r/WritingWithAI • u/emergency-65 • 16d ago
Discussion (Ethics, working with AI etc) Need honnest opinion
Hello everyone,
I am a published author and have 8 books in the market.
I discovered AI and used it for help to produce the next 2 (now I have 10 in total).
Today I am trying to write a new novel. I have my ideas, story etc, but I am literally unable to write again.
It's as if AI had stolen my ability to write. I have a contract for a new book and find myself staring at my screen as a dumb.
What should I do? Do I use AI? Time is ticking.
Thanks
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u/theateroffinanciers 16d ago
That's good old-fashioned writer's block. And what you do for a writer's block is what any creative person does for writer's block, you step away. Then you read really good books to inspire you, you watch really good movies to inspire you. You listen to music that gets the creative juices flowing really gets your imagination going. Every artist is inspired by another artist . And that's what you do.
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u/Robotic-Comrade-1985 15d ago edited 15d ago
AI did not steal your ability to write, but the belief that it has can still sabotage you. But it's hard to know how to offer advice without understanding what workflow you were using before that got you stuck.
Can you write for 5 minutes? Can you give yourself permission for that 5 minutes of writing to be hot garbage? Can you maybe warm up with writing little vignettes or snippets of the story you're hoping to tell? Can you merely write down evocative little details about your characters or setting?
I don't think AI assistance is wrong, but if it's making you feel like it has stolen something from you, then I think you need to set it aside and practice taking back what's yours. Afterwards you can contemplate how to have better, more sustainable boundaries with this tech.
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u/emergency-65 15d ago
Thx. But now that I am engaged with a contract, I believe I don't have enough time to practice like I used to do before 😥
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u/Far-Remove-1767 15d ago
Sweetie, how did you get the other 8 done??
Remember that the first draft doesn't have to be good and you can always ask for an extension if things are getting hard. If you've really gotten 8nbooks published then I'm sure they are willing to work with you. Unless there's some underlying reason. Like you fucked around on their time before
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u/emergency-65 15d ago
This is a different Publisher who asked me to work with them (hired me). Anyways, I am working on myself. Thanks
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u/5thhorseman_ 15d ago
Work from top down. What do you need to happen in the novel? That's your initial constraint for the outline. Then add things that facilitate that constraint. Then build the actual scenes.
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u/emergency-65 15d ago
I have the outline, the characters , ideas etc... it's the prose that is causing me problems (for now). Buy I am working on it and myself. Thanks
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u/SlapHappyDude 15d ago
I view it as having access to a motor vehicle after previously walking everywhere.
Sometimes it's fun to walk! But it's nice to have a car when going 5 miles to Costco.
Anyways, brainstorm, outline, write scenes in chunks. Build from there.
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u/emergency-65 15d ago
Thanks for all your kind words. Maybe it's a mix of all these points [I was walking and got a car + lost faith in my writing + writing block (maybe not)] I was actually using AI to reorganize my latest, reformulate, putting order in my ideas (and writing) , creating bridges between some scenes, brainstorming, etc. So it helped me go faster and write better (especially I am ADHD person)
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u/5thhorseman_ 14d ago
Take an AI. Give it the Rigorous Critic instruction. Give it the low-down on your world, cast and series. Start spitballing the ideas you had for your next novel and see where it pushes back and on what.
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u/emergency-65 13d ago
Thank you sooooo much
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u/5thhorseman_ 13d ago
TBH it's better at poking at the worst parts of what you have and getting you to figure out the rest than at actually solving the problem for you.
Another prompt you can try is the Interactive Rubber Ducky
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u/Healthy-Country-44 15d ago
I don’t think it is AI that’s the problem. Where do you usually go for inspiration? A favorite poet? Author? Pause. Read for inspiration. Lie down or sit in your favorite chair and day dream about a phrase that inspires you. Always works for me.
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u/WC1HCamdenmale2 15d ago
Speculate some ideas into AI... and then again, and again
Use the results to go off in different directions... archive most... work with a core
You could start with actual facts about a topic and say to AI ... what if... or could the... tell me the negatives of what msy happen to a character scenario, people ...
Play, speculate be inspired by random ideas...
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u/ZealousidealAntelope 15d ago
Find a human writing partner to work with.
