AI is transforming the way we live and work, so it’s no surprise that it’s also effecting how we produce and consume our entertainment. Recently conversations have exploded around AI in fiction writing.
The AI Controversy
If you’re scrolling through social media and find your way into the book section of these platforms (You might be familiar with the terms BookTube, or BookTok) you’re bound to find someone talking about the use of AI in books.
I’ve recently found these videos and I was surprised to hear some of the blunt statements and hard-nose standards that seem to be prevalent in these spaces. But, maybe I shouldn’t be considering the history of social media.
I’ve been debating writing this post for a while, but the scale of the conversation is at a point where I feel like I need to weigh in.
Readers’ Concerns
I can’t tell you what every reader wants, but I can tell you what I’ve understood about what they want based on what some have posted online. I can also tell you what I, as a reader, want.
Based on these wants, I can break down readers’ concerns about AI in fiction writing in these ways:
Stories that Entertain
Yes, there are some storytellers that have forgotten about this. We’ve been inundated with message-first entertainment for years, and I think our stories have suffered for it. And the dollars and cents seem to agree.
Why does this matter when we’re talking about AI? Well, if you’ve spent any amount of time using it, you know that the writing it produces, both creative and not, has a sort of sanitized, emotionless feel. This stems from the fact that it’s a statistical model at it’s core. You’re getting the top of the bell curve, which is the most watered down content possible. Safe writing that is meant to appeal to the widest group.
Readers don’t want safe.
Complex Characters
We don’t want characters that learn nothing from the journey we’re going on with them. We want to see them grow, be better, overcome adversity, even be knocked down a peg when necessary.
That’s not top-of-the-bell-curve kind of content, though. And so AI can’t generate it. What you end up with is milquetoast characters possible. They don’t learn anything, because any sort of struggle might offend someone.
Emotional Depth
This is exactly what milquetoast characters generated by AI don’t have. They can’t get angry, have anxiety, or want something that’s forever out of their reach. They can’t forgive but still walk away.
No, the AI is going to solve all your problems as swiftly and easily as possible, and you’re characters are going to love it!
Coherent Plots
For those of you who aren’t aware, AI can’t remember much of what you tell it. In fact, if you send it more than 1,000-words in a single prompt, it’s not going to get any of the details in your message.
It’s called a context window. This is the amount of information that it can process in a single request. What they don’t tell you is this context window is cumulative. Meaning, for each new message, you’re adding to the size of the context you’re sending.
What does this have to do with coherent plots? Everything! Books don’t have 1 plot. They have several, all weaving in and out of each other throughout the entire book. Characters have their own plots, the overall global story has its plot, the villain has a plot. Heck, the weather could have a plot if the author really wanted it to.
So because the AI can’t fully process the complexities of well-crafted plots and can’t take in enough content to even analyze and remember them in a single pass, it’s unlikely they will be useful for plotting in the near future.
Authors’ Concerns
Good authors develop a style of writing they call their voice. Readers recognize these voices, even if they don’t know it. For those who’ve read a few Stephen King books could probably recognize his writing without being told who write it.
AI has a voice, too. Chances are you’ve been exposed to it more than you know. If you’ve ever read or heard something like, “This isn’t just summer, it’s a new beginning!” Then you’ve been exposed to AI generated content, and therefore, it’s voice.
Where this concerns authors is that most of us don’t want to be accused of putting AI generated content into our books. There’s also the quality concern. When you put AI up against professional writers with human editors, there’s no contest: Humans win. Both readers and authors know that there’s a difference in quality, and so authors are trying to fight a loosing battle to adjust their prose to make it seem less like AI.
The problem with that is the new AI models are then trained on their new prose, and then they start producing content in the new format. And the cycle continues.
Which brings me to my last point on this.
Stolen Work
The Atlantic jumped on this early when the news broke that Big Tech was pirating books to train their AI. This news travelled quickly through the literary world and started the discussion about how AI even generates its content.
Authors began noting AI generated passages that were eerily similar to passages in their works. Digital artists found their signatures present in AI generated artworks. And while this wasn’t an outcome that AI developers directly sought, if you thought about it for a second, it would seem like a pretty obvious result.
