Full transcript
0:00You using AI isn't the problem. You
0:02using AI to crank out soulless garbage
0:05at scale, that's the problem. If you're
0:08an author, creator, writer, and you
0:11secretly know that your AI content is
0:13starting to smell like everyone else's
0:14beige sludge, this video is for you. I'm
0:18going to give you seven rules so that
0:19you can use AI like a power tool, not a
0:22slop factory. So, let's go. My name is
0:25Jason Hamilton, and I built my career so
0:26far on this concept of leverage, aka
0:30finding ways to do more or do better
0:33with less. AI is just the newest form of
0:36leverage. The losers are using it to
0:38ship more trash faster. The winners use
0:41it to do more thinking per unit of time
0:44and let the robot do the grunt work. So,
0:46here are the seven rules. Rule number
0:49one, you do the thinking, AI does the
0:52labor. AI is not allowed to decide what
0:55this piece is about, what your book is
0:56about. You decide who your readers are,
0:59what your story is about, what promise
1:01you are making to the readers, and then
1:03only then do you open the AI tools. Most
1:06authors think that AI is a replacement
1:08for the human mind, but that actually
1:10could not be further from the truth. If
1:13you are using AI to do your thinking for
1:15you, you will atrophy as a storyteller
1:18and as a writer. Instead, use AI to do
1:22labor, aka the mechanical act of getting
1:25words on a page, but always guided by
1:28your thought. Thinking is ultimately the
1:30most important part of any art, whereas
1:33the actual mechanical parts of it are a
1:35separate skill. Those skills can be
1:37important to learn as well, but they are
1:39not the same as the thinking aspect of
1:41the art. I get accused all the time of
1:44not being a writer because I use AI, and
1:46at a certain level they might actually
1:48be right because the mechanical act of
1:50writing is something that I hand off to
1:52the machine. Instead, I consider this a
1:54totally new form of storytelling, one
1:57where I specialize more in the thinking
1:59part and spend more of my time on that,
2:01and then let the AI do the actual
2:03typing.
2:05Rule number two is that AI plus a human
2:08will always beat AI by itself.
2:12If someone can replace their brain with
2:14a bot, they were replaceable anyway. And
2:16I don't care how good AI gets in the
2:18future, I will go to my grave insisting
2:21that an AI plus a human will always be
2:24better than AI by itself. Just like
2:26collaborating with a co-writer usually
2:29makes your books better, assuming you
2:31have a decent co-writer. Now, I take
2:33this further to say that AI plus a
2:35skilled human will always be better than
2:38AI plus an unskilled human, meaning it's
2:41still important to study craft and the
2:42art of writing, even if you're using AI,
2:45because a skilled writer knows what to
2:47fix, how to prompt better, and what kind
2:50of book to even start writing in the
2:51first place. An unskilled writer doesn't
2:54know what they don't know. So, make sure
2:57you're always striving to improve as a
2:59writer and a storyteller, which is
3:01something we do in my Story Hacker
3:03membership, where we have a periodic
3:05writing challenges designed to upgrade
3:07the human, not the AI. Rule number three
3:10is to use AI for volume and use you for
3:13judgment. And rule number three is where
3:15we separate adults from children. AI's
3:17superpower is volume. Your superpower is
3:20judgment. Most authors are playing this
3:22game like,
3:24"I'll spend 3 days trying to come up
3:25with the perfect plot, the perfect hook,
3:27the perfect blurb, and if it doesn't
3:29show up, I guess I've got writer's
3:31block."
3:32No, you are not blocked. You're running
3:36one experiment a week and calling that
3:37effort. Here's how you fix it with AI.
3:40Instead of you trying to think of one
3:42hook, you say, "Give me 20 possible
3:44hooks for this book that are
3:45curiosity-driven.
3:46Now, give me 20 that are promise-driven.
3:48Now, give me 20 that are
3:49controversy-driven."
3:51Instead of one blurb, you say, "Write 10
3:54blurbs each with a different angle, like
3:56emotional, logical, humorous, dark, high
3:58stakes, that sort of thing."
