Avoid the white page

Whenever I see a blank page, I think "wow, so much space to express myself". It lasts for a few seconds until another thought creeps up on me. "What do I write? How do I start?" or, even worse, "What do I write about?"

Today I was thinking that LLMs might help me with that. For example, I have a thought I want to write about, I can just ask ChatGPT for some tips and maybe even structure...

I want to write a blog post about "the pleasures of analog photography" and how I love my 50+ years old film cameras, and how expensive it is to buy and develop films at a lab, but how amazing it is to see the photos, can you please generate a short list of subjects to touch upon

I immediately have a consistent base for writing my article:

Hey Lucian — here’s a tight list you can riff on:
The ritual: loading a roll, advancing the lever, that mechanical thunk—why the tactile dance matters.
Living with 50-year-old cameras: patina, fully-mechanical reliability, meter quirks, manual focus joy.
Cost & commitment: film, lab development, scans—how price per frame sharpens intention.
Slowness as a feature: composing deliberately, accepting the wait, savoring the reveal like vinyl.
Film stocks as “palettes”: color vs B&W, grain, latitude, and how stock choice shapes mood.
Serendipity & imperfections: light leaks, halation, motion blur—happy accidents as aesthetic.
Community & the lab: conversations with techs, trusting a lab, supporting local craft.
Hybrid workflow: getting scans, light touch edits, archiving negatives, printing your favorites.
Printing & permanence: contact sheets, darkroom vs lab prints, the pleasure of holding a photograph.
Mindfulness & story: fewer frames, stronger narratives; photo walks as a social, present-moment practice.
Next, I can turn these into a lean outline with suggested anecdotes and transitions—just say the word.

Did AI chipped my creativity?

Hell, no. As a matter of fact, it fueled it. I instantly get inspiration for many things to write about that are right up my topic.

At the end of the day, AI and more specifically LLMs are, as most other things, tools. They can be used smart or not. Depends on each and one of us.

Now I have to go away and write the post I mentioned above.