I follow the Nerdy Novelist, Jason Hamilton, on YouTube. If you haven’t heard of him, he runs an entire channel focused on writing novels with AI. Recently, he released a new video “I Got AI to Write a Book with One Click, and It Was…” In it, he created an automated routine that works like this: start with a simple idea or logline, use a fairly detailed outline, and then have the AI generate the novel one chapter at a time.
The thing about writing is, it has a lot of moving parts:
- Create an idea, characters, and setting
- Write the outline (if you’re a plotter) or dive straight into the story
- Edit, edit, edit
- Publish (including the book cover, ISBN, and uploading to Amazon)
Unsurprisingly, not every writer enjoys all of these steps. Some are tedious, boring, and just plain hard! Personally, I love the beginning steps: dreaming up ideas, characters, and settings. I also really enjoy the actual writing part—especially since I dictate my novels using my iPhone.
Editing, though? Not my favorite. Mostly because I’m not very good at it! It feels like climbing a steep hill. My first round of edits is to fix mistakes from dictation. The second round focuses on character depth. The third is all about checking the integrity of the mystery or whodunit portion of the plot. And all of that happens before the manuscript ever goes to my copy editor and proofreader.
Jason, on the other hand, finds the creation stage stressful, and I get that. From what I can tell, staring at a blank page just really gets to him. He uses AI to create the story, which introduces its own errors and inconsistencies. But he genuinely enjoys editing. It’s where he slows down and shapes the story into what he actually wants. His finished books get great reviews, so whatever he’s doing clearly works.
As I mentioned above, he used AI automation to generate an entire book in just a few minutes (I Got AI to Write a Book with One Click, and It Was…). The comments section was… interesting. One person said they felt depressed, worrying that AI would eventually replace authors altogether.
Most people, though, seemed optimistic (for reasons I won’t get into here—this post is already long enough!). Personally, I think there’s room for both human and AI writers. Two authors can write stories in the same genre and still create entirely different experiences. If readers enjoy both, there’s plenty of space for both books to succeed—especially with good marketing.
As for me, I wouldn’t use AI to write the story itself—that’s the part I love most. But I already use AI to check grammar and help with proofreading. The better shape my manuscript is in before it hits the human editor’s desk, the more she can focus on deeper storytelling issues.
Overall, his video left me feeling hopeful about the future. I’m looking forward to seeing what Jason comes up with next. How do you use AI?