Every client asks this question when they start talking to me: when working on my book, will you make ChatGPT write it?
The answer is yes and no.
I remember a discussion with a client getting so heated that I told him, “If writing a book with ChatGPT is so easy, why don’t you do it?”
He tried for two weeks. Got chastised by his mentor for annoying me. Then called me back to write his book, never raising the issue of ChatGPT again.
Whenever new technologies come, there are people who make use of them, and there are people who exploit them.
You can use a computer to write a book or to find a cure for cancer or write a computer program or run your entire business, and you can use the same computer to incessantly watch porn or play video games.
The same happens with ChatGPT and other AI tools.
You can make ChatGPT write for you, or you can use it to become a better writer yourself.
I remember a few months ago I wrote: “Good writers become exceptional with AI, and lazy writers become worse.”
ChatGPT and Claude are great tools for brainstorming outlines.
Although all the clients are averse to the idea of me using ChatGPT to write their books, 99% of my clients use it to create the outline of their book that they then share with me.
So, yes, AI tools are great for creating outlines. They’re great for quickly writing 500-600 words on a given topic.
If you ask them to find a unique angle to the topic you are writing on, they can do that.
Whereas in normal word processors you can replace string 1 with string 2, in ChatGPT, you can replace one thought with another, no matter what words you have used.
If you ask ChatGPT to rewrite a thesis level essay in class VI grade level, it instantly does that.
I don’t use AI to write. But I definitely use AI to gather material, do research, and organize my thoughts.
Sometimes, when I’m not sure of the sentence that I have written, I ask ChatGPT to make some suggestions and then if I like one of the suggestions, I either use it as it is, or write my own version.
Otherwise, I write by myself because one, clients hire me because they like my writing style, and two, left to its own devices, AI can be quite boring.
Why I don’t use AI to write is because when I’m writing, I’m not just writing, I’m expressing myself.
As they say, AI can describe a flower, it cannot touch and smell it.
AI can describe the first drop of rain hitting the ground, but it cannot capture the feeling evoked by petrichor.
But if AI can totally replicate my style, I have no problem using it to write even complete books.
Only if I cannot differentiate myself.