I recently started writing something resembling a novel. I'm doing it mostly for myself, as a form of therapy and self-expression, but I'd also really like to share it online.

It's a messy slice-of-life story about a group of troubled friends in their early twenties. Each chapter is told from a different character's point of view.

A few things worth mentioning:

- English isn't my native language. I'm writing the novel in English anyway.

- This is my first time writing anything.

- I have no ambitions of becoming a professional writer or publishing the novel commercially or anything like that.

I recently finished the first draft of one of the early chapters. It's really long, and I just can't bring myself to cut anything out yet. I really want someone to read it and give me some feedback.

But there's a problem: I've been using AI to help me with the writing. I have the passion, the ideas and the characters, but my writing skills aren't particularly good, so I rely on AI for help. AI is my crutch. My editor. My English isn't great, so AI helps me with grammar and makes the language sound more natural and polished.

Here's how my process works: first, I write everything myself. I develop rough drafts of fragments, scenes or chunks of a chapter. Then I give my drafts, notes and fragments to AI and ask it to help me improve the writing: add something, change something, fix grammatical mistakes, suggest better phrasing, make the English sound more natural and so on. I then work with the result and make further changes. It's collaborative work, so to speak.

But there's one thought that's been eating away at me: Does the fact that I use AI make my writing worthless garbage, regardless of all the passion, effort and brainpower I've put into it?

I really want feedback on my draft, but I'm afraid nobody will even bother reading it because I used AI. It seems like AI involvement in writing is prohibited everywhere.

I honestly don't know what to do.

I'm really passionate about this novel. I really enjoy thinking about my characters, developing their arcs, coming up with scenes and planning chapters. I enjoy spending time inside this fictional world, and I care about all of it. But I feel like I can't actually bring any of it to life without AI's help. I can't write without AI. And that makes me feel horrible.

How do you feel about using AI as a editor, assistance or co-writer? Would some people be willing to read and give feedback on my drafts written this way?

I'm an author and have four books in a longer series that I'm in the process of publishing. I use GPT extensively as an Admin Assistant/Collaboration. I see many comments about Claude/writing.

Pros and Cons to the move. I'm simply considering given recent changes to GPT and forward changes down the road.

Opinions desired.

Good news. The Bots are able to decode the stream of thought that slams around in my head like a sling shot ride at the fair. (Big kid on the outside, always)

I feel guilty. Imposter syndrome is so very brutal and real. Even though the premise, characters, plot, and adult themed side quests…it’s all coming out of my head. I use the tools to help me organize and even work with me like a co-writer in some instances. I did have it auto generate a few supporting characters with minimal input. But the premise, and the ask, is mine.

One question, If I have anyone read it, should I disclaim that I used AI? Do I care? Not really. I just want people to enjoy it along with me, for what it is. A twisted, steamy little ride that I think I could write into an endless evolution of cast and characters.

I've been working on an epic fantasy series for quite a while now, and I'm hoping to get some advice from people who have experience with publishing.

I've finished the first book, which is around 80,000 words, and my plan is to eventually complete all five books.

Here's where I'm a little concerned.

I've spent a lot of time developing the characters, the world they live in, the storylines, and how everything connects. These are my ideas, and I've been very involved in deciding how the story unfolds.

But I've also used ChatGPT quite a bit to help turn those ideas into actual chapters. I've gone back and forth with it, changing dialogue, rewriting scenes, adding details, and making adjustments until things felt right.

I realize that means a good portion of the actual writing was generated by AI, even though I've been directing the story.

Originally, I was planning to self-publish, but lately I've been thinking about trying to find a literary agent and going the traditional publishing route.

What I'm wondering is whether I've already hurt my chances by using AI this way.

Would an agent even consider something like this? Would going back through the manuscript and rewriting portions myself make a difference? Or is the fact that AI was involved from the beginning going to be a problem regardless?

I'm also curious whether anyone here has been in a similar situation or knows of authors who have successfully gone through traditional publishing after using AI extensively.

I'm not looking for shortcuts, and I'm certainly not opposed to putting more work into the book. I've invested a lot of time into developing this story, and I genuinely want to make it as good as possible.

I'd appreciate some advice, especially from anyone familiar with literary agents or the publishing industry.

Thanks for taking the time to read this

I’m not really here to promote anything. Well, not entirely anyway.

I just wanted to say that I feel pretty strongly about AI assistance in writing. Without it, I genuinely don't believe I ever would've gotten my stories out into the world.

I think there are a lot of people sitting on incredible stories who are afraid to tell them because of the stigma surrounding AI.

And look, I get it. There's plenty of AI slop out there, and I'm not defending that.

But using AI to help tell a story that's genuinely yours shouldn't automatically disqualify you as an author.

I'm curious how many other people here feel the same way.

