Since AI has taken over the creative world, it has come with many criticisms and, as AI continues to improve it becomes harder and harder to tell the different between AI made and humanmade. So where within this changing climate does AI fit within creative writing?
For many, it simply doesn’t. They want all writing to be humanmade with human ideas and human authors. For others they see it as a tool, as a way of creating text without the need for human intervention. I see it as somewhere in between. I’ve experimented with AI and, whilst I have seen many flaws, I have seen positive uses as well. Recently I asked it for healthy recipes and the ideas it gave were unimaginative and repetitive. Humans definitely win when it comes to flavour mapping! But I have also experimented with it for writing and the results have been significantly better.
Now don’t get me wrong, I do not want to live in a world where authors use AI to ghost write books, and the art of writing is lost to computer programmes, but, I do see a space where they work together to help enhance writing.
Recently, I was trying to think of names for a location in a book and, every time I say down to work it out, my mind simply didn’t want to find a good idea. I turned to AI and asked for a list of fictional town names for a thriller and it gave me a list of options. Would I use these as suggested? No, but it gave me a base, something for my mind to grip to that I could then adapt and change and, after using AI as a prompt, I was able to get over my writer’s block and continue with the important part of the creative process.
AI is also great if you are looking for writing prompts in general. I love writing poems but oftentimes find actually getting a base idea difficult for me to do. As it stands my life is very still, I work, I come home, I chill out with friends and family, and repeat. Being able to be creative is sometimes challenging when you haven’t got something standing out to grip onto but AI helps get over that. These aren’t poems I plan to put anywhere, just ones for me to scribble about and keep my mind flowing, so AI isn’t going to impact anyone but myself.
I’m not suggesting anyone should be asking AI to write the whole story for them but, having a helping hand getting out the starting blocks is not a bad thing in my opinion. What are your thoughts? Would you ever use AI or are you against any use of AI in writing?
I asked ChatGPT to give me some poetry ideas and, of the 30 it gave me in seconds, here are the first three!
Frozen in Time: Capture a moment where winter’s frost holds a landscape in silence.
Whisper of Autumn Leaves: Describe the journey of a single leaf from a towering tree to the ground.
The Ocean’s Secrets: Personify the ocean as a storyteller—what tales does it share at night?
Bye for now!
Jen x
Jennifer Pickering 