Losing Myself in AI (and Finding It in the Garden)

AI gave me quick answers but also sent my writing off track. Meanwhile, finding a better use for it in the garden.

Morning all. First, I’m going to give my little hot take on AI, as it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot in relation to how I work. Then I’ll give you an update on the house, because we planted our first flower bed this weekend, which is very exciting.

When AI came about around 18 months ago, I was so happy. It felt like all the tasks I do for my writing had been shortened and made easier. I’ve been writing a few books simultaneously but have been stagnating with them. I know a lot of this is down to my life at the moment and putting my free time into renovating the house, but there are times when I sit down to write, like my idea, but don’t feel a connection to the words.

I’ve been using AI to do research and gather feedback on what I’m writing. I can’t tell you how immediately satisfying it is to have a question sitting at the forefront of my brain, type it into ChatGPT, and get an answer that completely sums up what I wanted to know.

On the surface, this is incredibly helpful. But a few weeks into writing, and about a third of the way into one book (around 30,000 words), I lose my way and fall out of love with the premise. The story starts going somewhere I didn’t really want it to. I like my stories to happen in a small locality to my main character, not taking on the world, but just taking on their own world and personal problems. This particular story was getting too big, and I needed to pull it back.

I feel like my research was rushed and that I ended up in an unnatural direction. A few months have passed and I can see this has been common in a lot of my writing over the past two years. I do want to grow as a writer and be more expansive, but the use of AI to quickly research and then write the first thing that comes to mind seems to have steered me in a direction I’m not happy with.

I’ve now got a new technique for using AI in my fiction writing, which seems to work better. Instead of asking AI directly, I’ll ask for recommendations of non-fiction books, documentaries, and fiction related to my subject, so I can research it for myself. I know this takes longer, but already I feel the benefit of letting the subject of my new book seep into me and gestate. I might get desperate for quick answers and go back to AI, but I’ll try to resist.

Another way I’ve used AI in my writing is to gather feedback. This is more about confidence. Before AI, I would use my dad for feedback. The only thing I want to know at that stage is whether the story is coherent. I’m not looking for him to be positive or negative, just whether it makes sense. I don’t always trust myself to string a plot together without veering off randomly. My dad is very good at understanding story and takes on the role of proofreader perfectly.

Having someone read my work also lets me ask questions about the characters and from there decide where I want them to go next. My wife is also great at this. I recently learned about another writer, Frank Herbert of Dune, who worked closely with his wife and argued he never would have written anything of note without her input.Alice asks question and make points that have huge impacts on the final piece. With her and my dad reading my work as I go, I can feel the benefit. It also keeps me accountable and in a rhythm of writing.

Since using AI to proofread my work, I’ve had none of the positive feelings or momentum I get with my dad or wife and definitely none of the accountability. When I put a chapter into AI, I get the feedback I want and it feels nice, but it takes away the pressure and the need to carry on.

The AI will say how great I’m doing with its original plot and interesting chracters, which I will smile to myself all contentidly and dwell on that for a while. It’s nice to be complimented, but honestly, what does it mean when AI is trained on every piece of literature in the world? Ninety-nine percent of all art is absolutely awful, so what am I being compared to? Certainly not the top one percent of literature. The feedback is meaningless and hasn’t made me feel anything other than an immediate smugness that I’m a good storyteller according to AI. I need humans to enjoy my work — otherwise, what’s the point?

I wonder if anyone else I know has used AI to this extent and feels the same? I’d be interested to hear and have a conversation about it.

That said, I will continue to use AI to clean up my spelling and grammar, because without that the time it takes me to write is a lot longer.

I’ve also discovered AI is great for our latest project at home: the front garden. We have a big flowerbed and a gravel driveway which has taken weeks of de-weeding and was finally ready for planting. We went to the garden centre, our plan for the beach was off due to heavy clouds, and picked out plants we liked the look of, with no knowledge of how to plant or care for them. We brought them home, asked ChatGPT where to plant them and how to look after them, and with that information we were set.

Yes, I could have spent hours reading or bought gardening books, but we just wanted to get on with it and enjoy a nice flower bed. In today’s age of AI, I feel like this has been one of my best uses of it.

Yesterday was also the first day of the new season, and I’d be remiss not to mention it. After the stellar win of the Club World Cup and a strong pre-season with loads of new talent, the first game back was always going to risk a bit of disappointment. But it would be harsh to say we were bad. Crystal Palace played perfectly and could have won it. Still, I can see the quality in our squad, and after a couple of games to build fitness, we’ll be climbing high up the table. By the Man U game in a few weeks, we’ll be ready to smash them.

Have a good week, friends! Like and subscribe, comment, and visit my website if you want to read any of my fiction: www.sean-thewebsite.com also i’m on www.instagram.com/seanshouse