If I had to summarise what the first year of AI-enabled writing did, it is this: writer’s block is dead and buried. There can no longer be an excuse not to write.
With the death of writer’s block, we have seen a new generation of tools being created to replace the Microsoft Word-style text processor. AI is also a critical challenge to more sophisticated writing tools, like Scrivener, which had been widely considered a top choice for organising and drafting novels.
The new generation of AI tools (at least the useful ones) have fallen into largely two categories:
- Base tools: ChatGPT with its different models and Claude.
- “Dedicated” tools: Popular ones include Sudowrite and Novel AI, with the latest addition, Novel Craft, being praised as perhaps the breakthrough many AI-positive writers were waiting for.
Personally, as I enter the sixth month of my experimentation at the intersection of fiction writing and AI, I have stuck with the base models by and large. I have currently transitioned from using Scrivener to Notion to handle my manuscript, keeping open the two chatbots mentioned on the side to help as developmental and line editors.
The main reason for sticking with base tools has been that I have been doing a lot more AI-assisted editing than drafting, which dedicated tools like Sudowrite don’t seem to be designed for.
(Side note: I have been working hard at revising my second novel, Path of the Nemesis. Once done with that, hopefully by Christmas this year, I will be diving into the revision, redrafting and publishing of my third novel, a 160,000 words beast which I originally wrote during the pandemic in 2020. Crazy times!)
I believe that by the time I start my first entirely new project, likely sometime in the second half of 2024, I will be seeing some really exciting dedicated tools, having reached the level of sophistication needed to make them worth the change in workflows.
Also Read: AI assistant or replacement? A PR pro’s take on using ChatGPT
That being said, I wanted to write this post today to share my view that while the death of writer’s block is a fantastic development, the fundamental challenge facing writers remains financial sustainability through connecting stories with eager audiences. That truly existential issue, so far, has gone unaddressed.
Gold-diggers and shovel-sellers
As an entrepreneur, I spearheaded Storya, a writing startup that wanted nothing less than to disrupt the Amazon stranglehold on fiction self-publishing with generative AI tools. I know firsthand the frustrations writers face in commercialising creative passion, and I put my blood and sweat into seeking solutions to the problem.
Storya failed, unfortunately, as I have written about here and elsewhere, but I continue to look with hope at what others are building in the “AI + fiction” space. Of course, I also keep brainstorming on new tech projects that may help me achieve my original goal.
But what I am broadly seeing in our current AI “gold rush” are writing tools that excel at building upon ideas but fail to help locate buyers. Most of the tools I mentioned (and the hundreds of copycats out there) are the classic creations of “shovel-sellers”, a reminder that we are very much in the middle of yet another hype cycle.
I think many authors right now, mesmerised by utopian visions of automated writing riches, neglect the pillars of professional authorship – editing, publicity, and rights management. The harsh truth: thinking that “publishing” as a life choice stops at typing “The End” in one’s manuscript is, unfortunately, delusional. I have long suffered from the same delusion myself!
My key issue with the current crop of AI tools, more specifically, is that there is an implicit philosophy behind their designs, namely that with quantity, success will come. While that could potentially be true, volume alone is a guarantee of precisely nothing when it comes to building a sustainable creative income.
Also Read: What did we learn from failing to raise VC funding?
This means that one year into the AI revolution, it is as good a time as ever to expand our sights beyond drafting for the sake of drafting.
We need to find ways to leverage the massive potential of AI for solutions that take fiction works from inception to market fruition — streamlining editing, production, marketing and distribution. Rather than solely stripping away creative barriers for the initial writing stages, we need to think strategically about what it means to build a writing career.
In short, we must innovate across the entire publication value chain. As my Co-Founder Praveen has correctly pointed out, it will be a sad world if all we are outsourcing to AI are the parts that make us most human, like creativity, while we are still stuck with the far less inspiring parts, like pricing, copyright, licensing, marketing, sales, social media management, and more.
That’s the innovation I want. And I think that is the conversation that really needs to happen. At least, I am very much ready for it.
AI is unleashing creativity, I truly believe that. But the future of AI in fiction must have financial rewards interwoven with this imaginative abundance.
If you are keen to make it happen, hit me up!
This article originally appeared in the newsletter Code Red for Writers.
—
Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic
Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page
Image credit: Adobe
The post Beyond the draft: Why AI won’t save fiction authors (yet) appeared first on e27.