Somewhere along the way, “slop” became the internet’s favorite word for anything AI has touched. A book written with AI assistance? Slop. A cover designed with Midjourney? Slop. An author who spent years on a manuscript but used AI to help with editing? Believe it or not — also slop.

The word has been stretched so thin that it’s become almost meaningless. And I think that’s worth talking about, because the actual problem it’s supposed to describe — low-quality, careless content — is real. But this is not a new problem, and it isn’t unique to AI.

Slop Is Not New

Guess what? Humans have been producing slop for as long as there’s been a market to sell into. Capitalism has driven a lot of bad creative decisions over the years, and AI didn’t invent a single one of them.

I don’t want to call out anyone specific — that’s not the point and it’s not my style. But you’ve seen it. We all have. Rushed stories that “borrow” a little too heavily from whatever’s trending. Published first drafts where the main character changes names halfway through, or their hair color shifts between chapters because nobody bothered to do a continuity pass. Cover art that looks like it was made with the artist’s non-dominant hand and fifteen minutes of effort. Books that hit “publish” before they were anywhere close to ready, because the goal was speed to market, not quality.

There are millions of books in the Kindle store right now that have fallen into the abyss — not because AI touched them, but because the author didn’t have the craft, the care, or the taste to make something readers would come back for. That was true in 2015, it was true in 2020, and it’s true today. The tools have changed. The underlying problem hasn’t.

The Word Has Lost All Meaning

What frustrates me about the current “slop” discourse isn’t the concept — it’s the weaponization.

I see authors who wrote every word of their book, spent years working on it, and get called slop producers because they let an AI help them with editing or marketing copy. I see genuinely well-crafted stories and artwork get slammed not because they’re bad, but because an AI was involved somewhere in the process. I’ve even seen authors get dogpiled because they used a word in their writing that AI models also use frequently — as if certain vocabulary is now off-limits to humans.

It’s maddening. The lengths people will go to in order to put down other authors instead of minding their own business genuinely baffles me. “Slop” has stopped being a quality descriptor and started being a tribal marker. It no longer means “this is bad.” It means “this person used a tool I don’t approve of.” And, y’all, that’s gatekeeping. Plain and simple.

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The Difference Between Slop and Craft Is Care

The “everything AI is slop” crowd doesn’t want to reckon with the truth: two authors can use the exact same AI tool — same model, same subscription, same access — and produce wildly different results. If the tool were the problem, that wouldn’t be possible. But it happens every single day.

So what’s the difference?

It comes down to decisions. And decisions come from taste.

Author A made choices along the way to prioritize reader expectations, genre tropes, immersive writing, and the kind of emotional experience that makes someone leave a five-star review and immediately buy the next book. Author B just wanted to get something readable to market as fast as possible without much thought about whether that book actually landed with anyone.

I want to be careful here, because speed isn’t the problem. I know plenty of authors who produce fast and care deeply about their readers. They make quick decisions, but they’re informed decisions — grounded in craft knowledge, genre awareness, and genuine respect for the people who are going to read the thing. Speed and care are not opposites.

The slop producers are the ones trying to create a minimally viable product and shove it to market without caring what’s actually inside the book. That’s a care problem. That’s a process problem. That is not a tool problem.

Taste Is the Irreplaceable Ingredient

Tanya Hales, who joined me and Danica on Episode 67 of Brave New Bookshelf, talked about “human taste” being the one thing AI can’t replace. And Coral Hart, on Episode 64, was refreshingly blunt about the fact that AI gives you a “rubbish first draft” — and it’s your job to make it human again. Both of them are right.

But what even is taste? I think about this a lot, and here’s where I’ve landed: taste is the accumulated instinct you develop from years of reading, writing, receiving feedback, and being willing to hear hard truths about your own work. It’s the thing that lets you read a sentence and feel — in your gut, before your brain even catches up — whether it belongs or not.

Honestly, not everyone has developed that instinct. There are a lot of authors, with or without AI, who haven’t opened themselves to the kind of literary criticism that sharpens taste over time. And that’s a personal choice, but it has consequences for the quality of what you produce.

My own taste runs toward immersive characters and worlds I want to spend time in. That’s what I read, and it’s what I write. The readers who share my taste keep coming back book after book, and that’s not an accident — it’s the result of years of developing and trusting my instincts about what makes a story work. AI doesn’t replace that process. It amplifies whatever you bring to the table, for better or worse. If your taste is sharp, AI helps you move faster. If your taste isn’t there yet, AI will happily produce mediocre content at scale, and it won’t warn you that it’s doing it.

