Writing in an AI World
by Cathy Yardley
How to write in an AI world.
To say I’m not a fan of AI would be a gross understatement. (“Hate with the fire of a thousand suns” is perhaps closer.)
For the sake of clarity, I’ll narrow it to using AI to write stories. For the sake of brevity, I will also leave out the ethical and environmental issues involved with its use.
It’s common advice to write more quickly, have more books out, and to make more sales so audiences don’t forget you. As a result, the lure to use AI can be seductive.
But is it worth it?
Copyright.
I’m going to assume that any author using AI is going to be doing a lot to the manuscript, mostly because the engines are simply not sophisticated enough at this point. But if you’re not doing much other than “putting an idea into the prompt” – right now, the US Copyright Office’s position appears to be that AI generated content does not qualify for copyright.
Publishing problems.
Looking beyond the ethics of “if they’ll steal someone else’s work, people will steal yours” aspect, Amazon is now battling with the glut of people who are using AI to publish at least two books a month. (“I’d do more, but I’m afraid Amazon will punish me” are among the posts I’ve seen.) There’s also been an increase in indie author account lockdowns. The algorithm is fighting desperately to separate the sludge of AI and plagiarism from “real” accounts.
Beyond that, the glut of AI produced books means a problem with discoverability. How do you separate from the sheer wall of books with the same subgenres, tropes, micro-tropes?
There is hope.
I’ve been writing for 25 years. I predate ebooks, Amazon, even the internet.
I also predate reality television, which really exploded in the early 2000s. Up to that point, TV was seen as a “second class” medium, featuring mostly stereotypical sitcoms, police procedurals, and cozy mysteries, with few standouts.
Reality TV was touted as “the wave of the future.” Cheaper, easier to produce, and hugely possible, they actually predicted that there would be no more scripted shows, period.
Instead, what happened was a Golden Renaissance of TV. In desperation, trying to disrupt and stand out, script writers took chances they wouldn’t have ordinarily – because they had to. And audiences got things like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Orange is the New Black, and The Walking Dead. Characters gained depth. Standards rose.
The game changed.
Take your time. Be yourself out loud. Change the game.
If there was ever a time to take risks, to be extra, it’s now. It may seem counterintuitive, but in the face of a flattening, automated market, now’s the time to go slower, hit harder, and be your authentic writing self. Because that’s what’s going to make the difference.
The best books I’ve written, even if they’re lighthearted rom coms, were books where I delved into what I believed in, what I loved, and what I feared writing – either because the topic was something that frightened me, or because I thought I wasn’t a good enough writer to tackle it. And I put as much of myself in each book as possible.
I am a 51-year-old biracial Asian American geek and foodie. I am now writing, not surprisingly, Gen X romance that showcases geekery and/or food.
Do their lives mirror mine? No. They are their own characters, living and breathing in their own created worlds with their own plots, problems, and arcs.
But I know their worlds and their mindsets. For example, as an “older” woman, I wanted to see romances that show that the problems and joys of that generation. I want to show that people are still desirable (and still having love stories, dammit!) after 39.
There is more of a market than you think.
The trick is to think deep, rather than wide. You may have a niche market, but you don’t need to be Colleen Hoover. You just need to be you, out loud, and find your people. It might not be easy, but it really is that simple… and that important, because no matter how much AI might churn out, there is nothing as enticing as a truly authentic story.
