Full transcript
0:00All entries must be original works by
0:02the entrant and cannot be generated in
0:04whole or in part by artificial
0:06intelligence. That's a direct quote from
0:08the writers of the future contest rules
0:10and it sounds pretty final. For most
0:12competitions, this is the standard. But
0:14what does in part actually mean? Does
0:17brainstorming count? What about editing?
0:20And as a writer myself, I needed to know
0:21the exact line. So, my name is Jason. I
0:24love documenting everything I learn
0:25about storytelling. And I in this case I
0:27went and clarified this with the person
0:30who actually runs the contest. And in
0:32this video I'm going to share exactly
0:33what he told me and break down exactly
0:35what you can and can't do so you can use
0:38AI to get an edge without ever worrying
0:40about disqualification. So let's get the
0:42obvious answer out of the way first. For
0:44the vast majority of writing
0:46competitions and literary magazines and
0:48submission opportunities, the answer to
0:51can I use AI is a very firm and
0:53resounding no. It's a essentially a
0:55non-starter. Take one of the biggest and
0:57most prestigious contests for new
0:59writers, which is called Writers of the
1:01Future. Their rules are a great
1:03benchmark for what you can expect across
1:05the industry. And here's their official
1:08policy word for word. All entries must
1:10be original works by the entrant in
1:12English. Plagiarism of any length will
1:14result in disqualification. The entrance
1:16work must be created in its entirety by
1:19the entrant and cannot be generated in
1:21whole or in part by artificial
1:22intelligence. Any work generated in
1:24whole or in part by artificial
1:26intelligence as determined in the
1:28contest administrator's sole discretion
1:31will be disqualified and any prize
1:33awarded based on such submission will be
1:35forfeited. So the wording is pretty
1:36comprehensive uh in its entirety by the
1:38entrant cannot be generated in whole or
1:40in part. Uh it seems to leave little
1:42room for interpretation. If an AI writes
1:45a single sentence for you, you are
1:47potentially out. And this is the stance
1:49you should assume is the default for any
1:52serious publication or contest you
1:53submit to. If they don't explicitly say
1:56I AI is allowed, assume it's forbidden.
1:58But that's not quite where the story
2:00ends because believe it or not, some
2:01places actually want you to use AI.
2:04While most of the literary world is
2:06putting up walls, a few niche
2:07publications have decided to run
2:09directly toward the fire. There are in
2:11fact magazines and competitions that
2:13specifically run issues or contests
2:14centered on AI written work. My friend
2:16runs a publication called Mythulu
2:18Magazine and she occasionally does
2:19exactly this. I'm sure there are others
2:21out there and we'll probably see more of
2:23them as time goes on, but when you
2:25submit to one of these, you need to
2:26understand that the rules of the game
2:27have changed completely. The objective
2:30is not what you think it is. The editor
2:32for Methulu told me something pretty
2:33fascinating actually. uh for her AI
2:35focused issue, the overall quality of
2:37the submissions on a sentence by
2:38sentence pros level was actually higher
2:41than the quality of most of the regular
2:43human submissions that she received. Uh
2:46the AI, especially when guided by a
2:48skilled user, can turn out some pretty
2:50polished paragraphs, or at least better
2:52than the average human is capable of
2:54doing. But the interesting part is this.
2:56She noticed that the AI generated
2:58stories consistently failed on a larger,
3:00more structural level and they struggled
3:03with the fundamentals of what makes a
3:04story resonate. Things like building a
3:06coherent plot, crafting a meaningful
3:08character arc, having a strong character
3:11desire, um understanding thematic depth
3:14where uh things like that were often
3:16missing. The stories were pretty but
3:19ultimately hollow. So if you're looking
3:21to enter a AI specific competition, my
3:24advice is to shift your focus. So don't
3:26worry too much about polishing the pros
3:29because the AI can handle that. Instead,
3:31pour your effort into the big picture
3:33architecture of your story. Your job
3:35becomes less of a writer and more of a a
3:38content director, guiding the AI to
3:40build a story that actually works and
3:42one that has a soul from your own
3:44creativity. That's where you'll stand
3:46out. But this is honestly the exception.
3:48So, what about the rule? For that, we
3:50need to go back to that intimidating
3:51policy from the writers of the future,
3:53and figure out where the real line is
3:55actually drawn. Now, in my author group,
3:57Story Hacker Gold, we do a quarterly
3:59challenge where we all write and submit
4:01a story to the writers of the future
4:03contest. Obviously, we do this without
4:05using AI to write the pros for us. But
4:07the question of what was and wasn't
4:09allowed kept coming up. So, wanting a
4:12definitive answer, I actually had the
4:13pleasure of speaking directly with John
4:15Goodwin, the president of Galaxy Press
4:17and the person who runs the Writers of
4:18the Future contest. I've actually met
4:20him a couple of times at various
4:21conventions, uh, cuz he makes the
4:23rounds. I met him at, um, Superstars and
4:26Life, the Universe and everything in
4:27Provo, Utah. And, uh, and I talked to
4:30him about this specific position on AI,
4:33asking specifically what generated in
4:35part truly means for an author using
4:37these modern tools. and his answer is
4:39the key to this whole video. Uh, and I
4:42think it's a safe bet that his position
4:44reflects what most other competitions
4:46and magazines will consider reasonable.
