I hope AI takes my job

Things in the freelance writing world are weird right now. I know many freelancers are struggling.

Companies are firing our longstanding client contacts without warning, leaving contracts and retainers up in the air. 

Our pipelines are drying up. 

Potential clients are ghosting us left and right. 

Calls for freelancers on LinkedIn get hundreds of comments. 

And some companies are ending freelancer relationships in favor of DIYing content with ChatGPT. 

For the last few years — basically since I started freelancing in early 2022 — I’ve seen posts about how AI is coming for my job.

I’m still waiting for that to come true. 

No, really. Don’t threaten me with a good time. 😂

Since LLMs first came on the scene, I’ve gone back and forth between total AI abstinence and heavy reliance on AI for brainstorming, outlining, and even partial drafts. 

I’ve currently landed somewhere in the middle, but I’m not particularly happy about it. I reluctantly, almost ashamedly, use AI in some of my writing workflows. My feelings about AI are complicated.

Ultimately, I don’t think it’s a big deal to use AI as a helper for some projects, especially SEO blogs and articles. Even though they’re published on public-facing websites or company blogs, SEO pieces are essentially written for a robot audience. Why not use robots (AI chatbots) to write content for other robots (search algorithms)?

On the other end of the spectrum of ethical AI usage (in my opinion), is AI “art.” AI-generated images fill me with dread, rage, and indignation. Art is — should be — distinctly human. I have zero interest in art created by robots.

And I think that’s why I say, “I hope AI takes my job.”

Deep down, I don’t want to do a job that a robot can do. I want to be an artist. I want to be a novelist. I want to create things that are undeniably, 100% human. If AI takes my job, I’ll be out of excuses.

Honestly, my dream was never to be a freelance writer specializing in longform B2B content. 😂 Freelancing is awesome, but I’ve always wanted to be an author and artist. I don’t want to wait until I’m retired to pursue those things. 

It feels good to finally admit that to myself.

I recently found my 50,000-word NaNoWriMo draft from 2014 in my email inbox (I thought it was lost forever on an old laptop hard drive). I also dug through an old bin of school stuff and found some short stories and other creative writing projects from high school and college. I even found one story from elementary school, with details borrowed heavily from my obsessions at the time (Spy Kids and Dinotopia, lol).

Finding those old stories reminded me that I was absolutely born to be a writer. Not because they were so amazing but because I’ve never wanted anything as much as I want to write stories. 

I’m not going to quit freelancing cold turkey to focus on my creative pursuits, but I am trying to intentionally fill my days with more fun and art and stories. Not just someday, but today.

See you next week,

Kara

Out of Office

What I’m doing when I’m not working

• I have a doom scrolling problem, and this past week was particularly bad. I’m trying to get my screentime down, and I’m considering getting a Brick. Has anyone tried that?

• I sorted my Goodreads to-read list by date added — oldest first, and I’m going to try to read some of the books that have been on that list for 10+ years. Up first: Jane Eyre. I’m loving it! 

• I kind of hate that I relate to this so much. It felt relevant to today’s topic:

P.S. Got a question about self-employment, anti-hustle culture, business books, or something else?

Kara Detwiller is a writer and creative based in small-town Saskatchewan. She specializes in long-form content writing for enterprise SaaS, cybersecurity, and manufacturing clients. She is also working on her first novel, among other creative pursuits. To connect, reply to this email or find Kara on LinkedIn. To support her work on Wishful Working, share this email with someone or buy her a “coffee.”

Why Wishful Working? I write this newsletter because I want to see more people enjoy a life not centered around work. For some, the path to freedom and flexibility is through self-employment, but we also need to challenge cultural norms and champion healthier working conditions and work/life balance for all types of workers.