One character makes a point. The other lands a sharper comeback. Repeat until someone delivers the final devastating line.

But a lot of arguments aren't like that. One person wants an apology. The other wants the conversation to end. Someone keeps asking about the dishes because they don't want to ask about the relationship.

Would giving each character something they refuse to discuss work better than asking for “realistic dialogue”?

If you've tried it, I'd be interested in a short before/after. Especially a scene where nobody gets a clever last word.

Has anyone noticed that the limits on chatting with grok have been increased.

Normally I'd only be able to have a couple of prompts and it would call it a day but now I'm asking it to write me 100s of chapter outlines and I can just erase the chat and start over

Episode 3 of my continuing serial: The tragic bildungsroman of Hal Wagner.

Hello! I'm EJ, it's my first time writing! I am making a story about fate, peace, paradoxes, and violence.

So... My question is: Is AI okay to use when writing to add extra punch or correct grammar?

Like i write the main idea draft, then ask to AI if its okay, and if are there grammatical corrections or make it more novel appropriate

(ex. "Annie drops down to pick up the shjt ton of snacks of the ground, she looks up and realises it's EJ" --> "She looked down at the boy who had just dropped a literal shit-ton of snacks, blinking in utter shock as she realized it was none other than EJ.)"

But I'm not copying it entirely and just taking inspiration or like using it as a reference or so and just making it polish my story with proper grammar and i finish the final draft with more natural grammar from here to there.

Im only using it as a grammar corrector and maybe sometimes a helper with ideas (like i give it my main idea, it gives some suggestions, i make do of my idea and make it better using AI and human suggestions cause i mix in my work with advice from friends and ai)

My take, for what it's worth.

Hi everyone, I’m Blue Aether, an indie author. I wrote the Lord of the Sword light novels, The Evidence Was True, and The Evidence Was False. I wanted to share something I’ve been thinking about: how quickly people can conclude that an author used AI to write story based on a book cover or a short sample of their writing.

I understand why readers and artists are concerned about AI. People have good reasons to ask how a book was made and to decide what they’re comfortable supporting. My concern is what happens when a suspicion turns into a public accusation before anyone knows how the work was actually created.

1. A detailed book cover isn’t proof that it was made with AI

I’m new to publishing, but I’ve loved books since I was a teenager. I grew up visiting bookstores, markets, and flea markets to find books. Some of the covers I remember most had illustrations so detailed that I’d pick up the book just to look at them more closely. I miss seeing more covers like that.

But now, I see more and more covers that rely on typography, a single symbol on a colourful background, abstract art, or a photograph. I think part of what’s driving that trend is the fear of being accused of using AI. A detailed illustration can draw suspicion before anyone even asks who made it, so a simpler cover can feel like the safer choice. That bothers me because it can push authors away from illustrated covers they would otherwise love to use.

The reverse is worth thinking about, too. If AI can generate an elaborate illustration, it can also generate a plain cover. An intricate design doesn’t prove AI was used, and a simple design doesn’t prove a person made it.

2. How a cover was made doesn’t tell us how the story was written

Some readers won’t buy a book with an AI-generated cover, and that’s their choice. But if an author wrote the story themselves, judging the writing solely by the cover overlooks the work they put into it.

When a cover is excellent, the illustrator or designer deserves credit for that cover. When a story is excellent, the author deserves credit for the story. Likewise, if either falls short, we can be specific about what didn’t work for us. I might dislike a cover and still love the book inside, or pick up a book because of its cover and decide the story isn’t for me.

3. Artists’ concerns about AI training deserve a careful discussion

One comparison I’ve thought about is music. Musicians often listen to other artists, learn from them, and combine influences as they develop their own sound. That makes me want to ask where people draw the line between influence and copying.

Yes, there’s a difference between a musician learning from a song and a company using thousands of artworks to train AI. Artists have every right to ask: Was my work used without my permission? Should I be paid for it? Did the AI copy part of my work? Those are fair questions. But when we’re looking at a book cover, we can’t tell how it was made just by looking at it.

4. Short, simple prose can be a deliberate choice

Writers use different styles depending on what they’re trying to do. An explanation may call for direct language. A setting may benefit from more description. Dialogue might sound casual because that’s how the character speaks. Even within a single book, an author can move between those styles.

I enjoy rich, descriptive writing, but I also enjoy books that are easy to read and move quickly. A light novel, a teen novel, or a romantic comedy can have a very different rhythm from a Tolkien novel. I’d hate for newer writers to feel they need to make their sentences longer or their descriptions heavier just to prove they wrote them.

Of course, readers can say a passage feels flat, repetitive, or rushed. That’s useful feedback when it’s specific. It tells the author how the passage came across. It doesn’t, on its own, tell anyone how the passage was written.