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Craft Knowledge Makes AI Harder, Not Easier

Here’s my spicy take, and I stand by it completely: using AI without craft knowledge actually makes your job harder, not easier. If you don’t know what good looks like — if you can’t identify weak dialogue, flat pacing, or a character arc that goes nowhere — you can’t steer the AI toward something better. You’ll accept what it gives you because you don’t have the framework to push back.

The authors who are doing the best work with AI right now are overwhelmingly the ones who already understood story structure, reader psychology, and the fundamentals of their genre before they ever opened an AI tool. The technology didn’t make them good. It made them faster.

You can absolutely use AI and produce high-quality work and care deeply about craft. Those things are not in conflict. In fact, I’d argue that AI-assisted writing done well demands more editorial awareness than writing without it, because you’re constantly evaluating, steering, and making judgment calls about output you didn’t generate yourself. That takes skill.

As for my own quality bar? I know a draft has crossed from “AI-assisted” to “this is mine” when I get sucked in and can’t stop reading my own work. When I forget I’m editing and just... read. That’s the test. It’s not scientific, but it’s never been wrong.

The Real Question

If you put craft and care into your story — if you’re writing something you genuinely enjoy, something you believe your readers will love and rave about — then it’s not slop. It doesn’t matter how much AI was involved. The presence of AI in your process does not determine the quality of what comes out the other end. You determine that. Your taste. Your care. Your decisions.

The word “slop” should mean something. It should describe content that was produced without thought, without craft, and without any regard for the person who’s going to consume it. That definition has nothing to do with which tools were used to make it and everything to do with the human behind those tools.

So the next time someone throws “slop” at a piece of work just because AI was part of the process, ask yourself: are they actually evaluating the quality? Or are they just mad about the method?

What’s your personal quality bar? How do you know when something has crossed from “draft” to “done”? I’d love to hear how you think about taste and care in your own work — tell me in the comments.

My mom has read all of my books. Every single one. She knows my voice the way only a person who’s been reading your words for years can — the rhythms, the opinions, the little declarative punches I throw when I really mean something. So when she told me she couldn’t tell that my Substack articles were written with AI, I knew I was doing something right.

(Hi, Mom.)

I get asked about this a lot. “Do you write these Substack articles with AI? It doesn’t seem like it.”

I always say yes — yes, I do. And most people aren’t doing it the way I do it. That difference is everything.

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The Question Everyone Is Actually Asking

When people ask if I use AI and then look surprised when I say yes, what they’re really asking is: how do you make it sound like you? Because they’ve tried AI writing tools. They’ve gotten that smooth, helpful, relentlessly enthusiastic output that sounds like... no one in particular. Competent. Readable. Completely devoid of personality.

That’s not a tool problem. That’s a process problem. And the process is fixable.

Step One: Find the Topic Together

Sometimes I come to a session with a topic already in mind — something I’ve been thinking about, something that came up in the Future Fiction Academy, a conversation I keep having in the Facebook group. Other times I’ll ask for ideas, browse through what the AI surfaces, and wait for one to land. I know it’s right when I feel a little spark of yes, I have opinions about that.

Once I have the topic, I give a quick gut-feel brief. Not a formal outline — just a sentence or two about why I like it and what my overall instinct is. That initial reaction is the seed of everything that comes after. It tells the AI where I’m starting from emotionally and intellectually, which shapes the questions it’s going to ask me.

Step Two: The Interview — This Is the Whole Thing

Here’s where most people check out of the process too early. They give AI a two-or three-sentence prompt and wait for a draft. And they get average output, because they put in average input. Of course it doesn’t sound like them. They haven’t actually put themselves into it.

What I do instead is let the AI interview me.

After I give my initial take, I get asked targeted questions — about my opinions on different angles of the topic, about my personal experience, about the spicy take I might be sitting on, about what I want readers to walk away feeling. And then I answer. Honestly. Sometimes I word vomit. Sometimes I use talk-to-text so I can pace around and just rant into my phone while the words tumble out. I don’t edit myself. I don’t try to sound polished. I say what I actually think, in the way I actually say things.

And this works because AI is extraordinarily good at mimicking. If you give it your voice — your actual opinions, your rhythm, the way you’re declarative when you mean business — it has real material to work with. I’m a Capricorn. I don’t hedge; I state. That comes through in how I answer questions, and it comes through in the draft that follows.

The interview also does something else for me personally: it draws out opinions I didn’t know I’d fully formed yet. My top Clifton Strength is Deliberative — I need to think things through from every angle before I feel confident in my opinion. A good Q&A session is structured introspection. It keeps me focused on the goal when my brain wants to wander down every tangential hallway, and it consistently pulls out the most honest, specific version of what I believe about something.

