Why Would an Established Author Use AI?

[@susankayewriter]

I work through all problems, writing and life, the same way: talking. AI gives me a sounding board that can make suggestions, pros and cons, and elaborate on ideas that I put forward. AI doesn't get annoyed that I don't move on, change my mind, or just let it talk about its problems like a human will, eventually.

[@everybodylovessnoopy]

Me too!

[@tiredlocke]

Yep. That's the best use I've had for AI - bounce ideas off of it. And I have received some very good insights in response.

[@sicshop]

This is what it does for me. It breaks through burn out , writer’s block and resistance. It is NOT a shortcut. Thanks.

[@orcasquall]

I use Claude, and you’re spot on about decision fatigue. I don’t have to come up with names for people, places, fantastic creatures. I built my virtual world in seconds. I just needed some cool sounding places and voila! I would still go in and edit some of them, but good grief this saves me so much pain. I also use Claude as a brainstorming assistant. It never tires of me asking it similar questions over and over again. I can keep asking it what it recommends. And I come up with a new idea and add it and the original idea became better. The new Claude with its Project feature saves so much time. I can ask Claude questions and it understands all the backstory I gave and gives me relevant suggestions and answers.

[@tripperm10011972]

I am just starting off as a writer (wanted to do it for decades), and I find that AI actually makes writing more fun. It's like having a knowledgeable collaborative partner. I use it for brainstorming and descriptions all the time. I do find that I often take pieces of AI suggestions and weave them together into something that more closely matches my vision. This can be time-consuming but is very rewarding when it all comes together. Even better, my AI partner never takes offense when I tossout 90% of their suggestions 😅

[@djpablo73]

All great points. Having worked as a Photoshop artist and art director for years, AI (both for writing and visual content) is like having the best team that is there all the time. 'Here's an interesting idea that might be absolute BS but might possibly have some legs to it. Can you please come up with a bunch of options?' End of 'blank-page / what are we gonna do?' stage. Almost immediately. For people who have a lot of ideas, and who's brains just don't stop, it's an absolute godsend.

[@lesaboutin1430]

Yes! Decision fatigue. Neurodivergent here, and I am finding AI is helping me in all these ways you've mentioned here.

[@wizardgaming758]

AI has definitely helped me get my writing confidence back. I was diagnosed with a chronic illness in 2020 (fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue) and I could barely write my own name, which is three letters. It destroyed me. Since AI has come along, it's enabled me to plot out my ideas, which is something I struggle with. It also helps me to create compelling characters, and intriguing world building. I hope that it continues to develop and grow.

[@k9bfriender672]

I find it very useful for approaching some scenes. I just give it the description of the scene, and let it write it out. It's not great, but after a few tries, it gives me some good ideas as to where to go with the scene. Often if is in seeing what I would do better, but sometime, it comes up with good stuff on its own.

[@NellzM60]

If anyone wrote a book in pure AI with no human creativity, it will be a whole mess. It disconnects one chapter from the previous. Has a terrible memory and repeats certain words or endings like crazy. There's no way you can write a book with AI whatsoever. It's very true that it is nothing more than just a tool for your creative crutches.

[@Finnleigh.Jackson4141]

It's style also often doesn't fit.

[@tiredlocke]

That's the current state of it, sure. But that won't be true for long.

[@NellzM60]

@@tiredlocke if it does improve to the point of creating full stories, this will be the end of human creativity and that will be most unfortunate

[@tiredlocke]

@@NellzM60 Hyperbole doesn't help. Of course it won't be the end of human creativity. Image generators like Midjourney already create amazing images better than many artists can do. It hasn't ended human creativity. Nor will AI-generated stories.

[@TheEverPresentOne]

Well said, Jason! I Nowadays I have mobility issues in my hands, and AI is great for generating 'micromanaged' first draft prose. I wrote several novels before AI came along. You nail the big points: the process takes the same amount of time! Outlines and plotting still need colossal work. The finery is in the edit. Yet just to show the ignorance that rages currently around this subject, I just had an author attack one of my books in review for being AI generated, and that book was pre-AI! Her arguments just showed she knew almost nothing about Ai to start with--

[@fredlangva]

Great video, Jason! Thanks for putting it out in public just the little ways AI can help us be more energized about our writing.

