Unlocking the Hidden Secrets to Mastering AI for Unbelievable Results

Successful Fiction Writing = Organizing + Creating + Marketing

I blog weekly on one of the above three topics, alternating between them. This week, I’m blogging on Organizing. My topic today is the very controversial question of how novelists might use AI effectively.

Why Blog About AI?

AI is massively controversial. So why am I blogging about it? Because you, my Loyal Blog Readers, asked me to. I recently asked you all to let me know what topics you’d like me to blog about. Just about half of all the questions you raised had to do with AI. Some of these questions were specific, and some were open-ended.

I have huge trepidation in tackling this subject. Nothing I say will make everyone happy. But my thinking is that this is important to talk about. AI is part of our future, whether we like it or not. There are a lot of issues, and my space is limited, so I can’t cover everything, and I don’t intend this as the final word. Some caveats first.

Let’s be clear that AI is a huge resource hog. It uses massive amounts of water and electricity, and for some people this is a show-stopper. If that’s you, then I respect your opinion. I agree that this is a gigantic problem that is extremely urgent. But this blog post is not about environmental issues of AI.

Furthermore, AI may well be a threat to humanity. It’s plausible that AI could take over the world and decide that humans are more trouble than they’re worth. If you refuse to use AI because it’s a potential Skynet, then I respect your opinion. Again, this is extremely urgent. But this blog post is not about the doomsday prospects of AI.

Some of you have decided that, despite the very real downsides of AI, you still want to use it, because it also has some very real upsides. But you want to use AI effectively and ethically. The rest of this blog post contains a few thoughts on that. (Only a few. Whole books could be written on this, and I’ve got limited word-count.)

First, we need to distinguish two very different ways of using AI.

Two Ways to Use AI

Amazon’s content guidelines distinguish between “AI-generated” content and “AI-assisted” content.

Content is “AI-generated” if an AI created the content, even if you made revisions afterward.
Content is “AI-assisted” if you created the content and then used AI tools to help improve it (editing, error-checking, etc.)

Amazon requires you to disclose AI-generated content, but not AI-assisted.

For me, personally, AI-generated content is a hard no. I have no interest in reading a novel written by an AI. I have no interest in writing a novel with AI. I think most authors agree with me on this, but a few don’t. If you use AI-generated content, then you have an ethical responsibility to let potential readers know that.

I don’t have a problem with AI-assisted content. AI can be useful in doing research, in brainstorming ideas, in editing. Let’s talk about that.

Using AI for Research

AI is well-known to “hallucinate” sometimes. “Hallucinate” means that it gives a wrong answer to a question, often very emphatically.

In my experience, this is more of a problem on topics that are “fuzzy” than on topics that are well-defined. I have seen more hallucinations when I ask questions about history than when I ask about math.

If you’re going to use AI for research, then treat it the same way you’d treat a human who has read a lot of books but has a fallible memory. Humans will sometimes reconstruct memories based on what they think “ought to have happened.” I do that. You do that. It’s how our brains are wired. AI does that too.

So check everything you possibly can that an AI tells you. Ask for sources. If the reasoning seems fishy, push back on it. Most AIs will apologize when you catch them in an error. But they may then give you another wrong answer. So never blindly trust what an AI tells you. AI is a conversation partner. It’s not God.

Using AI for Brainstorming

Some people think better about their story in dialogue with someone. That’s how my brain is wired. I “think by talking.” So I sometimes need to solve a story problem by talking it out with somebody else, even if they’re not a writer, even if they don’t understand my story. The act of trying to explain things to them helps me understand it better myself.

AI can be a sounding-board, if you need this kind of help. I have sometimes used an AI to talk out an issue in my story. There are a couple of points to be wary about.

Some AIs can be very sycophantic. They’ll tell you what a genius you are, what a marvelous story you’re spinning. Ignore this. The AI is designed to keep you chatting. The more flattery it heaps on you, the longer you keep talking.

Some AIs will offer up suggestions for how to improve your story. Take these with a huge grain of salt. The AI doesn’t fully understand the world we live, much less your fictional storyworld. It may hand you a mediocre idea. Be ready to say no, or to argue with it. But also be ready to see a useful idea when it comes up. Sometimes a bad idea is a stepping-stone to a good idea.

Some AIs will then offer to write the scene for you. I always reject this offer flat-out. No, I don’t want an AI to write my story. Even if it could write better than me (I doubt it) I don’t want AI to do my writing. The joy of writing is in the writing.

Using AI for Editing

A lot of writers use AI to read their manuscript and make suggestions for how to improve it. I have not done this myself. However, I have used an AI to critique software I’ve written, and this has always been useful.

Once again, you should be wary of the sycophantic AI. It will tell you that your work is a Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. A little of this is helpful, if you’re like most writers and think your writing is the worst drivel imaginable. If you need a little positive feedback to get you through the day, then this can be a good thing. But when you start believing you’re a Staggering Genius, that’s the time to tell the AI to dial it back.

In general, the critique an AI will give you has variable quality. Sometimes it will nail a serious problem. Other times, it will confidently tell you something that’s plain wrong. It’s on you to use your critical thinking skills to tell the difference. Treat the critique from an AI the same way you’d treat the critique from a human. Push back and explain why. This will force the AI to try again, and sometimes it gets it right on the second try. Or the tenth.

Homework:

Are you OK with using AI at all? Why or why not?
Are you OK with AI-generated content? Why or why not?
Are you OK with AI-assisted content? Why or why not?
Do you know enough about your storyworld to be able to do research using AI and check its claims?
Do you need a sounding board to help you brainstorm your fiction?
What types of editing might you allow an AI to handle, and are you able to tell good editing from bad?
If you’d like to discuss this with me, feel free to email me. This is a tough subject, and I know some of you have strong opinions. I’m here to listen, and you may well change my mind or teach me something. I’m OK with that.

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