Full transcript
0:00I use AI in my books, a lot, and I'm not
0:03ashamed of it. I'm actually proud of it,
0:05but there is one [clears throat] line
0:06that I refuse to cross. Today, I want to
0:09show you exactly where I personally draw
0:11the line with AI in my own books, why I
0:14think the push-button create book
0:16strategy is a dead end, and how you can
0:19use AI without sacrificing your
0:21creativity or your ethics. Now, if
0:23you're scared AI is going to replace
0:25you, or you're afraid people will think
0:27you're cheating if you use it, stay with
0:29me. This is for you. Now, some quick
0:31context so you know where I'm coming
0:33from. I wrote 14 books the traditional
0:35way, but in chair, fingers on keyboard,
0:38every word typed by me, no AI, no
0:40shortcuts, just the grind. And in 2019,
0:44I burned out hard. I didn't fall out of
0:47love with storytelling. I still loved
0:49ideas and characters, worlds, plot
0:52twists, you name it. But the act of
0:53sitting down, staring at a blank page,
0:55and manually typing every sentence of
0:57prose felt like dragging a boulder up a
1:00hill every single day. And I started to
1:02dread it. I started to dread the part
1:04where I opened the document. Not the
1:06imagining, not the plotting, just the
1:09typing. So, here's the question that
1:11changed everything for me. If I still
1:13love stories, but I hate being a human
1:15typewriter, why am I trying to be a
1:17human typewriter? And that's when AI
1:19entered the picture for me, not as a
1:20gimmick, but as a way to un-burnout
1:23myself. So, here's my line. I do not
1:25believe, endorse, or teach the
1:28push-button create a book method. If
1:31your entire process is click a button,
1:33spit out 40,000 words, upload to Amazon,
1:35repeat, I think you're playing a
1:36short-term game that will not work. But
1:39I'm also not here to morally police you.
1:41If that's what you want to do, I'm not
1:42going to chase you around the internet
1:44with a pitchfork. I just believe very
1:45strongly that the person who uses AI as
1:48a tool, while keeping their own brain
1:50doing what humans do best, is going to
1:53absolutely outpace the person who tries
1:55to automate everything. So, here is the
1:57rule for my own books. Humans, me, own
2:01the decisions. I own the ideas, the
2:03themes, the plot, the world building,
2:06the character arcs, the emotional beats,
2:08the structure, everything. I decided
2:10what happens, why it happens, and what
2:12it means. And then AI owns as much of
2:15the labor as I'm willing to give it.
2:18Turning scene beats into sentences,
2:20trying different phrasings, generating a
2:21first draft of dialogue based on my
2:23outline, rearranging text, cleaning up,
2:26etc. I do not ask AI to think for me. I
2:30ask it to type for me. AI plus a human
2:33will always beat AI alone. That's my
2:36fundamental belief. A lot of authors
2:38talk as if the act of typing the first
2:40draft is this sacred mystical act. But,
2:44here's the funny part. Many professional
2:46authors have already told us that it is
2:48not. Chuck Palahniuk, hope I'm
2:50pronouncing that correctly, who wrote
2:52Fight Club, has talked about how the
2:54actual writing part is a tiny part of
2:56his life and the last step of of his
2:58process. He's drafting in notebooks.
3:00He's thinking while he walks the dog.
3:02The typing is almost an afterthought.
3:04Michael Crichton famously said, "Books
3:06aren't written, they're rewritten."
3:08Emphasizing that the rewriting process
3:10is the more important of the two
3:12processes. Jory Graham said that she
3:15spends 90% of her time in revision. And
3:18I will say as an AI writer, so do I.
3:20Book coach Lisa Poisso has said that
3:24writing your novel is actually the
3:25smallest part of creating a novel and
3:27that what you do with your first draft
3:29is what makes it blossom. So, let's just
3:31say the quiet part out loud. For many
3:33serious writers, the first draft is not
3:36the most creative step. Here's how I see
3:38it. The most creative is the planning
3:40and outlining stage. This is where you
3:42invent the world, the characters, the
3:44arcs, and the meaning. This requires the
3:46most thinking. The next most creative is
3:48probably the editing and the revision.
3:51This is where you shape and refine and
3:53cut and sharpen what you meant to say.
3:56The least creative part of the process,
3:58in my opinion, is that raw first draft.
4:00You have already decided what happens.
