IWSG: AI as a Writing Assistant Only; Latest Book Progress

It's the first Wednesday of the month and so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group (IWSG) blog hop! In an IWSG post, we writers bring our writing challenges and problems out into the open to share with each other and try to offer solutions. In this post, I have some progress to report on my book-in-the-making, “Bad Apps”, which is a collection of stories about weird and deadly apps. I’m also answering the IWSG optional question of the month. So, keep reading!

The IWSG Monthly Question

The IWSG question for September is: What are your thoughts on using AI, such as GPChat, Raptor, and others with your writing? Would you use it for research, storybible, or creating outlines\beats? As I've said in answer to similar questions to in past IWSG blog hops, I don't use generative AI to write my stories. That means I do not use it for the creative process of story writing which starts with the brainstorming of ideas and ends with the conceptual revisions such as developing the character and even choosing the right words. I believe that writing is a human attribute and that the majority of the process should be done by a human being, not a machine. 

I do use AI for the editing aspects of my writing such as detecting grammar and mechanical problems and so I use apps such as Grammarly and the automatic spell-check in MS Word. Even so, I will not rely on the AI tools alone to check my work. AI can still miss problems or “detect” them in places where they're not. For example, if I use the word “read” intending it as past tense, such as “I read a book yesterday”, and the AI marks it as wrong because it interpreted it as present tense, then I take that into consideration and leave the statement as is. (In reality, most AI programs will consider it as past tense, but I’m just using this as an example because I can’t think of a better one at this time of writing.) A fairly easy thing to do, but you have to read for it and not just scroll down the page changing things that the AI points out. 

Another thing I'll use AI for is to assist me in research for my writing projects. However, similar to when I use it to assist me in editing, I will not just rely on the AI alone. AI programs, such as Chrome's Google AI, which is generative, is helpful at the initial stage of researching a subject or topic. When I had to find for my final "Bad Apps" story the most efficient word for a high-pitched singing voice, I typed into the Google search box a query that was something like "What is the term for a high-pitched voice in music?". The AI came up with the word "Falsetto" and several others, explaining them. However, I feel a need to confirm the results because the AI draws from sources that are although often correct, or at least sufficient, they may not always be so. 

So, I look through the sources the AI draws from and check their reliability often by looking at their mission statement (or the “About”) page that explains the site's goals and history. If there’s no mission statement, as too many websites will not include, then I’ll check the background of the author who wrote the article that the AI withdrew the information from. If either looks scant or shady, I’ll check another source.

Will there ever be a time when AI can be completely reliable for checking grammar and for researching? Very possibly. However, when it comes to writing, especially creative fiction or non-fiction writing, only you the author know what you want to say and convey. So, even if AI develops into a completely reliable tool for checking grammar, only the human author knows what they want to say and so should still check over the parts that the AI has detected as "needing" improvement. 

Perhaps more importantly, we humans should always be willing to improve our writing to the point of second nature. So, if we read over the sentences and phrases AI indicates as needing correction, then we can find out why it does and learn to write more correctly on our own for future occasions. That said, I'll use AI as an assistant but not to do the actual writing or even the conceptual revising for me. Those two things are a human's job. 

Book Progress

Speaking of AI tools, I had just finished last week running my last story for “Bad Apps” through Grammarly and read over the passages that the AI indicated needing correction to verify the suggestions. I did an oral reading of the story to listen to the flow of the sentence structure and hand noted where further changes needed to be made. Now I’m in the process of typing in those changes on the computer. After that, I’ll have the book’s introduction to complete and revise. From there I’ll get it formatted and then release it as a beta. 

I’m going to try to release the beta version by early next month. I’m still looking for beta readers, so if anyone’s interested let me know in the comments box or email me at sarellanoroseATgmaildotcom. For details on what beta reading involves and the rewards you can receive from it, check out my post from 24 July 2022.   

Do you use generative AI for revising your stories or doing research for them? If either, do you give the job entirely to the AI program or do you verify its suggested corrections or results?

Today’s IWSG is brought to you by these super co-hosts: Kim Lajevardi, Natalie Aguirre, Nancy Gideon, and Diedre Knight! IWSG was founded by awesome author Alex Cavanaugh, writer of the Cassa Series of novels! 

Until next time . . .