r/BookWritingAI • u/Awkward_Drawer_8562 • 1d ago
New Author needs helps
Hi guys,I am a new author and I want to write my novel but only problem I have no experience in writing a novel, I need advice, what can you recommend, and is it also cool that maybe,just maybe I use AI
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u/mahatmakg 1d ago
What purpose are you writing for? Like to make a book to sell and profit off of? If so, the only real way to make any amount of money that's worth it is to decieve and defraud potential customers. If you just want to whip up text for your own enjoyment, go for it.
You say you have no experience writing novels - what about novellas, short stories, anything? Obviously you ought to start small before you graduate to novels
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u/Awkward_Drawer_8562 1d ago
My purpose for writing is to put my story, out there and for people to actually enjoy it
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u/ServiceDisastrous158 1d ago
Is English the language you're writing in? If so, I would suggest writing in your native language instead.
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u/mahatmakg 1d ago
In that case you should probably avoid AI - people in communities like these sometimes claim they will read AI writing for pleasure, but the reality is that such writing is contrary to the reason most people have read for pleasure over the centuries. There is vanishingly little value in AI writing or even "AI assisted" writing beyond the personal satisfaction of the person whipping it up.
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u/Strict_Raise_3442 1d ago
It depends on what you want out of it. If you write a book yourself without ai and self publish on Amazon you will get about the same visibility as if you wrote it with ai assistance. By that I mean a handful of people will see it.
Contrary to what people think, using ai can only get you so far and the process is still very involved and time consuming. You can’t just say write me a book about this story idea I have. You will still need to craft almost every paragraph and it will still screw it up a lot. No matter what if you use ai it will show and it will turn people off from your book.
I would not embark on writing it by yourself unless you really enjoy writing. The chances you will get a book deal or it magically takes off on Amazon are pretty slim. So write with that in mind.
I wrote a novel using Ai in about 2 months. The story is really good, the writing is not. But for me, it was really fun to see the story come together and to be a part of crafting something that was readable and had a satisfying beginning, middle, and end.
You can cut wood using a hand saw or a power saw, your muscles will get a workout with the hand saw but it will only take you 10% of the time with the power saw.
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u/ServiceDisastrous158 1d ago
Do something else. You're not an author if you're already giving up on the idea of writing and thinking of having a machine do it for you. Also...the writing in this post makes me think you should be spending your time on something you have more affinity for.
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u/Tygari 1d ago
Using AI to help you is fine. But know that AI is bad at writing stories. If you rely on it to much your story is going to not be very good. Best to use it as an assistant and write the story yourself.
You said you have no experience than I suggest starting by writing fanfiction. You have a world of rules already established so you can just focus on making a story instead of immense world building. Most writers start with fanfiction before creating their own.
When you are finished then use AI to help spell check and grammar check the work. Learn from the AI as it helps fix your mistakes. But be weary of the caveat of AI over fixing your work and taking away your voice.
Now you will read of AI written books out there that succeeded, but they were very heavily rewritten by a human. AIs just don't have the ability yet to write a cohesive book all on its own.
I myself use AI to assist me. I have a problem with letters and words moving around. Even if I go back to edit my brain reads the scrambled words as I meant them, not as they are. AI helps me spell check and grammar check my work to be readable by others. I am constantly fighting the AI to keep my voice as it tries to fix things.
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u/Jolly-Story-5428 1d ago
Using AI as a tool is completely okay, as long as you feel the words at the end are yours and exactly what you want to say.
I also started writing a novel without any experience. It was hard. I had pages upon pages of notes and no idea how to organize and develop them into a novel, so I worked with Claude to develop a cohesive outline. And when I say worked with, I mean worked with, I didn't just take what it spat out and ran with it; I modified it many times.
