It seems you can’t turn anywhere these days without running into AI. Although the origins of mathematical artificial intelligence were fifty years past, it’s been the last two where AI has really taken hold in mainstream society. The biggest leap in amplified language skills came with ChatGPT in November 2022, and its evolution eversince has been mind-warping. That includes what AI can now do for fiction writers with both opportunities and challenges.
I’m not going to write an exposé or how-to post about fiction writers using AI for whatever purpose it might serve. That piece has best been done by K.M. (Katie) Weiland in an article she published the other day on her website Helping Writers Become Authors. It’s titled Exploring the Impact of AI on Fiction Writing: Opportunities and Challenges. I think Katie did a great job of covering this evolution, or revolution, we’re in. If you’re interested in reading this informative take, here’s the link.
Kil Zoners — What’s your view on AI for fiction writing or just using AI apps in general? Luv it? Meh? Hate it? Open mic.
I am a pantser and about to publish my 26th book. I don’t have an outline for any of those books, and in some cases I’ve lost the little index card that I used to list all my characters. As I write in series, it can be a pain to go back to a story a story from a decade ago and find a minor character’s name. I’m using Chat to create story bibles for each of those books. It’s something I know I’ve needed to do for at least the past 5 years, but it seemed like an insurmountable task. Chat is able to spit out each book in less than a minute WHEN I ask it the right questions about each manuscript. I’ve also used it to find comp authors for ads.
I don’t do well at writing descriptions of sights and smells. When I get stuck, I copy my text into Sudowrtite and let it do its magic. Then I pick and choose which parts work for me and my voice. I’ve also used it to help with writing back cover copy.
I heard C.J. Box (the Joe Pickett series), on the radio just yesterday say he “asked” the x version, grok, to write the opening to a Pickett novel in his voice, just out of curiosity, and didn’t give any other prompting (like using current events or plot points or even characters).
The result, he said, was “surprisingly close” to something he’d write, but was missing the “something” that I know I get when I see ai generated artwork or hear ai generated music (like the Randy Travis track generated last year (?) from his discography because of his inability to sing due a stroke several years ago…), it’s the “human spirit” or warmth or touch of the hand/voice that is missing.
Additionally, using it to surf & sift general knowledge is risky because it just grabs whatever is out there without (at the moment, anyway) verifying what’s it’s gathered, and eventually artificial intelligence will become actual ignorance…
So obviously, I’m not a fan – at the moment, anyway…
I use AI to write policies and procedures. It remembers details I need. I then have to read through it all and make sure it is right. I see more and more AI generated emails. Better autoreplies, but not much better.
It is here to stay. Although, many times I find it being an advanced Mad Lib.
For giggles, I asked ChatGPT to reply to this post.
AI is indeed transforming the landscape for fiction writers, presenting both exciting opportunities and complex challenges. As Garry Rodgers points out, AI’s rapid evolution—particularly in language generation—has made it an unavoidable presence in creative fields.
For writers, AI can be a powerful tool, offering assistance with brainstorming, outlining, and even drafting. It can help overcome writer’s block, analyze story structures, and refine prose. However, it also raises concerns about originality, ethics, and the essence of human creativity. While AI can generate text, it lacks the lived experiences, emotions, and personal insights that make storytelling truly resonate.
Katie Weiland’s article provides a well-rounded discussion on this topic, and it’s worth exploring for any writer navigating this new era. The key takeaway? AI is a tool—how we use it will shape the future of fiction writing.
Not impressed.
For me, I am a hard no on using so-called A.I. for any aspect of my writing. These large-language models were trained on copyrighted works, which makes them plagiarism machines in my view. The same for LLM generated artwork.
Worth noting: I also ignore A.I. summaries of social media comments, reviews. and especially internet search results. There’s no there there. These LLMs tend to “hallucinate” answers to all sorts of questions, which is highly concerning. The energy cost to run these LLMs is staggering, too, another reason I don’t want to use them.
But back to writing–for me, having an A.I. generate an outline or an entire story or novel takes it away from me, as a human, sweating, bleeding, crying, laughing, etc, throughout *my* creative process. It would be like replacing a live band with an LLM to generate music for a concert. I’m letting a program assign probabilities to outcomes while reference a huge dataset rather than working with my subconscious and my creativity.