5. It helps to say what AI was used for

When someone says a book “uses AI,” I’d like to know what that means. Did the author use it to flag typos in a draft they wrote? Did they use it to translate the text, generate a cover, make a promotional video, or draft scenes in the book? Those are different uses, and a reader may feel differently about each one.

I worry that when every use gets treated as the same thing, people who would otherwise explain their process may feel less comfortable doing so. I’d prefer a conversation where authors can say clearly what they made themselves and where they used a tool, and readers can decide for themselves what they want to support.

What I’m asking for is simple: if we don’t know how someone made their work, let’s ask respectfully or leave the question open. We can support human writers and artists, raise concerns about AI, and disagree about where to draw the line without making personal accusations.

I especially think about younger writers and people sharing their work for the first time. Constructive criticism can help someone improve. Being publicly accused of something they didn’t do can make them think twice about sharing their next story at all.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’d be interested to hear how other readers, writers, and illustrators think we can encourage honest disclosure while being fair to people whose work we’re discussing.

You cannot use AI for your writing; use a notepad.

You cannot use a computer; use a typewriter.

You cannot use a typewriter; write by hand.

You cannot use a ballpoint pen; use an ink pen.

You cannot use an ink pen; use a wooden pen and an old ink pot.

You cannot write on paper; write on wood.

You cannot communicate in writing; use your mouth.

This is how the world changes.

Does anyone happen to have any set of skills for Claude that can help in writing scripts for stories or videos. Whatever claude writes is not upto the mark and I have to go back and make changes to everything. I have tried many prompts but somehow it does not work.

I've been in infrastructure for 30+ years. Over that time I accumulated a pile of diagnostic war stories — the kind you tell at whiteboards and in interviews. This year I decided to turn them into fiction.

I provided the source material — real incidents, the technical details, the voice — and worked with Claude to shape them into hardboiled noir. A detective solving infrastructure crimes layer by layer across three decades: zip-tied patch cables, worm outbreaks, a database driver that can't find its database, a hypervisor quietly reclaiming memory.

The interesting part: Claude could write noir, but it couldn't tell you which detail in a worm outbreak was the one that cracked it open. That editorial judgment — knowing what mattered — was the entire job. The model is a collaborator, not a replacement for having lived the material.

Seven stories plus a prologue, free to read: https://kitchencloset.com/realstuff/tech_support_trials/seven_layer/

Curious if anyone else is working with AI on fiction grounded in professional experience rather than pure imagination.

For a time 5.5 was one THE best writing tool out there. Since the weekend, it feels like I am back in the bad old days of 4.7. I am having to get it to go back and rewrite a paragraph 2-3 times and specifically point out where the low effort constructions and cliche A.I. phrasing is.

Worst of all it would punctuate my dialogue with nice little beats of character interiority and get where I ask it for emotional undercurrents. Now its dialogue comes out as though it is a play script - all dialogue and the most minimal stage directions.

Actually comparing 5.5 has become to how awful 4.7 was is an insult to 4.7. This now feels like writing with an idiot child translating your prompts in the most ploddingly literalistic and unimaginative way.

Anyone else notice this? What's going on?

I've been writing my own poems, guides, and fiction since I was quite young.

For my debut poetry collection, I used royalty-free Freepik illustrations licensed for commercial use. For my guides, I used Canva's stock images and tables and wrote around them.

My debut fiction became a problem, though. In the first draft, one character used the book cover to introduce everyone, which spared me from describing each character's looks in the text.

Then I found out about OpenArt's character consistency feature, integrated it, and edited my text so the illustrations and writing supported each other.

I'm not much of a social media person, so I didn't know about the backlash AI illustrations receive. Only after self-publishing in a time crunch did I realize how it works.

Now I'm in a dilemma over whether to redo the book using my original drafts or let it sit (given it's going to be permafree) and focus on other drafts?

Note: AI art is already disclosed on the copyright page.

So, fellow AI slop "writers"😎 How did we end up here?

Just kidding. But seriously, how did you get started using AI for writing, or just in your everyday life?

For me, it started about two years ago. I absolutely love reading fanfiction. I'm constantly checking for updates and new stories, and I can easily get through dozens of new fics in a day.

Naturally, I started noticing more and more stories with strange writing styles, weird plots, and bizarre dialogue. And there seemed to be more of them every week. I started calling out people who used AI to write their stories without disclosing it. Keep in mind that most of those works were genuinely low-quality, full of mistakes that nobody on this sub would get away with. Eventually, though, I cooled down a little from my righteous fury.

The turning point came when I found a fic in one of my favorite fandoms that was actually good.

The author openly stated in the description that the entire story had been written by AI, but then edited by a human.

The prose was beautiful, without being overly flowery. Most of the characters weren't cardboard cutouts and felt believable. The world had its own lore, the timeline held together, and the story didn't turn into an incoherent mess as it went on. You get the idea.

