive” indie writer SJ Pajonas wrote in her Substack recently that we need to find the parts of our writing process that we loved, and the parts where we didn’t. The parts that we don’t, we can outsource to AI.
It was an intriguing idea. So, I’ll be exploring this idea in the next post.
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What if using AI to write fiction isn’t an evil act?
🌸 P.S. Follow the guide on my experiment writing fiction with AI—it includes a list of all the posts about it.
When AI first came out, like all other writers, I was pissed off that our work was used to train an LLM model that would replace what made us valuable and special.
Despite all the arguments that LLMs won’t replace actual writers, you bet your socks that some companies and individuals would try.
However, I am a realist, and also a tech nerd, so I began pushing buttons to see what the fuss was all about.
What I found for myself was that AI (LLMs, anyway) gave me relief.
A lot of it.
And it may have also solved a decades-old problem that I’ve had with writing fiction.
The struggle
I have a habit of writing stories just to entertain myself. I have zero interest to sell or even distribute these stories for others to read.
I do this because I am tired of searching or waiting for people to write stories I want to read. So, I thought the most efficient way was to write the story myself.
But I’ve always had this one big problem when it comes to writing fiction.
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I support deleting your second brain
If the circumstances are right, of course.
I don’t think I want a map of everything I’ve ever read. I want a mind free to read what it needs. I want memory that forgets gracefully. I want ideas that resurface not because I indexed them, but because they mattered.
What does it feel like to start again?
Like swimming without clothes. Light. Naked. A little vulnerable. But cleaner than I’ve felt in years. – Joan Westenberg, “I deleted my second brain”
I stumbled on this fascinating article by Joan Westenberg, because she did what’s best for her, against “commonly held wisdom”.
Just because it’s “common wisdom” doesn’t mean it’s wisdom for her. Having a second brain is such a personal thing.
I chuckled a little when the mods at the usually placid Obsidian forums on Reddit stickied a note that they’re carefully monitoring the post about her article.
At HackerNews, the discussion was equally heated.
Most people seem to be saying, “Well, she didn’t do the second brain thing right!”. Others say, “Well, I would never!”
I resonate with what Joan said later in the post:
My new system is, simply, no system at all. I write what I think. I delete what I don’t need. I don’t capture everything. I don’t try to.
This made me chuckle as well, because this is what I do.
Unlike some people, I am not romantic about my notes.
Once upon a time, I kept one of those filofax thingies; the one with those inserts you could buy separately?
One day, I was looking through notes from the previous quarter. Then, with a smile, I took it out of the filofax and ripped it in half.
My colleague, who sat next to me, exclaimed in horror: “What are you doing??”
I turned to her, shocked that she was shocked. “Tearing my notes up and throwing it away?”
“Nooo! You should keep it! Don’t throw it away!”
I blinked. That thought has never occurred to me before. (Meanwhile, she couldn’t believe there existed someone who would destroy her worklog the way I did.)
See, I had a visceral pleasure just tearing the damn thing up. To me, the notes about my tasks, thoughts about work, laments, whatever, was in the past. I will never revisit it again. It’s pain and discomfort I no longer want to revisit. Tearing it up meant that I can look forward to the future. Keep it? What in the world for?
Once, I even burnt my notes, grinning as the jottings of the last quarter turned to ash.
Maybe I’m weird, but that’s how I am. I don’t enjoy journaling like some people. I find it a chore. Rereading my old journal entries felt like torture, revisiting an old me I want to leave behind.
I stopped turning my Obsidian vault into a task management app because I don’t understand why I’d visit my old todo lists. (And also, it’s just better at being a note taking app, not a task management app.)
The lists are reminders of reluctant days hunched over the computer making myself do things when I’d rather be outside just staring at the sea.
However
I won’t delete my current second brain.
Maybe I’d delete my old second brain, however, as it was filled with task lists after task lists.
But my current second brain incarnation is just right.
You see, my second brain is not just information storage; it’s an idea vault. Imagine being able to skim through your notes, copy relevant bits and cobble the bits together into an essay. (The video below will show you my process.)
That’s how I write using my second brain.
The vault holds my notes and ideas, which will eventually be turned to essays to share with the world.
So, deleting it would be cray cray.
But like Joan’s recent revelation, I don’t capture everything. I don’t even try to.
I follow an Obsidian Youtube influencer, and he says that he has thousands of notes and finds that he takes too much notes on things.