4:02Now you just need to turn those
4:04decisions into sentences. Now of course
4:06I realize there's a spectrum of how this
4:08works. Uh certain people don't enjoy
4:10outlining and so they just start writing
4:12and the writing ends up being kind of
4:14the outline, in which case that's a
4:15slightly different situation, but you
4:17get my drift. That is why I have zero
4:19ethical problems using AI on that first
4:21draft layer. I'm not outsourcing my
4:23creativity, I'm just outsourcing the
4:25typewriting part of it. Let me tell you
4:27how this looks practically. Today my
4:30process is number one, I do the
4:32thinking. I brainstorm ideas, I design
4:34the world, I outline the plot chapter by
4:36chapter, I map the character arcs, and I
4:38decide the emotional beats. Then number
4:40two, I let the AI do the heavy lifting
4:43on prose. I feed it my outline and my
4:45scene beats, I tell it the tone, the
4:47POV, the style, all of that, and it
4:49generates a draft of the scene. Number
4:51three, then I become an editor and
4:54director. I read what it gave me, keep
4:56what works, throw out what does not,
4:58rewrite parts, insert my own voice, add
5:01personal details, adjust pacing, etc.
5:03Now the first time I did this I actually
5:04felt kind of guilty. I remember
5:06thinking, am I cheating? Am I allowed to
5:08do this? But then I stepped back and
5:11looked at the result. In all honesty,
5:13the story was better. Why? Because my
5:16brain wasn't fried from manually
5:18cranking out every sentence. I had
5:20energy left for higher-level decisions.
5:23I could see structure problems more
5:24clearly. I could fix character
5:26motivations. I could layer in
5:29foreshadowing. These are the more
5:31important tasks for the human. AI
5:34removed my bottleneck, aka the labor,
5:37and gave me back my best access, which
5:39is my own mind, my creativity. Now
5:42another fear that people have is that
5:43using AI to write faster somehow deepens
5:46the art.
5:47I wrote this book in a month, that must
5:48mean it's low quality. I actually get
5:50this a lot in my comments despite the
5:52fact that authors have been writing
5:53books in a month for literally like
5:56centuries. So, no, speed by itself is
5:59not a problem. Speed is a problem if you
6:01are using it to avoid thinking. But,
6:04speed is a massive advantage if it lets
6:06you shorten your feedback loop. Think
6:07about it like this. If you write one
6:09book every 5 years, you get one major
6:12round of feedback every 5 years. If you
6:14can safely write and publish two, three,
6:17five, even 12 books in that same window,
6:20and each one is held to a real standard,
6:22you get dozens of feedback cycles, more
6:24reviews, more reader emails, more data
6:27on what resonates and what falls flat,
6:29more feedback from your editor. So, who
6:31do you think becomes the better writer
6:32faster? The person who gets one rep
6:35every 5 years or the person who gets 20
6:37reps in the same time? AI used well lets
6:40you move through the reps faster, not to
6:42skip the work, but to compress the time
6:45window that we're looking at. And I want
6:47to quickly pause here because this is
6:48exactly why I built StoryHack cuz if
6:51you're listening to this and thinking I
6:52want to do this ethically, I want to use
6:54AI, but I still want to be proud of my
6:56name on the cover, that is what
6:58StoryHack is for. StoryHack is the
7:01fastest and most affordable way to
7:03produce 12 or more books a year using AI
7:05without sacrificing your creativity or
7:08ethics. When you join, you get access to
7:10a brand new system that I am going to be
7:13announcing this week that I am excited
7:15to tell you about that will allow you to
7:17write good books every month as well as
7:19my complete step-by-step system to go
7:21from zero to 12 books or more a year,
7:23guides to publish on Amazon including in
7:26pretty much every genre you can think
7:28of, a bunch of automations to take hours
7:30off the grunt work as well as weekly
7:32live calls with me. You can try it with
7:35zero risk, there's a 7-day free trial so
7:36you can lock in the price before it goes
7:38up and you can cancel anytime. If that
7:40sounds like what you need, there will be
7:42a link below this video. All right,
7:43let's get back to the AI conversation.
7:45Now, a few months ago, you might have
7:47seen headlines about a Microsoft study
7:49that listed the 40 jobs most at risk or
7:51most exposed to AI, and writers,
7:55authors, editors, and teachers were all
7:57on it. The way a lot of people read that
7:59is, "Oh, these are the 40 jobs that are
8:02going to be replaced by AI." But, that
8:04is not what the study is actually
8:06saying. What it is is measuring how much
8:10of the tasks inside those jobs can be
8:12done with AI tools. How much is the job
8:14going to be affected by AI processes?
