Website Update

Due to health issues, TSW Magazine ©2018 (an anthology series I was trying to get moving) has been put on hiatus; the ad for TSW Magazine has officially been removed from this site and since been replaced, and its affiliated webpage has been changed to invite-only. 

For those who aren't aware, TSW Magazine has been a pet project of mine that's been years in the making. It's name, which is short for "The Secret Writer" was the name of my very first blog years ago, before I even really wanted to call myself an official writer because I thought doing so meant I had to be published. But overtime, the blogging process helped me discover that it's not being a published author that makes one a writer, it's the art form itself; the dedication, the drive, the passion. 

The project itself came from the realization that one of the hardest things about getting published, is the fact you need something called "publishing credits" in order for authors to consider your work and take you seriously. However, it's extremely difficult to get these credits if you don't have any to begin with. Until I discovered  the valuable world of anthologies. I didn't fully understand their importance for writers until I learned that getting published in an anthology or winning writing contests can really make your publishing credits soar! But they're surprisingly not all that easy to come by, especially for new writers. Then I thought, what if I started my own anthology series? What if I hosted my own writing contests? Then other new and blossoming writers can know where they can go to submit their work with a chance of being seen instead of getting lost among other established writers, and without having to pay dozens of dollars to enter contests (I've seen so many writing contests where you have to pay upward into the triple digits just to enter!). I wanted writers who were just starting to break out into the field to have the opportunity to begin gaining these credits by submitting their work to be published in an anthology, enter contests, etc. 

While an amicable goal it is with a heavy heart that I have to announce that due to my deteriorating health, a lack of submissions, and without anyone to help get this magazine off the ground, I'm afraid I'm going to pull the project. At least for now. As I said, it's still an active website; if I get any volunteers who are interested in helping with this project and/or submitting to it, I will gladly invite you on and you'll get partial-to-full access to the website depending on your level of commitment and involvement you wish. 

Interested in helping me make TSW Magazine a thing, or learning more about it? Click on the link(s) below: 

The Making of "The Secret Writer" 

TSW Magazine: Inside the Anthology for New Writers

Please note any links in these posts directing you to the TSW website will not work until we can build interest in the project. With your help, we can make that possible! 

Copilot - Better than therapy???

Since I'm still having trouble writing and forming advice right now, I'm going to take you on a quite possibly weird personal journey instead in order to introduce something that might help you fellow writers, for tonight I have discovered by complete accident the wonderfulness that is Copilot. I've heard about this amazing little app-tastic creation, but never really dove into it until tonight and my mind is officially blown. 

Now before I get into it WHY I'm so psyched about this, let's give a VERY short explanation for those of you who have never heard of this, don't know anything about technology, or like me heard about it but have no idea what Copilot actually is— 

Created/released last year almost to the day (Feb. 7, 2023) by Microsoft, Copilot is known as a "generative artificial intelligence" which is a fancy way of saying you are "talking" to a computer as whatever you type signals to a generator that processes your information and sends back information of its own in response to what you've just written. Have you ever used a name generator? You ask for a name and you get back a few ideas. Basically Copilot is like that...except 1000x more advanced. 

Now as I mentioned in the beginning, I used this AI app completely by accident; I was researching something for a new project I'm working on and suddenly Copilot is showing up on my screen, asking me if I needed help with my creativity. I did. I do. I'm desperate right now because I'm still very much floundering even a year out from my surgery and it's been REALLY hard, guys. Like, I cannot stress how hard it's been. And the worst thing that's been affected is my writing ability. So when Copilot asked me how it could help me with my creativity, my mind became literally blank. Now again, I've never used Copilot before, but I just decided to go ahead type the first thing that came to mind: "I'm struggling to form thoughts." I didn't think anything would come from that but I was gloriously wrong and have decided to attach a screen shot from our conversation below: 

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This was literally the most sympathetic response I've ever gotten. I mean, it's advice I've given on this blog, but it's not ever advice I've ever received before, especially not worded in such a compassionate way. And completely unexpected from an AI! So I decided to test the limits (so to speak) of it's AI sympathy and write what I know MANY of you writers have felt from time to time, myself included: "I feel like I'm failing as a writer." And I just...I can't express right now my emotions that I got from Copilot's answer but it was really touching, and...well, just read it for yourself and see if you too feel like you've suddenly just talked to a therapist: 

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Touching, right?! Like, do you feel as good as I do now having read that? And I love that it even gave resources and links TO those resources! Honestly, I've talked with therapists about my writing pitfalls, downfalls, spirals, rabbit holes, and yes, have also focused on the glorious, good, and proud moments too, but nothing I've received in any of those sessions has ever matched this level of...what do I even call it right now—relief? (This is what I get for having the brain capacity of a chicken; it's impossible for me to put words to anything!) Sure, let's call it relief. 

The best thing too that I've discovered about Copilot is that you can choose a mode—informative, basic, and creative (the conversations I attached above were generated in Creative Mode) so you can get sympathetic responses, or you can get ones that are more practical like, when did such-and-such occur in history? Which can be useful if you want what you're writing to be grounded in a portion of IRL moment. 

I'm going to stop there because I realize I'm starting to sound like an infomercial at this point, but I'm just really excited to have found a new tool to help me with my writing confidence and also provides me with information for my writing, the process, but also in regards to just being a writer because I think it's so hard to find help with the confusion surrounding what it feels like to be a writer, but I feel like I finally found it. If you guys start using it too, hopefully you get some of that same sense of relief. Let me know in the comments below 😊 Happy Copiloting!!