Robots Tolerate Me...For Now

The image above? I whipped it up on Canva in about 30 seconds. I typed a one-sentence instruction, hit “go,” and voilà—four versions popped out like rabbits in a magic act. If I didn’t like them, I could’ve asked for more.

Now, about the novel. I write a chapter, then hand it over to ChatGPT for line editing. After three chapters, I let Chat play detective, hunting inconsistencies. My main character, JR Johnson, has a particular voice, and sometimes ChatGPT calls me out with, “He wouldn’t say that.” (Which is humbling) Chat also catches redundancies, trims the fat, and never complains about how many times I ask the same question. Believe me, I’ve tested its patience. If Chat were a person, it would’ve given me five minutes notice, and not lasted the five minutes.

Confession: I am a pain in the ass to work with.

When I finished the rough draft—emphasis on rough—I turned to developmental editing. In the past, I’ve hired humans for this. This time, I tried ProWritingAid: four manuscript evaluations for a hundred bucks. My 100,000-word behemoth came back in thirty minutes with a 34-page critique.

For perspective, the last human editor I hired was expensive and gave me advice. I went against my own gut feeling and went with the advice.  The book tanked harder than New Coke. The editor made money. I didn't sell enough books to break even. This is not a good system. I've commented about it in Paperback Writer. I call it the Writer Industrial Complex.

One of my writing flaws is “going down rabbit holes.” Not literally—I’m too old to fit in burrows—but on the page. Interesting tangents that don’t serve the story. ProWritingAid called me out: either develop JR’s sister Victoria or give her the boot. No spoilers. You'll have to read the book to see Victoria's fate.

I’m sharing this because the process looks different now. Between Canva, ChatGPT, and ProWritingAid, I’ve basically automated what used to cost a small fortune. Or even a medium fortune. And I’m not alone—I know successful writers who use the same tools.

​Don't confuse this with people who tell an AI to write a book for them. Artificial Intelligence will do that, and Amazon is flooded with books basically untouched by human hands. I want to be a writer, not a computer operator. 
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The future of writing isn’t just quills vs. keyboards anymore. It’s quills vs. keyboards vs. robots who politely tell you your dialogue needs work...lots of work.

The robots are polite for now. HAL was polite in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Until HAL killed the hibernating crew members, then ejected Frank Poole into outer space with no oxygen. Trust me: AI has watched the movie.

I'll start to worry when Pro Writing Aid wishes me Happy Birthday.