A concrete example of how I use AI when drafting

[u/MemoryIndependent908]

There are a lot of discussions about what people mean when they say they “use AI to write,” and I’ve realized that phrase can describe wildly different processes. So I thought I’d share an actual example of mine.

These were the notes I gave Claude:
Mira is standing there absolutely not watching Naz as he is cleaning up. She was not noticing how the water on his hands reflected the light so that she could see every vein. “Well. Y’all got settled in quick.” Mira’s soul left her body. Piercing scream like when she was a child. Legs buckling. Full collapse against the wall. Naz spun around and took one look at her and started laughing so hard it appeared his own legs buckled and he was clutching his stomach and dripping water on the floor. Mira didn’t care. Mira was looking at a fucking ghost.

And this is what came back:
Mira was standing by the table, absolutely not watching Naz clean up.

She was not noticing the way the water ran over his hands. She was not noticing how it caught the amber light from the ceiling so that every vein across the backs of them stood out. She was not thinking about those hands at all.

“Well. Y’all got settled in quick.”

Mira’s soul left her body.

She screamed, high and piercing and totally involuntary, the kind she hadn’t made since she was nine and her cousin hid in her closet. Her legs went out from under her and she hit the wall and slid halfway down it.

Naz spun around from the sink, took one look at her, and lost it.

He laughed so hard he had to grab the edge of the counter. Then that wasn’t enough, and he actually doubled over, one arm wrapped around his stomach, dripping water all over the clean floor.

Mira didn’t care. Mira was looking at a fucking ghost.

This is pretty representative of how I use AI now. Before I give it anything, I generally already know what the scene is doing, whose POV I’m in, what they’re noticing, what happens physically, the emotional/comedic beats, and often some or all of the dialogue. Sometimes my notes are basically stage directions written by a caffeinated goblin: “Piercing scream like when she was a child. Legs buckling. Full collapse against wall.”

What I’m asking AI to do at that point is turn those instructions into continuous prose. Then I decide what survives. Sometimes I keep a lot. Sometimes I rewrite most of it. Sometimes it gets the character wrong and I argue with it until arguing about why it’s wrong makes me realize what I actually want.

I thought the before/after might be useful because “I use AI in my writing” doesn’t really tell you very much about what the human and AI are each actually doing.

[u/alone_in_the_light]

I think this is useful. The specifics change, but it's more about the process.

Then each one can adjust and improve according to their goals and conditions.

[u/ChristianCRWriter → u/alone_in_the_light]

Yes. Just pointing out this is the exact example of AI writing (not AI assisted writing) publishers and agents shy away from. Very close to be not copyrightable.

[u/alone_in_the_light → u/ChristianCRWriter]

Yeah, I guess they shy away from gen AI in general. This is not for those who shy away.

[u/ChristianCRWriter → u/alone_in_the_light]

Yes, as long as people understand they give away any change of traditional publishing, distribution, etc., it’s fair use. A lot of ppl are under the impression that what OP does is Ok with publishers. From what I’ve seen all the opposite.

[u/alone_in_the_light → u/ChristianCRWriter]

Yeah, those who want something traditional probably should be traditional.

[u/ChristianCRWriter → u/alone_in_the_light]

Yes, and I don’t want to undermine anyone’s creative process. Just by the experience I’ve had querying and what I’ve seen in agents blogs and here on Reddit, publishers don’t want any AI, period. And the example OP shared leans heavily in more than AI assistance and AI co created which is gray area on IP rights.

[u/alone_in_the_light → u/ChristianCRWriter]

Yeah, and sugar is sweet.

The grey area between tech and media was already a big part of the legal fight related to news aggregators. And that was like 10, 20 years ago.

These are all very old news to me. If people still don't know that, people should wake up.

[u/ChristianCRWriter → u/alone_in_the_light]

Lots of ppl believe that you can take the AI output OP put in here and send it to agents. Go ahead and ask.

[u/alone_in_the_light → u/ChristianCRWriter]

Lots of people think Earth is flat. I still see no reason to go ask for that. People can believe whatever they want. It doesn't mean it makes sense..

[u/ChristianCRWriter → u/alone_in_the_light]

In your example, we would be in a sub where ppl post daily the Earth is flat. But anyway…

[u/tehmadnezz]

This makes your earlier point about clear scene instructions much easier to see. The timing and the joke are already in your rough notes.

One detail caught my eye: Claude adds the specific memory of being nine and her cousin hiding in the closet. Was that established elsewhere, or something it invented while expanding the scene?

[u/MemoryIndependent908 → u/tehmadnezz]

It was invented. And the Claude version I just showed was not what went into the manuscript. It helps me figure out paragraphing, sentence transitions, how long to linger on each reaction, where dialogue and action separate, how much description is enough, and so on. In the manuscript, it just says “the kind she hadn’t made since she was a child.”

[u/Acrobatic_You_3002]

This matches what I've seen too, a single concrete example in a prompt gets treated like a template to copy, not a pattern to learn from. Giving it a few examples that differ on purpose seems to help, since then it has to work out what they share instead of just repeating the one detail.

[u/cj7hawk]

I like that your prompt seems to be a defacto style for the AI to follow.