At best, I would become a producer-publisher, because I could even let A.I. edit what it had generated. It’s an easy out for one of the most challenging things we can do–write a novel-length narrative that moves hearts and minds.
In other words, I’m keeping fully old-school, 100% human-created and edited writing 🙂
Following Alan+P, I just asked Google’s Gemini AI this question: “Who is Garry Rodgers, the Canadian writer?”
Answer:
Garry Rodgers is a Canadian writer known for his crime thrillers and non-fiction works related to true crime. Here’s a brief overview of his background:
* Law enforcement background: Garry Rodgers is a retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) serious crimes detective. He also worked as a sudden and unexplained death investigator for the Province of British Columbia Coroners Service.
* Expertise: Rodgers is a recognized expert witness in Canadian courts on firearms identification and operation.
* Author: He is the author of several books, including the Amazon bestseller “No Witnesses To Nothing,” which is based on a true story with alleged paranormal elements.
He is currently working on a 12-part series based on true crime cases he was involved in.
* Blogging and writing: Rodgers hosts a popular blog called DyingWords.net, where he shares his thoughts on life, death, and writing. He also contributes to the Huffington Post and The Kill Zone gang blog. [[“The Kill Zone gang”!!]]
Rodgers’ unique background in law enforcement and his experience with real-life crime cases lend authenticity to his writing, making him a notable figure in the Canadian crime writing scene.
Well, Garry? 😉
Always wanted to be part of a Gang Blog…
🙂
AI is a drug. In small doses it can help with ailments like blockage or a research needs. But if you freebase it constantly, it atrophies your brain. You lose creative capacity. You lose YOU, and that’s a price I’m not willing to pay.
That’s the main reason I rarely use AI, even for research. There’s something about working a plot problem or a character flaw out myself that is so satisfying.
I will totaly agree with you. I can get through brainstorming a book quicker by just jotting down ideas rather than coming up with prompts for AI which still give me bland, unexciting ideas. I find it only passible for grammar and punctuation in fiction writing, horrid for research, and decent for simple tasks that are no brainers. I’ve yet to see where it is much help with anything without voluminous prompts to get what you need and even then, it spits out basically the mundane.
I don’t have the bandwidth to dive into AI.
(And IT probably knows that, which scares the h e double hockey sticks outta me!)
🙂
Have a great Thursday!
I use it professionally to write program code and the results are not the best. I have used it to brainstorm book ideas with a 1 out of 100 decent idea (this is after I learned how to prompt while doing the programming test). I’ve tried to get various AIs to write prose and haven’t been entirely happy with the results, even when I’ve given it samples – I get maybe 50% usable text, a sentence or two.
For a book synopsis, I found Google’s Gemini does pretty good. For blurbs, I’ve used a combination of AIs to piece together some copy that I was happy with. Using AI to help keep a series on track is also another good use.
Overall, AI can help boost your creative process by giving you a start of an idea. Sometimes bouncing ideas of it can yield some gems.
If my name goes on the book, I want readers to know those are my thoughts on the pages.
🙂 🙂 🙂
AI content can’t be copyrighted. You make it, you lose it. Too bad, so sad.
If you use some AI in your novel, you are more likely to have your novel deleted on platforms like Amazon.
Amazon is using their own AI to find AI content to delete it from the Kindle platform. It is not fast or completely successful. Some real content gets deleted in the process. See warning above.
The major danger of AI for novelists right now is the thousands of AI novels being uploaded daily to Amazon and burying legitimate product. This won’t hurt known name authors, but it is death to discoverability for everyone else.
It’s a no for me. For all the reasons others have mentioned above. I don’t want it to take the fun, the creativity, or the work, out of writing. It feels like cheating to me. I’m so irritated by the AI “tools” inserted by Microsoft programs. I’m trying to figure out how to keep it from reminding me it can “help” me write my emails, etc.
Doug Lyle, in a recent presentation said you have to consider AI as “Artificial Intern” and check everything that comes back. He gave it about a 60% accuracy score in what he asked of it.
I’ve used it to brainstorm titles, but it didn’t come up with anything I liked. My daughter will use it for he school (PhD) papers by asking it to rewrite a sentence she’s having trouble with.
I’ve never had any luck with it coming up with anything I’d consider viable fiction.