"That's cheating," he said to me as the restaurant garden hummed with conversations near and far.
I took a swig of my double Jack Daniels, pausing while I digested his statement.
Using AI to write the first draft of his book was not up for negotiation. Even though my uncle isn't a writer, and wouldn’t know a Foreword from an Afterword if it flashed their bosoms at him, he refused the notion of letting a machine flesh out his ideas.
"The only person you’re cheating is your readers if you fail to deliver the story as best you can,” I replied. “If your writing does that best, then that’s the path you should stick with. If tools such as AI help you to tell a better, more memorable story, then you should look into that.”
Of course, whatever he chooses is ultimately his prerogative.
It’s his book after all.
However, take a novice carpenter who wants to sell tables to strangers but refuses to use power drills and circular saws for the sake of being "authentic." No doubt, he’ll create wooden furniture that is 100% "human" and 200% him, but it would also require customers to wait three times as long and would likely result in an uneven product at the end.
Pro artisan carpenters would know how to avoid this, but newbies?
DOUBTFUL.
Same thing with my uncle.
He's a gas engineer by trade (and a bloody good one to boot), but he’s never written a book.
While he understands the framework of good stories, fleshing them out with captivating prose is something that takes years to get proficient at. It’s not something you pick up on your first rodeo (hence why I suggested working with AI or a ghostwriter to flesh out that first draft).
Long-time readers will know I’m very much pro this technology.
I believe it will enable everyday Pauls and Paulines with extraordinary ideas the chance to get these ideas out into the world in a familiar, accessible way.
People like my uncle.
That said, if he said he wanted writing to become more than just a one-book adventure, then, of course, I would also encourage him to take a fiction workshop or three and sharpen those skills.
After all, it takes hundreds of thousands of words to unearth your unique voice, and while AI is a capable first-draft producer, it’s still got a fair way to go before it is capable of cloning one’s voice.
Perhaps it will get there. Perhaps it won’t.
Nobody knows.
What I do know, however, is that it’s only a matter of days now before my proofreader hands me back a certain manuscript, no doubt marked up to its eyeballs with a red pen.
Though, hopefully not too much as I still aim for The Great Betrayal to be published before the month’s out.
If that’s what you’ve been waiting for, then hold tight, Legionnaire.
Not long now.
To help the time go by, you might want to consider a re-read of the series so far. As most of the books can be read in 2-3 sittings, that still gives you bags of time to do so.
And if you’re new to The Divided Region, fret not.
You can get your mitts on it right here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/TDR-Bundle
DJJW