Exploring Ways AI Can Help Authors during the Writing Process

AI can be the personal assistant you always wanted but never could afford.

Previously, I’ve written about the ethical and professional use of AI for authors and writers, but today I’m going to talk more about some of the specific applications I believe are ethically sound and useful for authors.

In general, I believe that when AI is used as a tool, resource, or assistant, to your own creative efforts it can be very helpful to authors and writers without crossing any ethical boundaries.

The Limitations of AI

Before we start talking about what AI can do, it’s important to discuss what AI can’t do. Understanding these key limitations is important for learning how to work within AI’s limitations and avoiding becoming frustrated. These limits apply to ChatGPT specifically, as it is the most popular AI tool right now. However, similar limitations apply to the other AI services as well as many AI tools pull from the same original databases.

1. AI has both response length limits and rate limits. For example, I’ve been kicked out a couple of times when I’ve hit their hourly rate limit, which I believe is around 100 requests, but could not find anything to confirm. It also can’t generate more than roughly 3,000 words, no matter the complexity of the questions asked. So when asking it for complex information, you’ll want to break your questions up into small, easily answered pieces. You also will never be able to get it to pump out an entire novel or blog in one go, nor should you want it to.
2. It can get slow or stop working completely during high traffic times. If you’re only using the free version and not a paid version of AI, you might be frustrated to realize that it often goes slow or won’t work at all during high-traffic times. This can be avoided with their paid version, which is approximately $20 per month.
3. AI has a knowledge cut-off of January 2022. This means that it cannot provide any information on current events, or advances in fields during that time, which may be particularly important if you’re doing something like medical research or trying to get information on current news or world events.
4. AI is not a person. While AI can sometimes form responses that seem almost human, other times it is glaringly obvious that it’s not. It has no personal experience or emotions to draw on, can’t form original thoughts, and is therefore likely to experience potential biases based on the data it was trained on. It also has limited contextual understanding that can cause it to not fully grasp nuances or context outside of the given conversation. Basically, sometimes AI just really doesn’t get it.
5. AI seems to excel with simple requests but struggles with complex requests. For example, I asked it to spit me out a list of 50 keywords relating to a topic, and it gave me something pretty good immediately. I then gave ChatGPT a list of keywords I gathered and asked it to sort the keywords into groups based on topics. This was something I thought should be easy enough, but ChatGPT failed spectacularly. While it did start grouping the keywords by topic, these topics weren’t very specific. It also would not stop adding additional keywords while leaving out several of mine no matter how I tried to change the wording to specify that I definitely, 100% didn’t want any keywords added to my list. Sometimes I’m surprised by what AI isn’t able to do.
6. AI is not always right, but it always sounds right. AI will sometimes come back with or make up false information, and it may not be obvious at all. It seems like it wants to provide answers to your questions, even if it doesn’t have answers. I’ve never once had an AI-generated come back and tell me it has no idea what I’m talking about, but I have seen it come back with answers that I knew were totally wrong because I was testing it on the knowledge I already had. If I hadn’t already known the answer I was looking for, I could have easily been taken in by the false information. AI has even been known to make up false legal cases that made it all the way to the courtroom. So, while AI can help speed up your research efforts, it’s still crucial to double-check that information before you run with it. You can also ask the AI generator to source where they’re getting the information from to help you track it down quickly. 
7. AI can create odd legality problems. AI will often come back with information or text that is copyrighted, or, as stated above, the information may be made up. This is because AI isn’t creating anything new, instead, it is searching its databases for the information you’re looking for then serving you up a mashup of all the information it finds. While it often rewrites the information in its own AI voice, there are times when it may serve you information that is a bit too close to the original content.  I always recommend running any AI writing through plagiarism checkers just to be safe. Also, AI may not understand the actual legal issues. For instance, it might not protect employers from anti-discrimination lawsuits as it sifts through resumes or job applications.
8. AI use is a very polarizing topic. In the current environment, people seem to be either completely for or against AI. Simply using them at all, even in small ways, can turn some readers against you. Readers especially seem to be participating in witch hunts concerning AI art.  It’s important to know where you stand on AI use so that you can be prepared to defend your position if it comes down to it. Also, if you’re using AI in a way that you wouldn’t be comfortable openly speaking about, it might be better to avoid using AI in that way at all. That’s the standard I use for myself. 

Different Ways AI Can Help Authors Save Time and Money

1. Rewrite Sentences or Paragraphs That Aren’t Quite Right.

Have you ever had one of those times when you’re struggling with one particular sentence? You know what you want it to say, but every attempt you make to write it becomes clumsy, long, and just not quite right.

