I'm seeing more and more people saying that they use AI in one form or another in their writing. Sometimes the rhetoric is unapologetic and matter-of-fact, while elsewhere I see people hesitate, trying to limit the role; e.g., I only use it for outlining, or only for editing, and so on. I view all this as inevitable and (as a historian) interesting, but I do try to keep an eye out for places where it's clearly inimical or beneficial.
So, here's an example.
When we write the usual way (aka, the right way <g>), we undertake a wide range of activities: research, daydreaming, proofreading, brainstorming, composition, editing ... I'll stop there, as the list is long enough to frighten off the young'uns. Y'all get the point.
But consider the earnest, AI-assisted author. Not the ones who are blatantly lazy, chasing the quick buck, but the ones who view the various AI capabilities as simply tools there for use. So they use it. They use--let's get to a specific instance--AI for drafting. They have a bunch of ideas, some scenes sketched, but (they will say) they're just no dang good at writing scenes that are exciting.
So, they use the AI and it actually works pretty well. Well enough to meet their needs, at least. They get that draft, they make their own changes, turning it into their own, or at least something they are content to view as their own. It takes a good deal of work, as crafting AI prompts is somewhere between an art and a science, but ever a labor.
They get the book completed (good on ya) and are ready for the next one. And guess what? They're still no dang good at writing scenes that are exciting. This time the AI part goes more smoothly because they've learned a bunch about how to craft prompts to get the desired results. They make another book and another.
And now, they've become proficient, not at writing stories, but at using AI.
That is the caution I offer to aspiring writers. You are denying yourself the opportunity to learn, to gain a craft that is entirely you. It doesn't matter at what stage you employ that AI. At every stage, you are losing the opportunity to learn how to do better at research, at editing, at composition, and the whole wretched, wrenching business of writing.
There are plenty of other aspects of all this where we can critique AI in creative writing, or defend and praise it. Or even just study it. But for myself, I have not seen anyone talk about the implications for the writer themselves, as an artist. Creating a story and seeing it out the door is profoundly gratifying. It seems a shame to lessen that gratification. It's like going to another country but you spend part of your time watching a slide show of the place. You can claim you "saw" more of that country, but you'll never know what you missed.
So, here's an example.
When we write the usual way (aka, the right way <g>), we undertake a wide range of activities: research, daydreaming, proofreading, brainstorming, composition, editing ... I'll stop there, as the list is long enough to frighten off the young'uns. Y'all get the point.
But consider the earnest, AI-assisted author. Not the ones who are blatantly lazy, chasing the quick buck, but the ones who view the various AI capabilities as simply tools there for use. So they use it. They use--let's get to a specific instance--AI for drafting. They have a bunch of ideas, some scenes sketched, but (they will say) they're just no dang good at writing scenes that are exciting.
So, they use the AI and it actually works pretty well. Well enough to meet their needs, at least. They get that draft, they make their own changes, turning it into their own, or at least something they are content to view as their own. It takes a good deal of work, as crafting AI prompts is somewhere between an art and a science, but ever a labor.
They get the book completed (good on ya) and are ready for the next one. And guess what? They're still no dang good at writing scenes that are exciting. This time the AI part goes more smoothly because they've learned a bunch about how to craft prompts to get the desired results. They make another book and another.
And now, they've become proficient, not at writing stories, but at using AI.
That is the caution I offer to aspiring writers. You are denying yourself the opportunity to learn, to gain a craft that is entirely you. It doesn't matter at what stage you employ that AI. At every stage, you are losing the opportunity to learn how to do better at research, at editing, at composition, and the whole wretched, wrenching business of writing.
There are plenty of other aspects of all this where we can critique AI in creative writing, or defend and praise it. Or even just study it. But for myself, I have not seen anyone talk about the implications for the writer themselves, as an artist. Creating a story and seeing it out the door is profoundly gratifying. It seems a shame to lessen that gratification. It's like going to another country but you spend part of your time watching a slide show of the place. You can claim you "saw" more of that country, but you'll never know what you missed.
Myth Weaver
Istar