[@UnknownDenizen]

I’m fairly new to writing, but I’ve wanted to create stories and worlds that people can fall in love with for years. I have a series I want to write, but I decided I should build up to it. In the meantime, I’ve been using ChatGPT to help with my idea for a novella. I’ve used my own story ideas, but Chat helps me make sense of everything I’m trying to explain and actually helps me see potential plot ideas I never thought of before. It’s been great having “someone” to talk to and brainstorm with, especially since my significant other actually is neurodivergent and sometimes can’t sit still long enough to talk about writing with me. Now I’m not getting Decision Fatigue just staring at a word document. I love the channel. Happy it was recommended to me. I look forward to seeing what else you release!

[@MagnusItland]

AI is pretty good at every step of writing a novel. It can come up with ideas for a novel; it can turn an idea into a synopsis; it can turn a synopsis into an outline; it can turn a chapter from the outline into scene beats; it can turn a scene beat into prose. But if you try to automate this process, you don't get a novel: You get a parody. In my experience, it starts to lose coherence at the point where it creates the scene beats. Even if they make sense when read sequentially, they don't carry with them enough context each to maintain coherence when expanded. This was reasonable when you had a 32K token context window, but not so much with 128K.

[@biancastephanie8830]

I got to the point where I can write out my chapters myself because of AI! I know I write that on almost every video but it really does help you find your voice. I mostly use it for feedback now. Sometimes if I need ideas to fill In the blanks I use AI to kind of get a “sketch” then write it all on my own.

[@milestrombley1466]

Using AI helped me speed up my writing process. As a slow writer, I got a lot of burnouts and I barely finished two 50K word novels.

[@Finnleigh.Jackson4141]

If you write fiction in another language than you native language, AI can function as an editor.

[@KozzmoKnight]

One of the reasons i like AI is that I use a lot of sources, and that is alot of research. I just want to tell the computer to write x, then rewrite this with an analogy to platos cave, then add in a discussion of freewill, in reference to quantum mechanics, now blend this into a conversation with my characters. This conversation is going to require me to look at 5 books at once, but i can have ai put it all down, so i have it all in front of me.

[@nicolascole77]

Underrated channel

[@aSnailCyclopsNamedSteve]

Ok, I tried it to rewrite a scene by asking it to write the scene from scratch, hoping I could incorporate elements. It has a very different writing style from mine and I cannot edit that text to fit my style. So, I tried again, asking it to add more description to the text I gave it. It repeated the exact text I had given it and just added the next scene. It picked up on the Sam Spade element of the story but added a 'pleasing cultural discovery' element, which was not in keeping with the character who is fighting her fate, not embracing it. Thus, I will not be asking it to write anything for me. I did look at Knight Rising and it does fit your style. So, I can see why you can recommend it. I have found it useful for doing research, like asking for stupid questions people abroad ask Texans, but when I asked it to list local monuments, I ended up doing the research myself. Part of that is because my city is not very tourist friendly, no matter what it says. Thus, it is difficult to find accurate info. Hope that gives you a different perspective.

[@keithtarrier4558]

You actually need to spend quite a bit of time training the AI to write in the way/style you want it (probably your style). I read an article in April 2023 about this. I spent quite a few hours over 2 weeks training ChatGPT to write the way I wanted it. I gave it examples. I asked it to tell me what style the examples was. I gave it tests. I told it where to improve, which parts I loved. We created a "style" and give a short name. As we moved forward we redefined the style, and it gave me a long prompt for the style. Then I just reconfirm every so often to write this "this style". It always does. We end up with a unique style, just how I would write (But without the typos and my bad spelling). However, on my last novel, i kept a record of every prompt, research, ideas, and I meticulously plan the story. I enedup typing 90,000 words to ChatGPT for a book about 65,000. BUT... the process was much quicker and as other stated, it so helps to reduce burnout. Mostly it saves so much time on rewrite and edits to when you are tired and maybe had a good idea but didn't write as good as possible.

