The Constructive & Destructive Sides of AI Writing Assistance

Every tool that can make creative writing easier is welcome, but you need to be careful with generative AI.

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The best chatbot on the market today is OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and it can support writers in many ways. At the same time, there are risks to consider.

Get to know ChatGPT’s pros and cons when it comes to creative writing. You’ll have a better understanding of what prompts to use and what responses to avoid.

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Advantages of Using ChatGPT for Creative Writing

The key perks to look forward to involve your ability to plan and develop stories. ChatGPT is just as handy as dedicated AI story generators .

1. Brainstorm Ideas

By talking to ChatGPT, you can learn about the world’s hottest topics, what people discuss the most on a particular subject, or what books already use the idea you have in mind.

Start with more general questions to get a feel for what your story should be about. Then, follow the most interesting trains of thought.

You and ChatGPT can come up with the best themes, characters, plot elements, and even endings to delight your readers.

2. Plan Your Book’s Plot

Create an outline before you start writing your story. ChatGPT can guide you on what this plan should contain.

Ask for the key plot points for a fiction, fantasy, or mystery book. You could even specify that you want to know about the hero’s journey narrative structure. ChatGPT will tell you everything it knows.

3. Generate Character Names

There are several great online fictional name generators open to you already, but ChatGPT can be more efficient and fun.

Just type in what you need and let the chatbot do the thinking for you. For the best results, give ChatGPT a precise prompt. For example, mention the character’s gender, occupation, and setting. You could even ask for a specific language to influence their name.

The AI will provide a list of creative options that match the requirements. Not satisfied? Just generate a fresh set of character names.

4. Learn About Elements for Your Story

It’s best to write about things you know, but sometimes you want to enrich the plot with something beyond your expertise.

In this case, research is crucial for creative writers, and ChatGPT can help with it. Just ask the AI questions until you understand everything you need, but always double-check its info.

OpenAI’s guide on ChatGPT confirms that the chatbot can make mistakes or produce harmful and biased content. So, don’t just copy-paste anything it says into your book.

If verifying its claims is something you can live with, ChatGPT is a great way to quickly gather facts about most topics that interest you.

5. Get Help Describing Difficult Scenes

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Another advantage of using ChatGPT to do research for your writing is that you can get ideas about how to describe certain things. For example, if you don’t know what seaweed feels like or what the different parts of a castle are, the AI can provide plenty of details.

Once again, make sure you check for accuracy before reiterating this information in your own words and style.

6. Find Comp Titles for Your Book

Knowing what to compare your story to is invaluable when the time comes to promote it. That’s another part of creative writing ChatGPT can make easier. If you already have a book or movie in mind that resembles your plot, ask the AI for other similar works.

If you have no comp titles whatsoever, ChatGPT will find you some. List the main themes of your book in your prompt along with a request for popular titles that share them.

The next best step is to research these titles and pinpoint the right ones to describe your story. For this task, use resources beyond the chatbot, such as websites for finding books to read .

Disadvantages of Using ChatGPT for Creative Writing

OpenAI itself warns that its chatbot has limitations and shouldn’t be depended on completely. As a creative writer, this is important in order to avoid legal and stylistic problems with your book.

1. Plagiarism Is Possible

ChatGPT is a large language model. It uses deep learning algorithms to process a huge range of texts, from websites to books, and understand what word should go after the last.

Literature is one of its main data sources. As a result, if you ask the chatbot to write a scene for your story, it’s likely to mimic passages from books that trained it.

Doing your own work is the best way to avoid plagiarism from ChatGPT. Besides, human writers outperform AI writing tools in telling a good story—at least for now.

2. ChatGPT’s Information Can Mislead You

Another fact about ChatGPT to be aware of is that it lacks data after 2021. It can’t access the internet and learn more about the world either. All it has is what it’s trained with.

This means that it can’t answer questions about concepts or events from 2022 onward. It also wouldn’t know about new understandings of old scientific discoveries, for example.

So, its advice on certain topics could be based on outdated or inaccurate sources. ChatGPT could present as fact data it took from articles full of mistakes.

Misinformation is very possible. That’s why it’s so important to choose your prompts wisely and double-check the AI’s responses.

3. Tropes Are Common

When it comes to generating stories, ChatGPT will usually follow plots and themes similar to the books that trained it.

Even if you ask for a unique storyline, you can still expect familiar tropes. This doesn’t mean it won’t inspire you, but you won’t stand out as a writer if you use the chatbot’s story as is.

4. AI-Generated Stories Are Simplistic

In addition to using tropes, ChatGPT narrates in very simple language and styles. Its stories are usually easy to read and meaningful, but there’s not much soul in the writing. It doesn’t matter if you specify an author’s style in your prompt. The result will have the same simple structure.

You can still have the AI produce narratives with the elements you want and get ideas. However, you’re better off doing the actual creative writing yourself.

5. ChatGPT Text Always Needs Tweaking

If you’re serious about using artificial intelligence in your writing or other projects, check out the AI chatbot capabilities of ChatGPT Plus and Perplexity . You’ll find advanced language models and data sets.

Sticking with OpenAI’s free platform, on the other hand, clearly comes with issues. As a creative writer, you must pay attention to what ChatGPT generates and never use its text in your stories without adapting it first.

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ChatGPT Is Best for Researching and Planning Your Books

While ChatGPT can create decent stories, you run the risk of plagiarism. Also, the chatbot’s narrative style isn’t very compelling. You’ll feel the urge to edit almost everything.

On the bright side, ChatGPT is perfect for brainstorming, research, and planning. Fact-checking is essential, but with the help of this AI assistant, you can feel more confident and speed up your creative writing.

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The best chatbot on the market today is OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and it can support writers in many ways. At the same time, there are risks to consider.

Get to know ChatGPT’s pros and cons when it comes to creative writing. You’ll have a better understanding of what prompts to use and what responses to avoid.

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