The Great Debate: Writing Novels with AI

You may or may not know this, but there’s an ongoing philosophical debate going on in the world of fiction writing.

To AI, or not to AI?

It’s not a pretty conversation. It’s not hard at all to navigate on (pick your favorite social media platform) and find hard arguments and opinions for either side.

A few months ago, I sat in on a monthly meeting of the Citrus Crime Writers, which is the Orlando-area chapter of Sisters in Crime. Our guest speaker was award-winning author Neil Plakcy. His topic: AI as a Tool.

I have to say, it was a mind-bending hour. I had used AI before as part of my day job, but I had never used it — or even considered using it — in ways that Neil showed us you could. Such as:

• Write an outline

• Write several chapters based on an outline

• Write different descriptions of a character based on these facts

The big knock on AI, for now, is that it gets so many facts wrong. In fiction, facts are moldable, easily corrected. But you need a factor-checker to make the change, and by the nature of how it does what it does, AI can’t fact-check itself. (Or edit itself very well, either.)

The other arrow that critics aim at this whole thing is, of course, that an author using AI is using a co-writer. And one that often plagarizes to abandon, no credit line in sight.

I don’t know the answer to this, but I wonder if similar debates took place in Hollywood when CGI was developed. I seem to remember that a few stunt folks got upset, but CGI didn’t go away.

Many, many, MANY authors are deeply offended at even the thought of using AI to conceive and create a book. No, no, no. Sit down and plug away. When you’re happy with the results, work on the publishing end and be happy about your craft.

That’s today.

Tomorrow? Don’t be too sure.

Many Indie Authors Embrace AI

In a few months, my plan is to return to an indie author conference where I know the reactions (and advice) will be just the opposite. I’m certain of this because two years ago it was already on that side of the fence.

For the most part, these Indies are much more concerned with selling books and marketing themselves than they are with crafting a masterpiece. They’re more worried about TikTok going away or Amazon punishing them than they are about the more traditional concerns, which were A) how to find an agent and B) how to query an agent or publisher.

These authors are going to put their books on Amazon or Smashwords as soon as they declare them finished. Almost all of them know the secret to making money as an author: the more books you write, the more you sell.

They also know that AI can help you write a lot of books — fast. That’s not all. AI can create book covers. It can create illustrations. It can create character videos. And it can create author videos designed to promote a newly minted novel.

Among the questions still to be answered in this process is whether authors will come clean with their readers. Will they say, either at the start or the end of the book, that AI had a hand in the book’s development. Any hand.

Did it help the author write an outline? Did it build a character? Or did it write most/all of the book?

Having talked to a handful of other authors, this seems to be the first hurdle once AI gets used. OK, you can use it, but you have to tell people you used it.

For the traditionalists, this is the lowest bar of all, that if you use AI, you must acknowledge it. Better, however, to avoid the issue by not using AI at all.

No AI for Me . . . So Far

I wrote Dead Odds long before artificial intelligence had locked into our culture. It didn’t exist, so I didn’t use it. Did I use Google to research parts of the book? Yes. Does that cross the line? Not in my mind. But maybe authors from the 1930s, say, would think so.

These days I’m laboring to get Dead Sleep into publishing condition. Have I used AI for it? Nope. Will I? Nope.

But I confess that I’m pondering creating a series of novellas in a different genre, with new characters and plots and such. And I’m considering using AI to the max to create those stories.

Why? Mostly because I want to test it. I also like the idea of telling a fun story without needing months or years to get it ready for prime time. If I do it, will I tell the world it’s an AI production? Probably. As the song says, I’ll know when I get there.

As I see the controversy play out, I’ve traded ideas and thoughts with another Indie author friend. He laughs at the traditionalists because he’s certain that somewhere down the road, they’re going to acquiesce and use AI to produce their fiction.

“Cars were once a noisy distraction that would never replace horses. The American public would never accept talking movies,” he texted. “The cycle continues.”

One thing’s certain. The debate isn’t going away anytime soon.