I Wrote an Entire Book with AI. This is What Happened.

In this video I outline all the lessons I learned from writing a book with AI.

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[Jerri.Blank.]

I think you might be the first person to bring up the fact that AI isn’t always a timesaver. I spend about the same amount of time on chapters as I always did, but the mind-saving benefits have been so beneficial. The stories are still mine, but not having to start with a totally blank page has been so nice.

[TheDobbins]

I'm not a writer. I've had ideas for stories but never attempted to write them down. After recently watching one of your videos. I've decided to give it a go. Following one off your video tutorials. I've managed to put down the basic story line. I'm now in the process off adding in more details to the story. Found it all very enjoyable. I know I'm never going to be a writer. But I'm having fun doing something I would never off been able to do if it wasnt for AI. Thanks for making your you tube videos.

[TheZombiegenesis]

I've been more productive over the last month since getting into AI writing tools than I have been in years with my writing. I agree, it doesn't necessarily save time but it does help me remain consistent and productive by helping me get through writer's block or other various humps that might have stymied me before. Those roadblocks would ultimately lead to me just not writing at all. Now I'm able to work through those and remain productive. It's fantastic.

[jacobmoniz]

I'm glad that writing this book using AI was therapeutic for you. That said, why would I spend money on a text I know is AI generated when so many other, more authentically written novels exist? Your book loses something with AI. It becomes nothing more than a product and you, rather than being a writer, become nothing but an editor. AI wrote Sherlock Holmes better than you could, which says to me that you as a writer were unable to capture the character's intelligence on your own. That speaks poorly to your skills as a writer and, again, makes me think that the investment of my time and my money would be better spent on another writer's work. Thank you for your transparency though and good luck selling the book!

[-Evil-Genius-]

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation:

00:00 📚 *Writing Entire Book with AI*
- Using AI to write a book didn't save much time; the process was similar to manual writing.
- AI's primary benefit lies in saving mental effort, making the writing process more accessible for those facing challenges like burnout, ADHD, or depression.
02:02 🤖 *Choosing AI Models for Fiction Writing*
- Claude 2.0 is considered the best AI model for writing fiction.
- Testing a new approach for the next book: writing the initial part manually (500 words) and then allowing AI to continue, aiming for a more seamless match of styles.
- Exploring tools like Novel Crafter for a section-by-section writing approach.
05:42 🔄 *AI Filling Weaknesses and Enhancing Strengths*
- AI excels at filling in weaknesses, especially evident in dialogue writing for distinctive characters like Sherlock Holmes.
- Allows authors to focus on strengths during editing, raising the overall baseline of the prose.
07:47 📏 *Unexpected Shorter Word Count*
- The AI-written story turned out shorter than expected (50, 000 words vs. expected 75, 000).
- Considering the impact on pacing and whether additional scenes are needed for a more balanced narrative.
09:09 🎉 *Emotional Impact of Finishing a Novel*
- Celebrating the emotional significance of finishing a novel after a long hiatus.
- AI didn't save significant time but spared the author from the struggles of starting from a blank page, contributing to the accomplishment.

Made with HARPA AI

[JennyLaBouff]

I love your channel. I have been working on my first novel for the past 3 years. After I found your channel and AI to help me, I'm once again inspired. I use it to help with sentence structure and editing. I'm a better creator than I am a writer, and I don't want that to stop me, so this has been amazing to work with and has inspired me to move forward with my book. I like the fact that when I described a scene about Scotland 810 AD and referred to the bluebells in bloom, I accidently wrote "bluebonnets" and it corrected me and said "bluebonnets are an American Southern flower not found in Scotland, you might mean bluebells" I love it. So I named my GPT "Annie" And Annie is helping me keep my historical fiction novel on the right path for details. I'll probably need to give her some recognition in the book, but I don't mind a bit.

[BeauGubany]

100% True, it cuts right through the mental energy drain! Love Jason and his work!

[rhuntern]

If you're so proud and happy about this book, why isn't it available to purchase or mentioned anywhere else other than this video?

[ElysterStaux]

I love your work man. I've been burnout for so many years and you really inspire me to believe in a way back to write. Thank you.

[OpticPlay_]

Just found your channel tonight. I just got over a huge peroid of my life where i was struggling with depression, anxiety, and i just got diagnosed with ADHD so I was dealing with that (on top of being legally blind). I've always found myself to be a creative thinker but never had the knowledge or skills to make stories. A.I. and your content give me a sense of relief that handicapped individuals like myself can create stuff if we use the right tools. So thank you. You've earned this sub.

