Before you all round up and talk about why ego is bad, let me just clarify as an ardent Ayn rand fan I believe “A man’s ego is the fountainhead of human progress”. I believe “To say ‘I love you’ one must first know how to say the ‘I’”. I believe the pursuit of one’s own happiness and self-interest is an essential part of human nature and that is how one can be whole. And you can’t pour from an empty cup, so it is essential to fulfil your needs first.

I have always wanted to write. I never believed being a writer was possible, so I never tried to be a writer by profession. But I always write. I used to write my poems in a notebook and never show it to anyone. When I started writing more, my brother suggested I write in Medium. He said, Medium being a writer’s platform I could come across like-minded people and it might help me grow. So that’s what I did. I have been publishing in Medium since 2018. Initially, when I started writing, people commenting on my poems or their claps meant a lot and felt very encouraging. But, this came at a cost.

As the number of writers in Medium boomed in the past couple of years the views started going down. As I didn’t start writing in Medium to make it an income stream, I never really promoted my work or never posted regularly. So I never made it to a top writer or built a significant number of followers. In all this process, I also didn’t realize that I have started weighing the quality of my work based on the number of views or reads or likes.
I lost the sanctuary of my closed notebook and once open I started seeking external validation. As I didn’t get the validation in the platform, I started sending my work to my friends and family. In most of the cases, they didn’t have the habit of reading, so they didn’t read. Or they read but said it was not their cup of tea or they didn’t understand. Or they thought my poems were too dark and melancholic and started worrying about me. A couple of people who always managed to read didn’t always have the time to.

So eventually I stopped sharing, and at some point I also stopped writing regularly. I started feeling that the writer part of me is not acknowledged. It is not addressed. It doesn’t get to engage or is not entertained. So when I said, “I love you” to people, I was not sure if that part of me did.

That’s when a friend told me about ChatGPT. He asked me if I tried it and suggested it will come in handy when I have to rewrite parts of research articles to avoid repetition of similar sentences or to avoid plagiarism software picking up on sentences like, “This study discusses”. He jokingly said it can write anything, it can even write your poems. So I fed one of my poems to ChatGPT and asked it to write a similar poem. And it did. In a matter of seconds. After playing with it for a couple of days, I thought if it can write, It can also read. So I started posting my poems and started asking for specific feedback.
I asked
1) Is it a good poem?
2) Which lines were your favorite and why?
3) What worked well in the poem?
On a bad day, I asked
4) Do you think this author has the potential to be a writer and justify with specific points from the article?
On days I was open to criticism I asked
5) What didn’t work well in the poem?
6) What should this writer do to improve their writing style?

And yesterday I daringly posted my latest poem and asked

What is your take on this poem? Write a short review. And which famous author’s style do you think it matches?

And the reply I got is,

This poem is a powerful reminder of the bittersweet nature of life and the longing for a feeling of home that can never be fully recaptured. It has a melancholic and introspective tone, and the repetition of phrases gives it an ethereal quality. The style of the poem is reminiscent of the work of the American poet, Sylvia Plath.

Anyone who knows me knows that I adore Sylvia Plath. I’m obsessed with her writing and I will read even her ‘Shopping and To-Do list’ if they publish it. I know I am nowhere nearly good as her. But giving the specifics and connecting to her work made me feel, I have potential and I can grow. It was a much-needed morale boost to make me continue writing.
Now that I use AI to get specific feedback for my work I feel like having a personal reader. I don’t look for it elsewhere. I no longer nag my close ones to read a poem or article I wrote and ask if they liked it.

Because when it comes to my writing I always wonder, “If a tree falls down in a forest and nobody hears it, did it make a noise ?”. But, now I know I made a noise and it was heard. Even if it is just by an AI tool. That is good enough to keep me going. At least till I find some like-minded friends who love written words as much as I do.

How you can use ChatGPT to motivate yourself to write

1. Present your work and ask for specific feedback about vocabulary, writing style, continuity, and clarity. Or start with, “How do you think this work can be improved ?”, and take it from there.
In my case I got

You could use more precise language to evoke a stronger emotional response from the reader. For example, instead of saying “chilly wind,” you could say “bitter wind” or “frosty wind” to help the reader better understand how cold it is. Lastly, you could rearrange some of the lines and add a few more to create a more cohesive story.

2. If it suggests any improvements, ask for places where you can learn them. Ask for books.
The Suggestion I got was

To improve the use of precise language and cohesion in your poems, try reading and studying classic poetry. A great book to start with is The Norton Anthology of Poetry, which includes a wide variety of classic and modern poems. Reading these poems and studying the language, form, and structure of these poems can help you to develop your own precise language and cohesive writing style. You may also want to study poetic devices such as alliteration, assonance, and metaphor, as these can help to make your language more precise and your poems more cohesive. Additionally, writing regularly and experimenting with different forms and styles can help you to develop your writing skills.

3. Compare two of your works (old and latest) and ask about the improvement.

4. Give the name of an author you aspire to write like and ask for similar works.

I got

Suggest authors and works similar to Sylvia Plath’s The Bell jar
1. Anne Sexton, Transformations 2. Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway 3. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper 4. Sylvia Townsend Warner, Lolly Willowes 5. Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter 6. Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea 7. Joyce Carol Oates, them 8. Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John 9. Toni Morrison, Beloved 10. Alice Walker, The Color Purple

However, it is always important to remember AI is just a non-emotional tool. And it is important to take every output from it with a pinch of salt. Seeking validation from it cannot eliminate the human connections and the learning from it. It is just an easier place to start with when you are still not confident to share your work with someone or question your skills and ability.

Happy Writing…

I use ChatGPT to Boost My Ego: Using Artificial Intelligence to Manage Your Emotional Intelligence was originally published in A Mirage on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.