Anyone that’s followed this blog for any length of time will know that I am 100% a pantser. (And for anyone who is new here, that means someone who writes a novel by the seat of their pants rather than following a structured outline).

My pantser days were curtailed by the discovery of the book Save the Cat  https://savethecat.com by Blake Snyder. His beat sheets gave an easy-to-use structure format, and my last few books were written using that tool. 

But my last novel was written five or six years ago, because I don’t seem to have the concentration or ideas to fill out a beat sheet, nor the time to do free writing enough to come up with a new concept. My writing energy has all gone into SEND assessments, school shenanigans, and marketing copy.

In a conversation with my sister last week, we talked about writing a book on how not to manage people, particularly neurodivergents. I joked that we should get ChatGPT to write it, since I’ve appreciated AI help with endless job applications (40 and counting).

Intrigued, I put in the request, “Write a book on how not to manage neurodivergent people” and it came back with a seven-page outline, including references. That’s a book I may look to write someday,  but maybe not while I’m trying to get a job 😂

Continuing with my investigation into what the lovely AI assistant could deliver, I asked it to produce a beat sheet outline for a young adult book set in a school, which is an idea that has been floating around my head recently. As I used voice-to-type (another excellent but not infallible tool), the request was for a Beach sheet 😂, but the AI still understood my request and produced a book outline with the structure from Save the Cat. I have to say, mind blown. 🤯

The thing is, the AI isn’t going to write the book, I am. I probably won’t even use more than 10% of the book outline. But the fact that it broke it down into all the key beat sheet points: fun and games, bad guys close in, all is lost and the dark night of the soul, brought it all back to me. I remembered how to do it. 

And it took about 30 seconds, instead of the hours it might have taken to find my battered copy, read it, get distracted, cook dinner, put the book down, see it a week later, wonder why I was reading it, pick it up, get distracted…

That’s how AI is a tool. 

And like any tool, it needs experience to use it effectively. You have to ask the right questions. You have to be specific. Incidentally, this could be one of those things that autistic people excel at. We’re really good at being very literal 😂

I recently said to a friend who was concerned about using AI that it’s no different to using a Thesaurus. If you pick a word from a Thesaurus without understanding what it really means you’re going to make yourself look like an idiot. However, if you’re just trying to remember a word or clarify a meaning, it can be used to great advantage, particularly when you’re tired or short on time.

And who isn’t busy and tired these days? 

I do still have reservations around AI and creativity. I have used the Generate function on Adobe Stock a lot and seen the amazing – but slightly wrong – things that it produces. I have concerns about the production of artwork that draws (excuse the pun) on other artists’ creativity and hard work, particularly if it is then passed off as original. 

And don’t get me started on the rarely-discussed environmental impact of AI infrastructure.

However, people will always want or need short cuts.  Who hasn’t done a copy-paste on a report (and who hasn’t accidentally left the old name in?)

There will always be plagiarism. Austin Kleon’s book Steal like an Artist is one of my go-to books for inspiration.

And there will always be purists, for example, people that think I should be able to spell when I can’t. I rely on the little squiggly line to tell me when my letters are all jumbled. It’s not because I can’t tell that it’s spelled incorrectly (most of the time) but my brain won’t pull up the right order of letters and I would spend a very long time with the dictionary if I couldn’t use the tool to hand.

A bit like writing a blog post on a phone, using voice-to-text, while walking the dog, and then editing it as I iron the kids’ shirts. ☺️