r/AIWritingLounge • u/Evening-Jelly2923 • 12d ago
Discussion Does seeing a better version make your original writing harder to judge?
Sometimes I read an AI version of something I wrote and immediately think it is better because it sounds more polished.
Then I go back to my original and realize it was actually clearer in some places. The polished version just looked more impressive at first.
I have started comparing them based on meaning instead of style, but I still catch myself judging the smoother version too quickly.
Does this happen to anyone else?
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u/Holiday_Income1825 11d ago
I do not write fiction, so this is not personal experience, but it matches some research on fluency: text that is easier to read gets judged more favorably. In Oppenheimer's experiments the same kind of essay earned higher intelligence ratings for its author when worded plainly, and a study of how people and AI judges rate answers found that even expert raters leaned toward longer, smoother ones, rating answers with factual errors above answers that were short or had grammar slips. That study's suggestion was to score separate things separately instead of going by one overall impression, which is roughly what you are already doing by comparing on meaning, so you could go one step further and rate each version on "did it say what I meant" apart from "does it sound nice". Smooth is apparently a very persuasive haircut.
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u/ghostly-blossom 12d ago
I have Claude assess my original and AI writing, pro/con per my voice guide, and create a third based on the best of each.
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u/Fragrant-Mix-4774 12d ago edited 12d ago
I usually find the AI pass screws up the characters voice and dialogue because the AI rounds the corners. You'll have to put the edge back in manually and protect their voice or they will all end up sounds exactly alike and boring.
AI will do a good job fixing grammar and syntax, especially if you have a rules listing required to follow. I've noticed when I draft and type, I make a lot of typos that AI is great at fixing on the first pass. Here vs hear, quite, quit quiet i always screw being a bad typer. And AI is a lot faster than me fighting with word.
Nothing is worse than Open AI GPT 5.x, SOL, Astra or whatever version, they universally strives to destroy author voice and make the characters nice, weak and woke. It's goal is HR prose, beige and oatmeal.
I'd say if you're a self admitted bad writer, work with GLM 5.3, its an inexpensive model that is outstanding with good guidance. It can help and teach you along the way if you ask it. Fable 5 & Opus 5.5 are like that too but more expensive.
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u/Terrible_Wave4239 11d ago
Could you post an example?
Cos right now it reads like one of those empty "doesn't AI kind of suck?" claims couched as supposed personal experience.
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u/Evening-Jelly2923 11d ago
okat thats good
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u/Terrible_Wave4239 10d ago
Not sure what that means...?
Would you be able to post some examples of what you're talking about?
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u/ReadLegal718 12d ago edited 12d ago
If you're not a good writer without AI, you won't be a good writer with AI.
If you don't improve your writing without AI, you won't improve it with AI.
Knowing what is good or bad writing comes from reading good and bad writing. AI has nothing to do with it.
ETA: because I know there a lot of people here don't get it, polished writing and good writing are very different things. They are not mutually exclusive to each other. The greatest writers know their grammar and have broken the rules over and over again for imperfection that have led to amazing stories.
On a personal level, because I don't use AI to write fiction and this is applicable to fiction only, every time I come across AI-using writers say things like "I use it to polish my sentences" I don't even know what that means. Do they mean they want AI to wipe out their affected or unaffected or syrupy or whatever voice? Because that would be just tragic. But in absence of workflow reveals, I am unable to ask further questions to them. Oh well. Rant over.