Why write?

I've been thinking about what is drawing me to creative writing at the moment. The easiest reason to give is "I have an idea for a story," but that's nothing new. I often have ideas for stories, but this is the first time I've committed to writing one. I believe the actual trigger is how AI has transformed my day job as a software engineer.

I retrained over 8 years ago to become a software developer. Prior to that I worked on software projects on the non-technical side, as a business analyst or project manager, often acting as the interpreter between the customers and the engineers to ensure the projects would deliver what was required.

I sat next to the engineers and envied them for their ability to transform lines of text into a working application. While I had learnt some basic coding, I didn't know how to go from displaying "hello world" on a screen to actually building something that people could use.

I thought it was too late for me to change careers. I was already in my late 30s, and every Computer Science graduate would be more knowledgeable than me and more attractive to employers. However, the pull towards coding eventually overcame my fear of failure and I decided to retrain. Fast forward, and I've now been a software engineer for 8 years and have worked for several companies on many projects, each very different from the one before.

In every project I've started from a position of not knowing. Often the business domain or coding language is unfamiliar, and frequently it's not clear how to solve the problem that I've been tasked with. As a result I've had to learn a lot, and I've become comfortable moving from not-knowing to a place of understanding. That involves learning from others' experiences, trying things out in a safe environment, and refining based on the resulting success or failure until the approach for the project is clear.

There is a great deal of satisfaction in that journey. And it's a journey that never ends. There is very rarely a point where a piece of software is "done", as there is never enough time to finish every requirement before go-live, and when it's in use more and more feature requests come in.

However, something fundamental has changed in my relationship with software development since the release of AI coding tools. Coding is one area that AI excels at. The attraction at first was that it would take a lot of the tedium and frustration out of the work. I went from searching the internet for "what does this error mean?", to pointing my AI coding agent at the error and seeing the answer specific to my project appear almost instantly. This was a great help and saved me a lot of time in troubleshooting.

Next, AI advanced and I could say "looking at this project, what are the options for implementing this feature?" and get an almost instant reply. The quality of the suggestions was hit and miss, but it would save a lot of time, as I could then use my own knowledge to identify the promising avenues to investigate further.

Now the results are so good that there is no longer any incentive to code "by hand." AI can write code much faster. My knowledge is still needed to determine what approach to use, and ensure the results are correct and okay to release, but the implementation is in most cases fully handled by AI now. As a consequence I no longer feel the connection to the code, to the resulting application, as I once did.

Before, whenever I completed a coding task, I would feel the same sense of satisfaction that comes from solving a tricky problem. Like with a large puzzle, placing the final piece and looking back at the whole picture knowing "I did that." I felt a connection between the effort I exerted and the result, as if a part of me was in the application. Now, while I direct and make decisions, as it's AI that actually writes the code I don't get the same "I did that" feeling. It's similar to when I was a business analyst and would write the requirements that the engineers would implement. I am still an integral part of the process, but it feels like I do not create the tangible result any more.

I believe this is why I'm drawn to writing now. I wish to create something that is wholly of me. To feel a direct connection between my efforts and the results.

And again, I feel like it's too late as the creative space seems to be overwhelmed by AI-generated "slop." Will there even be anyone interested in reading my stories in the future? Plus I am starting from the place of not-knowing, without any experience writing sci-fi, creating a fictional universe, or any sense of the scale of work involved in writing a book.

What I do know is that I will learn a lot by trying.