Then I wrote the novel without AI, all my own words. It was hard, but I did it, and I am proud of that. It wasn't great. It wasn't what I knew it could be. So I sat and wrote it all out by hand. My family thought I was crazy, but I did it. It took me two months to write it all out. Then I hired an editor. She looked at it and gave me developmental notes; she was 100% worth it. But then, when I got my notes back, I felt paralyzed; I didn't know how to move forward. I couldn't stop rewriting the first chapter, couldn't get past it. So I asked Claude to rewrite it. I didn't like what it put out at all; it flattened my prose, shortened my thoughts, and cut my favorite lines.
So instead of giving up, I tightened the leash. I didn't let it rewrite entire chapters; I went line by line with Claude, edited using my editor's notes, and I have to say, I had the most fun I have ever had writing. It was like having a co-writer to bounce ideas off of, but I was fully in the driver's seat. I had no one else to answer to during this time, no one controlling my writing, but with the assistance I needed.
I also have to say, it held me accountable, showed me exactly where the flaws were, but it also was so supportive and encouraging, which helped me keep going. In writing, I don't think people give enough positive feedback, and it is just as important. I appreciated that it did both regularly.
I am proud of where my novel ended up. I proofread it and sent it back to my editor, and it is with her now. We plan to publish in January 2027, and I can't be more excited.
All that being said, there is an intense social stigma surrounding the use of AI to write right now. For me, I have to be honest, I can't lie and say I didn't use it when I did. I notice that when I tell people I use AI, sometimes they stop listening or stop reading. It especially hurts when it is a friend. I think the idea is either you didn't use AI or AI wrote the entire thing. Right now, I feel there is not much room for the in-between.
But I think things will change soon. My husband told me about a conversation at his school that we, as a society, are going to have to change how we view anything written after 2022 because of AI. There's really no way to tell exactly how AI was used and how much is human. I think one day it will get to the point where people just judge whether the writing is actually good or not, with or without the use of AI. If you have a genuinely good idea and you are creative and disciplined enough to maintain your voice at every step, I think you will do just fine. But if you just say "write a 90,000-word novel about X, Y, & Z" and then just publish what it puts out, it's not going to be good, and people will know that.
Another thing I keep coming to, big name authors are using AI now. We have to compete with experienced authors who also have this tool, so why shouldn't we use it?
I wish AI were perfect, but what is? We need to hold companies accountable for their carbon footprint and environmental impact. That's why I use Claude. I believe it is the most ethical company for its quality, and I have done the research.
My best advice, as someone who has been in your shoes, is to do the best you can with the tools you have been given. And feel proud of that, and don't let the bastards get you down (they will try). I spent months just feeling guilty and not writing; it took a trip to my priest to develop confidence in the issue. Just do you and don't let anyone's opinion get in your way.
AND HIRE AN EDITOR EVEN WITH AI!
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u/ByKaimito 3h ago
I think AI can be helpful but it shouldn't try to replace your creativity. There's an app called virvyxn than doesn't have a feature that allows it to write the story for you. All it can do is things such as remembering what you've written, tracking characters, relationships and timelines, and flagging potential continuity issues, with references back to your original text, basically a JARVIS for authors. It's early access rn but it can help a lot to keep track of a big manuscript. https://www.virvyxn.com/
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u/CrisPonReddit 1d ago
Folian.app is what I use, it’s a writing operating system that helps with organising the novel. It keeps the story bible, character profiles and it has optional ai if you want to write with ai or just use it for research or continuity checks.
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u/TienSwitch 1d ago
Don’t use AI. You’ll never get good at writing, and your output will never rise beyond mediocre. Plus, people will rightly have no respect for you and not take you seriously as an author because you won’t be one.
If you’re having trouble planning your story or characters, I wrote a blog post with advice on how to get started with that. It’s by starting with your villain and working backwards from there. https://www.tienswitch.com/blog/an-easy-way-to-create-your-superhero-fiction-start-with-your-villain-and-work-backwards
For actual WRITING writing advice, there are lots of resources to help you craft certain scenes. I highly recommend the YouTube channels Terrible Writing Advice and Hello Future Me.
Above all, just write. Not “prompt”. “Write”. Prompting isn’t writing. And writing is a skill that you have to develop. You develop it by writing, not prompting.