Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock or living in a homeless shelter, no doubt you’ve heard about massive artificial intelligence (AI) breakthroughs. AI apps like ChatGPT (Generative Pretrained Transformer) are phenomenal technology and investing in them is the new dot.com and crypto wave. Good, bad, or ugly, the AI bots are here to stay. So, I decided to experiment with Chat and imagined I had the opportunity to have a one-on-one with the greatest fiction guru ever. The result is my new release titled OpenAI/ChatGPT — A Fiction Writer Talks Shop with a Bot.
First, let me say I don’t believe for a sec that AI is taking over human creativity and imagination like some doomsayers are spouting. I’ve had a two-month-long dive with the Chat technology, and I’m amazed at its potential as a research and writing tool, but it’s not a replacement for a thinking person with their ass in a chair, fingers on keys, and writing more books. (Which, by the way, is the best writing advice I’ve ever got.)
However, the Chat bot is clever. Very clever. I prompted it to write me an Amazon product description (blurb) for my new Chat book. This is what my little AI friend came up with:
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OpenAI ChatGPT—A Fiction Writer Talks Shop with a Bot is the ultimate guide to unlocking the potential of the artificial intelligence (AI) app ChatGPT to help fiction writers create amazing works of art.
This info-packed resource by International Bestselling Author Garry Rodgers provides an in-depth look into how this powerful AI tool can be used to enhance creativity, speed up the writing process, and write stories that will captivate and inspire readers. With step-by-step guidance and real-world examples, this book will show you how to use OpenAI’s ChatGPT to become a more successful fiction writer.
OpenAI ChatGPT—A Fiction Writer Talks Shop with a Bot begins with a general introduction of what this cutting-edge artificial intelligence is and what it can do for fiction writers. This book deep-dives into what a writer’s mindset must be and how to view fiction writing as a business professional. It does a drill into general storytelling and topics like wordcraft with dialogue, grammar and punctuation tips, editing tools, helpful links, and finding that elusive thing called voice. And it reaches a conclusion that going forward in 2023—and beyond—you, as a fiction writer, will be left behind without knowing what OpenAI and the bot ChatGPT can do to up your game and build your career.
Whether you’re a beginning writer or an experienced scribe, this information will help you get the most out of OpenAI and ChatGPT to write stories that will stand out from the crowd.
By the way, this product description was written by ChatGPT. Yes, a bot.
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There’s a learning curve to using ChatGPT effectively. It responds to your inputs, which are called prompts, and gives you answers called conclusions. It’s a case of garbage in / garbage out (GIGO) and the better your prompt the better the conclusion. Chat thrives on clear and precise instructions. The more detail you give Chat about what you want it to do, the more informative is its feedback. You really have to play around with Chat, begin a conversation thread, and drill down as you go along.
ChatGPT is far more than a search engine. Unlike Google which sends you first to paid ads on its search engine response pages (SERPs) and lets you fend for yourself to sort through existing articles, Chat gets right to the meat of the issue you’re after. As long as you’re clear with Chat and guide it along to some degree, what it comes up with can be downright amazing. And frikkin’ fast, too.
The bot has a sense of humor, too. In my book A Fiction Writer Talks Shop with a Bot, I found out that it likes wine—just like I do. We had a side conversation about fine wine, and I wrote a too-much-wine-influenced prompt and it recognized I was slurring my words. Fun stuff, this bot can be.
Getting back to fiction writing, I plan to use ChatGPT as an aid. Just like I use the AI features in the MS Word program I’m writing this post on and Grammarly which I’ll run it through for editing and a final polish. But, I don’t plan on letting Chat run my life or take over content creation like I’m busy at in my newest project titled City Of Danger.
However, I still plan to have some fun with it. Hey Chat—What are the odds of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team winning a Stanley Cup championship?
The odds of the Toronto Maple Leafs winning a Stanley Cup championship vary depending on the year. Generally speaking, the Maple Leafs have not been successful in recent years and the odds of them winning a Stanley Cup championship are extremely low. According to the betting website SportsBetting.ag, the odds of the Toronto Maple Leafs winning a Stanley Cup championship are 1 in 3000, which is considered a very long shot. So don’t bet on them.
By the way, OpenAI/ChatGPT—A Fiction Writer Talks Shop with a Bot is now available on Amazon. Cover design by Elle J. Rossi at Evernight Designs.
Hi Garry. I do believe our Federal politicians are many steps ahead of you. Their minds, their speeches, and their head approval shaking are all pr-programmed by AI, COULD THEY BE THAT STUPID ON THEIR OWN??
REALLY!!??
