Video Killed the Radio Star (And I Was There to Watch) So I have a thought, and it showed up this morning with the radio on... I was getting ready for the day, half awake, the way I am most mornings before the Diet Coke kicks in, and the song came on. You know the one. And a line went right between the eyes before I'd even found my shoes. "They took the credit for your second symphony / Rewritten by machine on new technology." Sigh. I stood there in the hallway like an idiot with one sock on. Because I was there. I mean I was really there, for the very first one. Around 1981, I was twelve (maybe thirteen, the math argues with my memory a little), sitting on the living room floor of the friends across the street with basically the whole neighborhood crammed in around a television, waiting for MTV to start. We didn't have cable at our house. We didn't even have a color TV, that didn't happen for me until I was seventeen, so the whole reason I was on that floor was that somebody else had the future and was kind enough to let the rest of us watch it come on. Blew my 14 year old's mind when he found out I was alive before we had color! And the first thing they played was a song about how the future was going to kill the thing we were all about to stop doing. Let that sink in for a second, because I don't think we noticed it then. A room full of kids, cheering a new technology, and the opening statement of that technology was a lament for the technology it was replacing. Nobody on that floor was thinking about the radio star. We were thinking about the pictures. The pictures were amazing. "Video killed the radio star / In my mind and in my car, we can't rewind we've gone too far." (I typed "to far" in my notes this morning. Fixed it. Leave me alone, I was typing on my phone.) Okay, here's where the tangent starts, and I'm flagging it now so you can't say I didn't warn you. The radio is still here and Murphy's radio won't leave me alone. I know that sounds obvious. It was playing in my hallway this morning. It's in my car. It's in the shop right now, humming along behind the laser. Video did not kill the radio star, not the way the song said it would, not the way everybody in 1981 half believed. What actually happened is weirder and a lot more boring. Some radio stars did lose their careers, because they didn't look right for the new thing, and that's a real loss and I'm not going to pretend it isn't. Some people who'd never have been heard before suddenly had a camera and an audience. Radio changed what it was. Video changed what it was. Then the internet showed up and did it all again to both of them, and somebody always stands up and says this is the end of the real thing.

I'm Michael. I built the Professional Writing System and WordCrafter Pro after spending years trying to wrangle AI tools into something that actually helps writers write better stories — not just faster ones. The Professional Writing System is a set of Claude skills to help you as authors get the words out and get published. Each skill has a group of personas who are experts in their field that let you discuss your book not order the AI to do your bidding. They help you work out ideas, build the story Bible & outline, design believable characters, write your story (with help not write for you), and edit the work afterwards. The Merch and Marketing skills step in to help you build products around your story and sell it (the most important part) WordCrafter Pro is the latest in AI Writing Aids that has the entire PWS System baked in. Here in a scrivener styled interface you can organize all of your pieces together, control your context windows, get help when needed and get the stories published! With this system you never have to write alone again. You can even talk to the persona's individually ***** What you've walked into is the community hub for everything PWS: the skill files, the app we're building, the classes, the challenges, and most importantly, the other writers doing this work alongside you. Here's what to do right now: 1. Introduce yourself in the Introductions category. Tell us your name, what you write, and your biggest creative challenge right now. 2. Grab the free PWS Quick-Start Guide at [this link] It explains the four-phase system and shows you exactly where to start. 3. Browse the Start Here posts. The PWS Overview explains all four phases. The Community Rules are short and worth reading. This community is free and always will be. A paid Inner Circle tier is coming for writers who want deeper access, but everything you need to use the system lives here at no cost. the skills themselves and the PWS Studio App I'm developing will have a cost, but if you are reading this there will be a huge discount.

I'm going to pin this to the beginning of the page and would like it see if everyone wanted to post their books that they've written on here. You can post as many links as you want as often as you want. I'd like to celebrate wins for everyone!