[@aSnailCyclopsNamedSteve]

@@keithtarrier4558 That works as well for the free version or only the paid version?

[@DerekMurphycreativindie]

Ha I went through my comments today and they’re all like that. This is why I’m writing more than YouTubing. For me I’m spending almost as much time, but running my brain at 75%, so I don’t get stuck or burnt out as often.

[@Yipper64]

As ive said many times AI cant be creative. Like it just isnt possible. It looks like it might be, but it isnt. That's why it takes the same amount of work, to get actual creativity out of it, you have to put it in, because the AI itself wont make that happen. But it is something you can essentially bounce off of. A parrot if you will, an advanced parrot, but practically speaking, a parrot.

[@loriwilde3977]

AI increases my creativity because I get to focus on advanced techniques that AI simply cannot do.

[@Valkari22]

AI, unless you are being incredibly detailed with your prompts will generate literal poop. To get anything good out of it, you would need to have some writing skills of your own. I actually started programming awhile ago and became 'curious' about AI. I'm a freelance artist so when I heard about it I was just like everyone else, "this fucker is coming for my job!" So instead of sticking my head in the sand or rolling over and admitting defeat, I decided to learn about it, 'know thy enemy' kinda thing, well turns out in order to be good at prompt eingeering, it takes some writing skills and creativity; long story short-- I turned chatgpt into a cat that meows by commanding it to follow a personality I made for it. 😂

[@keithtarrier4558]

I did the same thing, I called mine a "style", trained it (I replied to someone above) and now it writes just how I need. I do test it, and modify the style over time.

[@Valkari22]

@@keithtarrier4558 I don't really use AI to help me write, I only really like to exploit the 'command' feature of it, but that sounds like a neat idea! it's really similar to how I go about programming a 'personality.' I will give the AI a detailed prompt something like this; "Your name is Suzzy, you're a four-year-old cat that lives in an apartment complex with your owner Tom. You don't speak, all you do is meow, purr, and sleep."

[@Dr.RajivSinghal]

Ai is a horse to be rode bya trained jockey So be jockey rather joke by ignoring ai

[@lanastaux5836]

👋This was a great video. I have a much better understanding of how it works for you. I'm so glad it's helped you to continue writing! Much love 🫶🏼🖖🏽

[@v.w.singer9638]

I'm experimenting with NovelAI. Honestly, I find it more work than just writing by myself. In fact, it feels like being a school teacher and having to constantly correct classwork. It generates a line. It isn't what I want. I delete it and write my own. I generate again, and delete half of it and spend time trying to fix the sentence. I don't see how I could let it write an entire chapter, since it would be nothing like what I have in mind. It wouldn't be fixing the output, it would be deleting the whole thing, shaking my head, and writing it myself just as I would have without AI. I cannot see how this is improving anything. I don't get decision fatigue or writer's block. I'm about to start a new book, but I'll continue with NovelAI to write short stories just for fun. It's more like a video game for me. I write something, then generate to see what the AI comes up with, then laugh or groan. Guiding the AI is like herding cats. Often I have to remind myself to let the AI do some writing rather than simply banging out the short story myself, which would be much faster and easier, but obviously would defeat the point of "using" AI. If AI helps somebody, then good for them. But personally, until the AI can read my mind, it isn't doing anything useful. Note that I'm not talking about using AI as a glorified search engine to do research, which is a different matter entirely.

[@TheNerdyNovelist]

That’s cause you’re using NovelAI ;)

[@v.w.singer9638]

@@TheNerdyNovelist So your opinion is that NovelAI isn't fit for purpose? I have a paid subscription, so I'm interested.

[@TheNerdyNovelist]

@@v.w.singer9638 I would strongly recommend Novelcrafter or Sudowrite instead.

[@v.w.singer9638]

@@TheNerdyNovelist Thanks for the advice. I've looked at Sudowrite but since I'm not using it for my published work, the cost is a factor. Also my writing often involves explicit violence and blood, plus s&m erotica, and from what I've seen on the net, its' likely to be rejected by Sudowrite.