“I just need a Bic, a yellow pad, and some time...”
I explore how long it took writers to create some of the most-known and talked about books, films and songs from Hamilton to Saltburn and why I think AI will never replace human creativity.
Mainstream media and employers are excited that AI can write in half the time of a human and do twice the output. The value is placed on speed and quantity instead of creativity, and the skill and effort that is required for someone to create something.
I finished Dolly Alderton’s Good Material at the weekend and couldn’t stop thinking about the book afterwards, I’m rewatching Schitt’s Creek because it is my ultimate comfort show, and some scenes still give me goosebumps. I typed into ChatGPT tell me an inspirational story. Sure enough, it spat out a load of text in under a minute but was I inspired? No (genuinely, it had no emotion!)
I’m confident AI has not mastered creativity, and it won’t either. No one can write humans, like humans can. Writing that makes you cry, laugh and tell your friends YOU MUST read, watch or listen too, takes time and care.
I decided to explore further the time that goes into creating art we love. If you’re working on something: keep going.
Emerald Fennell is currently enjoying worldwide success with her black comedy, Saltburn. Eight years ago the now famous image of someone licking a bathtub popped into her head.
It took her four or five years to develop the plot in her head before finally writing the script. She talks about her writing process in this Screen Daily interview1:
“By the time it gets to the page, it’s almost word-perfect for what’s been said in my head 1,000 times. Obviously you have to redraft, but I try not to do that too much because a story can lose its emotional honesty about the messy business of being a human. I would rather things felt a little stickier and more immediate than they had been smoothed over.”
Author, Toni Morrison, said “three years is the shortest time I have spent writing a book, most of them take six or seven.”2
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “My Shot” from award-winning Hamilton took him two years to write and perfect every one of the 1,119 words (an average song usually only has 300 words).
My mum recently told me about Jerry Seinfeld (creator of widely successful sitcom Seinfeld which continues to make him millions despite its last episode airing in 1998) and how she’d heard he spent two years on writing one joke.
He told the New York Times3 about his writing process and how he is so particular about the syllables and words he chooses to get the desired reaction from the audience. Jerry and his co-creator Larry David wrote every episode long form and on a yellow pad (he found the cursor taunted him).
Doing your best at anything takes a certain level of obsession. It takes effort and resiliency. Others think you're wasting your time, others think AI can do a better job. But you’re creating something you want and doing something you love. And isn’t that the best way to spend time even if that’s years, months or days.
PS: This is an amazing infographic on how long it took authors to write some of world’s most loved books, two and half days for The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, 4 years for The Time Traveler’s Wife and 10 years for Catcher in the Rye. Don’t worry if you feel like it’s taking too long!
Thank you for reading!
https://www.screendaily.com/features/why-emerald-fennell-was-inspired-to-make-saltburn-by-the-image-of-someone-licking-a-bathtub/5188180.article
https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/toni-morrison/
Watch Jerry Seinfeld break down a joke: