A trip down the AI rabbit hole

Awhile ago I had a philosophical conversation about the use of AI for novel writing. At the time I didn’t know much about it and my knee-jerk response was a definitive no. After thinking about it, I realized I was more intrigued than resolute. Perhaps there was something to it and I should open myself up to its possibilities.

Doing what people do these days, I consulted a Facebook group called Canada Writes. Predictably, the response was roundly critical that anyone would contemplate using AI. Short of calling for my head on a plate, the consensus was that the use of computer-generated algorithms to write is heretic to the god of originality and creativity. A few moderates stated it could be useful for certain aspects of the process, but they were drowned out by the critics.

Most people are aware of ChatGPT and Midjourney, but these are only two of hundreds of available programs. Many are image-generators, used for marketing and sales. Generative AI is used for special effects in Tinseltown and the use of AI is improving diagnosis and treatments, changing the future of medicine. Journalists use AI for headlines. and stories, while law, finance, engineering, architecture, and software development are all rethinking the way they work by harnessing AI’s power.

I was deep into a novel and was struggling with how to solve a specific sub-plotline. I had my characters, my narrator (which I’ve since switched) and a general roadmap of how to get from A to B. However, I wondered if AI could help me with the sub-plot story.

After a lot of research into which AI programs were best for novel writing, I chose one called Sudowrite. When I knew I could devote the required time, I chose the free trial. It was a brief experiment but gave me a sense of how it worked so I took the plunge and signed up. The cheapest option is $40 (Cdn) a month. I punched in my characters, a synopsis, the general plot, and a few other basic questions, such as genre, point of view, secondary characters, etc. Yes, it did generate an outline and answered my biggest question regarding my sub-plot. But along the way, I learned a lot more.

AI is only as good as the information you feed it. The more specific, the more useful the program. However, even with everything fed into it, and no matter how many ways I spun it, the program never quite got the voice of my characters, especially the main one, a curious, sensitive eight-year-old.

Despite hours refining my information, the characters sounded like caricatures, stereotypes of how one would expect them to sound. There was no nuance, no emotion behind the words. The dialogue was stilted and trite, lacking the subtleties of human expression. It wasn’t at all how I envisioned my characters to speak.

AI code can help fill the gaps that writers struggle with, such as world-building, descriptive settings, the ability to describe a place or person, plot points, dialogue, character names, outlines, and other elements of a story. Yes, AI can help with this, but when I punched in a scene, again the language used was not mine. To my ears, it sounded fake, nothing resembling what I would write.

So, while it helped me overcome a block, unable to see which direction to take, there were many limitations. If I’m spending hours inputting information, why not just create it myself?

In the act of writing, I am fleshing out my characters in my own mind, revealing their emotional wounds, their strengths, their motivations. I may never use this information in the guts of the story, but through the process, I gain a deeper understanding of them.  Hopefully, that understanding shines through and creates a richer character. Using algorithms displaces this process.

Is there a place for AI in our world today? Absolutely. And the genie is never going back in the bottle now anyway.

Perhaps there are writers who find it useful, who are better able to harness its power, but for me, part of the act of writing, is the love of creating those worlds, those characters, using my imagination to take them on a journey. I write to give the reader a glimpse into this world, to entertain them, and to have them feel a human connection to the people I’ve imagined. My foray into AI left me wanting and I suspect, readers would feel that way too.
 
Fun fact: I created the image by using the prompt “middle-aged woman, literary but chic”. I'm not sure why there's no head or what's going on with her legs(!) but it was fun to play with and way easier than writing!

Enjoy the longer days my friends.
And in the meantime, happy reading.
​Joni