[thespectralequinox]

AI can help if you have the ideas and foundation for writing. But, it takes ALOT of developmental editing (IMO) to truly get to something amazing. I could be pretty meticulous, sure, but I still think that there were alot of issues with pacing and the little pieces that really only humans can bring. So, I really agree with AI being a savior for mental effort and not time. I find this to be true for AIs application in my work (I work in tech). I think that you're right about people needing to reframe how they feel about 'struggling' to do something. We don't have to struggle.

[erinmcguire]

I am so glad that Youtube suggested your channel because, at nearly 60 years old, I believe I will finally be able to write a book. I have always wanted to write a book and I have so many books on style and grammar and how to write, but I was never able to get past writing out just a few lines before giving up. I can't remember where I read this, but somebody used the phrase that some authors bleed over every line and that was me. So many people said to just write and go back later and edit what you wrote, but that was impossible for me. I simply could not stop myself from rereading everything I wrote right after I wrote it and bleeding over it and yeah, it was painful. So painful I gave up writing altogether and became a photographer instead.

But now, with AI, I can get chapter outlines, which will help me develop a more complete story rather than just having a few ideas in my head about who the main character was and what their actual story really was. I can also let the AI give me ideas about how each chapter should be laid out in terms of events and dialog and character growth. I knew all of this stuff before and it only added to my panic so that, on top of bleeding over every line, made it mentally impossible to even come close to writing a whole book. I am not hoping that AI will help me save time. I am believing it will help me write my first book and I am so excited about that!

Thank you!

[TheLadyWrites]

Congrats! The END is one of the most powerful things we have as creatives. <3 I'm so happy this gave you what you needed to get it there.

I'm using Claude to write my short story ad ay during Stories on Fire this month. So far it's going well. <3 Thank you for helping me get here.

[magejoshplays]

I've never found the argument about it needing to be hard to have value. Pretty sure every time I've found a hundred dollar bill on the ground it's value wasn't diminished by me finding it.

[Finnleigh.Jackson]

There is no such thing as free lunch, said AI to the writers.

[kentogletree]

I agree with most of what you have said. The only one I have differing views on is the time savings. In my case, I spent several years wasting time trying to determine what came next for what I needed to write, then rewriting because I would not work with what I developed. Then I discovered outlining, not simple outlining, but very detailed outlining. I suddenly could scream through a lot of my books once the outline was written, 8k to 10k a day was not unusual when I have a good outline. However, I was now spending horrendous amounts of time outlining, for much the same reason.

Being someone with ADHD, I have tons of ideas and find it hard to distill them down to something coherent. AI helps me get those outlines done faster, not because it writes it all 100%, but I can throw a bunch of ideas at the wall and see what sticks. Then, I edit the outline heavily. Next, I generate the beats and go to editing. Simply put, I can get some structure and an idea of the path I can follow to get everything done in a rather quick fashion, which saves me so much time. I had a novel I had been working on the outline for over a year. It is very special to me for several reasons, so I wanted it perfect. For NANOWRIMO I decided to start from scratch and rewrite what I had all over again from scratch. By the 16th of November, the book was done and I believe it is better than it would have been because I came up with so many new elements to the book using AI. Things that were lost in the ADHD fog before, came to light with much more clarity. One little plot point that was going to be a small part of one chapter turned into a chapter of its own during the process.

Thanks for everything you do Jason.

[RTDKRunner]

Fairplay to you. I have had this story planned for nearly 20 years and I just never really got anywhere with it because there was many parts of the process that was holding me back. But now with AI tools it's finally progressing at great speed and I'm really excited and hopeful that it'll get out there

[DebiBrady]

Congratulations on completing the book. Period. I've also found it to be an excellent productivity partner.Thanks for your program and thoughts.

[BathersonMote]

It didn't save time? Most novelists take six to twelve months to complete a novel. Your videos show that you finished your novel on day 30. That is amazingly fast. If, without the help of AI, you're capable of taking the writing of a novel from start to finish in around a month, you're cranking them out. I heard you mention many times that you edited what the AI wrote. It really sounds like the AI was the author and you were the editor of the book, which is fine, but other than creating outlines and editing the AI actually was the author. That's my biggest issue with using AI for creative projects. It's the AI that does the creating. People merely tell the AI what they want it to create, granted some do that in greater detail than others. There are people who have little to no art skills but call themselves AI Artists. The same goes for song writing and writing books. Good for you for taking the time to edit and finetune the AI's creation. Many don't even put in that much effort, but I really think that is the opposite of what the process should be. I think AI could be a very useful tool to an author who writes their books and uses AI as their personal editor. The same goes for artists. I think AI is a great tool for them. It can provide lots of reference material, help them with view angles and perspective, and much more. Ai is a great tool that can help creative people achieve their goal. I just hope it doesn't replace creative people with people who are really good at telling AI what they want it to create.

[bulldata]

Congratulations, Jason! Your videos are helpful with your instructions, but seeing how you completed an entire book with AI is amazing.