8:17So, writing, editing, research, customer
8:19communication, those are all things AI
8:22is good at helping with. So, those jobs
8:23are labeled high exposure. High exposure
8:26does not automatically mean it will be
8:29deleted that the job will disappear. It
8:31means this job will be forced to
8:33integrate AI deeply into the workflow.
8:35So, here's the part that most people
8:36miss. You are really only at risk if
8:40number one, you are in one of those high
8:42exposure jobs, and number two, you
8:45personally refuse to use AI. Because in
8:48a world where writers and authors can
8:50use AI to research faster, draft faster,
8:52and edit smarter, the person who proudly
8:55refuses the tool will get out competed
8:57by the person who learns to wield it
8:58well. We even have a person in my
9:00membership that got a huge raise because
9:03of what they've learned inside of the
9:04membership. The danger is not that your
9:07job might be on that list of affected
9:09jobs. The danger is being the human on
9:12that list who refuses to adapt. Now,
9:14let's hit the three big fears I hear
9:15from authors. Fear number one, it won't
9:18be my voice. Your voice does not come
9:21from which fingers hit which keys. It
9:24comes from your decisions, what you
9:26choose to talk about, and the
9:27experiences you draw from, the way you
9:30see the world, the patterns in that you
9:32repeat in revision. Also, author voice
9:34is not as important as character voice.
9:37Each character in your story should have
9:39a slightly different voice, all of which
9:41can be adjusted by AI. You keep your own
9:43fingerprint by owning the ideas and the
9:45outline, doing real revision passes
9:48where you read things out loud and
9:49change what does not sound like you,
9:52inserting your own personal stories,
9:55your opinions, your weirdness for lack
9:57of a better term, cuz AI can spit out
9:59bland prose, but it cannot live your
10:02life for you. Now, fear number two is
10:04that readers will think that I cheated.
10:07Most readers actually do not care how
10:08many hours you spent typing. They care
10:10whether the story moved them and whether
10:13the book was worth the time and money.
10:14If you deliver a great book that hits
10:16them emotionally, they are not going to
10:18boycott you because you used a tool to
10:20help you with your draft. I've said it
10:23before and I've said it again, it's only
10:25AI slop if it's bad. Fear number three
10:28is if I use AI, I will get lazy. Now,
10:31some people might, but let's be honest,
10:33most struggling authors are not exactly
10:35suffering from too much productivity
10:36right now. Most are stuck in the
10:38opposite trap, perfectionism, fear,
10:40endless tinkering, and not finishing. If
10:43AI is the thing that finally lets you
10:45finish a book and get it out and learn
10:47from readers and write the next one,
10:49that is not laziness, that is leverage.
10:51Integrity is not I suffered as much as
10:53possible. Integrity is I showed up, I
10:56did the real work, and I used every
10:58ethical tool available to do my best.
11:00So, how to figure out where your line
11:03is? Here's a simple exercise. Number
11:05one, write down everything you love
11:07about writing. Maybe that's
11:08brainstorming, discovery writing, world
11:11building, writing dialogue, whatever
11:13lights you up. Number two, write down
11:15everything you dread or avoid. Maybe
11:18that is drafting description, rewriting
11:20the same scene, fixing grammar,
11:22restructuring, or maybe the marketing.
11:24And step three, give the dread list to
11:27AI first. Start by offloading the parts
11:30that drain you the most. Keep the parts
11:31that energize you. The principle is
11:33simple. Humans should own meaning,
11:35taste, and decisions. AI should own as
11:37much labor as you are comfortable
11:39delegating. You do not have to go from
11:41zero to full AI first drafts overnight.
11:44Start with whatever
11:47brings you down, whatever part of the
11:48process is not your favorite. Then try
11:50having AI do those things. Keep what
11:53works, throw out what doesn't. Treat it
11:55like any other tool. You test, you
11:57adjust, then you create your own rules.
11:59So, here's my line one more time. I do
12:02not push button create book. I will use
12:04AI heavily for the labor parts of the
12:06writing so I can pour more of myself
12:08into the creative parts. AI is not the
12:11enemy. Stagnation is the enemy. You are
12:14not competing against AI. You are
12:15competing against authors who are using
12:17AI to become more prolific and more
12:20skilled while you argue about whether it
12:22is allowed. Your job is not to beat the
12:24machine. Your job is to become the kind
12:26of creator that the machine makes even
12:29more dangerous. Now, if this helped you,
12:31tell me in the comments where you
12:33currently draw the line with AI in your
12:35writing. And if you want a proven system
12:37to use AI ethically to write more and
12:39better books every year, check out Story
12:41Hacker in the description. Thanks for
12:42hanging out with me, and I'll see you in
12:44the next video.