Generative AI. What is it and why is it so controversial?

In my last blog, I talked about using predictive AI to review and rate my last book. I uploaded my manuscript and the software gave me a large range of analytics. By comparing my books scores with that of best sellers in my book's genre, I received an expected star rating.

The software is sold to authors as a kind of editing tool. If you are writing a thriller, are you keeping the pace up? If you're writing literary fiction, are you using enough complex words? The usefulness to authors is debatable until you realise this software is being marketed to publishers as a way of quickly sorting through the ‘slush pile’. Suddenly, the use of predictive software could determine whether your Synopsis gets read, nevermind your manuscript.

Now, sentence length, active verbs, and the use of adjectives and adverbs are measurable but analytics won’t tell you if the characters are engaging or the plot interesting. I’m not sure it can even rate how well a book is written. For that we still need human editors.

And editing is not only about judging the worth of a manuscriot. It's also about working collaboratively with the author to ensure that the book is the best it can be. This can be be as simple as telling the author when a passage should be cut out to something more complex such as pointing out how the character has done or said something that doesn't make sense.

Most of the discussion around AI and literature has to do with AI writing books but I think a more interesting question is whether AI will replace editors. Everyone accepts that writers will use tools to correct spelling and grammer but is it acceptable for writers to collaborate with a program instead of a person. Ignoring non-fiction and research papers, do fiction writers acknowledge all their source material? Do they give credit to the editors and beta readers whose input have helped shape the final product? Sometimes these collaborators get thanked in the acknowledgement but it's not mandatory, so why should AI get a mention if it is only advising the author?

This brings us to the topic of Generative AI. What is it and is it ethical or even legal?

The most contentious issue is how these programs are being taught because the information AI programs use comes from the work of other successful writers.

Ignoring, for the moment, the issue of plagiarism, let’s consider the creative process. Would be authors are told that to become a writer, you must be a reader. The more you read, the more you learn about the craft of writing. Anyone who has taken a creative writing class has encountered the question of style. Style is the writer's own unique voice but many writers start off by mimicing an author they admire. In other words AI, including a simplistic sense is learning by reading other writers. But can AI develop a unique voice. Or better yet, should AI, like an editor, leave style to the human writer.

In other words, I'm not talking about the kind of AI that purports to write your book for you in the style of an existing author. What Margaret Attwood calls the Stepford Wives because they replace an  actual writer with a look alike that takes over, effectively killing what is unique to that author.

No, in today’s blog, I’m looking at software that is marketed as a tool to help writers by streamlining the writing process and then acting as your editor by suggesting improvements by rewriting a scene in different styles. Although, I happily admit that this last bit is where things could become contentious.

For this blog I selected Sudowrite as my AI companion. The program claims to use a large database of text but does not use the text you generate without your permission. They state that they do not ‘regurgitate text from specific sources’. In other words they market themselves as a writer’s tool, not a tool that steals content.

Sudowrite’s features include brainstorming, outlining, auto-writing and editing. While it says that it provides tools, how much the program writes vs what the writer writes is a matter of degrees and those limits are left up to the writer. It’s also interesting that Sudowrite recommends that writers run plagiarism checks on their final manuscript to ensure its originality. Armed with these promises and caveates, I bought the cheapest package they offered, assembled my thoughts on a novel idea that I have been playing with and began my journey into Generative AI.

The process starts with the Story Bible which consists of:

Braindump

Genre

Style

Synopsis

Characters

World Building

These are the fundamentals that the AI program will use to assist me in writing my novel. I entered my title – Fall From Grace and then got busy writing my brain dump. It is exactly what the name suggests; an unstructured, poorly thought through, rambling story line. Sudowrite will use this information to create a well written Synopsis, my character profiles and build my world. This is not that different from how novel writing courses structure their training.

Inevitablt, the first assignment is to write an 800 word Synopsis. The Synopsis is the basic pitch for your novel. It is intended to be read by busy editors and literary agents so that they can determine if they are even interested in your manuscript. Its purpose is to give a brief outline of the plot, the main characters, the main plot points and the resolution. It can be used to pitch the idea for a novel in order to get an advance to tide you over while you write the book but that is only likely to work for an established author. For the rest of us, the synopsis is our guide - one that keeps us on track but also gets modified as the manuscript develops. Once the manuscript is complete, it becomes our sales pitch.

Now before we go any further, I should confess that I am a pantser. That means I make things up as I go along. When I wrote my first book, When All Hope Is Lost, I had one scene in mind. That one scene was Dr Harris working late at night in her lab and feeling that time was running out to find a cure for her son. In the finished book, that scene takes place midway through the book. Instead of being the inciting incident, it became one of the subplots that doesn’t get developed until the fourth book in the series. I hadn’t planned to write a series and I certainly hadn’t planned to pick such a monumental story as a first book but that is where my pantsing led me. Sudowrite, however, encouraged me to be less ‘organic’.

I should also mention that I write on my phone, usually with a cat or dog on my lap, but Sudowrite only works on a computer. That meant digging out my laptop and working at a desk. A minor inconvenience but annoying all the same.

The plot I decided to use is for my test is a story that I’ve been playing with for some time. That means I’ve worked out my ending and my characters. What  I haven’t fully worked out, is all their motivations. That only happens when I start working on the various scenes. It’s a laborious way to work because it involves writing, refining, rewriting, and repeating until at last, like a crime artist's sketch, my character’s image takes shape. This is contrary to how creative writing courses suggest you write. Once you have a Synopsis, the next step is to get to know your characters. Character sheets are often used to do this. A typical character sheet lists the character's background (birthdate, schooling, marital status, dependants), describes their physical descriptions, character traits, what they love, what they hate and of course, their character flaws. Sudowrite follows this structured approach. It turns the information from your brain dump into character descriptions for you.

