Writer’s Corner: Let’s Talk About AI

The Debate Over AI

I got an email the other day title, “Use AI to Write Your Book in a Flash”. I think Alexa, and Siri, and Google Assistant are annoying, and only correct a portion of the time. So when I saw this email, my first thought was, “Who would want to read a book written by AI?”

AI applications and tools are improving rapidly, so the idea of AI writing my book for me isn’t that far fetched. But the more I though about it, the more offended I became. I write as a means of expressing myself using my ideas, my words, my voice. I wouldn’t want an AI to write my whole book, no matter how fast it can do it. How could they actually believe an unfeeling, inhuman AI tool could even attempt to write for me?

The fact is, most of us already use AI in our daily lives, and we probably don’t even give it a second thought anymore. Most of us an Alexa, or Siri, or Google Assistant, or an equivilant AI device which we use to gain information, turn on our lights, play music, or even tell us a joke. We’ve come to accept AI as a part of daily life.

But when folks start talking about using AI for writing or narrating a book, concerned voices come out of the dark to express displeasure, siting several reasons why using AI with books and literature is not a desirable thing, but one or two stand out: AI created or narrated books are cheating, and take away human jobs.

We’re going to look at the validity of that argument, but first, let’s talk about the different types of AI and what they can and can’t do. Many of us already use AI in our writing, too, but we may not even realize it. Do you use the automatic spell checker that is built into Microsoft Word? Or maybe you use Grammerly or ProWriting Aid to help polish your words? Not so many because not all authors have audiobooks out, but some, may take advantage of the free AI narration for audio books available on Google Play. And then of course, there is Chat GTP, or [ ] which many authors use to help them in their research or in creating setting or character description.

The Creative Penn Podcast on AI

Joanna Penn is a futurist author and podcaster who is usually at least two or three steps ahead of the trends on The Creative Penn podcast. AI has been a hot topic on her poscast and she has many episodes which cover this topic. Penn is transparent in her use of AI in her writing and in creating illustrations. She has played with AI narration, and even had an AI voice created from her own voice, which she claims has saved her tremendous time in creating her audiobooks, which she previously narrated herself. In a couple of her podcast episodes, Penn plays the AI narrations for one of her audiobooks in a couple of different voices to illustrate the quality of AI narration that could be achieved. And I know that quality has improved even more since she recorded those episodes.

If AI is cheating, then with the narration, Penn is only cheating herself. She places disclaimers, letting readers know if a creative work is made with AI and in what capacity, so no one feels fooled or tricked. Although some people are out there pushing the use of AI to ‘write your book quick’, Penn points out that AI technology are simply tools to be used by the author or artist in the creative process. On The Creative Penn podcast, Joanna talks about how she uses ChatGPT and Mid-Journey to assist her in her research, and how she tells the AI what she is looking for and then can refine her search or tell it to make adjustments to a paragraph or an image until it meets what she has envisioned in her own head.

If you are interested in hearing what Joanna Penn has to say about the use of AI, you might try one or more of the episodes listed below.

• Episode #562 –  Co-Creating with AI Writing and Image Tools with Shane Neeley
• Episode #589 – Digital Narration with AI Voices with Taylan Kamis from DeepZen
• Episode #649 – Using AI for Art, Images, and Book Covers with Derek Murphy
• Episode #660 – Co-writing Fiction with Generative AI with Charlene Putney
• Episode #686 – Improve your writing with ProWritingAid with Chris Banks
• Episode #690 – The AI-Assisted Artisan Author with Joanna Penn
• Episode #691 – Generative AI and the Indie Author Community with Dan Wood (Draft2Digital), Michael Anderle (LMBPN, 20BooksTo50K), and Joanna Penn
• Episode #700 – Using Sudowrite for Writing Fiction with Amit Gupta
• Episode #701 – “9 Ways That AI Will Disrupt Authors and the Publishing Industry in the Next Decade [2023 Update] with Joanna Penn and Nick Thacker“
• Episode #707 – “How AI Tools Are Useful For Writers with Disabilities and Health Issues with S.J. Pajonas”
• Episode #712 – “Using AI Images in Your Book Cover Design Process with Damon Freeman”

Now, I don’t pretend to understand a lot of this because I haven’t used Chat GPT or Mid-Journey myself yet, so I can only go by what I hear, but I think it is something that is definitely worth looking into. As a DIY author, publisher, and book marketer, anything that can save me time and help me improve my writing or help sell more books is worth further exploration.

How I Use AI

As I write, I use the AI generated grammar and spellchecker that is built into MS Word, and I bet you do, too. I also employ the free version of ProWriting Aid as I do the final pass on all manuscripts, for myself and others. The AI generated tools pick up errors that I have missed, because hey, I’m only human. I don’t accept every suggestion offered, but they show me things I need to look at, and then I decide if changes are in order, and what type of changes should be made. But again, the AI tools are helpful in pointing out where there are possible errors, or suggesting a better way to say something, but the AI isn’t always right. Suggested corrections don’t always take voice or tone into account, and I, as the author make the final decisions about what goes on the page.

I have not tried using an AI tool such as Chat GPT, but I can see the potential. If I had a tool that could assist me in thinking through each scene, with suggestions for options at my fingertips, I think it would save me a lot of time. And a tool that could help me, who cannot draw well and is not artistic in that way, to create my own images for book covers, illustration and promotion, is something I want to know more about. I’m creating my own images anyway, but perhaps AI could help me make my images better.

Doing my own audiobooks is something I’ve been looking at for a while, but haven’t yet been able to pull off. The idea of creating an AI voice from my own definitely appeals to me, since audiobook creation requires a lot of time that I don’t seem to have. I don’t know enough about it right now to make any rash decisions, but I certainly want to know more. I have listened to AI generated narration that sounds pretty good, and I’ve heard Mark Leslie Lefabvre’s AI narration created from his own voice, which offers few clues that it isn’t the real Mark. (I can’t find the episode now, but at the end of one recent episode of the Stark Reflections podcast, he plays his final reflections read by his AI voice.)

WordCrafter Press also used an AI generated image and voice in the book trailer for the 2023 anthology, Midnight Roost, created by DL Mullan and Undawnted. And frankly, I think it is an outstanding book trailer and the AI made it really cool. This is an awesome way to showcase the authors and the anthology as a whole. Give it a watch below and see what you think. I can definitely see how a tool such as the one used by Mullan could be a great asset in my advertising tool kit.

Midnight Roost Book Trailer

AI is Just a Tool

You can guess from the above post that AI tools are something I have an interest in using. Many of us already use AI tools, even if we don’t look at it that way. I know I used the AI spell checker on MS Word and ProWriting Aid without thinking twice, because they made my life as a writer easier. But as Joanna Penn repeatedly points out, AI can’t do it alone, it needs your input, your humanity, to do what it is programed to do. Alone AI can’t write a thing.

Let me know what you think about the use of AI tools in the comments.

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For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; and book 1 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah. Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.

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