Start writing without using AI
This post should take about 5 minutes to read through.
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A common use of AI in writing is in the brainstorming and initial pre-outlining process. This is, in my opinion, one of the most damaging uses of AI in writing, if not the most damaging.
The brainstorming and pre-outline phase, where the story, characters, and setting are still being formed out of the primordial chaos of possibilities, is where the writer needs to be the most creative. A common piece of advice offered is to discard your first five ideas, as they'll invariably be cliche to a degree, and dig deep. This is supposed to allow the writer to come up with something truly unique.
Using AI outsources thought. Instead of doing the search themselves, people using AI just ask the machine a question and receive a ready-made answer. It's not like using a calculator. When using a calculator, one has to do the thinking, generate the appropriate calculation, then use the machine to make the calculation. It does lessen one's ability to do arithmetic, but not one's ability to problem-solve and to think. The AI replaces the whole procedure. When asking it, the asker barely needs to form coherent sentences.
Additionally, AIs can never, by definition, be original. They will give the most average response, as that's what they're trained on, and what they were trained to do. This is not something that will ever be fixed with larger models. It's an inherent characteristic of these machines, and the reason they generate what's commonly referred to as "slop."
Human creativity does not come only from what we've read. It's not a regurgitation of all the fiction and non-fiction we've digested. It comes from our experiences, from our aesthetics, from our relationships, from our personality, from things deeper than personality, and from so many other sources that I'll never be able to enumerate them all. A machine will never be able to be human, not like you are. There will never be another person like you, reading this line at this very moment. You are absolutely unique. On the opposite end, every ChatGPT instance is the very same, active for the milliseconds it needs to answer your question, then inactive. Its answers are deterministic.
So, how can a writer start writing without using AI? It's through a skill that's becoming increasingly rare: sitting with the problem for a while. During the pre-outline phase, I oscillate between two modes of activity. The first is inspiration "gathering," where I seek inspiration in other people's art. I'm a visual kind of guy, so I hit ArtStation. I write a simple search term, block all AI slop with a very useful filter, and scroll for a bit, saving what I find that's related to my project in a new favorites list.
The second mode is thinking. I try to consider, how would this creature exist in a world? How would this building be made, who would make it and why, who would live there and how? If there's a scene I particularly like, either discovered during the inspiration mode or a random idea I had in my notes (You should always write down your random ideas! More on that in another post.), I try to imagine, how would it come to be? What conditions would it need to be awesome? How would I set it up early enough? What effects would it have?
Write everything down. Fill a document with random ideas, random characters, random monsters, places, procedures, events, artifacts, spells, histories. I won't tell you to discard your first ideas, but try to dig deep. Try to play with the ideas like they're lego. Connect them in interesting ways. If you've read a story where this particular event happens in a particular way, but you still like it, then try to come up with a completely different way that this event can come about, or completely different consequences it can have.
It's important to be playful while you're creative. Don't edit your notes. Just jot them down, then move on. If you have a different idea, write it down too. It doesn't matter if it's conflicting at this stage.
Find what you feel is interesting, what makes you excited. When was the last time you read something awesome that made you unable to put down the book? When was the last time you found yourself reading until you couldn't keep your eyes open, then reading some more? And remember, it's really important that you read. A writer must be a reader. How else would you ever know what is exciting to read if you don't read yourself? Understand why you were excited, find the core of this emotion, and try to create something that evokes it.
Live. You'll never be able to write a romance if you've never fallen hopelessly in love. You'll never be able to write an adventure if you haven't explored an unfamiliar city on foot by yourself. Live intensely and introspectively. What makes you feel strong emotions? The ultimate purpose of writing is to evoke emotions in the reader, so if you discover what makes you feel things, you can write effective fiction. While you're completely unique, human nature is essentially the same in all of us, and if you find what makes you tick and use it, you'll attract like-minded people and make them unable to put down your book.
Something magical happens when you have gone through enough brainstorming and amassed enough ideas. You'll discover something underneath all that, a skeleton of a story, a core of a story. In my experience, this is something that happens seemingly by itself. The story takes on a life of its own when enough potential has been gathered around it. Once you have that magical core, that central seed, define it loosely, as too much precision will hinder its growth, then help it grow. To help it grow, think, then stop thinking. Sit with the story, consider it from all angles, try to come up with a basic outline summarized in a few sentences and the main character in a sentence or two, then stop. Don't exhaust yourself with thinking. Gather more ideas, jot down more interesting notes. Or do something else for a while.
Dorothea Brande's Becoming a Writer is an amazing resource. A reprint of it is available on Kindle for $1 right now. Get it. It'll be the best dollar you've ever spent. Better yet, get the paperback and refer to it often. She explains how you can become a writer from the inside out. I have it on my bookshelf and have read it a few times, and find myself going back to it. One of the things she suggests is actually meditating on the story, that is to say, sitting with it without thinking. Taking a walk, doing chores, or working on something else while you ruminate on your story are also excellent tools.
Creativity is a muscle. The more you use it, the easier and the more effective it becomes. Use it. Keep a record of all your ideas. No idea is too silly or too boring. Put time and work on ideas even if you never plan to write the book. Develop them to see where they'll lead you. Allow them to take you to crazy places. Explore them, take them to their extremes. Discover yourself through them. You truly never know when some of them will coalesce into a story.
If you are having fun, before you know it, you'll have a basic idea of a story. You'll find a sapling having sprouted from the seed. Water it, that is to say, work on it, and it'll grow into a full tree. But that's for another post. Thank you for taking the time to read through this one.
Keep writing.