Started using AI tools heavily about 18 months ago for client work. Articles, briefs, repurposing content, the usual freelance grind. It saved real time and I was grateful for that
But something shifted that I only noticed recently. When I sit down to draft something from scratch now, my brain goes looking for a prompt box. The habit of externalizing that starting impulse has gotten into my muscle memory somehow. A journalist friend called it losing your idle gear, and that stuck with me.
It's not writer's block exactly. The words still come. It's more that the internal monologue that used to warm up my thinking before I typed anything has gotten quieter. I relied on that noise.
The weird part is I don't think the writing got worse. Clients are happy, output is faster. But the process feels different in a way that's hard to explain without sounding dramatic about it.
Curious whether this resonates with anyone who writes professionally, or even just a lot. Did the tool reshape how you think before you write, not just during? And is that a problem worth caring about, or just adaptation doing what it does
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