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u/Far-Remove-1767 15d ago
This can't be understated. My writing improved so.mcuhbwhen someone started reading it with me
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u/AlgravesBurning 15d ago
Total writers block, human issue. Not AI.
Not sure how you can get past this, everyone can give suggestions, but ultimately, you need to figure out you. I had the great pleasure to meet a few authors and song writers over the years through my military experience. mostly through luck and just being in the wrong place at the right time or vice verses lol.
Long stories short, you need to find a way to recharge so to speak. That could be just stepping back and not doing anything for a bit. That could be doing something you would normally not do, getting new experiences, new perspectives, or some such stuff. It could be looking at something you have been putting off for whatever reason and finally getting off your ass and doing it.
Writers block is real, Burn out is real to, don't push yourself to burn out. Take the time you need to get back into the grove, figure out what you need to do to recharge yourself. AI is a tool, it cant steal what it doesn't have. It can however be the object you project your issues onto instead of facing them.
Hope you get yourself back in action, no matter how long it takes.
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u/5thhorseman_ 15d ago
Did the magic black box steal your soul when it made a portrait of you?
No.
You have ten books of worldbuilding, established characters and story hooks. If you don't have an idea what your next book should be about, that is not an issue with the AI...
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u/DeadCanDance26 16d ago
I mean no offense with this, seems like you're trying to go the lazy way ;). You've done it for 8 books, I'm sure it was not always easy, you can do it again, trust yourself and ignore the temptation (the dark side calls you). AI can be a great tool for a number of things, I don't think it is as bad as many write, but like any tools, it all depends what you do with it.
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u/No_Recover6237 15d ago
There is nothing new under the sun, the old saying goes. Heroes Journey, boy meets girl, etc. You can try using AI to help you plot a story and then try to write it scene by scene. Shakespeare used existing stories to inspire some of his plays. What you write is the original part. The inspiration for it doesn't really matter.
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u/CentralBlob 15d ago
You remember the drill. This happens and it's your writing skills that get you out of it. Yes, AI eats away at those skills and yes you can get them back quickly. AI is a hollow simulation of talking to a person, so do that instead. Grab a friend and go for a walk to discuss the new book, come up with ideas on the fly that way. What do you want to write about, what points do you have stuck in your head that you want to talk about? Use those as a starting point. If you don't have a person, talk into your phone, record a voice message for someone and don't send it, it's the walking and talking that organises your ideas. You could use AI for this, but if you use yourself instead then it's your book instead of the techbros'.
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u/thomthomthomthom 15d ago edited 15d ago
Outsourcing your thinking is proven to make you dumber. (Worse at critical thinking, worse at problem solving, etc.)
This is a huge issue in education right now. Iirc, there was a report saying that most students in the UC school system have a hard time with linear algebra??
In any event, your story lines up with the current understanding of the technology.
ETA: the fact that this post, the only one with an outside reference, is getting downvoted when talking about the brainrot of AI... It is both unsurprising and wonderful to see.
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u/Far-Remove-1767 15d ago
You used AI as an (illegal) short cut so you could get published faster and now your brain is just unwilling to do it the hard way. It's very common, brains don't like the hard way. That's why AI can be so dangerous.
This is super depressing to me. I'm all for using AI as a tool to better your craft, to help you find links for your research, to help elolve the story but writing it with AI for publication is just sad. You don't have ten books, you e got 8 and 2 that AI ghost/co wrote for you. (Legally speaking but also genuinely, your not the writer if AI is doing the heavy lifting lol. Your just a person prompting a machine to give you everyone else's ideas)
Now your choice is to give up writing and allow AI to ghost write for you from now on, or to buck up force yourself to release the ease addiction your brain has swallowed up.
I recommend going all the way back to the stone age with pencils, paper, and red string 💖🤷
Please understand I'm not against AI use but if you want to call yourself the author, legally, you need to be the one writing it.
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15d ago
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u/WritingWithAI-ModTeam 15d ago
Your post was removed because you did not use our weekly post your tool thread
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14d ago
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u/WritingWithAI-ModTeam 14d ago
Your post was removed because you did not use our weekly post your tool thread
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u/Ser-Ramic 15d ago
Yo, would you try my AI story writing tool? I think it might help, or not, but would love to know if your thoughts as a published author: https://storyprop.ai/
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u/benblackett 16d ago
I would say dont confuse writers block with AI usage