AI can help you work on those tricky sections. Plug in the section of writing you’re struggling with and ask AI to rewrite it more concisely. Or, more clearly, more humoriously, more casually, etc. If you don’t like the first option it spits out, you can ask it to regenerate another idea until you get one that inspires you. If the text you’re working with is small, you can also ask it to generate 10 to 20 variations from the beginning to quickly get a bunch of ideas to draw from.

You probably won’t ever get it to write out text that you can plug in without any changes, but it can give you text ideas that are close enough to what you’re looking for that you can edit it quickly. Sometimes, it’s a lot easier to fix something you don’t like than it is to come up with something you do like from scratch. I think AI excels at helping with these types of situations.

2. Help You Come Up with Ideas when Your Muse Is Slacking

When you hit a wall when writing, AI can help you generate ideas to get you going again. You can ask it what it thinks would be a silly situation for your character to get into. I asked ChatGPT “What would be a silly and unique situation for a vampire to be in that most people wouldn’t expect?” It replied:

“Imagine a vampire named Vlad, notorious for his nocturnal escapades, finding himself in the predicament of being the guest of honor at a sunscreen convention. Picture him squirming uncomfortably under the intense fluorescent lights as speakers extol the virtues of SPF protection. To make matters worse, he’s seated on a panel discussing the benefits of broad-spectrum sunscreen while desperately trying to conceal his discomfort and aversion to sunlight. As attendees eagerly ask questions about UV rays and sunblock application techniques, Vlad is forced to nod along, silently longing for the safety of the shadows. This comical scenario leaves Vlad, the immortal creature of the night, feeling hilariously out of place in the world of sun protection.”

Not too bad. The idea of a vampire having to speak on a subject like sunscreen, fake tanner, or vitamin D deficiency could be a fun plot point.  And, if you don’t like the first scenario it gives you, you can ask it to give you another and another situation until you’re satisfied.

Or you can ask it for details many people wouldn’t know about certain characters’ past, difficulties, or situations. For example, I asked, “What are some situations from the 1800s that are often overlooked in historical romances?” Here’s part of ChatGPT’s reply:

• “The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: The Pre-Raphaelite art movement emerged in the mid-19th century, celebrating beauty, nature, and medievalism. A romance set against the backdrop of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood could explore themes of artistic passion, unconventional love, and the clash between tradition and innovation.
• “The Crimean War: While wars are sometimes mentioned in historical romances, the Crimean War of the 1850s is often overlooked. Setting a romance against the backdrop of this conflict could provide opportunities for themes of courage, sacrifice, and the impact of war on personal relationships.
• “The Opium Trade and Addiction: The opium trade, particularly between Britain and China, was a significant aspect of 19th-century history. Exploring the impact of opium addiction on individuals and families can add depth and realism to a romance novel, highlighting social issues and moral dilemmas.”

I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest historical romance reader, but I haven’t encountered these situations in any novels that I’ve read yet. So, these ideas may have merit.

3. Help You perform Research for Your Novel

ChatGPT can help you speed up your research process, and can even be helpful in situations where topics are harder to research. These could include rare medical conditions or niche treatments. Individuals with rare medical conditions may be hesitant to share their experiences online, and it may be difficult for you to even know what you should be searching for in the first place.

It can also help research different countries’ customs and cultures, historical events and periods, and pretty much anything else you can imagine.

Sure, you could probably find all of this information online as well, but in my experimentations, AI helps me get to the answer more quickly than reading studies and forums, and SEO-optimized blog posts that repeat the same ten points over and over again. Once I get the answer, it is easy to fact-check it online.

This is important, always fact-check any information that ChatGPT provides you. One of the major limitations mentioned above is that it sometimes enjoys fabricating false information just to make you happy and it’s your responsibility to make sure you’re not spreading misinformation.

4. Help You with Character Development when You’re Struggling with Mary Sues

Is character development an area you struggle with? Or perhaps you’ve got some very strong characters that you love, but you’re struggling to move on from them now that you’re no longer writing their series and don’t want all your books to feel like they have the same characters. AI can help.

Try giving it the backstory you’d like your character to have and ask it what kind of characteristics and personality traits someone with this background might have. Or, give it the attributes you’d like a character to have and ask it what sort of backgrounds might lead a character to develop those characteristics.

You could try plugging in your well-flushed-out main character and ask it to create some ideas for side characters that would go well with this character, create opportunities for interesting or funny interactions, or that would create a lot of conflict.

The limits are endless and I’ve often observed that the more specific you can get with your situation and characters the better responses you’ll get from AI.

