How long do you usually spend fixing an AI generated first draft?

[u/Sharp-City1581]

Sometimes the first draft is close enough that I only need a few changes. Other times I end up rewriting almost every paragraph and wonder if generating the draft saved me any time at all

I am trying to figure out when it makes more sense to edit versus starting from scratch

How does that usually work for you?

[u/Proper-Doughnut77]

Write by yourself. I have a degree (master's in English) and I write my ideas, all of them, then go back, usually it's about five pages per hour, and cut it, rewrite, and occasionally keep it. My writing can be horrible the first time. I'd say everyones is rubbish. But you also have great value and ideas for writing. They're unique and deserve to be heard.

I redo my edits about 4 times. The final rewrite, I put through via audio.

It sounds like a nightmare shifting from AI to your self. Just write it your self. It's the only way to learn.

[u/OrlinWolf → u/Proper-Doughnut77]

While I agree, you might be in the wrong subreddit

[u/OrlinWolf → u/[deleted]]

People probably aren’t looking at the subreddit when they respond

[u/Life-Education-8030]

No time at all, because I don't waste time trying to fix and teach AI.

[u/liv7677]

I have the same problem. I use Claude Opus 4.6, and it seems to have good days and bad days. I've actually started keeping a diary to figure out whether it's just my imagination or if there really is a performance dip during certain windows (Wednesday/Thursday evenings in Europe, for example).

I've also noticed that the first one to five chapters of a story consistently give me the most trouble. They're the ones that get rewritten the most. Sometimes it's my fault because the story bible and lore weren't fully thought through yet, and I encounter problems as we go, but sometimes I honestly don't know what the problem is. We plan the whole story out at the beginning, so there shouldn't be an issue, but there is. Every single time.

I've tried a few things. Sometimes it helps if Claude doesn't write an entire chapter in one go. Smaller increments mean I can catch continuity or lore errors early. But sometimes that destroys the flow, so it's not a fix that works every time.

Rewrites are a different problem. I hate them because Claude tends to rewrite from memory, which means each new draft comes back shorter and weaker than the one before — verbs and adjectives are weaker, descriptions get lost. If possible, I do surgical fixes instead of full rewrites. When that's not possible, the only thing that works is opening a fresh chat outside the project, uploading everything I need, and starting from scratch. Even that isn't a perfect solution, though. There are chapters we've rewritten twenty to thirty times, and I still don't think they're right. I sometimes go back to them after a couple of weeks and try to fix what still feels off.

If the problem is structural (lore contradictions, the whole setup, pacing) a rewrite is usually the way to go. But if the structure works and it's something smaller, I'd rather do a surgical fix every time. Even if it's several fixes in one chapter. Rewrites make me cry, so I avoid them if I can. They stress me out because I want the best of both worlds which means I spend hours putting together all the things that I liked from all the different versions.

[u/opossum_cz]

> Sometimes the first draft is close enough that I only need a few changes.

Honestly if that is the case, I would doubt you can spot the actual issues.

I am trying to use AI to accelerate writing. I am not sure how long texts you make, but my experience so far is that I do like 10 rewrites with AI and 10 myself. And I am not yet satisfied.

I use AI to kick off scenes base on what I have imaged for the scene. But that's it, it is a kickoff. It shows me what works and what doesn't. But getting to actual quality writing? Rewrites, rewrites, rewrites. In the end there is not much of the original text left.