On AI & Writing, Part 1
Posted by David Duhr in 
Discussion question: What do you commonly use AI for and how often? How does AI factor into your writing process? If you don’t use AI at all, why not?Let us know in the comments.
In a recent newsletter I began a series exploring the ways writers use AI. You can read Part 1 of that here.
The responses have been interesting, even enlightening. I want to share some of them here.
WriteByNighter Ken H. got all poetic on us:
When you strike the keys
And ask for a book
You’re no longer a writer
You’re a short-order cook.
It sounds kind of like a chant. Something you might hear at a football game. Which reminds me of the response from Matt H., who writes,
“I do use it … as a cheerleader. A.I. always has something nice to say, and if I feel like I’m in a slog or need a pick-me-up, I send what I’m working on to Gemini, who always says what I’m writing is super great, and then I feel better about carrying on.”
I can get behind that. Find your boost wherever you can.
Meanwhile, Jerry S. discovered a deliciously morbid use for AI:
“I recently used it to write my obituary. I told it I wanted 4-5 column inches. It asked me what tone I wanted to set and a couple of other things. It took me less than ten minutes to get an obituary that was good enough for government work.”
If you think I’m not going to do the same thing, you’re nuts.
Many of y’all seems to use it for research, or to handle time-consuming tasks at the workplace. All of the examples make perfect sense to me. Janet S. uses AI to craft emails that are “more professional sounding.” Terry A. relies on AI’s auto-summaries of patient sessions: “For the medical field,” Terry says, “[AI] is amazing and allows us to see more patients.”
But I know you’re here because you’re curious to know how your fellow WriteByNighters use AI in their writing process. I’ve split the responses into three categories:
AI for Writing & Editing — Hell, Yes: Unabashed users of AI for editorial and/or writing.
AI for Writing & Editing — Hell, No: These writers will never use AI, for anything
AI for Writing & Editing — Sorta Yes, Sorta No: Will use AI for some elements but have a hard line
AI for Writing & Editing — Hell, Yes
I’m thankful to the following for being totally open and honest about the ways in which they use AI for editorial work or to generate actual writing.
Tom H., for example, is firmly in the AI camp: “I use AI for all my editing needs. I’ve worked with human editors before and as you know, they can cost more then you wanna spend on grammar checks and continuity.”
Tom has indeed used WriteByNight in the past, but, he says, “Working with AI is lightning fast and only costs a monthly subscription fee no matter how many pages I send it to edit. I’m sure many will hate me cause my editor was AI, but I don’t think I’ll ever be using a human editor again.”
Meanwhile, Steve G. still writes by hand for most of his projects, but tells us “I used Scribbler to write two children’s books for friends and then on average have spent 21 hours per book adding and deleting to make the book more fun for a teenager. At least I hope so.”
Judy R. uses AI for “copy editing, looking for repetition in my work, looking for consistency between certain types of scenes, looking out for ‘head hopping’ in POV, and figuring out how to Compile in Scrivener.” Though she adds that it’s not perfect: “It misses things. No substitute for my own eyeballs on my work.”
She also employs AI to help with research for her books: “military funerals, police procedure, lifeguard training. It’s really helped me when I’ve been stuck with a question about something and don’t know any experts to contact about it. I got through some real roadblocks … that would have taken me loads of time in the past.”
AI for Writing & Editing — Hell, No
I’m also thankful to the following WriteByNighters for not being afraid to share real concerns about AI:
“AI scares the hell out of me,” says Kevin W. “Writing is a creative activity, something I define as an important part of being human. AI is specifically anti-human, built to make us economically unviable, to replace and possibly destroy humanity. Even its creators are admitting this possibility and admitting they are losing control of it. So yeah, I do see it as a living spectre of death, something to be destroyed at all costs.”
Lily M. believes that using AI for writing is cheating: “My instinct that it is dangerous, and insiduously so. I worry that if books were written by AI we would all get a little dumber and a little less human because we would be settling for a lesser intelligence, and, also, for the obvious reason that we would not be exercising out brains and our own talent. We would lose our connection with the muse and the world of the spirit. And our own personal truths, and beauty, and power would no longer flow from our souls to our hearts to our heads to our hands. It would just come out of some computer chip programmed by someone not me and probably very unlike me. I like my own real intelligence.”
Though Betsy V. admits to being “tempted” to use AI to finish a book she’s been laboring on, she says, “I can’t do it. I may break down one day. I worry how much it can assist and still keep it as my own.” There is a bright side, though: “The best thing about AI is you can tell it to go fuck itself all day long and it will be pleasant.”
“I have never used AI because I have no interest in it whatsoever,” James W. says. “In addition to finding it troubling for art, our society, and whatever small potential I might have to earn a living with my own writing, I also find it incredibly boring as a tool.”
James and I grew up in the same era, and he continues, “I remember being so excited about the idea of being an adult in the future — the 2000s! — and all of the incredibly cool technologies humankind was going to invent, but instead it’s mostly just been a lot of lowest common denominator, addictivity-based crap. And there’s no better example of that, to me, than AI.”
AI for Writing & Editing — Sorta Yes, Sorta No
Meanwhile, a lot of folks will use AI for certain elements of the creative process, but draw a line in the sand at actual generation:
Though Elaina will use AI “for quick [Chicago Manual of Style] questions, to suggest books I can use for research, to quickly check a grammar question,” she makes sure to use it only “in a way that won’t make my brain soft(er).”
“I did once ask it to solve a difficult plot problem,” Elaine G. says. “I didn’t like the answer but I became aware of options I hadn’t considered.”
But, she says, “I’m going to keep writing wether AI takes over or not because 1) I need to write and 2) I often enjoy the process of discovering my imagination and learning what I really think.”
Meanwhile, David F. tells us, “The only times I really use AI in my writing process is for research based questions. Some recent examples that come to mind are ‘I need a list of Norse gods that start with the letter M,’ or ‘give me a comprehensive list of words that have “anal” somewhere in them,’ lol. In the past I might have used AI for brainstorming, but I’ve found that it has a massively negative impact on creativity (and the data supports this) so I don’t do it anymore.”
And finally, in response to “What do you commonly use AI for,” Ned S.P. replies, “Apart from WriteByNight.net, it’s the best source for Hungarian porn.”
And if you want to know what Ned is talking about, take a look at the newsletter that prompted these responses. If you don’t subscribe already, this is a great time to do so! Next week I’ll publish Part 2, in which I write about the conversation that prompted me to more deeply explore AI.
WriteByNight co-founder David Duhr is fiction editor at the Texas Observer, co-host of the Yak Babies podcast and writes about books for the Dallas Morning News, Electric Literature, Publishing Perspectives, and others co-founder of WriteByNight.
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