My relationship with AI continues to evolve.
One day I think it’s amazing that I can theoretically create a movie in a computer without ever having to step outside and shoot a frame of video. The next day I think AI movies are soulless, evil, and antithetical to the actual purpose of storytelling, which boils down to evoking emotion from an audience.
With that said, AI is becoming a really good partner in the writing process. And today, I want you guys to share your experiences with AI writing so far. I want this to be a shame-free safe space. I know some of you are passionate in your hatred of AI as it pertains to writing. But let’s try and keep the conversation around this tool positive only because there are parts of AI that could really help some writers out which they may not know about. So, I was hoping that if we all shared what we use AI for in the writing space, it could help others who never would’ve thought to use AI in that way.
I’ll give you an example. I know this ESL writer whose dialogue, as a result of English being his second language, is really on-the-nose. I’m talking like some of the most on-the-nose dialogue you’ve ever read. And I’ve been trying to get him to make the dialogue less on-the-nose. Even if it’s just by 10%. But he continues to struggle with it.
Finally, I said, “Look. Run one of your dialogue scenes through AI. Claude or ChatGPT. And tell it to make the dialogue sound more like real-world conversation. Do not use the dialogue it gives you. But use the dialogue it gives you TO HELP YOU UNDERSTAND HOW TO MAKE YOUR DIALOGUE LESS ON-THE-NOSE AND MORE LIKE REAL LIFE CONVERSATION.” Then use that dialogue as a reference point to rewrite the dialogue in that scene.
He did this and the dialogue got better! Not a ton better. But definitely improved.
I find that to be one of AI’s biggest strengths. If you have a weakness and you know it’s a weakness, you can have AI write up something for you to help you see, in general, how the “correct” way to write it is.
Another thing that AI is really good at is working through scenes with you. And I’ve used it sporadically for working out scenes in my novel. One of my big writing philosophies is that your script isn’t ready until every scene is at least a 7 out of 10. And preferably, you want to get as many of those scenes into the 8 out of 10 category, or higher, as possible.
I had this scene that just wasn’t working. It was a 4 out of 10 at best. You guys know what I’m talking about. There are those scenes in your script that you just can’t figure out for the life of you. And so I put it through a couple of AI sites and I laid out, very specifically, why I thought the scene was slow and what I thought needed to get better.
Here’s the funny thing. Just by thinking so deeply about why the scene wasn’t working, I actually figured out the solution to making it better before AI responded. But the point is, whenever I do this, AI lays out why it believes the scene isn’t working and gives you some alternative ideas.
Which leads to another funny reality. It’s actually never come up with a scene that I’ve liked. But just reading through the logic of all of its alternative ideas, helps me see the scene in ways I haven’t thought about before and THAT usually gives me an idea on how to fix the scene.
So it’s like virtual brainstorm buddy. And I think it’s great for that. I believe all writers should be using that aspect of it.
Another thing that AI is absolutely stellar at is describing locations that you know nothing about. Like if a scene of yours takes place in a 1930s factory in Germany, and you need to describe what it’s like in there – what it looks like, feels like, smells like – AI is amazing at that. You say, “Describe the setting in three paragraphs” (for a novel) and it will give you a very detailed description of the place, that you can then use as a reference point for writing your version of that location.
It’s a game-changer because one of the easiest ways for me to spot newbie writers is they’ll set a scene, a sequence, or even an entire script, in a world they barely understand. And you can tell they don’t understand it from how sparsely they’ve described it. This eliminates that issue. Don’t know anything about hospitals? With AI by your side, you can create the most realistic fictional hospital series ever.
But let’s get to the ultimate question. Which is: Can AI actually write? As in, all by itself? Can you tell it to write a scene for you? And the answer is, it can. I test it at least once a week to see where it’s at. It turns out, it has two gigantic weaknesses that keep it from being able to write.
The first is that it’s not good at anything that deals with emotion. It can describe a room for you as well as some of the best writers in the world. But the second you want it to convey the complicated relationship between the mother and the daughter in that room, and how the two interact with each other, it starts breaking down. It just doesn’t understand what that looks like or feels like.
Which makes sense. A big part of making writing authentic is being able to place yourself inside each character’s head and understand what it is they’re going through and using that filter to build a mechanism for them to interact with the rest of the world.
For example, Bender, from The Breakfast Club, grew up in a violent household with a stepfather who always beat him. So, the way that he interacted with the world was to challenge it, to berate it, to displace that energy off of him and onto others. And once you understand that, you know how to write that character.
AI just can’t get there. It mimics what other characters like this have done in the past. But, again, as every good writer knows, each character, like each human being, is its own unique individual. The second you copy and paste someone into a new script, something feels off. I would go so far as to say that one of the ways you become a good writer is to understand that. Because those little unique things that separate your bully character from the last bully character in a movie are what make them stand out. I just don’t see AI ever figuring that out.
The second big weakness is that AI is not you. One of the most common things I’ve heard in Hollywood over the last 25 years is that people are looking for someone with a voice that’s unique. They write in a unique way. Their sense of humor is different. Their story choices aren’t like other writers’ story choices. They tell stories in a way that feels unique. And just the way their writing moves through your head as you’re reading it has its own unique rhythm and cadence.
When I have AI rewrite a scene of mine to see how it does, sometimes it writes something that’s better. But when I go through the actual text, I’m constantly saying to myself, “That doesn’t sound like me.” “I would never use that word.” “That sentence feels off for some reason.” I have a distinct style and way that I write and once I give that job to AI, I lose the very thing that makes my writing me.
And if the writing doesn’t sound like you, that means it sounds like someone else. In this case, since it’s AI writing it, it sounds like whatever AI has decided is the “proper” voice to tell this story in. And since AI’s very existence is built on top of it pulling millions of writing styles in, it’s literally writing in that middle generic space that doesn’t evoke any sort of point of view at all.
What this tells me is that AI is a writing tool. A valuable one. One you should definitely be experimenting with. But it can’t write things for you. It can assist you. It can inspire you. But everyone here who has a voice they consider unique should stand proud knowing that as long as you’re loyal to that voice every time you write, you will always be an asset in this industry. It is only once you give AI all the power in your writing that you are no longer of value as a writer. Never forget that.
What do you guys use AI for these days? Be as specific as possible. And try to be supportive of people here. In some meetings I’ve had, I notice a lot of writers hiding the fact that they use AI cause it’s stigmatized. We’re not going to stigmatize you here. We want to share the strengths of this tool with everyone so we can all get better as writers. :)
