Just like some dystopian sci-fi futuristic apocalypse tale one might imagine, we will never beat the robots. Generative AI is here to stay, and like it or not, in the not too distant future (and possibly even the present), it will write good enough books for a good enough market. Lots and lots of them, in a very, very short time. But unlike this dystopian horror vision of evil robots coming to steal our vocations, this isn’t actually a bad thing.
Finally! After hundreds of years of industrialized capitalism, we can relax! We don’t have to try to be robots anymore!
After a decade(ish) of indie authors trying to hustle to ping the algorithms in their favor with book after book, we can finally breathe. The race is over. We didn’t lose, but the right player took the field while we can now get on with doing what we are best at doing. Being creative humans.
We can finally leave the mass commercial markets writing for the algorithms to the robots (the algorithms are robots too – they’re a perfect match for each other!). We can stop trying to write at machine-like paces, with machine like consistency.
Having a successful writing career in the AI age is either going to be about being a prompt engineer or intentionally being a human writer.
As in more human than ever.
So what does this deliberate intent on being human actually look like?
Write the stories only you can write.
Write the stories you want to write, no matter what the algorithms tell you are hot selling, trendy markets this week. Being a human writer means taking your experiences, your feelings, the psychic narratives that are going around in your head every day, helping you make sense of the world, and using these things to give color and depth to the words on your page.
Define your own consistency.
Make your own writing schedules that work with your life, not the “Amazon cliff.” Or, like me, embrace inconsistency as your only consistency.
Be open about your mistakes.
Show the person behind the words.
Show the world your face. Sure, there are some writers who want to remain out of the public eye for whatever reason. If this is you, find another way to show up that makes you comfortable. This blog, and my nonfiction books, include many anecdotes about my life as a writing mother, about my non-writing interests, and more recently about how my late-diagnosed neurodivergence has shaped my writing life (and the rest of my existence).
You might post personal photos on social media. It might be a personal blog, podcast or video channel. It might be public appearances. Whatever feels good to you, just show up.
Human Writers Can Still Use AI
Being an intentionally human writer is not to say that we intentionally human writers will not be using AI. On the contrary.
Be upfront and obvious about how you are using AI. Tell your readers that you used a chatbot to help brainstorm ideas. That you used an AI editor (as well as a human one) like ProWritingAid or Grammarly. Make it obvious that your audiobooks are read by AI voices.
Using AI to help you write isn’t a dirty secret, and the more we talk openly about its benefits, the less scary it will be to everyone, and the more we will all be able to benefit from it. While we are being more human than ever before.
