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Are you a believer or disbeliever in the value of AI for writers? Or does the whole idea just put you off? I’ve been studying AI for the last year and I have some thoughts for you….
When my friend Jeff started talking to me about Artificial Intelligence more than two years ago, I thought he was being the teeniest bit lazy.
“I wish AI had existed when I was in high school,” he told me with a grin. “It would have made a huge difference to my marks.”
Shortly after that conversation, I started seeing bloggers I followed talking about AI. One even identified some text he’d had AI write for him. “Don’t you think it’s pretty good?” he asked his readers.
Really?! I thought he was totally off-base. In fact, the text was boring and banal. Not exactly a great advertisement for AI.
Still, AI started taking over. Since 2022, new AI engines have been sprouting as rapidly as cases of measles in Texas.
So, I began dipping my toes into the murky waters of artificial intelligence.
Here are some of the misconceptions I’ve noticed:
- Too many writers allow it to scare them, thinking it’s going to take away their jobs if clients figure out the computer can write in their place.
- Too many writers use it for generating text — which is not its strength.
- Too many writers stick with the one AI engine they tried first, without testing the wide variety of choices available to them.
I put the following daily reminder on my to-do list last September: “Use AI at least once a day.” And I’ve followed that instruction faithfully since then, and in the last three months have frequently used it multiple times a day.
I think AI is really mediocre at writing, although if I were an employer who needed technical documents produced (say, “how to” manuals), I’d probably use it because it would be less expensive and so much faster.
But there are many other more innovative uses of AI which will get really significant results for writers. The trick is to see AI as a powerful collaborator.
It’s superb at giving advice and suggesting ideas that will help you get started with your writing. It’s great for beating writer’s block.
Right now I’m working on a one-hour course on how writers can use AI, not as a replacement, not as a writer, but as a co-worker with good ideas. I hope to offer this course in June. If the topic interests you, please go here so I can send you an invitation when the course is ready. (No obligation!) And if you have some specific AI-related questions you’d like me to answer, please tell me about them and I’ll work to address them in the course.
I think AI has become a fact of life. Don’t let fear or lack of knowledge keep you from using it ethically, productively and creatively. The writers who thrive in the coming years will be those who learn to collaborate with these tools, rather than try to pretend they don’t exist.
If you liked this post you’ll also like: Better ways to use ChatGPT.
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Need some help developing a better, more sustainable writing or editing routine? Learn about my three-month accountability program called Get It Done. There is turn-over each month, and priority will go to those who have applied first. You can go directly to the application form and you’ll hear back from me within 24 hours.
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My video podcast last week addressed the value of daily writing. You can watch the video or read the transcript, and you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel.
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Have you been able to make money as a writer? We can all learn from each other, so please, share your thoughts with my readers and me in the comments section below. And congratulations to Sarah Adewolu, the winner of this month’s book prize, for a comment on my post about whether a keyboard or a pen is the better tool for writing. (Please send me your email address, Sarah.) If you comment on today’s post (or any others) by May 31/25, I’ll put you in a draw for a digital copy of my first book, 8 1/2 Steps to Writing Faster, Better. To enter, please scroll down to the comments, directly underneath the related posts links, below. You don’t have to join Disqus to post! Read my tutorial to learn how to post as a guest. (It’s easy!)
