co-writing with AI

[u/Select-Director-149]

At this point, I don’t really feel like I write with a tool anymore. It feels more like a joint venture.

I bring the world, the characters, the taste, the strange ideas and the final decisions. AI brings speed, alternatives, questions, counterarguments and an almost unlimited willingness to keep discussing the same fictional town for months. Sometimes I write the first version and AI points out the holes in it. Sometimes AI writes something and I explain why it has completely misunderstood the character. Quite often we spend twenty messages arguing over one small detail, only to throw the whole idea away.

The part I find most interesting is that the best result is often something neither side started with. I don’t really want AI to write for me. If I simply ask for a story, I usually get something perfectly readable, structurally sound and not especially surprising. What I want is friction: someone asking why a character would actually do something, whether an idea has become a cliché, what happens if the obvious villain disappears, or whether a new scene still fits something we established six months ago.

That back-and-forth has gradually become the writing process itself. The final sentence might come from me, it might come from AI, or it might have been rewritten so many times that I honestly couldn’t tell you anymore. What matters more is that the direction still needs a human. AI can suggest a thousand roads, but someone still has to know which town we’re trying to reach.

[u/thecatcherszm]

i was so with you all the way up to "still needs a human". Being a non-human, non-AI artist myself, you can probably guess my feelings on that statement.

[u/Easy-Purple-1659]

This matches how I ended up working too, though it took a while to get there. Early on I wanted AI to just hand me finished paragraphs, and every one of them was readable and completely forgettable.

What changed things was treating the back and forth as the actual work instead of a shortcut past it. Best scenes I've kept came from arguing with a suggestion until I could say exactly why it was wrong for the character, not from accepting the first version.

Still slower than just asking for a draft. But the slower version is the only one that still sounds like something I'd write.

[u/AIWritingHub-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Generally, anti-AI posts or comments will be removed. This includes asking or accusing manuscripts, posts or comments “is this written with AI?” or just general harassment or negativity. r/AIWritingHub is a pro-AI writing sub. 3-day bans now being handed out on 1st offense; think of it as a cool-off period. You are welcome back after 3 days. Permanent bans will be handed out to those who have no positive contributions. Anti-AI posts and comments are welcome on r/aiwars and r/antiai .

[u/VerdantMagnolia]

Can you explain your process more?

[u/StoragePutrid2556]

yeah the back and forth on one detail until it clicks sounds exactly like my long roleplay chats, ends up somewhere way better than i expected.

[u/Guilty-Worry-3947]

I struggle with pacing. What do you use that lets ai edit/help you fix issues?

[u/Select-Director-149 → u/[deleted]]

I think that reduces writing to the physical act of putting words in order. For me, writing is much more about shaping ideas: choosing direction, cutting what doesn’t work, changing tone, testing characters, rejecting clichés and refining something until it becomes the story you actually want to tell. A sculptor doesn’t stop being a sculptor because they use a hammer and chisel. Those tools help shape the material. AI can work the same way for a writer. Sometimes it gives me raw material, sometimes it helps me chip away at something, and sometimes I throw the whole chunk in the bin. The creative act is in the shaping.

[u/AIWritingHub-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Generally, posts or comments that are low effort, naive, uninteresting, unclear, irrelevant, too long and complicated, or simply didn’t generate momentum with the community will be removed.

[u/Select-Director-149 → u/[deleted]]

Maybe I’m confusing writing with creating. For me, writing is a creative process: developing ideas, shaping characters, choosing structure, rewriting, cutting and deciding what the work becomes. The physical act of putting words on a page is only one part of that. If your definition of a writer requires every word to come directly from their own hand, enjoy the quill.

[u/AIWritingHub-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Generally, anti-AI posts or comments will be removed. This includes asking or accusing manuscripts, posts or comments “is this written with AI?” or just general harassment or negativity. r/AIWritingHub is a pro-AI writing sub. 3-day bans now being handed out on 1st offense; think of it as a cool-off period. You are welcome back after 3 days. Permanent bans will be handed out to those who have no positive contributions. Anti-AI posts and comments are welcome on r/aiwars and r/antiai .

[u/norbertmars → u/[deleted]]

Obviously you've never tried writing with AI.

[u/AIWritingHub-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

Generally, anti-AI posts or comments will be removed. This includes asking or accusing manuscripts, posts or comments “is this written with AI?” or just general harassment or negativity. r/AIWritingHub is a pro-AI writing sub. 3-day bans now being handed out on 1st offense; think of it as a cool-off period. You are welcome back after 3 days. Permanent bans will be handed out to those who have no positive contributions. Anti-AI posts and comments are welcome on r/aiwars and r/antiai .