Legitimate Uses of AI for Writers

 It’s safe to say I’ve been harsh in my denunciations of writers who use artificial intelligence in their work. Nothing I’ll say here contradicts that. Artificial intelligence (AI) is, and will continue to be, useful in too many aspects of life to mention; I welcome many of them. It’s in the creative arena where I have my primary issues with its use.

Let’s get the vitriol out of the way: I have no time for ‘writers’ who use AI to ‘create’ anything, or even to generate ideas. If you feel the need for AI to write ad copy or marketing materials or a news or journal article, you be you. Just don’t call yourself a writer, as you’re a notch below plagiarist on the food chain. At least the copycat looked up what to steal.

That said, AI can be of legitimate value to writers. I’ll use myself as an example.

I used to print my final drafts a chapter at a time and read them aloud, marking the printed page as I found things that needed improvement. This became a difficult process when I developed macular degeneration, as I had to devote too much concentration to reading accurately to have any left over for listening to how it fell on the ear.

Enter Microsoft Word’s Read Aloud feature, which allows me to listen to a disembodied voice read what I see on the screen, which I magnify and reverse the image to accommodate my eyesight. I then go back and make the necessary changes right there on the screen.

How do I remember what needs to be changed? I never do more than a chapter at a time, and I always have Word display the document’s line numbers. I then make note of which lines need an adjustment and go directly there to make them.

A piece of advice: When making corrections in this manner, work backward. That way the line numbers you’re looking for won’t have changed as you make edits to the document.

When that draft is complete, I use the Check Document tool to look for spelling, grammar, and a few other potential errors. Many – maybe even most – of the suggestions will be ignored in a work of fiction. Names, places, and bits of dialog may not be in Word’s dictionary until I add them. (‘Jagov’ comes to mind in the Penns River stories, as well as names such as Napierkowski, Neuschwander, and Wierzbicki.) I may want some grammar to remain incorrect, especially in dialog. (As Chandler once famously wrote, “When I split an infinitive, God damn it, I split it so it will remain split.”) The clarity check typically calls out passive voice, which my years of writing documents for the government make me particularly prone to.

That’s what I use AI for: proofreading. It makes up for my deficiencies in vision and lack of training in proper grammar. Creating and driving the story forward are my job and always will be. AI’s only function is to clean up the horse shit after my parade has passed.