(But fortunately, he’s also like me, he turns most of these notes into essays to share with the world.)
Me? Well, I’ll never have that problem. For one, I like to keep my notes short and sweet. I also tend to think better with mind maps, so a lot of times I tend to save mind maps and use the notes as ‘expanders of the mindmaps’.
Basically, I’m a very intentional note taker. If I take notes, I’ll ask myself: “What will this note be eventually used for?”
Most of the time the answer would be: It’ll be an essay one day.
That, or, “It’ll help me remember something important.”
As a person whose memory isn’t the strongest, Obsidian has been an invaluable tool in creating my second brain which helps me organise my ideas, write faster and push it out to the world.
I used to store everything in my brain and try to write at everything at one go. Now that I have a second brain, I cannot imagine how I handled writing the previous way. Man, no wonder I felt drained after each writing session! The brain isn’t designed to keep so much information internally. Externalising your thoughts into notes in an Obsidian vault is the way to go, and less stressful too!
It is also a place where I keep things I have trouble remembering – like, a link to my tenant’s tenancy contract, or a phone number to my plumber.
Yes, I could use an online service for this, but it comforts me that I have this information locally, in my drive, accessed by a tool that saves things locally, in a format that won’t turn obsolete.
So, no, I won’t delete my Second Brain because I know what I’m using it for, and because I don’t capture everything and like to delete and trim down my vault.
My second brain needs more organising though. It’s a tad messy, but I will take my time.
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La Cocina’s Spandian touch
For years, La Cocina, at Taipain, USJ 10, Subang Jaya, was the place to be to if you wanted to enjoy great Spanish food with a great view from its upper terrace.
However, the restaurant recently moved a few blocks away from its original corner lot and now has an even better view of Taipan and the sunset.
My friend Matt Chung, who runs the Subang Jaya community website and Subang Jaya and USJ Food Discovery Facebook group, and I had the pleasure of watching the evening sun while we spoke to Jeganathan Letchumanan, the restaurant owner and Head Chef, and his wife, Zarmila Muniandy.
How the ‘Spandian’ restaurant came to be
Jeganathan’s passion for Spanish cuisine developed during his time working on luxury cruise lines in the 1980s. During his seafaring days, he travelled extensively around Europe, particularly Spain.
It was in Spain where he got to taste the country’s many culinary delights, especially paella. Jeganathan, who received his culinary training in Switzerland and was a chef in Toronto, Canada, fell in love with Spain’s many culinary delights.
“As an Asian, I’ve always been a rice lover, so discovering that Spain also celebrates rice as a staple was intriguing. Unlike the rest of Europe, where bread dominates, Spain stands out with paella as its national dish,” said Jeganathan.
He also found it interesting was Spain’s dining culture. Spaniards, like many Asians, eat late, with life buzzing well past 10 p.m.
“These connections made Spain feel uniquely special to me,” he said.
He believed that that Malaysians, being rice eaters, would really appreciate Spanish food, especially the paella.
“I told myself that if I quit working on the ship one day, and return to Malaysia, I’ll open a Spanish restaurant.”
So, in 2001, La Cocina (“The Kitchen” in Spanish) was born. It survived many, many ups and downs, especially during the pandemic when many restaurants took a hit.
A ‘Spandian’ touch
The restaurant has evolved from purely Spanish to a fusion of Spanish and Indian cuisines (with a touch of Italian thrown in), referred playfully by Jeganathan as “Spandian”.
Jeganathan felt that he couldn’t focus solely on Spanish cuisine for years.
Tastes were changing, and he’d like to attract a younger crowd. People were also asking for pizza, a bit of Italian, and some Indian food.
“In fact, at every event I catered, guests would specifically request Indian dishes, raving about how amazing the food was. They’d say, ‘You should really add Indian food to your menu!’”
At first, he was hesitant to do so, but he eventually decided to blend the two.
“And that’s how we became Spandian’,” he said, chuckling.
Emphasis on quality ingredients
Jeganathan and Matthew at La Cocina’s wine room. Jeganathan is also a sommelier and wine connoisseur. Another distinct quality of the restaurant is its emphasis on making many ingredients from scratch.
For example, the Indian spices are ground fresh from “Ground Zero,” not using pre-packaged powders.
The paneer is made in-house from good quality milk.
Pizza dough and sauce are also made in-house.
You get the idea.
And if its bought, it is of high quality. For example, the squid ink used for their paella and pasta is imported from Japan, chosen for its quality, freshness and lack of “fishiness”, despite being expensive.
