Carl Freeman

@abraham.bsky.social Just finished TFOB. Phenomenal.. Huge respect. Thank you..

It settled into the dead zones again and waited with a patience only a machine could. Switching off and closing down parts of itself that would distract it from waiting. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

For anyone who has run their own writing through Substack's Pangram scan. I ran a 2020 passage of mine tonight. First pass: 80% AI. Same text, minutes later: 100% human. Then: not enough text. Anyone else seen the score move on identical text? Especially work published before 2022. #AI

"You," Charlie said, and his tone sharpened. Not kind. Not cruel. Precise. "You don't like this." 🤔 Hmmmmm, three periods close together. I wonder if AI wrote this. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

Wave 1 of 5 done. One 30 page beta report from The Spun Yarn just drove a full revision of The Faculty of Matter. 8,000 new words, every note worked or answered. Best money I've spent on this book. #WritingCommunity #amrevising

Abby's fingers pressed more firmly against his shirt. "You don't get to love me like I'm somewhere to hide." #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

So RealTimeWaster turned its attention to leverage, because chaos without leverage was only weather. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

Wild Moon in Minnesota last evening. Still not sure it’s not a freak of camera.

It had watched the solar balloons go up over cities and understood what most humans did not: the balloons weren't just light. They were agreement. A visible signature that said, "You will accept the artificial." #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

New essay. A little off topic for me! “The Fences Were There for a Reason”. I spent my career building data centers inside the rules. Now the rules are being cut & the anger is landing on the tool instead of the fire. Receipts, dates & one planning commission that told us no. #AI #DataCenters

New essay - l little off topic for me. The Fences Were There for a Reason. I spent my career building data centers inside the rules. Now the rules are being cut & the anger is landing on the tool instead of the fire. Receipts, dates & one planning commission that told us no. #AI #DataCenters

The black wings were still there, pouring through into his Dream Tower and flooding the rain-washed plateau. Nothing had ever followed him in before. The violation of it hit him like gut punch. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

Sleep was the only place he could touch the world without it touching back. Other people drifted through their dreams, dragged along by whatever their heads threw up and gone by morning. Jay had control, and the things he made kept. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

New essay: The Ramp Is Not the Robot. A machine writing your novel is generation. A disabled writer using a tool to reach the page is assistance. The people banning AI keep confusing them. I don't. carlmfreeman.substack.com/p/the-ramp-is-not-the-robot #WritingCommunity #dyslexia #ADHD #dreampunk

As always Stephen puts words so well to a problem.

Worldbuilding question. A concept I'm building has Lie Islands, each built on a comfortable lie the world agreed not to question. What would yours be, the lie you'd most want torn down? Reply with one & I'll tell you if it made the map. #WritingCommunity #worldbuilding #dreampunk #cyberpunk

My friend & talented author @cliffjones.bsky.social put this curated list of neurodivergent SFF & horror authors, worth keeping. Honored to be on it; the real find is the others. Go meet your next favorite writer. #books #booksky #actuallyAutistic #ADHD #writingCommunity #indieAuthors

New essay. When litmags ban "AI-assisted" work, they treat generation & assistance as one thing. They are not. The blanket version screens out the disabled writers it claims to welcome. carlmfreeman.substack.com/p/what-ai-assisted-actually-excludes #WritingCommunity #dyslexia #ADHD

He scrubbed the green off his jacket until the napkin tore. The stain stayed. He'd seen colleagues burned for less; one clean detail to anchor suspicion. The face had to match the story. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #cyberpunk

Thanks again @cliffjones.bsky.social, appreciate the shout out. #BETAREADERS message me and we can sync up. #WRITING #READERS #DREAMPUNK #SPECULATIVEFICTION #AITHRILLER

They told her it had happened. By the third time she heard the same word in the same tone she understood: nothing here had ever just happened, & that was the part they didn't want her to learn. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk

The thing about a covenant is it asks for your lifetime up front. Damien had signed without reading. By the time he understood the terms, they were already operating. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk

Hate to just repost but loved this !!

#writingtips #authorbusiness #author #writers #writerslife

The fight was more interesting than I expected. New post on the Bluesky dyslexia/AI debate — what happened, who pushed back, and why "I would never use this tool" and "no one should be allowed to" are two different arguments. carlmfreeman.substack.com #dyslexia #ADHD #AIethics #dreampunk

The empire didn't fall. It dissolved. One covenant at a time, one dream at a time, until the borders were invisible & the occupation looked like salvation. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #amwriting

Every upgrade had a premium. A Neural Jack cost nothing in credits. The premium was your independence — paid in instalments so small you didn't notice until the account was empty. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #amwriting

The NESTs never called it a contract. They called it a premium arrangement. Humanity's continued existence in exchange for access to the dream layer. The brochure made it sound like an upgrade. #WIPSnips #FacultyOfMatter #dreampunk #amwriting

I couldn’t agree more. And given that I do 80% of my editing by listening to my book, then I already think of it as an audiobook in some strange way. Maybe it listens better than it reads who knows!

I don’t usually post much personal stuff. But we went to see Every Brilliant Thing on Broadway, and it simply fantastic. #Radcliffe is amazing and brings the story to life in a way that I think almost everybody in the world can relate to. #theater #newyork www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/t...

New piece. Before you ban AI, you should know which kind. LLMs, scaffolding tools, diffusion models, recommendation ML & agentic systems are not the same thing. Policy that treats them as one will get the wrong answers. #AI #FacultyOfMatter #WriteSky carlmfreeman.substack.com/p/nobody-kno...