I think we all came to the same conclusion: AI artwork is built on stolen intellectual property, and if you’re generating your book with AI, you’re using other artists work.
Generated Content vs Editorial Commentary
So what does this mean for how authors use AI in their fiction writing? Obviously it means that no one should be generating entire novels with AI. But it also means there needs to be some very distinct ways that it’s okay to use AI—and I believe there are ethical ways to use it. (Yes, I used an em dash. Deal with it).
Generated Content
For instance, if I wrote my book, then told AI to re-write it and fix all my mistakes, then you’ve put the actual AI generated content into your novel. This is what we call generated content.
Editorial Commentary
However, let’s say I write my book, then I feed passages into AI asking it for editorial advice. I read that advice, then I go in and make changes based on its feedback. What I don’t do is copy/paste from AI, and I don’t transcribe its response. I believe that this is a perfectly ethical was to use AI in your fiction writing.
I understand that when I feed my book into the prompts, future AI models train on it. Personally, I don’t care.
If someone wants to use AI’s copy of my writing style, have at it. The AI will never be as creative as me, not will it be able to write stories and characters that portray and speak the the fundamental human experience. The best it will even do is a poor cardboard copy of the real thing.
My Thoughts on Using AI in Fiction Writing
I believe there’s a way to ethically use AI in one’s writing process. It requires a lot of discipline, and a love for the craft and process of writing that supports strict guardrails.
Why and How I use AI
The first and most important thing to know is that I use AI in my writing process because I can’t afford $6,000 on every book for the full range of editing I need. And trust me, that $6,000 is a low estimate. Average commercial books are around 80-100k words. Mine are more than that, and editors tend to charge by the word. So it’s purely financial for me.
The second thing I think you should know is how I use AI in my fiction writing:
- Get feedback on my outlines: I do this because sometimes the AI can mention something that sparks my imagination and helps me to add depth to the story I might not have otherwise thought to add (something any good developmental editor or literary agent would do).
- Give me editorial feedback: I have built several custom GPTs (for developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading) in ChatGPT that evaluate my writing, score it across various areas, and tell me what I’m doing wrong. Then I go through the passage and fix those areas. I never ask the AI to re-write passages for me, and I never copy what the AI suggests. Honestly, most of the time its suggestions aren’t great, even if it did flag something I needed to fix.
- Give me plans for writing exercises: Since just before I sat down to write The Storm’s Approach, I’ve been working on some aspect of my craft. I use ChatGPT to help me identify my weakest areas, then give me writing exercises to address those flaws. This allows me to continue to hone my skills without going to classes or retreats where I’d need to spend thousands of dollars to be fed a for-the-masses class that might not even address where I need the most work.
Why I’m Okay With This
I write because I love telling stories in this medium. I enjoy the process, and it’s a creative that my mind essentially forces me to engage in. I’m not in this for money (If you are, you’re in the wrong business. Not everyone can be Sanderson), I’m here because I love it, and I find joy in entertaining people.
Why would I even hand over the reigns to AI to do the work for me when it’s that very work that is the most satisfying part of writing for me? The answer is that I wouldn’t, and I don’t. Not because of the ethics (though that is a consideration), but because it’s the very creation of these stories that is so energizing! I’d never hand that off to a machine.
So if you’ve made it this far, I hope you can see why I use AI in my fiction writing, and you see why I would never let it write for me. If this is a deal breaker for you, I’m sorry. However, I’d urge you to reconsider. Give my books a chance to surprise you, and remember that every word is hand-typed by yours truly.
The Future of AI in Fiction Writing
This has been quite the long article, and as we wrap things up I can’t help but opine on where I believe AI is going, and how it will effect fiction.
Ai will need to cross before it can compete with human writers. Sure, it can write prose better than some of us indies, but it can’t convey pain, loss, love, or any other complex emotion the way we can. It doesn’t know what burned steel smells like, and it can’t tie that smell to an emotion the way a human can.
Is that threshold the singularity? Maybe. Maybe not. I have a firm belief that no matter how “smart” AI becomes, it will also be a half-formed shadow of humanity. Copying things it doesn’t understand in an attempt to mimic the experience of being human.
Yes, AI will get better, but I wouldn’t count humans out of the creative race just yet.
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