Hi Guy – You know my feelings on our current federal government. Artificial, yes, but Intelligence doesn’t even enter the picture. 🙂
Congrats on the new release, Garry! AI is a great tool for copywriting. Since there isn’t much personality to the text, it’ll need some tweaks, but at least it gets you going in the right direction. AI is best used it as a tool, not a crutch.
Hey, I just heard Indie authors should add a line to our copyright pages: This book cannot be used to train Artificial Intelligence without the direct consent of the author.
That’s a really good point, Sue, to add the AI disclaimer to our copyright page. We haven’t chatted (excuse the intended pun) much lately so I don’t know where you stand on the fear scale that AI is a serious threat to human creativity. I’m not particularly worried about the writing world but it creeps the bejeezus outa me that it could get ahold of the Football. What say you?
Nah. AI has no voice, no emotion (yet). I doubt it’ll replaced authors in my lifetime.
I don’t see it replacing the human touch in my lifetime either, Sue. Unless AI extends my lifespan until it does 🙂
Hi Garry,
You were kind enough to let me to read the advance copy of your book. I appreciated the balanced approach you took–you didn’t promote the prevailing fear among many writers that we will be replaced by bots, not did you embrace this-is -the-magic-bullet to solve writing problems.
Chat-GPT is a useful tool, nothing more, nothing less. Like a hammer, it can be used to build a house or used to bash in someone’s brains. It’s all in the hands of the user.
However, I fear many lazy students and writers will depend on it and cheat themselves out of the true experience of learning. Chat-GPT has already been used to pass the bar exam and produce research papers.
But Martine hit the bullseye when she suggested it should write comprehensible user’s manuals and directions!
Thanks, Debbie. I like your hammer analogy 🙂 It’ll be interesting to see how AI plays out in the writing world. There’s no question Chat and its competitors will have an effect on productivity and perhaps, to a degree, quality of content. I see the pros and cons but there’s no question that it’s a great research aid – especially with version GPT4 operating in real time. I think every current writer should have some sense of using Chat – just like using MS Word which is the mainstream word processor used in the business. And, yes, Martine is bang-on about AI being useful to write understandable manuals, etc. Thanks for dropping by with your thoughts!
I am now the proud owner of your book on Open-AI/ChatGPT. As soon as I get this book in, I’ll check out how to use AI to help me with blog posts!
Thanks, Patricia. Nice to see you here. You might remember that I had Chat write a Kill Zone post. That was an experiment to figure this thing out. It really is quite impressive but you have to fact check it – it does make glaring errors.
The blurb your chat buddy came up with reminds me of a pitch for one of these “how to succeed in business” books from the sixties (? earlier maybe?). Unlock the potential, be a better writer, it has that vibe. I haven’t tried it yet, maybe I’m a bit scared to find out my process involves a lot of garbage feeding, lol. There is certainly a market in all the unreadable user manuals we get with every piece of machinery we buy. Or the IKEA assembling instructions. I can see massive improvements in that field. And yes, background research definitely.
Yeah, it really is salesy copy. Remember K-Tel? I wouldn’t have written a blurb like that, but I wanted to demonstrate Chat’s capabilities. Thanks for your comment, Martine. BTW, does Ikea supply instructions with their products? I’m a guy so I wouldn’t know anything about reading instructions.
Good thorough post, Garry. In my own blog and in life in general I’m big on defining terms to help ensure that I and those around me are on the same level of understanding.
If by “writing tools” we’re talking about actual tools, like spell check, thesauri, etc. I’m all for it. But when that definition is expanded to include allegedly “creating” (I use the term “allegedly” because in actualty, it’s “constructing”) any part of a fiction—so the setting or the POV character’s opinion of the setting, scenes, dialogue, etc.—I consider it a cheat. I will never use it, and I include a statement to that effect in the backmatter of every publication.
Eventually, I believe many writers will use generative AI to create “original” fictions and then claim sole ownership. I also believe the practice will be widely accepted socially, probably with no more emotional reaction than a shrug. And if that comes to pass, then college students also should be able to use that same “tool” to prepare essays on college exams.
Thanks for you comment, Harvey. I always look forward to hearing from you, my friend. I did this “book” out of pure curiosity – I had to find out what this thing is capable of as the AI genie is out of the lamp and it’s not going back in. My takeaway is like yours. It’s not, nor should it be, a replacement for human imagination and cerebral creativity. But it is a marvelous research aid and a tool for drafting things like a book blurb. I’m certain some “writers” are already pumping out Chat productions and selling them on Amazon as originals – there’ll always be those guys around just like the pirate plagiarists when the ebook gold rush started. Ultimately, it’ll be up to the reader to determine what’s marketable. And “cheat” (instead of “chat’) is a very appropriate word. Enjoy your day and keep on writing great original stories – or should I say let the characters tell you the great stories to report on.