For one, Jeganathan is especially proud of the Josper grill that sits at the restaurant’s outdoor balcony.
The Josper oven is a high-end Spanish grill famously used by Michelin-star chefs.
Yes, it’s expensive—Jeganathan hints that he spent five figures to import it, but “it’s worth every sen.”.
“As a Spanish restaurant, I wanted something authentic and exceptional. This oven is the ‘Rolls-Royce of charcoal grills,’ and for good reason. Its advanced combustion technology locks in heat, sealing meat juices while cooking faster. The result? Unbelievably tender, flavorful dishes,” he said.
Fun fact: Firing up the grill requires 10-15 kg of charcoal.
(The restaurant only fires up the Josper grill on select days. Whe we spoke to Jeganathan, it was Thursday to Sunday, but do check with the restaurant to be sure.)
The grill serves up Spanish specialties like octopus, lamb, chicken chop, squid, and premium beef.
Jeganathan also made an effort to tailor the menu according to customer preferences. For example, Spanish cuisine die-hards would notice that with the paella, the rice isn’t cooked al dante like traditional Spanish paella, but are fully cooked.
Initially, the paella was cooked the traditional Spanish way, but his customers complained that the rice was not “fully cooked”.
“So I made sure that the rice is fully cooked. Sometimes we have to listen to what, what the customer wants,” he said.
Softer varieties of bread were also chosen over traditional hard baguettes based on the restaurant’s customer preference.
Some notable menu items
- Spanish tapas: there are traditional tapas and also some with a slight fusion twist.
- Tacos (fish and chicken), inspired by the chef’s travels to Mexico.
- North Indian style tandoori dishes (chicken pahadi, chicken tandoori) are available, and is made in a tandoor oven.
- Lots of vegetarian dishes are available, “much larger than in many other restaurants”, says Jeganathan.
- Italian dishes like pizza and pasta are offered, catering to family groups and wider preferences.
- Unique pasta dishes include saffron linguine and squid ink pasta.
- Desserts include Spanish churros and crema catalana, as well as non-Spanish options like chocolate brownie and house-made ice creams.
- Tea time specials (Saturday and Sunday, 2-6 PM) focus on specific Indian delicacies like kat vada and momos.
You can have a look at their menu here at their website.
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The cognitive debt of using AI to write essays
I am currently reading MIT’s research paper on the “cognitive debt” you can incur when when using ChatGPT: Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation
of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task.You can find the link to the paper on MIT’s site.
The paragraph below caught my attention:
“This suggests that rewriting an essay using AI tools (after prior AI-free writing) engaged more extensive brain network interactions. In contrast, the LLM-to-Brain group, being exposed to LLM use prior, demonstrated less coordinated neural effort in most bands, as well as bias in LLM specific vocabulary.”
As a professional writer who loves to research random topics, write about them and whose idea of a relaxing time is to tinker with my notes in my Obsidian vault and read the latest nerdy theories about personal knowledge management, I’m very protective of my cognitive abilities.
The fact that using tech like AI assistants (aka ChatGPT) can have an impact on our physical brains alarms me quite a bit, especially in the age when “iPad kids” are a thing. We’re only starting to understand the impact of these devices on young brains, let alone (Large Language Models) LLMs.
The paper seem to suggest that using ChatGPT or any other LLMs to generate the essay first, then improve on it, is bad for your brain.
So, I’m glad I’m not using ChatGPT first before writing my essays.
I’ve always resisted this.
For one, I feel that the output “influences” my writing, so I refuse to ask AI to generate any copy first lest I be influenced to write like AI! (I’m the type of writer who can read someone else’s writing and unconsciously adopt their style.)
Instead, I’ve used this technique learned from my journalism days and when I was writing novels actively: Write a very rough, shitty first draft as fast as I can (I even have a 30-minute timer for this). Then, beautify the prose. Both are human activities.
I only use AI when I hit a “wall” or a “writer’s block”. I usually ask it for suggestions to improve sentence construction. Usually titles, which I admittedly need a lot of help for SEO reasons. I rarely, if ever, use the suggested copy wholesale, but rewrite it.
That said, besides the environmental impacts, we now need to consider the physical impacts on us before we use AI to write essays. And maybe, even from brainstorming, because apparently, if we use AI for advice, explanations or ideas, it can foster dependency?