4:00Instead of one plot outline, you say,
4:03"Outline this book three different ways,
4:05like maybe as a mystery or as a hero's
4:08journey plot
4:09or as a romance-heavy version."
4:12Now, in 10 to 15 minutes, you've got 30
4:14to 60 options sitting in front of you,
4:16and this is where you come in. You
4:18scroll through and highlight the two to
4:21three best hooks, merge the best blurbs
4:24into a kind of Franken-blurb that
4:26actually makes really good sense, take
4:29the best outline and tweak it with your
4:31instincts and craft, etc. AI gives you
4:35volume, you decide what survives. This
4:37is exactly how professionals work in
4:40every creative field. Comedians write
4:42100 jokes to keep 10. Marketers will
4:46write 50 headlines to keep five. We
4:48should be doing the same with titles,
4:50blurbs, plots, scenes, every part of the
4:53book writing process.
4:55The amateur wants to be right on the
4:56first try. The pro assumes the first 90%
5:00is trash and just gets through it
5:02faster. Give me 10 seconds. If you want
5:04to help cranking out way more books with
5:05AI, join the Story Hacker AI waitlist
5:08below. While the group's closed, I'll
5:09send you my full prompt pack for free.
5:12Click the link, enter your email, and
5:14I'll shoot it over.
5:15Let AI accelerate the bad draft phase so
5:18you can spend more of your time on the
5:20small percentage of things that are
5:23actually good. Rule number four is to
5:25never use AI's default voice, and you
5:29know exactly what I mean. Robotic
5:30transitions like furthermore and a
5:33testament to,
5:35cliche phrases like in today's
5:36fast-paced world, over-explaining every
5:39single emotion like your reader is 5
5:41years old and concussed, and that's
5:43default AI, beige, polite, frictionless,
5:46and forgettable. So, how do we avoid
5:48that? Well, I've got three things.
5:50First, feed it your real voice. Start
5:53with a few pieces of writing where you
5:55actually sound like yourself writing
5:56that you're proud of, and dump those
5:58into the AI and say, "Analyze my style.
6:01What stands out about my word choice,
6:03sentence structure, tone, all of that?
6:05Summarize it in bullet points." Right?
6:07So, then you get something like, "Okay,
6:09so you've got short, punchy sentences
6:11and a casual, slightly snarky tone,
6:14lots of concrete examples, almost no
6:16big, fancy words."
6:18And you have it give you examples of all
6:20of those things. And then you paste that
6:21into your AI-generated draft and say,
6:23"Rewrite this in my style." Or if if
6:26you're starting your first draft, say,
6:28"Write this in my style following these
6:30bullet points. Keep the ideas, but make
6:32it sound like the samples."
6:34Now, the machine isn't pulling from its
6:36generic training data, it's pulling from
6:38you.
6:39Second, teach it what slop looks like.
6:41Literally Google the most common signs
6:44that text was written by generic AI, and
6:46you'll get a checklist of cringey
6:48things. Then ask the AI to scan this
6:51chapter and highlight any sentences that
6:52match those patterns. And then third,
6:55make sure to actually edit the thing
6:57yourself. AI can only get you so far.
6:59You have to take the reins eventually.
7:01Rule five is that serving the reader is
7:04king. Rule five might actually be the
7:06most important one in the whole video.
7:09We want to serve the reader, not serving
7:11the algorithm, not serving your own ego,
7:14not serving your word count streak,
7:17serving the reader.
7:20Your reader does not care if the words
7:21came from your hands, your keyboard, a
7:24dictation microphone, or your prompts,
7:28generally speaking.
7:29They care if they feel something, they
7:32learn something,
7:34they escape something,
7:36or their life improves in some clear
7:39way.
7:40That's more for nonfiction people. When
7:42people use AI badly, it's because they
7:45flip the focus to something more like,
7:47"How fast can I get this book done?"
7:49Instead of, "How much value can I
7:51deliver on every page?"
7:53So, here are two practical tests that I
7:56suggest that you run on everything you
7:58publish. Test number one is the $10
8:00test. Look at your chapter or your whole
8:03book and ask yourself, "If a stranger
8:06charged me $10 for this book, would I
8:09feel ripped off or grateful?"
