r/IWantToLearn • u/Remote-Dragonfruit78 • 1d ago
Arts/Music/DIY iwtl how to write a book, without too much relying on AI.
There's a SciFi novel i want to write but its been awhile since i wrote anything creatively, last time would be in highschool when i was writing essays but that was like almost decade ago.
I think i can still use AI to guide me in some areas but i don't want it to spoonfeed me as tempting as it may be i want to remain in full control of the story.
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u/Ranseler 1d ago
Me, personally, I would avoid AI at all costs. Not for ideas, not for suggestions, not even for research. As harsh as this sounds, you either write or you don't. Again, IMO. I love baseball, but I was never close to being able to do it for a living. You bang your head against the wall until either the wall breaks or your head does. If I let any AI in the door, for me, I feel it's no longer "me" and what's the point?
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u/Remote-Dragonfruit78 1d ago
Ok i get what you are saying, but not even research seems a bit too much, no? Like say you want to say you want to talk about character who's a mechanic for example and they need to advise somethign in a technical way, here the assumption is your know nothing about cars. So how would you go about it ?
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u/Ranseler 1d ago edited 1d ago
I see your point, and yes, it is a bit extreme, but at the end of the day I feel like Google is good enough (and I know AI crosses paths there). But it's more of an "avoid at all costs" mentality, because if I let it in a little, it's convenient to ask, "Hey, these two character are doing this, what's a cool twist I can add?" It's Adam's apple, and I'd rather keep my hands clean as much as possible. Your mileage may vary, it's just a "can I live with myself?" thing for me.
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u/no_sight 1d ago
You honestly just have to start writing.
Give your self a block of time every day/week, where you sit down and write. Turn off your wifi, just have a document pulled up and put words down. Inside this block of time, all you can do is bang away at the keyboard. No looking things up, no quickly checking reddit, no asking Claude.
You are going to delete A LOT of what you end up writing. That's ok. But you have to get words down. Honestly if you start using AI a little bit for this, it's going to snowball into it writing the whole thing for you. Ignore it.
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u/SleepyFingers 1d ago
If you dont want to write then don't. If you do, then you don't need AI to do it for you. If you need to learn something new to become more informed or get better then do it properly. There's no secret to writing. You just do it. Do it enough and you get good at it. This is how all skills are developed.
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u/Remote-Dragonfruit78 1d ago
True but i think i was looking to use AI to learn about writing itself not necessarily have it do the writing for me. Just wanted to know more about the dos and don'ts.
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u/resigned_medusa 1d ago
I spoke with a published author recently and she said her publisher and others will not accept any AI even in part.
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u/Remote-Dragonfruit78 1d ago
How do they know though, the ai detectors themselves sometimes even will flag human writing that it has AI, if you use em dashes
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u/resigned_medusa 1d ago
I don't know, from the conversation I had, it appears that some publishers are putting the burden of proof onto the authors.
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u/ShawnMilo 1d ago
I don't understand what you're asking. It's like saying you want to learn how to hand-wash dishes without using a dishwasher.
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u/DinnerPurple8325 1d ago
treat ai like a brainstorming partner not a coauthor and you stay the one steering the plot
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u/Same_Square2555 1d ago
i'm sure there's a bajillion videos and guides about it on youtube and general sites
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