Thomas Smith
11.4K posts
Thomas Smith
@tsmithwriting
I'm a Christian, a writer, and a pretty decent guitar picker. God and my wife both love me. And I write books, stories and other stuff from the beach.
Florida Katılım Kasım 2010
1.8K Takip Edilen1.1K Takipçiler
@oelma__ To live every day to the fullest, and listen for the voice of God.
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Thomas Smith retweetledi
It’s official!!! I’m gonna be a published author!! Words cannot describe how grateful I have felt these last few months, this is an absolute dream come true ❤️
Skeeter Pete 🐕🐶 is gonna steal your hearts (unless you’re a cat person 🤭)
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Thomas Smith retweetledi
If you need GOD 365 days a year...
Put I Do 👇🏼
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@Hania16836 Heart surgery isn’t as bad as it seems. You’ll feel tired for a while (naps will be your new best friend), but just don’t rush the recovery time. Almost no pain at all. You’ll do great!!!
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What is one thing you will tell Jesus if he was standing right in front of you?
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What is the best monster movie/creature feature you’ve seen that wasn’t about a zombie, vampire, or werewolf?
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@MichaelFKane Recently I asked (1) give me 5 things that would indicate a person was being auctioned on the dark web, and (2) what specialized computer or software would it take to uncover such things if any. From there I could make my story work without having the character sound ignorant.
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Okay. As an author in 2026, who is firmly against using AI to write my prose ever, here are some uses I have found for AI to support me. I have access to SuperGrok. Your results may vary somewhat with lower or better AI models. Also, if you're unwilling to let an AI even look at your manuscript, then you won't find a lot of use.
I know some of you are still paranoid about letting an AI read your work because it will 'steal' from you, but the truth is that ship has basically sailed. You're welcome to hold to your convictions, but that's not one I have. (Also some models have 'private' modes that don't use conversation to train, but whether or not you trust that is entirely up to you.
These are uses I've found:
1. Grammar checker. Process: Give grok precise instructions. I want you to check for grammar, focus on punctuation. I will post a link to a google doc. Look at the document. Do not offer fixes, just tell me what you think is wrong and transcribe the entire affected sentence here in chat.
Post the sharable link of the google doc. I recommend one chapter at a time here.
30 seconds you've got a list of sentences to go back and check. Is it perfect? No. But no other system is either yet. Consider it another layer of safty net.
2. Character list. Grok look at this document, create a complete list of characters in this novel, named, unnamed, major, and minor. Sort them into logical groups (IE Soldiers, Civilians, etc). Write a one sentence description of their roll in the story and cite every chapter they occur in.
I think you understand why that's useful. Excellent for the editing stage when you're bouncing around trying to remember exactly where a minor character showed up and said something.
3. Voice Style Guide. This one was a little trickier and I haven't finished using it yet. Current book has a character that has a light Appalachian dialect. I'm more suggesting the presence of a dialect than actually writing in it, as vernacular can get annoying to read. Took me half the novel to really settle into it so it's currently uneven.
Grok look at this document. Analyze everything I did for character Joseph McKee to give him an Appalachian dialect. Create me a quick style guide of things that I did (focusing on the back half where it was more consistent) so that I can use it while I edit his voice for consistency. Please keep it to one page so I can see the entire thing on my second monitor while I edit.
Now I have my short checklist of things to remember as I make his voice more consistent. (Always use en't instead of aren't, etc.)
4. Minor research. I've read two books for this short novel, and I've got two more on the docket for next book. AI isn't an excuse for really diving into to topics you need to know about. But it is good at tracking down details that you need. A couple things to keep in mind.
a. Always consider the level of accuracy you need at any given moment. Somethings it's not imperative it be exact, and in those cases it's like consulting Wikipedia. It's probably okay to be 'close enough' if you want to know how many hands tall revolutionary war chargers were.
b. None the less, an easy way to backcheck anything with AI, is to simply ask it again in a new prompt but start with the answer it gave you. If you get a conflict, you'll have to dig deeper yourself.
b. Ask the AI to cite sources with links you can click. And then check those links to see if the source is any good if you need to, or simply ask the AI to find you sources and use them yourself. Also completely viable.
As a writer, if you're doing research, you're always on the hook for this sort of stuff anyway. Just be aware that you WANT the AI looking elsewhere for it's information. You do NOT want it to just look for the information within it's own model. The former is far more likely to be accurate than the latter.
5. Name lists. Grok give me 50 male first names of Dutch origin.
I think that speaks for itself. This largely replaces hitting up every baby name site, plus you can have the AI sort those lists in a way the websites can't.
Please make every name two syllables, none starting with vowels.
6. By the same token, an AI is much better than a thesaurus if you're looking for something specific, because like with the names, you can have it sort things for you.
Give me 20 words related to 'night' please list them in a chart, include language of origin, and sort them top to bottom, by how common they are in the english language.
Is that useful to you? Heck if I know, but maybe it is. And that's the sort of weird thing you can do with an AI that a thesaurus cannot.
Okay that's it.
My philosophy is to use AI as an assistant to help me do things that I have to do that I are part of the process, but not part of the art. I don't let it write my words. I don't let it edit for me.
But it can be useful at sorting data in ways that other tools can't. And it's useful for pulling data across an entire document and compiling it in ways that a human COULD do, but would be, frankly, boring. Some slow tasks are enriching to complete. But I don't find list making particularly useful.
Not a good use of time, in other words.
Sorry for Quote tweeting you a wall of text @HermanPHunter1 , but when I got into it, I realized some other authors may find some of this useful. There ARE good tasks for AI for writers I think. But you need to be creative about what the AI could do for you that you simply can't, or are unwilling to spend the time to do.
For instance.
7. Just remembered an experiment I was going to try. I don't have a list of dates in the current novel, but I'm going to try to give the AI a starting date and see if it can construct a calendar of events.
Certainly a task I could do, but if it can find every reference to time passing and document them, I'm happy to look over it and save 20 minutes I can put towards something more fulfilling.
That's it.
That's all I've got for now.
🫡
Herman P. Hunter, Author@HermanPHunter1
@MichaelFKane I, honestly, just done see a huge need for it. I'd like to use one for editing passes, but as it stands, it doesn't do as good of a job as a human editor. And if the output requires a significant amount of tinkering, I'd rather just create it myself.
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@nm_webb You won’t believe just how much better you will feel!
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I need to fill my head with the sounds of glorious Christian music to drown out all the evil swirling around me
What is your favorite Christian song and artist?
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I feel like giving up.
I've been through alot, not placing myself on a pedestal as many have been through worse.
I just can't do this anymore.
I haven't smiled in 100 days I reckon, I 🙏 but nothing, no joy, I'm following God's path.
Never have I felt like this in 47yrs.
😔
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If you’ve got a prayer to spare now’s the time to use it. 5 year old Ashkan Thibodeaux from Minnesota is fighting for his life after jumping in a freezing creek to save his little brother.
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I have an announcement. My fiancé informed me today that at a doctor's appointment my baby girls' heart beats were no longer there. I've lost them before I even met them. So if you're the praying type, I would appreciate them for her and for them.
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