ChatGPT vs A. Ghostwriter: Content Showdown
Author Name: A-054828
Orders Accepted: 3,513
Total Word Count: 652,944
Started: 11/1/2010
Ended: 3/1/2023
Reason for Leaving: ChatGPT Ate My Job
Existentially, I’m a violinist.
But for the last 13 years, I ghostwrote websites for piecemeal pay.
On the Internet, they say, “content is king.”
And as a reclusive personality, solitary work suited me just fine. Landing pages, product reviews, press releases, biographies, articles, blogs, etc. I did it all.
(You didn’t really think all those byline authors did their own work, now, did you…?)
The end began in Feb. 2023 when ChatGPT consumed the text content industry. I wrote consistently for 13 years, and one day: Poof!
All the work was gone.
Ghostwriting for websites was always a job for a bot:
The ChatGPT is fast and free: It also produces the kind of text that search engines use to rank pages; SEO writing. But…that used to be my job!
I used to say, “Websites don’t write themselves, you know…”
Now, I’d add, “except when they do.”
By March, all the usual work was gone. Oh, and as a 1099 contract writer, I don’t qualify for unemployment benefits.
So, here I am….at Substack.
Now, what’s on the mind of A. Ghostwriter? Let’s find out.
A Ghostwriter Writes, Right?
My commercial writing was clean, concise and very, very boring. But, it did pay the bills.
“On the side”, I’d vent frustration at having my artistic vision hijacked & harnessed by the capitalist mode of production: To cope, I wrote poetry…and other things, too.
It was lyrical, mystical, romantic, messy, wild, politic, unhinged, metered, introspect and very, very intense to craft.
This Substack seeks to fuse the two.
Grasping for a Lifeline…
As a 1099 contract writer with no unemployment benefits, this is risky. Substack readers are now a lifeline: Will I survive?
Or, perhaps all this effort might only unlock another waterfall of tears, such as the one that brought me here: At least in that moment, I felt fully human.
Today is March 4, 2023: I need to find a way to pay the bills.
My pickle: Will my work get enough support from fellow humans — after capitalism dumped me for that skanky ChatGPT? Omg, I actually want my old job back…I hated that job! ((sob))
I wrote business copy for so long that it’s hard for me to imagine another line of work. Okay, okay…I will do this: I will write something new every day.
Well, almost every day…
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ChatGPT has a dark side for the reader, too: “It may reduce most users into docile consumers of AI-generated data.”
Update:
Producing content is time-consuming; so yes, this was a kind of fundraiser….and it didn’t work. I can admit failing.
Sure. I’ll keep writing here, but I can already see this is not a viable solution to replace my loss of income.
Social networking is the most important skill I don’t have; lacking it is exactly why I was able to write business copy in isolation for so long. By now, I’m too set in my ways to change: Effing effed.
Thanks for reading my new “vent blog”, though - it’s free therapy, at this point. F.
F is for Friday - publishing day. See you then.
Glad you're here, Violin. I eagerly await you to blossom.🌻
👋