Alas, I have to admit I love using AI for this use case. It’s like having conversations with another nerd about silly subjects and I can go down rabbit holes that way.
I have to admit, I like using AI to clarify my thoughts about decisions I’ve made, and that is a tad too soothing for me!
To clarify, however, AI isn’t the first person I turn to when I want advice, but I need to remember to reach out to humans first before AI, and not replace human advice with AI! I can see how, once I get too comfortable, I forget to do just this, and I can get dependent.
Recently, I shared a post on Mastodon about a brainstorming technique I stumbled on in Youtube, and was surprised by the pushback I received.
I, too, use AI to “stay in the subject” when exploring ideas. I personally think this is a healthy and productive way to use AI that won’t, well, damage your brain.
That said, I hope all of us remember that not only does using AI incur cognitive debt, it’s really damaging to the environment. We should be conscious that using AI to generate an image of a dog flying in space for larks impacts the environment:
Each time a model is used, perhaps by an individual asking ChatGPT to summarize an email, the computing hardware that performs those operations consumes energy. Researchers have estimated that a ChatGPT query consumes about five times more electricity than a simple web search. – Explained: Generative AI’s environmental impacts (MIT)
I hope, moving forward, that we writers can use AI in a way that is good for our brains and our environment.
That means not using AI for everything. A little challenging these days when the AI button option is everywhere, I have to admit. They are like little red buttons, enticing us to push them.
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Are you a loudcaster?
So, there’s a name for the phenomenon I hate so much: Loud casting.
“So how do we react when we experience others listening to their phones and other devices in public? About half of people maintain a British stiff upper lip and do nothing. The most common reaction for those who take action (cited by 44% of respondents) is to move away from the area. Only around one in 10 (9%) ask the person to stop. However, parents are more than twice as likely (14%) to ask someone to stop loudcasting, than non-parents (6%).”
I usually move away. But if I can’t, I’ll tell the person to stop – part of the 9%.
I hate doing this, but peace matters more for me, and although I know that person can be very angry and turn aggressive, desperation can drive you to do things.
I can be very terse and abrupt when I do that, I generally am quite nice but nothing irks me than putting up with noise after paying top dollar to enjoy reading my newsletters in a cafe. I’ve taken to wearing noise cancellers, but even that is not enough because THEIR SPEAKERS ARE SO LOUD.
This is can be a bad problem if there are loudcasters in your family, who may resist your attempt to make them stop.
For me, family vacations are an ordeal for me because both my parents are loudcasters. And they can loudcast at the same time, often while I’m trying to watch television.
My solution is, rather than share an apartment with them, I will get a separate room as I find the noise unbearable. Call me anti-social, but my peace and sanity is very important 😉
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iTOR: A cosy Western-Malaysian fusion cafe
Recently, my friends and I had a lovely lunch at a charming little cafe called Itor, which is the word “Roti” (Malay for bread) spelled backwards.
This Malaysian-Western fusion cafe, which opened in March, is located in Sunway Geo, which is located right opposite Sunway Medical Centre and within walking distance from the BRT station.
As soon as I stepped inside, the warm, inviting aroma of in-house baked bread hit me, instantly making my mouth water.
The cafe sells a variety of dishes such as sandwiches, pasta and roast chicken sets. However, what really stood out to me was how they infused a Malaysian twist to these mainstays.
My friends and I shared a variety of dishes so that we could have a taste of each.
The pineapple butter roti was a standout—a perfect blend of sweet and savory. The salted egg prawn roti was another favorite, rich and indulgent, while the signature honey roasted chicken was tender and flavorful.
We also tried the salted egg pasta, mee mamak Itor, and nasi lemak ayam berempah, all of which were delicious and satisfying.
Salted egg pasta. The salted egg pasta is also worth trying. The roast chicken was served with the creamiest, most buttery mashed potatoes practically melted in my mouth.
The owner was kind enough to explain their concept and dishes to us. Essentially, the foundation of their dishes revolves around their bread and the Malaysian twist.
There were several requests for the cafe to consider selling their freshly baked bread as a standalone item—it’s that good! (And no, the bread can’t be ordered separately, at least right now, because the demand for their sandwiches is high!)
The cafe is family-friendly, with a kids menu and an attached bathroom, making it a convenient spot for parents. For those who work or study nearby, the affordable lunches are a great option.
Nasi lemak ayam berempah at iTOR iTOR is located at A1-01-07, Sunway Geo Avenue, Bandar Sunway, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
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Elizabeth Tai 