Have you “played” with AI to write those nasty synopses, or do you refuse to go that route? How do you feel about AI’s impact on creative writing?

Have you “played” with AI to write those nasty synopses, or do you refuse to go that route? How do you feel about AI’s impact on creative writing?

Must we talk about “AI” again? I suppose we must, because people aren’t getting the point, and keep making the same mistakes over and over.

If you don’t want to read a rant, then read at least the following: No, you shouldn’t use “AI” to write your books (or synopsis) or create art for you. Plain and simple. If you don’t agree, then either get a clue, or get out.

I think this graphic summarizes the point well, from artist inkviral:

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A post shared by ☆【Ｌｙｓ】☆ (@inkviral_)

Art made by no one means nothing.

Writers, artists, musicians, all creators want one thing: to be able to create.

Time and time again, the industry has failed us by not recognizing this undeniable truth. To create is in our souls. We don’t want to be denied this. All the corps think of is money, as stuck in capitalism as they are. They undervalue us, they think only of output rather than quality, heartfelt work.

Feeding a prompt into a generative system is not creating. I’ll quote my friend Daniel here:

“If you’re a writer who uses AI to create your story, no you aren’t.”

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If you’re going to do this as some shortcut, don’t bother. Part of creating is the pay off at the end, that victorious moment when you get to say “I created this. I put my blood, sweat, and tears into this.” Part of creating is the journey, and without going through that journey, your work would be meaningless.

By trying to cut out the middle person and generate their soulless content, they’re telling us we don’t matter, our stories don’t matter. It’s no wonder many creators, writers especially, are insecure. We’ve been devalued all our existence.

Because of the industry’s failure to recognize people are the heart and soul of art, people have had to fight tooth and nail to be recognized, as evidenced by the writers’ and SAG AFTRA strikes which happened in 2023. A big source of the hold up in the strike was the industry refusing to protect the writers against “AI”.

This all goes back to capitalism, consumerism, and the guys upstairs only caring about profit. Someone who isn’t a creative can’t comprehend the insatiable need to create, or the desire to have your work be out there, to be consumed and connected to, and to mean something. The soulless generation machine they call “AI” can’t comprehend this desire, nor can it truly create something meaningful and representative of the human experience. What it spits out will just be a formulaic attempt without blood, sweat, and tears, for a machine possesses none of these. It will be meaningless, because again, it was created by no one.

You may be asking yourself, “What about shortcuts? Synopses?” And I will again point to the sign that says, part of creating is the payoff at the end, the triumph. Additionally, are you really willing to throw your book, which you put all that work into, away into the abyss of the machine, feeding it content that you worked hard to create, so it can make its horrible attempt at replacing you, simply so you don’t have to write a synopsis? Write the damn synopsis. Don’t feed the “AI”.

What about editing software? Again, you’re feeding it, and you’re also replacing a person, an editor, who will have the ability to discern style from “proper grammar”. Editing with a soulless thing will just turn your work into a soulless thing, as will all that subjective, pompous advice about removing adverbs. Do you want that? A writer should break a few rules, in my opinion. 

Recently, Romance Writers’ of America (RWA) posted on Facebook about a workshop with an author who has been using AI for a year on how to utilize it. They deleted the post, but the workshop remains on their site. Ask yourself, what are you even writing for, if you’re just going to feed your ideas to a machine? Again, part of the process is the journey, not the destination. How will you learn, grow, or even call yourself a writer if you’re not actually writing your own book? 

[image: tell me you’re sleaze without telling me you’re a sleaze]

Note: This isn’t to say anything against ghost writers—on the contrary, ghost writers are actually people and are thus far superior to AI. While I myself don’t understand the appeal of ghost writing, I recognize that it’s definitely better than a soulless machine writing for you. You’re paying a real person to help you! So, yeah. If that’s what a person wants to do, then I’m not going to stop them.

Another major issue with AI writing is one of copyrighted content being used in teaching the AI. Since it uses copyrighted content as a base, it is stealing from other writers. To that end, can you really use what it spits out for you without repercussion? Many people would argue it’s a copyright infringement. I would agree.

Remember those funny posts that used to go around saying “I made a computer read all the scripts for Friends, then asked it to write an episode. This is what it came up with”? In hindsight, this was the precursor to generated content, wasn’t it? We were laughing back then, thinking no one would ever take this seriously, and obviously it’s not useable for anything practical, and now there’s people actually taking it seriously. It’s made from stolen content, and it’s not good, either. 

I also want to take a moment to talk about cover art, as it’s relevant to us as writers, and has presented some problems in the industry as well. For a second time, Tor Nightfire has presented us with a very much AI cover. We all know art, especially for covers as it’s commercial use, is a large expense, and especially indie authors may struggle with this, and be tempted by AI art. But, a big company like Tor? They shouldn’t have any problems paying an artist, and said artist shouldn’t be a hack, Elon-worshipping fanboy who uses AI art as a base. Come on. They’re effectively sabotaging this author’s career. Not exactly faith-inspiring for the industry’s future. Do yourself a favor if you’re pursuing traditional publishing and push for a clause in your contracts prohibiting the use of AI.

[image: look upon this disgrace of a person, with their many teeth, the result of our capitalist overlords’ ignorance and greed. This world is not yours, indeed. That’s what I wish to scream at the AI.]

Until there are some sort of regulations in place across the board to prevent unethical use and prevent from use which takes away from creatives, I imagine we’re going to keep having this conversation over and over and over. But I’m already tired.

Drop a comment or come interact with me on social media, @AmaraJLynn.

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