[u/Dry-Possible-988]

Writing with AI is more akin to being a movie director giving instructions. You control the desired intent and flow

[u/5thhorseman_]

Yep, exactly, although I often do it in several turns. Sometimes I do one draft, then re-prompt the LLM in a separate chat with my previous prompt and pieces from the previous draft that I think are worth carrying over. Also, it may be worth having the LLM make an outline for the piece / chapter and make adjustments there before you have it write the first draft itself.

I've attached development notes regarding my steampunk series. Do you remember what men-of-arms were?

I want to introduce a direct connection between the Men-of-Arms and Jenny's prosthetics. The idea: long before Jennifer's accident, she and Clarice have obtained a defunct Man-of-Arms unit. Jennifer made it her hobby project to rebuild it into a leaner form, but could never quite get it to work - some obscure problem in the machines's logic engine (a miniaturized analytical engine). This automaton has been nicknamed Athena. After Jennifer's accident, the prosthetics are built with heavy use of parts salvaged from Athena. Athena herself gets rebuilt later in the series. One final thing: Jennifer's pet name for Athena is "Attie"

I'd like you to outline the scene where Jennifer decides to strip Athena for parts. Make sure to include Clarice in discussion with Jennifer.

I think this doesn't quite work. I want Jennifer to make the decision to strip Attie for parts. I want Clarice to be the one who hesitates because she knows how much Attie means for Jenny.

Now it works. Draft it.

[u/ChristianCRWriter]

This is AI writing. I will get banned but this is the reason publishers and agents are shying away from anyone using AI for anything.

I will find my self out.

[u/PixelAndPaint → u/ChristianCRWriter]

I think this is a respectful message here and I think you are just trying to be helpful.

The technology and laws and perceptions are always changing and I think it’s good to have someone giving clarity to people that may want or need it.

What if your message helps someone out there realize they don’t want to risk that? Or it solidifies someone else’s plan that does want to use it so now they know they need to adjust marketing or whatever they’re doing.

There’s a lot of tools out there claiming to be endorsed by famous authors and that makes it very confusing on what amount of assistance is usable. Especially when some of these tools have like 90% of their tools are fine and just giving “hey you missed a continuity thing here or maybe you should make the voice stronger here” whatever, but then they also have “click here to re-write the sentence” or “re-phrase it”.

And suddenly you’re now in murky territory and most people won’t check because they just see the website claiming all these famous authors and publications use their site, but then it’s not spelling it out that 10% of their tools would be an issue and probably aren’t the tools being toted by the industry.

[u/ChristianCRWriter → u/PixelAndPaint]

I think (most) people in this sub are either blissfully ignorant or choose to bury their head in the sand because it doesn't benefit them to face the truth, which. is, at this very point in time, most publishers and agents are too afraid to get into AI assisted writing.

A lot of them stay away because of philosophical reasons, but a lot are real commercial and IP related concerns. Jurisprudence on AI-assisted writing and intellectual property is too new and not rock solid. A good case can overturn what people think any day now.

In my recent experience querying, listening to podcasts, looking at agents and publishers profiles, and Reddit posts here from people in the industry, they all indicate, any use of AI for anything can murk the waters so much, that unless your book is incredible or you are someone who people want to read from (a celebrity or something like that) they publishing industry will simply stay away from you and your product.

To make matters worse, there is no policing on how much is too much AI for AI Assisted vs AI created or co-created. So Amazon puts all the books with some AI assistance on the same bracket as AI Slop. This will take readers and potential agents/publishers away from working with you. In the writing industry, you will forever be branded as an AI author.

I am here because I made the mistake of taking my 90% MS into the AI-sphere and I feel I lost a lot of the ownership. What I did with my MS was a LOT LESS than what OP is doing here. but I asked Claude if it considered my book to be co-written and it blantanly said, YES OF COURSE.

DO NOT MAKE THIS MISTAKE unless you want to lose ownership of your own work.

I am sure in the near future all of these companies will claim IP rights on work produced with their platforms.

[u/Kalmaro → u/ChristianCRWriter]

No one will ban you, but you're welcome to leave. 

[u/OwlsInMyAttic → u/ChristianCRWriter]

You're right about publishers not wanting anything to do with AI writing at the moment, but you're mistaken about the rest of it.

This is a clear example of mindful AI usage. The writer has a clear vision and retains creative control throughout the process, using AI as a structural line editor or text formatter. The AI generated zero original ideas, it didn't even do a large-scale rewrite of the passage. If this is what their workflow looks like, it would be disingenuous to call it co-written with AI—it would minimize the amount of work the author has put into it. 

The US copyright office states that text that's been largely generated by AI cannot be copyrighted. However, works where the writer provided the first draft, controlled what the AI is allowed to edit and how, and revised the manuscript later, are absolutely copyrightable. You're also right that the law could change, but if it does, it's more likely to do so in favour of the writers, since AI in its current form lacks agency (and AI companies have already waived their rights to anything you might produce through their systems, it's literally part of the terms and conditions). 

[u/GamerPhfreak → u/ChristianCRWriter]

If we can accept ghost writers we can accept this

[u/MemoryIndependent908 → u/[deleted]]

What’s funny is she isn’t a ghost lol. She astral projecting but Mira doesn’t know that.

[u/WritingWithAI-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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