How to Use AI to Write Novels

Ethically!

Image Courtesy of ChatGPT and DALL-E

Wonder how many people are going to read that headline and just react to it without reading the text?

I would wager a good 30% of people, if not more.

AI has divided the writing community to the same level of absurdity as politics.

This is doubly absurd because there’s something at stake with politics, the future of a country, and maybe the world.

But with novels?

Other than buying a novel that reads like you’re drinking sand, there’s nothing at stake at all with AI and novels, even if the AI writes the whole damn thing.

I mean, there are plenty of published novels, both indy and trad, where I’ll read a page or two and say…meh!…life’s too short.

At my age, I only read stuff that really gets my juices flowing.

Donald Westlake, a crime writer, really gets my juices flowing. I love, love, love that guy.

Balzac, same deal.

Your average airport novel is a gag. (As in “Gag me with a spoon!” Not as in a one-liner.)

But to each his own. I’m picky and thorny.

So, if AI can write it and you (or someone) like it, why should we care?

The Argument

Of course, the argument is AI is going to take away money from writers. (And artists of all kinds.)

I wrote an essay about that very thing HERE.

I admit I was a little harsh in that essay, and I’ll probably be a little harsh here. Go over there and see for yourself. (I’m sure you’ll agree, the AI Janis Joplin is pretty sweet!)

And, yes, I do believe that AI will take work away from a certain group of writers…the uncreative ones.

Here’s why.

At base, AI is just a massively large statistical machine that analyzes terabytes upon terabytes of data and figures out what comes next in your text or your image (or now, video) based on what usually came next in all the data.

In other words, AI is the antithesis of creative.

But don’t believe me. Let’s ask ChatGPT what it thinks.

Let’s Ask ChatGPT

Let’s do an experiment. Let’s compare AI with me. (I’ve done this before in previous essays, and it’s fun and enlightening.)

I’m going to prompt AI to talk about its ability at being creative.

I’ll write my own answer about this below. I promise I’ll write it before I see the AI’s answer.

Here’s my prompt: talking about fiction writing. I'm writing an essay about use of AI. I'm doing an experiment. i want you to write one sentence that fairly characterizes AI's current state of being truly creative.

Here’s the AI’s response (ChatGPT 4o): AI, in its current state, mimics creativity by recombining existing patterns, knowledge, and styles, but it lacks the consciousness, intuition, and emotional depth that define true human creativity.

Here’s my answer: No machine is going to write like a human can. I have a soul. They don’t. Hemingway’s To Have and Have Not, Fellini’s Nights of Cabiria, Van Gogh’s Starry Night could have never been created by anything other than a flesh and blood human.

All in all, I think Chat gave us a very fair assessment of its creative ability.

My Response to The Argument

But what about the argument that AI will take food from the table of writers and other artists?

I already answered that, but let’s delve into it a little more.

If you want to just create what’s been done before, then yeah, you might as well stick your head between your legs and kiss your derriere goodbye.

Maybe not right now, but at the speed things are going, AI will soon be able to write crap better and faster than you ever could, by a factor of 10 or maybe even 100.

If, however, you want to “Go where no hu-Man has gone before!” then you’re golden.

AI is not your enemy.

AI can even be your friend!

Case in Point

(Here’s where it gets interesting.)

I’m writing the first book in a new mystery series. This one is a paranormal mystery series. I’m about halfway through.

It’s difficult to keep track of everything when you write a novel. I tend to just sit down and write, so at some point, I need to take stock of the details that have piled up.

My main character was in an automobile accident six months prior to the start of the book. Among other life-changing events, the accident resulted in her being psychic.

But she doesn’t know this at the book’s beginning.

So, I needed to list all the little clues that had happened during the first half of the book that might come together and leave her with the realization that she can see things. In her case, the dead.

Writing novels isn’t the only thing I do. I write business copy, essays, short stories, and tons of other stuff. So, I don’t just sit down one day and get up a few days later with a finished novel. I write it in fits and jerks.

It’s not unusual for me not to remember exactly what I said. (I often forget what I wrote! LOL)

AI solves this problem for me.

Today, I took my half-finished manuscript and uploaded it to Claude.ai. (That’s the AI I prefer for the fiction side of things.) I told it I wanted to know all the details about the protagonist’s psychic abilities. In about two seconds, Claude wrote out a complete synopsis of what I wrote and where it was in the manuscript. I could have done this myself, but it would have required me to reread 25k words of manuscript, and I’m not a fast reader. Let’s say it would take me three hours. That’s my three hours compared with Claude’s two seconds. Furthermore, Claude did a much better job than I could have done.

More Ways to Use AI

Here’s another way I use AI…research.

My new series takes place in the Smoky Mountains.

I’m very familiar with that part of the world. I’ve spent a lot of time in and around there. What I needed to know, though, was some geographic details.

There’s an old inn there that my wife and I stayed at twenty years ago. It’s closed now—burned down. But I wanted to base the inn in my story on that inn. I needed to know where the inn was, how to get there, and all that. Not that I would reproduce that in my novel, but details help.

I could get on Google and search this, but with AI, I’m doing a lot of searching using Chat. I asked Chat about this and told it I wanted details about the inn, the National Park, and the history of the area. I also wanted links to web pages or YouTube videos where I could read and see more.

