Writing Prompt - July 2026

Creative Mischief
Jul 1
2 min read

I've seen an explosion on social media of posts from authors whose work has been accused of being AI generated. This is absolutely demoralizing as a writer. Especially when the reader comments I see are nitpicking punctuation, pointing to phrases that have been used since I was a child (likely before), and arguing grammatical style as their evidence of Artificial Intelligence.

AI has been fed a wealth of academic articles, essays and novels (from modern romance to classic literature) in order to train it. It mimics the punctuation, vocabulary, styles and structures to which it has been exposed. AI checkers cannot discern human syntax and flair from AI itself because it has read the same material.

In junior high, a teacher accused me of plagiarizing a short essay. It was part of a grade-wide competition, the winner of which would receive an honor on the upcoming class trip. I was not attending the trip; I had no incentive to win. I wrote the essay in 20 minutes, using only the brochure supplied in class, doing no additional research. I told all of this to the teacher. And I told him that if he still thought I had plagiarized - being acquainted with my classwork throughout the year - there was nothing else I could say in defense, but any grade he gave me after this would be meaningless.

I lost respect for him that day; just as I lose respect for people slandering an author & their original work because they themself do not have the experience to recognize good writing.

Keep writing in your own style, and keep records of your work. Use whatever punctuation you need to be concise, correct, and impactful. Our stories trained AI; now we need to retrain our audience.

Holidays (offbeat, writing, and otherwise) to embrace this month:

July 02 - World UFO Day

July 04 - Independence Day (US)

July 08 - Video Games Day | Body Painting Day

July 13 - Oxymoron Day

July 14 - Shark Awareness Day | National Nude Day | Pandemonium Day

July 16 - World Snake Day

July 18 - World Listening Day

July 19 - National Ice Cream Day (3rd Sunday)

July 24 - Tell An Old Joke Day

July 25 - National Carousel Day

July 27 - National Love Is Kind Day