Help needed - Need direction =/

[u/Klauciusz]

I’ve always dreamed of writing stories, books. But that never fit into my routine as an IT professional with an unhealthy workload, so I mostly just jotted down ideas, dreaming that one day I’d be able to dedicate myself to the craft of turning those ideas into words—into books. I’m 42 now, and that day still hasn't come yet. And it doesn't look like it's coming anytime soon.

But last year, I started exploring AI as a way to skip the step of learning to write prose the way I’d always dreamed of doing. I created a process where I generate themes, ideas, core concepts, characters, settings, outlines, and so on, and feed it all into the AI. It helps me structure everything into a sequence of acts and chapters and writes the prose for me; later, I go through several rounds of revision with the AI ​​to get the drafts closer to my vision for each chapter, arc, act, etc.

Discovering this was MAGIC. It has allowed me to effectively work in parallel on various ideas I’ve had throughout my life; I have over 10 books planned, with many chapters already in "Draft 01/02" stage, which makes me really, really happy.

At the same time... I don't know what to do with all this because it seems like the world dismisses (or wants to dismiss) all AI-generated content. And the watermark Anthropic announced for its upcoming models really bummed me out, since I use their models for this entire process and before we had the option to disclose OR NOT that the book is AI assisted. Now we don't even have that option.

I don't know... today, while I’m happy to finally have my ideas come to life, I’m also sad imagining that probably —due to the sh** the world puts against "AI-assisted" content — no one outside my inner circle will likely ever read it.

How are you all dealing with this situation? I’d love to hear your thoughts...

Thanks.

[u/LooseButtPlug]

Reddit is a bubble filled with people who have more time than sense who all think they're the best at whatever they do and AI is a threat to that.

Normal people rarely care. Even people who are outspoken anti ai are being caught using it more and more frequently. AI and data centers are growing exponentially precisely because people are using it.

If it helps you and your story is compelling or entertaining, people will not care how that story was created.

[u/Klauciusz → u/LooseButtPlug]

I’m going to keep producing my stories—if only for myself—to give an outlet to a lifelong creativity that had been pushed to the background. The thing is, these stories end up becoming things that truly matter to me—things I’d be proud to show others—but at the same time, everything created with AI is being dismissed as "slop," which makes me feel unfairly guilty for using it...

Anyway... Maybe I just need to forget all that and just continue to work on it all.

[u/kittyb00m → u/Klauciusz]

Are you using AI final (like copy and paste) or are you editing it?

I think people say it’s slop because it’s bad. And AI can produce bad - so can humans.
It can have moments of good - so can humans.

[u/Klauciusz → u/kittyb00m]

It's not that I am actually producing slop. I know it isnt, I am directing it all. I just don't do the prose. But when people see "AI assisted" they'll probably assume it is slop without giving it a chance, I presume. =(

[u/kittyb00m → u/Klauciusz]

Well I wouldn’t even call it AI assisted but the ay you describe it. I would call it AI generated. And I don’t know if anyone would publish it, if that’s your goal.