4:48He told me the AI is absolutely
4:49prohibited from generating the actual
4:52pros of the short story, meaning the
4:55words on the page that constitute the
4:56final piece of fiction, those must be
4:59yours and yours alone. However, and this
5:03isn't the important part, he said that
5:05other uses of AI are totally fine. Using
5:07it for brainstorming, for bouncing ideas
5:10around, for research, or as a creative
5:13sparring partner, that's perfectly
5:15acceptable. The tool itself isn't really
5:17the problem. The problem is who is doing
5:18the creative act of writing because this
5:21is a writing competition. This is not a
5:23outlining competition or anything like
5:25that. So, as long as the human is the
5:27one performing that act, you're in the
5:29clear. So this conversation gives us a
5:31clear framework for using AI as a
5:33powerful assistant without ever crossing
5:34an ethical line or risking
5:36disqualification. So let's break down
5:38exactly what that looks like in
5:40practice. Based on that clarification,
5:42we've developed a workflow in my group
5:44that leverages AI to make us better and
5:45faster writers while ensuring the work
5:48remains 100% ours. And here are the four
5:50primary ways that we use AI that are
5:53completely safe for competition entries.
5:55First is for the study of past winners.
5:58AI is actually an incredible tool for
6:00analysis. If you want to understand what
6:03makes a winning story tick, you can feed
6:05past winners into an AI and ask it to
6:07analyze them for structure, pacing,
6:10character archetypes, theme, etc. Uh you
6:13can ask it to identify the story's main
6:15beats uh or point out how the author
6:17uses subtext and this can help you
6:19internalize the patterns of successful
6:22storytelling without the AI ever
6:23touching your own work. Now, we have
6:25entire classes on this inside Story
6:27Hacker Gold. We have one every week
6:29during our challenge month, and it's one
6:31of the most powerful ways to level up
6:33your craft. Now, second, we use it for
6:35outlining and brainstorming. This is
6:37what John Goodwin was talking about. You
6:38can treat an AI like an infinitely
6:40patient brainstorming partner. You can
6:43pitch in an idea and ask for potential
6:45complications. You can give it a
6:46character profile and ask for ideas on
6:48their internal conflict. You can say,
6:50"Here's my plot. Where are the holes?"
6:52Um, all that the AI is doing is feeding
6:55your ideas and possibilities, and you,
6:56the human author, are the one who
6:58evaluates those ideas, decides which
7:00ones to use, and builds them into a
7:02coherent outline. So, the AI isn't
7:04writing your story. It's just helping
7:06you uh get ideas to draw that map. Now,
7:09by the way, if you'd like to learn more
7:10about how to use AI as an author-led
7:12productivity tool to help you write 12
7:14plus books a year easily, perhaps more,
7:17and without compromising your creativity
7:19or ethics, be sure to check out the
7:20StoryHacker Gold group linked in the
7:22description. You'll also get a chance to
7:24join our next Writers of the Future
7:26Challenge, which will happen in
7:28December. Now, the third safe use is
7:30dictation. This might seem silly to even
7:33mention, but modern speech to text
7:34software is powered technically by AI.
7:37And yet, no one would ever really argue
7:39that dictating your novel constitutes AI
7:41writing. Why? Because the words, the
7:44sentences, the structures, the pacing,
7:45it's all coming directly from your
7:47brain. So, the AI is just a
7:49transcriptionist. This is a great
7:50thought experiment to help clarify the
7:52dividing line. If the words originate
7:54from you, it's your work. If you give
7:57the AI a prompt and it generates novel
7:59words on its own, then that's your
8:01story, not your writing. Finally, and
8:03this is the most nuanced one, we use it
8:06for editing suggestions. There's a
8:08critical difference here. We do not ask
8:10an AI to edit this chapter or fix the
8:12grammar in this. That would be having
8:14the AI perform the writing and would
8:16constitute generating the work in part.
8:19Instead, we ask for suggestions. For
8:22example, you can paste in a paragraph
8:23and ask, "Can you suggest five stronger
8:25verbs to replace walked?" or "Are there
8:28any repetitive sentence structures
8:30here?" Um, the AI will give you a list
8:33of ideas and then you, the human, use
8:34your own judgment to decide if any of
8:36those suggestions are good, and you
8:38manually implement the change yourself.
8:40The human brain, always has the final
8:42say and performs the final action. And
8:44it's the difference between asking a
8:45friend for advice and having them
8:47rewrite the paragraph for you. So if you
8:49want to enter a competition or submit to
8:51a magazine or publish a book, using AI
8:53in these specific ways won't be a
8:54problem. You are using it as an
8:56assistant or a research tool uh or an
8:59analyst, not as a ghostwriter. And the
9:02best part is you don't have to disclose
9:03this kind of usage and there are no
9:05muddy waters when it comes to copyright
9:07because the final creative work, meaning
9:09the pros on the page, is 100% yours. And
9:12if you're ready to go from a blank page
9:14to a finished book in your hands and you
9:15want to a complete road map to get
9:17there, I encourage you to check out my
9:19school group. That's story hacker gold.
9:21Inside you'll get my entire process from
9:23developing an idea to writing the book
9:26to all the tools you need to market. We
9:29also delve deep into how to ethically
9:31use AI to enhance your process, not
9:33replace your creativity. The group
9:35includes weekly live calls with me and
9:37free copies of all my ebooks and
9:39audiobooks for authors as well as an
9:42amazing community of fellow writers.
9:44link is in the description and I will
9:46see you in the next