Post

I think a bit of the "AI is democratizing art" argument is trying to avoid the ugly truth that to get good at anything you have to do a lot of it. I grew up "knowing" I was a good writer, but I really wasn't until about 700k words, and it took reading hours of scripts to really have a voice

I'll also say the spoken word stuff was the thing that really helped the most. Reading stuff out loud - dramatically, entertainingly - and forcing yourself to reckon with clunky sentences helped my writing an immeasurable amount. Either way, art is effort, even if making the art is fun

I also still feel weird calling anything I do "art," and the closest I'll get is that the solo spoken episodes are, on some level, performance, though none of it is faux-outrage, I am just boiling like that about these subjects

I cannot not think of this quote whenever this discussion point comes up.

I think that's a core truth for any discipline specific writer or broadcaster. The great ones I've talked to all just have *so many thoughts* that they have to turn to writing or broadcasting because otherwise they go insane or drive everyone around them insane.

This even works for mediocre writers (me)

Just as an aside, I think what you have in your bio absolutely contributed to my disillusionment with college.