8:11If you'd feel ripped off, guess what?
8:14Your reader is paying with time, which
8:16is more scarce than $10.
8:19Make it so good that they feel lucky to
8:22have found it.
8:23Test number two is the review mirror.
8:26This is assuming you've published it and
8:28you already have some reviews built up.
8:29Your reviews are not just compliments or
8:31insults, they're actually data that you
8:33can use as you go through and get that
8:36that feedback loop. If you see, "This
8:38felt generic" or "There's nothing new
8:39here" or "Skimmed a lot, didn't feel
8:41like it went too deep," those are not
8:43personal attacks, that is the market
8:45saying your value per page is low.
8:47And that's the case of your review
8:51status overall. So, fix it. Use AI to
8:53help you respond. Summarize the main
8:55criticisms in these reviews. Or you
8:58could say, "Given these, suggest five
9:00specific ways to increase depth,
9:02specificity, or emotion in this
9:04chapter."
9:05Or help me add three concrete examples
9:07or stories that would address these
9:10complaints directly. Then you go in and
9:12actually do the work. Add the story,
9:15deepen the idea, sharpen the advice,
9:18because so many authors treat AI like a
9:20hallucination machine when they should
9:21be using it as a feedback amplifier,
9:24faster loops to serve the reader better.
9:28The bottom line is that AI is allowed to
9:30make your books faster, but it is never
9:32allowed to make your books worse. Rule
9:34number six is to trust, but verify. AI
9:38sounds very sure of itself. That doesn't
9:39mean it's always right. And the danger
9:42with being an author is your words feel
9:44more permanent. When something's wrong
9:45in your book, nobody's going to say,
9:47"Well, maybe they were just using AI. We
9:49should treat them fairly." They're going
9:51to think you are just sloppy. So, the
9:54policy is let AI propose, you verify,
9:57and then here's what that looks like in
9:58practice. For anything with a lot of
10:00facts and statistics, if AI gives you a
10:03statistic, you don't copy-paste it into
10:05your book. You go look them up. If you
10:08can't verify it, you cut it, rephrase it
10:10as a loose observation instead of a hard
10:13fact, or you just remove it entirely.
10:16For how-to steps, you might ask AI to
10:19outline a step-by-step process for X.
10:22Great, but then you say, "Now list
10:24possible ways that this could go wrong
10:26in the real world." That kind of thing.
10:28You use AI to help you debug your own
10:31advice, not just generate more of it.
10:34For story logic in fiction, you can ask
10:37things like, "Read this plot summary.
10:39Point out any plot holes, character
10:41inconsistencies, or places a reader
10:43might feel cheated." Ultimately, you are
10:45still the final judge, but you're
10:47letting the machine play devil's
10:49advocate at high speed. The mindset here
10:52is simple. AI is your bold brainstormer,
10:55and you are the paranoid editor. You
10:57want both. You want the crazy ideas and
10:59a strong filter.
11:01The second you let AI be both the idea
11:03generator and the fact-checker, you're
11:05done. And that's when hallucinations
11:07sneak in, and your readers' trust falls
11:10off a cliff. Protect your name. Use AI
11:13to accelerate ideas, not to outsource
11:15responsibility.
11:16Last rule, AI is leverage, not a
11:19replacement for work. This is the
11:21uncomfortable one, because if we're
11:23honest, a lot of people are excited
11:25about AI because they think it means
11:27they can finally skip the hard part and
11:29ever have everything be easier. But
11:31that's not the case.
11:32This is the uncomfortable one, because
11:34if we're honest, a lot of people are
11:36excited about AI because they think it
11:38means they can finally skip the hard
11:39part. No more staring at the blank the
11:42blank page, wrestling with ideas,
11:44rewriting bad scenes, feeling dumb when
11:46you learn a new skill. Just type a
11:48prompt, wait 30 seconds, hit publish,
11:50make millions.
11:52That fantasy is why so much AI content
11:54feels like slop. But here's the truth.
11:57The painful parts of writing that
11:59actually build your skill, those are
12:01still required. What AI changes is how
12:03many reps you can get through, not
12:05whether you have to do them. Let me give
12:07you a concrete workflow that treats AI
12:09like leverage instead of a babysitter.