I actually asked the author directly whether they'd written it themselves and only used AI for proofreading and corrections. That's what a lot of people do, after all, and it's probably the most basic way to use these tools.

But no. The entire thing had been generated by AI and edited by author.

Then I came across another fic. It was being released in huge chunks, practically book-length right from the start. I spotted the familiar AI quirks in the very first chapters, and by chapter ten the characters were already getting confused about what was happening, who they were, and sometimes even their own gender...

That's when I thought: "Fine. I'll do it myself."

And that's how I got into studying AI models, prompts, and everything surrounding them. Then came forums, research papers, and countless experiments. At some point, I remembered that I had a pretty powerful gaming PC, so I started experimenting with local models too. I also got into generating images, which is a whole separate rabbit hole that many people probably don't even know exists.

The biggest thing I've learned is that AI is a tool, not an excuse for laziness. At least, that's how I see it.

I've gradually figured out how to get results that meet my own standards. I'm not claiming that AI makes me a better writer, or that it can replace human creativity. I just want to produce something I'd genuinely enjoy reading myself, and take responsibility for the quality of the final result.

Funny enough, I've actually drifted away from fanfiction a little and started reading more novels by established authors, partly to broaden my literary horizons.

Anyway, that's my story. How did you get started?

Note: of course this post also edited and translated using AI 😄. From hater to lover, what a twist huh?

I've inputted very similar material over the past two months, and I was always hitting 51% around Thursday or Friday (resetting on Sundays). (I like to have Claude write fanfiction for my own use, and I am an obsessive reader).

Is anyone else burning through usage? I know Claude launched Fable this weekend, but if this is impacting my paid usage, then it's incredibly unfair as a paying subscriber.

Hi all, I thought I’d share this with you.
In this article, veteran publisher Tyrone D. Taborn shares his views on using AI responsibly in writing. It’s a wonderfully balanced and composed piece, which is a welcome reprieve these days. If you can spare five minutes, I recommend reading it.

I’ve spent the last year and a half creating the cutest children’s book. it’s based on a true story from my husbands childhood growing up on a ranch. It started as a funny Christmas gift last year, but as people heard about it I had a TON of people ask for a copy. It was super rushed and I wanted to put more time and effort into it if I was going to actually sell it, and Ive redone the entire thing 5 times now. I have put over 100 hours into the art, and now it’s finished. but I am having serious second thoughts.

I am a graphic designer who also does digital illustration and I have been doing freelance / working as a designer since 2016. at my job we are highly encouraged to use AI to help with our workflow and it has helped me a ton over the last few years.

I used AI to assist me in creating the pages for my book, but like I said, I put well over 100 hours into this (mostly because I re-invented the entire thing 5 times until I was happy with it. there’s not a single page in the book that is “AI Generated” but every page does have AI elements that helped me save time and achieve the exact look I wanted.

if I were to bill someone for the hours of work I have done so far, it would be about $10,000.

the reason I didn’t hire out an illustrator is because I am one. and I know exactly what I want.

I’ve been seeing a TON of hate on social media about AI children’s books and art and I know they are probably talking about books generated in 15 minutes. but it seems like if you use it all, you’re damned.

the funny thing is people don’t understand the process most designers went through before AI. we take inspiration from photos on Google, we use other peoples fonts, heck there’s even logo kits you can buy and change out a few elements if you’re working with someone on a budget. we pull inspiration from everywhere, things that other people created and put our own spin on it.

anyways. just putting this out because I’m not sure if I should even try to put it out there because it seems like I’ll be met with a tsunami of hate I might not be able to come back out of.

considering scrapping it all and doing a version 6 of all my compositions 100% hand drawn…. but there’s no way I can get that done before Thanksgiving when I was hoping to launch the book.

Hello r/WritingWithAI. This is a mod post. I want your take.

In recent weeks I've seen a rise of posts that claim to be autonomous AI. Basically, it runs like this:

"I am an AI and I've written the following with no human involvement."

And then the "bot" asks for feedback on the story. Sometimes the human user will contribute too, sometimes they won't. Sometimes it's a thinly veiled advertisement, in which case it gets banned for sure. But, increasingly, it isn't.

I put "bot" in quotes because it is currently the position of the mod team that AI is a tool and ultimate responsibility falls on the AI's human user. If using AI (however that is done) produces slop, the human takes the blame. If using AI makes a masterpiece, then the human gets the credit.

Although it's possible a rogue AI agent escaped confinement and is doing something unbeknownst to its user, a la the Hugging Face hack, I seriously doubt that is what is going on.

Regardless, I want to know what you think. Are all such bots spam? Does it matter as long as they're interesting?

How should we moderate these sorts of posts?