5. AI Can Help You Create Dialogue When Characters Aren’t Feeling Chatty

In my experimentations, I feel that this is an area where AI can inspire you or help you create something that you don’t like so that you can realize what you do. But, I did not find the conversations it generated for me to be particularly polished.

When I plugged in some dialogue that I created and asked it to change to be funnier, more professional or to add in a relevant anecdote, it seemed to do a pretty decent job. Nothing that I would ever publish on its own, but it helped me decide where I wanted a conversation to go and even provided a couple of pretty good lines.

When I just asked it to give me a conversation based on a plot situation, it failed pretty spectacularly though.

So this may be an area where the better your prompts are the better your results are, and perhaps mine were just bad. However, I’m guessing it’ll do a better job at tweaking the dialogue you’re already working on than creating something for you out of thin air.

6. AI Can Help You Experiment with Different Writing Styles and Voices

A mistake I’ve noticed a lot of people make with AI when asking it to help them write, is they don’t specify how they want it to respond. Therefore, they only get the typical AI voice back.

However, Chat GPT has a lot of data on different writing styles including formal academic, casual conversational, professional business, journalistic, creative fiction, technical/instructions, persuasive/argumentative, humourous, satirical, poetic/lyrical, and many more. So, if you’re writing a chick flick and asking it to help you work on some paragraphs or dialogue, ask it to give you something back in the style of a chick flick to make the results more similar to what you are looking for.

Or, if you have a novel where you’d like to include a couple of news articles, ask it to rewrite your faux article with a journalistic voice.

It can also mimic specific styles like that of Hemingway or Dickensen if you’re looking to have some fun. Maybe you have a character who’s obsessed with Shakespeare and often comes up with Shakespeareanesque lines that you could use some help with.

7. AI Can Help Generate Scenes and Depictions for Your Novel

Do you know what your characters are doing but struggle to see specifically where your characters are while they’re doing it? AI could help.

Ask it how it might describe an ancient temple that’s set in the depths of a volcano. Ask it to describe an enchanted forest that breaks all the rules of reality. Or, maybe you’re just struggling to find the right words to describe another boring, old bus stop. You know, in an interesting way.

Play around with AI and see if it can help you come up with the tricky bits of your scene that you’re having a hard time imagining.

8. AI Can Help You with Universe Building

Similarly to the above, AI can also be used to come up with ideas for universe-building.

Ask it for ideas on what types of creatures might live in that enchanted forest found above or be found guarding the lava temple.

Or give it the details you’ve already developed for your world, and ask it to help fill in any missing areas based on your ideas.

It can help with genre-specific decisions, cultural knowledge, creating a history for an imaginary world, geography, and mythology. I imagine it will try to meet you on whatever level you ask it to.

9. AI Can Help with the Development of Subplots

If you’ve got the main story down but are struggling with your subplots, or, perhaps you don’t even know what subplots you’d like your story to have, perhaps AI can help.

Tell it your main plot and ask it to suggest some subplots that would coordinate well with it. Or, give it a side character who you’ve been struggling to give a side story and see if AI has any good ideas for you. It can help delve into your characters’ motivations, backgrounds, and conflicts to find opportunities for surprising subplots that resonate with their arcs.

You can ask it to create a more serious subplot to add depth to a more humorous novel or a more humorous side plot to lighten a more serious novel.

See if it can give you ideas for a subplot that doesn’t usually go with the type of novel you’re writing. Perhaps it can give you some ideas to help you surprise your readers.

10. AI Could Help Develop Plot Twists and Cliffhangers

When it comes to brainstorming plot twists and cliffhangers, AI can be your friend. It can help you explore various directions your story could take or suggest unconventional ideas or combinations you may not have considered. It can analyze the plot structures in all the literature, movies, and TV shows that it’s crawled to help identify effective techniques for incorporating plot twists and cliffhangers into your narrative. Just share your draft or story outline with ChatGPT, and it will let you know what it thinks.

It could also give you ideas for some clues or hints that you could place throughout your novel to help with foreshadowing your plot twist to make it more impactful. It may even be able to help create a plot map with you to help you get an idea of how your story could flow and progress. Asking AI to help you come up with ideas for misdirection or a way to play with readers’ expectations is yet another helpful option.

11. AI Can Help You Nail Your Ending and Come up with Bonus Content Ideas

If you’re struggling with your ending, or you’re just wanting to spend some extra time to ensure you nail it, AI may be able to help.