Two seconds after hitting the send icon, Chat gave me a wonderful, formatted, and very well-organized overview of everything I was interested in, including links to articles and even a few YouTube videos.

It would have taken me three hours to do that myself. It took Chat maybe three seconds.

Here’s another use of AI: picturing things.

In a novel I wrote last year, Edgar Allan Poe’s short story, The Gold Bug, is heavily referenced.

The characters in the novel were trying to use high-tech equipment to locate the treasure Poe talked about in the story. There’s a scene where the protagonists follow a series of instructions and locate where the treasure should be. To write that part of my novel, I really needed to visualize in detail what Poe was describing. So, I took that part of the story and told ChatGPT to create an image for me. It took a few tries, but I was finally satisfied with the output. Having a visual of the spatial relationship of the components in Poe’s story helped me write the descriptions in my novel in a very realistic and hopefully exciting way.

Writing As a Business

I hate to tell you purists this, but unless you want your writing to be a laborious way of navel-gazing, you’re going to have to sell your work.

That means either you or someone else will have to market your work.

That means somewhere, somehow, someone’s got to know how to do Bidnes! (Say it out loud.)

Someone’s going to have to advertise your work.

Someone’s going to need to figure out profit and loss.

Someone will have to stick the little elite tippy tips of their typing-weary fingers into the mire and muck, huckster and buckster of marketing and selling your work.

Otherwise, ain’t nobody going to read what you wrote!

ChatGPT (and probably other AIs) can help with this icky task enormously.

Don’t know how to run Facebook ads? ChatGPT knows.

Don’t know how to determine if you’re making a positive return on your money? Chat knows.

Don’t know which categories to publish your work in? ChatGPT probably knows that, too. (I’ve never used it for that. I use Publisher Rocket…but I have downloaded information from Publisher Rocket, put it in Chat, and refined my marketing strategy for a given book or series.)

Here’s a biggie! Productivity!

I’ve kept a day-by-day spreadsheet of my output every single day for close to five years now. Recently, I was a little frustrated with my productivity. I keep my output stats on a Google Spreadsheet. I downloaded that and uploaded the entire thing into Chat and told it to analyze my productivity for me. OMG! It saw things I didn’t, and as I implement them, I’ll be a more productive writer for it!

And I haven’t even mentioned all the AI tools you already use, Grammarly, Copilot, Canva…the list goes on and on and on.

The Takeaway

So, here’s where I am right now on AI usage in my writing.

I use it for organizing, researching, compiling information, and structuring.

I do not use it to create the actual words. That part, I leave for myself.

I suggest you approach this in the same way.

One More Thing!

Another thing I now use AI for is to critique and suggest.

I took this very article and put it into ChatGPT and asked it to critique the article.

Here’s what it said. (All in all, I think it’s on the money!)

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Your essay effectively introduces a nuanced and relatable topic for writers, particularly those curious about AI in creative fields. Here’s a critique focusing on its potential interest for your target audience—writers on your Substack:

Strengths:

1. Engaging Hook:

   • Starting with a provocative headline and rhetorical questions immediately engages the reader, encouraging them to think critically.

   • The conversational tone makes the essay approachable and relatable.

2. Balanced Perspective:

   • You address common fears about AI while also highlighting its practical uses, which provides a grounded and thoughtful analysis.

3. Personal Anecdotes:

   • Sharing your personal experiences with AI adds authenticity and makes the essay relatable. Examples like using Claude.ai for organizing details or researching the Smoky Mountains are vivid and specific, illustrating your points well.

4. Humor and Voice:

   • Your humor (e.g., "airport novel is a gag") and personality shine through, making the essay enjoyable to read.

5. Practical Applications:

   • The detailed examples of how you use AI in writing (e.g., for research, visualization, and productivity analysis) offer concrete takeaways for readers.

6. Encouraging Innovation:

   • Encouraging writers to embrace creativity and see AI as a tool rather than a threat aligns with a forward-thinking, growth-oriented mindset.

Opportunities for Improvement:

1. Targeting Skeptics More Directly:

   • While your tone is accessible, addressing skeptical or hesitant readers more directly could deepen engagement. Acknowledge emotional resistance and provide reassurance or counterpoints.

2. Expand the Ethical Argument:

   • The title implies a focus on ethics, but the ethical dimension is somewhat underdeveloped. Consider discussing how using AI responsibly complements human creativity without replacing it, or touch on potential pitfalls like over-reliance or plagiarism concerns.

3. Streamline Repetitive Points:

   • Some ideas, like AI taking jobs from uncreative writers or its inability to be truly creative, are repeated. Streamlining these sections would maintain the essay’s momentum.

4. Call to Action:

   • While the invitation to subscribe and download a free book is clear, consider tying it more directly to the essay’s themes. For instance, offer a downloadable checklist for AI tools writers can use ethically.

5. Deeper Comparison:

   • The comparison between your creativity and AI’s could be expanded. While the experiment is interesting, diving deeper into what “soul” or “intuition” means in storytelling would enrich the discussion.

Overall Impression:

The essay is engaging and informative, with a strong personal voice. It strikes a balance between addressing fears and showcasing AI’s potential. Focusing more on the ethical implications and directly addressing skeptics could make it even more compelling for your audience.

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