So how did it do? I’ve included at the end of this blog, a few lines from my brain dump along with Sudowrite’s Synopsis of those same lines. I'll let you judge for yourself but on the plus side, I appreciated Sudowrite producing my Synopsis for me. What generally takes me hours, Sudowrite produced in minutes. As for the quality, I think Sudowrite works best with stories that have a plot that’s fairly straight forward. My plot is bizarre. It involves three different points of view; one is from someone who is unconscious, one is that same persons sub conscious and then there is the outer world which is a crime thriller. I have no idea if the finished novel will work so the idea of quickly piecing together a ‘prototype’ is both appealing and appalling. At any rate, I was not completely happy with Sudowrite’s Synopsis because it had failed to understand the complex structure of the inner and outer worlds. On the other hand, it may also be an indication that the majority of readers will also struggle to understand.

Genre was also a problem. My novel is about spousal abuse so women’s literature makes sense. But it's also a crime novel. And the subconscious storyline is a mixture of science fiction and mythology. I decided for this test to go with thriller.

What happened next surprised me. From my brain dump, Sudowrite created my character sketches. For those I had named, it created last names and for those, like my main character’s parents, it created first names as well. For a completely undefined character, the detective, it created not only the name but gave the character a gender, and an ethnic back ground, neither of which I had defined in my brain dump. Furthermore, it gave my detective a back story that would presumably make her more sympathetic to my main female character.

My initial impression was that I liked the program coming up with last names. Like the Synopsis, it is a necessary evil but not one I enjoy doing. The names it chose for the main characters were English whereas the detective was given a Spanish last name. To be honest I hadn’t thought about the ethnicity of my characters so I wondered if having this information provided to me might pre-empt decisions I would have otherwise been forced to make? In other words was I letting AI guide me?

As for the three main characters, I thought their character profiles were too cliche. It assumed my main female was late twenties and the male lead in his mid thirties. I wanted them older so I specified that in my brain dump and regenerated everything. The male I specified as a narcissistic psychopath which Sudowrite immediately understood but it still failed to grasp the essence of my female characters because I couldn’t specify a type. I think this is a key factor with AI software. Nuance is difficult to categorise.

For example, I wrote that my main character was vulnerable. The program interpreted that as a young woman with “long brown hair and brown eyes that showed both warmth and wariness”. I had envisioned someone who was mid thirties, intelligent, and outwardly appeared self-assured but inwardly suffered from imposter syndrome.

The good news is that I was able to change the character’s characteristics and presumably the program would use this information to help me out as we progressed to the next phase.

That next phase, outlining the chapters and then scenes and dialogue will have to wait for the next blog but for now here is the sample brain dump and Synopsis.

Brain Dump

This is the story of an intelligent independant woman who falls prey to a narcissistic psychopath who takes control of her life. Her name is Taylor and she is a part-time professor of mythology at the local university. Through a series of flashbacks and a paralell dream scape involving Taylor’s alter ego, Atta Hensik, the reader learns about her relationship with her parents; a domineering father and submissive mother, her abusive husband Kyle and her loyal friend Harper. In the real world, Taylor’s friend Harper, convinces Taylor to take a rock climbing course to get more in touch with her body and gain confidence in herself. The instructor, Kyle is a rugged, athletic man who occassionally teaches these courses but he is also a clinical psychiatrist with a clientele of sports personalities. Taylor is surprised and a little suspicious when Kyle asks her out but as he woos her, she let’s down her guard.

In Taylor’s dream world, Atta Hensik lives in a domed city on Mars. She is shocked when she is summoned to Sector CSG56 – population control.

In the real world, Taylor’s parents are charmed by Kyle so despite several disturbing incidents, Taylor agrees to marry Kyle. Once they are married, Kyle gets her to change her hair and clothes. He convinces her to quit her job to work on her book but keeps her busy running errands. Then mocks her lack of progress on her book.

In the dream world Atta Hensik, is being outfitted to travel to Earth to see if it has become fit for habitation. She will travel with a male passenger so if Earth is habitable they will send back word.

When Kyle’s psychological attacks become physical abuse Taylor confides in Harper who suggests Taylor attend a domestic violence support group.

On the journey from Mars to Earth Atta, keeps to herself but learns that her assigned husband was sent on this voyage because of a crime he committed back on Mars.

Synopsis

Taylor, a part-time mythology professor, finds her life spiraling out of control after she falls prey to Kyle, a narcissistic psychopath. Her story unfolds through flashbacks and a parallel dreamscape involving her alter ego, Atta Hensik. Taylor’s past reveals a domineering father, a submissive mother, and a loyal friend, Harper. Encouraged by Harper to gain confidence, Taylor takes a rock climbing course where she meets Kyle, an athletic instructor and successful psychiatrist. Suspicious but flattered when Kyle asks her out, Taylor eventually lets down her guard as he charms his way into her life.

In Taylor’s dream world, Atta Hensik lives on Mars and is shocked when summoned to the population control sector. In reality, despite disturbing incidents, Taylor agrees to marry Kyle due to pressure from her parents who are taken in by his charm. Once married, Kyle manipulates Taylor into changing her appearance and quitting her job under the guise of writing a book while keeping her too busy with errands to make progress. He mocks her lack of achievements as his psychological attacks escalate into physical abuse. Atta is outfitted for a mission to Earth with a male passenger to test habitability for the Martian population.