12:12Phase one is the thinking, which will
12:13take you 20 to 30 minutes.
12:15In this stage, you decide what this
12:17chapter or scene is really about. Jot
12:20down key beats or arguments, pull from
12:23your own life or your obsessions. And
12:27this is you doing the actual creative
12:29work. This is where the art lives.
12:32Phase two is the text generation, which
12:34is another 20 to 30 minutes. Now you
12:37bring in AI. "Turn those bullet points
12:39into three different outlines," you
12:41might say. "Or draft a scene based on
12:43this summary. Give me one version that's
12:46lighter and one that's darker.
12:48Give me 10 alternative lines for this
12:50key moment, each with a different
12:52emotional tone." So AI is not inventing
12:55from nothing. It's spinning variations
12:57on what you already decided matters.
12:59Then phase three is the editing, which
13:01is an additional 30 to 40 minutes.
13:03You'll spend a little bit more time on
13:05this, because you as you go back
13:06through, you want to delete the 50% that
13:08feels wrong or boring, rewrite the 20 to
13:1130% that's close but not quite you, and
13:14then keep the 10 to 20% that is
13:16surprisingly good.
13:18Run a remove the AI slop pass that we
13:21talked about in rule four.
13:22Same 60 to 90 minutes that you might
13:25have spent on that day wrestling with
13:27just one draft, but now you get through
13:28five or 10 times as much with the same
13:31amount of time. But you still did the
13:33uncomfortable part. You still made
13:35decisions, threw away work, held
13:38yourself to a higher standard. That's
13:40the stuff that makes you ultimately
13:42dangerous over a one to five-year time
13:44horizon. AI will absolutely expose
13:47whether you were serious about becoming
13:49a great storyteller
13:51or just chasing the path of least
13:52resistance. If you are serious, this is
13:55the best time ever to be an author.
13:57You get the leverage of a robot army
13:59with the taste and heart of a human. If
14:01you're not serious, AI will just help
14:03you fail faster and louder.
14:05So let's recap the seven rules of using
14:08AI without becoming slop factory.
14:10Number one is you do the thinking, AI
14:12does the labor. The soul of the story is
14:14still your job. Number two,
14:16AI plus a human will always beat AI
14:19alone, especially if AI is paired with a
14:22skilled human.
14:23Number three is to use AI for volume and
14:26use you for judgment. So 10 hooks, 10
14:28blurbs, three outlines, and then you
14:30pick the winners.
14:32Number four is never use AI's default
14:34voice. Instead, train it on your style,
14:36teach it what slop looks like, and get
14:38specific with your tone. Number five is
14:40serving the reader is king. If it
14:42doesn't make their life better, it
14:43doesn't ship. Number six is trust but
14:45verify. Let AI propose, but you own the
14:48facts, the logic, and the
14:49responsibility.
14:51And finally, number seven is AI is
14:52leverage, not a replacement for work. It
14:55multiplies your effort. It does not
14:56excuse you from hard work. If you follow
14:59these seven, you won't just avoid
15:00becoming a slop factory. You'll be one
15:02of the rare authors who can publish
15:04faster, publish more, and publish
15:07higher-quality books.
15:09And if you're listening to this
15:10thinking, "Okay, I get it in theory, but
15:12I want help actually doing this with my
15:13books," that's literally why I built my
15:16membership. In inside, we run writing
15:18challenges to upgrade the human, not
15:20just upgrading the prompts.
15:22And we give you tested AI workflows for
15:24planning, drafting, revising as much as
15:2612 books a year.
15:28And we surround you with other serious
15:30authors who care about quality and
15:32speed. So if you want to be an author
15:34who uses AI like a power tool instead of
15:36a content vending machine, check out the
15:38link in the description, come hang out
15:40with us, and let's build a catalog of
15:43books that you're not embarrassed by in
15:46five years.
15:47Because AI isn't going away. The only
15:49question is whether you let it turn you
15:51into a slop factory, or you use it to
15:53become the most prolific, high-quality
15:55version of yourself that you've ever
15:57been.
15:58Your move.