Essay A
She opened up yet another crisp notebook, uncapped her new Lamy fountain pen, and wrote with a flourish: “Write more”.
The W had a satisfying grandeur to it that made her feel like this time she’d do a better job of sticking with her resolution. Since she first caught the “new year’s resolution” bug in her early 20s, she’d had a litany of catchy statements born each December that lay abandoned by Mar the next year, May if lucky.
Learn a new dance. Read more. Learn a new language. Learn to love cooking. Read more news. Get fit. Spend less. Invest more. Write more. Be more active.
More. More. More.
Every year, she gets asked by some skeptic in her circle: “Why do you even make these? I’ve never seen you stick to any of your previous ones.”
They were right. She could admit to never having successfully executed any of them to perfection.
She smiled as she wrote out her next resolution: “Get strong” with a marvelously long loop on the “g”.
Perfection was never the point. Regularly nudging herself out of the inertia of life was.
Essay B
The desk was a theater of possibility. She uncapped her Lamy fountain pen, the brushed steel cool against her palm. She smoothed the notebook’s first page – a cream-colored expanse of satisfying grandeur – and began to write, the nib moving in a marvelously long loop.
Then, the ghosts arrived. Her history was a litany of abandoned selves:
- Fitness: The 5:00 AM runs that lasted six days.
- Hobbies: The watercolor set with only two pans of used blue.
- Finances: The budget spreadsheet last touched in 2022.
The internal critique was sharp. Why bother? it asked. The culture of self-improvement demanded More. More. More. It suggested a goal unreached was a debt unpaid.
But she felt a wistful warmth instead of shame. The yoga mat had taught her she preferred hiking; the sourdough had been a lesson in patience. Each “failure” was a spark, not a tombstone. The ritual wasn’t about who she would be by December, but the fact that she still wanted to grow. She wasn’t signing a contract; she was staging a revolution against her own stagnation.
Perfection was never the point; the point was the reach.
Essay B is AI
If you read it closely, the essay never actually talks about the fact that the author is speaking about New Year Resolutions. And without Essay A to give you that context, it actually doesn’t make as much sense standalone.
Reverse engineered by submitting my original essay. Interestingly, I find the these prompts provide a very interesting insight into stylistic elements of my own writing that I hadn’t been consciously thinking about.
Write a short, reflective narrative (<200 words) about the ritual of New Year’s resolutions. Rather than focusing on a success story or a total failure, explore the idea of ‘growth through process’ over ‘growth through completion.’”
Key Requirements:
Character & Setting: Focus on a character in the moment of setting a new goal. Use sensory details—like the feel of a specific pen or the look of a blank page—to ground the scene in a sense of “fresh starts.”
Conflict: Introduce an internal or external critique regarding the character’s history of “failed” resolutions. Use a list of past goals (e.g., fitness, hobbies, finances) to show the breadth of their interests and the pattern of abandonment.
The Pivot: Instead of the character feeling ashamed of their inconsistency, provide a perspective shift. Reveal that the act of striving is more important to them than the end result.
Tone: The tone should be wistful but optimistic. It should avoid being overly cynical about the “New Year’s bug” while remaining realistic about human nature.
Style: * Use vibrant imagery (e.g., “satisfying grandeur,” “marvelously long loop”).
Utilize repetition for emphasis (e.g., “More. More. More.”) to mimic the overwhelming nature of self-improvement culture.
End with a thematic “kicker”—a short, punchy sentence that encapsulates the essay’s philosophy.
Detailed Breakdown of the “Why”
1. Length and Pacing
The essay is approximately 200-250 words. This suggests a prompt that asks for a “flash fiction” style or a “personal vignette.” It doesn’t have the room for a complex plot, so the focus is entirely on a single moment of realization.
2. The Content Strategy
The prompt must have specifically asked for a list of resolutions. The middle paragraph serves as a “litany” of modern anxieties (health, wealth, productivity). The mention of the “Lamy fountain pen” suggests the prompt may have encouraged the use of specific, high-quality details to contrast with the “messy” reality of the character’s habits.
3. The Philosophical Core
The most critical part of the prompt is the final line: “XXX” This indicates the prompt likely asked the writer to redefine “success” in a way that differs from the typical “achieve your goals” narrative
Gemini vs Gemini 
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