AI can help you break away from conventional narrative structure and explore possibilities for your ending. It can think within different genres, to help you both get something that aligns with your genre while also being creative and unexpected. It can come up with a plethora of different ideas for conflict resolution and provide feedback and the strengths and weaknesses of your ending until you’re satisfied with the final result.

Or, perhaps you’ve received poor feedback on your ending and are looking for ways to improve it before the official release. AI can help you incorporate the feedback from your audience to improve the current ending.

It could also help you generate ideas for bonus alternate endings or other bonus content that you can include both at the end of your both or as additional content readers can get by visiting your site. Perhaps it could even help you write a key passage or section from a different character’s POV.

12. AI Can Be an On-Demand Beta Reader

Have you ever wished you could have someone on hand 24/7 to give you writing feedback whenever you needed it? Well, ChatGPT will do its best to be your on-demand Beta Reader.

Plug in some text you’re working on and ask it what it thinks. I may not be able to tell you which parts of your writing have the most emotional impact, but it can offer suggestions and improvements and search for inconsistencies in your writing.

Another trick I’ve heard people try is to ask AI to “act as” a critic or editor or beta reader. This is said to help AI give you feedback from the perspective of the type of person you’re looking for advice from. For example, you could say, “Act as a critic and criticize my novel as if it were a contender for a literary prize in fiction. What parts of my novel stand out and what parts of my novel could be improved.”

Regardless, a huge pro of AI is that it offers instant feedback and comments on your writing no matter how weird your writing schedule gets.

13. AI Can Help with Editing Your Novel

AI will never be able to replace an actual, professional editor. However, it could help you self-edit and clean up your work to save both you and your editor time. And, if your books require less editing overall, it may even save you money.

The first way AI can help you clean up your writing is by incorporating AI spell checkers and editing tools. Ever heard of Grammarly? It’s your friendly AI-Powered Writing Assistant and it’s not the only one. Hemingway Editor has also been gaining popularity lately, along with about a dozen other tools looking to make a name for themselves. These tools aren’t always right, and they don’t always seem to love writing that has a personality, but they are good at catching those typos and grammatical mistakes that your mind likes to autocorrect for you.

You can also plug text into ChatGPT or other similar tools and ask it to help you with proofreading, copy editing, sentence structure, and word choice suggestions. It will help with more development tasks such as identifying plot holes, inconsistencies, and other logical errors. Character development, dialogue feedback, and pacing. It can even provide structuring and organizational guidance on chapters or sections.

But it’s not a one-stop wonder editor. AI may struggle to grasp contextual understanding beyond what is explicitly provided by your manuscript, thus it may miss important themes, nuances, or historical/cultural references. It may especially struggle with creative fantasy or sci-fi writing. It also struggles with personal style preferences and really wants writing to fit within its own rules and voice.

It struggles with more complex editing tasks, and can’t provide any human judgment or feelings. It won’t be able to comprehend when a paragraph was written a certain way for added emotional impact. Instead, it will note more efficient ways to write that paragraph.

Most importantly, AI writing isn’t you, and it will never be able to replace the creative visions, personal experience, and intuition that you add to your writing and make it incredible and unique.

Remember as mentioned above, AI isn’t always accurate and that is why you should not only always check your facts for yourself, but also hire a professional editor for the final edit. Not only do professional editors edit your manuscript, good ones will check it for factual accuracy as well.

14. Help Come up with the Perfect Title

Some authors are really good at coming up with titles, while others can write an entire novel and still have no idea what they’d like to call it.

Even if you have an idea of what you want your title to be, you could ask AI for suggestions on how you could make your title more easily searched for or for more attention-grabbing ideas. You can ask it for titles that will appeal most to your specific target audience and genre.

When asking ChatGPT for ideas on something like a title, I suggest always asking it to generate batches of ideas, anywhere from, say, ten to twenty, to give you a lot of different ideas all at once.

15. Ideas for Covers and Illustrations

While ChatGPT can’t draw or create a cover for you, it can help you think of cover ideas based on your particular book. If you struggle to communicate with illustrators and authors, it can help you develop these ideas in ways that are easily understood by artists and cover designers.

It may even be able to come up with ideas for chapter illustrations or powerful scenes for character art, something I’m seeing being included in books more often.

You’ll probably first want to ask it to help you come up with ideas you like, and once you’ve fine-tuned your idea, you can ask it to come up with a detailed prompt for your idea that can then be shared with actual designers and artists.

What Other Ways Have You Used AI to Help You Write?

These are some ideas that I’ve come up with on how AI can help writers during the writing process, but I’m sure there are more great ideas out there. Have you used AI to help you write? Share with us in the comments below!

Happy writing!