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What a Law School Evidence Exam Reveals About AI and Legal Writing The test looked like Frogger. It was really Tetris. AI will play excellent Frogger — and never know a different game is on the table. By R.R. Hicks · Forlorn Hope Publishing The Law School Story Behind the...

What AI Content Detectors Get Wrong About Human Writing AI detectors have figured out the perfect business model: sell the disease and the cure in the same breath. Catch-22's Milo Minderbinder would be proud. By R.R. Hicks · Forlorn Hope Publishing A Catch-22 Lesson for the Age of AI Let's...

What One AI Commercial Reveals About Accuracy, Expertise, and Trust A predictive market firm used AI to make "the best AI commercial ever." It got Paul Revere wrong, the Wright brothers wrong, and the Battle of Thermopylae wrong. It was, in fact, perfect — just not in the way they...

Original Connections Still Belong to Human Writers Writing for law firms shouldn't be about legal minutiae. It can be about anything — as long as it connects. That's strictly a human 's-gotta-do-it thing. By R.R. Hicks · Forlorn Hope Publishing Where Great Legal Writing Really Begins Writing for law firms...

How Negative Space Reveals the Difference Between Human Writing and AI The best part of the Hartford Whalers logo is the part that isn't there. Writing has the same trick. AI detectors have decided it's a tell. Flagging a pattern and understanding it are two different jobs. By R.R. Hicks...

The Jerry Rosenberg Principle: Why Real Lawyers Still Matter About law firms using AI for blogs, web pages, articles, or maybe even social media: don’t use it unless there is a lawyer—not the marketing director, not a paralegal, not a tech-savvy friend—reading everything Grok, Gemini, Chat GPT, and the rest...

A Cautionary Tale from the Trenches of Legal Writing How 600,000 Words Became an Invaluable Resource—Until the Upgrade I had a chat thread on Chat GPT 4.5 Pro uploaded with somewhere around 600,000 words—FHP words written for many clients and ourselves. We used it as a reservoir of themes and...

Google just announced it’s changing the search and discovery rules—again. Search will now prioritize short-form video, forum chatter, and “user-generated content.” In theory, this is about connecting people to “first-hand experience.” In practice, it’s about giving the illusion of humanity in a system increasingly written by machines. When Google talks...

The Best Interview Lesson You’ll Ever Hear—On a Hall of Fame Bus Tom Verducci recently shared a story about riding the bus from the hotel to the Baseball Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The early bus was crowded, he grabbed the first open seat he could find. He sat, adjusted,...

Why Is Everyone Suddenly Scared of the Em Dash? A while back, I wrote a piece expressing my irritation (okay, controlled outrage) at the claims circulating online (especially LinkedIn) that using em dashes was proof of AI-generated writing. My annoyance was triggered by non-professional writers confidently asserting that no real...

Reclaiming the “Backstairs Justice System” The Search That Started It I was looking for something for a client when I typed “Backstairs Justice System” into Google’s AI search. What came back could have been written by a well-meaning civics intern. A neat little “colloquialism” tag. A breakdown of how defendants...

How AI Missed the Point Entirely on a Viral Case The Case That Wasn’t A few weeks ago, there was a follow-up to a story I had written about for a client – a teenager was clocked at 132 mph on a Connecticut highway. The story went viral when the...

Why First-Person Writing is Now a Search Ranking Strategy The Long Campaign for First Person For years I’ve been asking (begging, to be more accurate) lawyers to write in the first person. To very little success. “I just don’t want to make it about me,” was a common, if erroneous,...

“Beware the Em-dash, my son! The dashes that slash, the punctuation that screams! Beware the Em-dash, and shun The frumious AI Detector!” ~ Lewis Carroll’s Chat GPT, circa 1870 The LinkedIn Theory of the Em-dash "Tell" LinkedIn posts like this have been making the rounds all week: The easiest way...

Why Compelling Characters Matter When I sit down with a new book, the plot might grab my attention, but it's the characters who hold it hostage. Compelling characters don't merely tell a story; they breathe life into it. But what exactly makes a character genuinely engaging? Authenticity: The Foundation of...

Why Dialogue Matters in Storytelling In all my years of writing, I've learned that nothing brings characters to life like compelling dialogue. Dialogue isn't merely words exchanged; it's action, conflict, and emotion encapsulated in speech. Done well, it provides readers with the deepest insights into characters, driving the narrative forward...

Why Plot Matters in Storytelling Every compelling story rests on the strength of its plot. Plot isn't just the sequence of events—it's the driving force that pulls readers through your narrative. A well-crafted plot not only captures attention but sustains it from the first page to the last. The Core...

Self-publishing has revolutionized the literary world, offering authors unprecedented control over their work. In this post, we discuss the current trends and future directions of self-publishing, including the rise of digital platforms and the evolving roleof traditional publishers.