When I write anything new, I always save it locally and to a cloud account. Being super paranoid, I also send a copy to a web-based email address. I keep a folder of all those copies throughout the process in the email account. It used to be that I would subsequently delete all the backups from the webmail account once a piece was published, in order to save on the limited space allowed by those email accounts. In the latest example of AI poisoning everything and fucking everything up, however, it’s becoming clear that there are times when writers will need to prove they didn’t use AI.Therefore, I’m now going to have to keep every iteration of those backups in case my own writing is ever questioned. The recent debacle with the Commonwealth Short Story Prize is the latest example of this. Thankfully they didn’t use AI to track AI because that’s patently fucking mental. AI is trained on our writing so it just flags everything as some percentage AI. Someone recently showed the start of chapter 5 of Shelley’s “Frankenstein” where a fucking bot had declared it 100% definitely AI. It’s like asking someone who only sees in black and white if something is in black and white. It really is that fucking stupid. All gen-AI really is that fucking stupid. Yet here we are doing more labour to avoid the flood of slop from fuckwits. Yes, I’m getting angrier.The Commonwealth prize “examined evidence related to the development of their stories, including working drafts, time-stamped documents and notes”. This is good, at least, and it SUCKS that it’s necessary. But the integrity of actual writing MUST be maintained.So while it means extra work for us (thanks, Techbros, you useless shits) at least we have a potential way to address the issue. So regardless of how much email space it ends up taking, I won’t be deleting all my working draft backups any more. I’ll have a record, dated and very clear, of the development of every work I do. It pisses me off that it’s necessary, but it is necessary. So I encourage every writer to start doing something similar and having a solid, dated trail of drafts.Simply emailing yourself a copy of any work every time you do anything with it is a pretty good method and I’m not sure there’s a better way. At least, not a better way that’s as simple. Here’s a screenshot from my backup folder from when I was working on The Rise, for example. Anyway, I recommend you seriously consider the issue if you’re a writer. For artists, backing up sketches and progress would be the equivalent. Even timestamped phone photos of the work in progress might work. Something all creative people need to consider now.Anyway, absolutely fuck AI all the way into the sun, I hate it so much.

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