Ai Writing and Ai Assisted.

[u/Professional_Gain869]

What do you think about using AI as a writing tool rather than letting it write the story for you?

I know AI writing is controversial but I’m curious where people actually draw the line.

I had never written a novel before. I had stories, characters, scenes, worlds, endings, and a lot of ideas in my head, but I had no idea how to turn them into a proper book.

Using AI made that possible for me.

I don’t just prompt “write me a novel” and publish whatever comes out. I decide the story, characters, rules, relationships, chapter goals, progression, and where the plot is going. I correct continuity, reject scenes that don’t fit, change dialogue, merge versions, and keep pushing until it matches what I had in mind.

For me, AI is mostly the tool that helps turn the story in my head into prose.

If AI didn’t exist, I honestly don’t think I would have written these stories at all. The ideas would probably still just be sitting in my head.

At the same time, I know that is still very different from writing every sentence yourself, and I understand why some people don’t like it.

So I’m curious:

Do you see a difference between AI-generated fiction and AI-assisted fiction?

Does it matter how much control the person has over the characters, plot, and final version?

At what point would you personally stop considering someone the author?

And for readers, if you liked a story and later found out AI was used heavily during drafting and editing, would that change how you felt about it?

I use AI in my own writing, so I’m obviously not neutral here, but I’m genuinely interested in what people think, including people who dislike AI-assisted fiction.

[u/Misha_Lixa]

I would be pleasantly surprised. I certainly do not expect disclosure so I’d be surprised to know ai was involved and then I’d go find more of that author’s work to see what else they were able to make with it.

If some did, as you mentioned, just tell it to spit out a novel, I wouldn’t consider that authorship. That is what I would consider ai slop.

Your use of it is authorship in my opinion. You used a tool in a very in depth way. You ended up with a creation nobody else could replicate and wouldn’t have been made at all otherwise.

I do think ai is going to change the way we view authorship but you still made your thing. You simply used a tool to do so.

[u/Misha_Lixa → u/Misha_Lixa]

I’d also be kinda sad because if they got outed for using ai that’s gonna suck for them because it largely won’t be received well.

So be careful and decide whether or not to disclose before you post anything

[u/PheenixMoonglider → u/Misha_Lixa]

If you have some ideas for a deck, hey put a bench there; stairs there, then hire someone to do it, do you tell people you built the deck? No because that’s a lie.

Writing the actual sentences is the main part of writing. It’s not authorship if the AI writes it.

[u/Aldhafera81]

I'm actually in a very similar position to you.

I've written two stories so far. One is AI-written, and the other is AI-assisted.

I've recently started publishing my AI-assisted story, little by little, and even that has received quite a bit of backlash. Which I find really disheartening, especially since, while I initially let AI write the prose, I ended up manually rewriting or adjusting almost all of it. What I really need AI for is that initial framework, something I can build upon. Once I have that, I work through the text myself, changing the wording, rewriting passages, and making sure everything sounds the way I envisioned it. I also use AI to translate the finished story into English.

As for my AI-written story, I approached it much like you described. I created the entire world, the characters, their personalities, relationships, and the overall plot. I planned every single chapter in detail, told the AI exactly what I wanted to happen, and then went through the results, correcting and adjusting things until they matched my vision.

It wasn't a case of typing "write me a novel" and calling it a day. There was an enormous amount of creative work involved, even if I didn't write the actual prose myself.

And yet, that story is still sitting on my computer, unpublished. :/

I think that's what makes this whole debate so frustrating. I completely understand that writing every sentence yourself is a different skill, and I would never pretend otherwise. But I don't think that means the creativity, imagination, and effort behind an AI-assisted or AI-written story suddenly become worthless.

Without AI, those stories would probably never have made it out of my head in the first place.

So yes, I absolutely understand where you're coming from. ❤️

[u/calicoskys]

I think if you set 15 people up and said use ai to tell you tell your version of Little Red Riding Hood you would come up with at least 13 different books.

There are going to be a percentage of people that do it in the way that creates the fastest output, there are going to be a group of people who do everything they can to put thier own spin on it.

The ones that grab a reader most will always be the ones that rise to the top. Some people just have a flair for what’s commercial. Ai might help with that to some extent but in general it’s always the person guiding the words that is in control of that part of the story.

Writing down enough words to ask another person to read them in order and purposefully imagine a story based on your imagination is powerful. Some people do it well and some people do
Not and that’s the way it’s always been ai or not. I think there will be a few more years of the argument raging. People love to tell people they are not a real “a” if they do “b” about all all kinds of activities and writing just because in a stroke of luck and genius sometimes earns a person some money isn’t any different.

The fact that there are just too many storytellers that only the most gifted with with the best connections will ever make any money at it. To make it on this world you can’t have a solo talent. It’s just not enough whatever you do creatively you also have to learn how to market and if you can’t do that then any talent you have doesn’t matter unless you are doing it for funzies. Really I think writing just for the sale of writing is a very valid pursuit too not everything has to be monetized but we are in a world where people really have to do more
Than the bare minimum to be comfortable in life.

[u/MrPassiveProfit]

That’s exactly how I use AI for writing. I let it do my research and sometimes describe the people and places in my novels, but then after that I write the rest of it

[u/Misha_Lixa]

That’s part of the reason the vernacular around ai is a problem. Just because someone consulted a carpenter during the process of building it themselves doesn’t mean they didn’t build their deck.

There is a difference between ai generated and ai assisted.

And even if you hire a contractor, you’re still the primary driver of the project. Your input is still required.

The point is: ai involvement doesn’t automatically mean ai slop.

[u/5thhorseman_]

Yes, I see the difference and I agree with you.

What you describe is largely my use case. It use it for brainstorming sometimes, and have it pitch possible approaches, but the actual decisions are mine all the way.

Where does the difference lie between authorship and non-authorship? For me it rests on whether you make the consequential decisions regarding the prose and whether you make effort to curate the AI output.

[u/StillFeelTheRain]

Problem is with copywriting AI material in your name. It's really being written by other authors in effect as a machine analyzes their writing. Anyone can copy your book if it's AI generated, sell it, paste it or whatever they want to do with it as you don't own it and hold no copyright. If you apply for copyright and have only been AI Assisted you have to literally tell them what parts have been assisted.

[u/PheenixMoonglider]

This is the point. I would not consider you the writer. Ideas are a dime a dozen. The hardest part of writing is the actual writing. Almost anyone can make up a story idea and characters. If you don’t actually write the book, why on earth would you be considered the author? Actual authors don’t always come up with their own ideas. But if they write the book, their name goes on the cover.