Step Three: The Draft

Once the interview is done — and sometimes there are a few follow-up questions to nail down a specific point — the AI writes the first draft. It’s not just synthesizing facts. It’s reading for voice, for structure, for the shape of my argument. It knows my previous articles. It has a style guide. It has this conversation. All of that context goes into producing something that already sounds reasonably close to me before I’ve touched it.

This is the heavy lifting I’m happy to hand off. Generating the bones of a 1,200-word piece from a conversation is exactly the kind of task AI does well. The thinking, the opinions, the specific anecdotes — those came from me. The assembly is the AI’s job.

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Step Four: The Edit — The Part That’s Always Mine

Here is my one non-negotiable: every word gets read. Every sentence gets validated. I do not generate and post. Ever.

Reading through the draft, I’m listening for anything that doesn’t sound like me. Sometimes it’s a phrase I’d never use. Sometimes it’s a structural move I don’t love. And sometimes it’s what I call AI-isms — the little tics that reveal the seams. My personal most-wanted list:

• “It’s not X. It’s Y.” — This construction is everywhere in AI writing. It sounds clever in a way that I don’t actually sound clever. Out.

• “Here’s what I learned:” — The warm-up statement followed by a colon, setting up a list or a paragraph. I don’t talk like that. Out. (In fact, I booted one from this very article! Which makes me laugh since the AI knows I don’t like it.)

• Anything that feels like a conclusion before the conclusion. AI loves to summarize mid-article. I don’t.

After I’ve made my edits — sometimes light, sometimes more significant — the piece goes to Substack for formatting. But the editing step is where I’m most fully myself in this process. The buck stops with me. I am always the human in the loop. The AI does the heavy lifting, yes, but my input, my final say, my name on the byline — those belong to me so I make sure I get it right.

Why This Works (And Who It’s For)

I want to be honest about what this process is and what it isn’t. It isn’t magic. It isn’t a shortcut to skip the thinking. It’s actually a very structured way of forcing the thinking to happen — and then handing the transcription and assembly to something faster than I am.

The authors who benefit most from this approach are the ones who have a strong internal voice and specific opinions, but who struggle to get those things out of their heads and onto the page in a way that feels coherent. If you know what you think but the blank page is the enemy, this process is for you. The interview replaces the blank page with a conversation. And most of us are much better in conversation than we are staring down a cursor.

If you’ve been handing AI a prompt and getting output that sounds like nobody, try handing it a conversation instead. Tell it your gut reaction. Let it push back with questions. Pace around if you have to. Get your actual voice into the process before any draft gets written.

That’s the secret. It was never about the tool. It’s always been about YOU.

Have you tried an interview-style process with AI, or are you still starting with the two-sentence prompt? I’d genuinely love to know what’s working — or not working — for you. Tell me in the comments.

If you’ve spent any time in AI writing spaces recently, you’ve probably heard some version of this: “Here’s my exact workflow. Here are my exact tools. Here’s exactly how I do it — and you should do it exactly like this.”

And maybe you’ve tried to follow along. Maybe you’ve downloaded the same apps, copied the same prompt structures, and still found yourself staring at the screen wondering why it feels so wrong. Or maybe you haven’t even started yet, because the sheer number of options out there has made the whole thing feel impossible. Too many tools. Too many opinions. Too many people who seem to already have it all figured out.

I’m here to reassure you: you’re not behind. You’re not doing it wrong. And there is no one right way to use AI for writing. There never was.

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The Problem Isn’t You. It’s the Noise.

When I talk to authors about AI — whether in the Future Fiction Academy, in our Facebook group, or just in conversation — I hear three versions of the same struggle over and over again.

The first is the copycat trap: someone finds a workflow they admire, tries to replicate it exactly, and can’t understand why it isn’t working for them. The second is the shame spiral: their process is working, but it looks nothing like what the person on YouTube is doing, so they assume they must be doing something wrong. And the third — the one that breaks my heart the most — is the defeat before the start. “I don’t even know where to begin. There are too many choices and I’ve never worked with this before.”

That last one is so common, and so understandable. The AI landscape right now is genuinely overwhelming. We are in a moment of enormous abundance — new tools, new models, new platforms, new opinions about all of them seemingly every week. And when you’re standing at the entrance to all of that with no map, it’s easy to just... not go in.

But the good news is that you don’t need a map of the whole territory. You just need to find your own path through it.

There Is No “Correct” AI Writing Stack

Let me be direct about something, because I think it bears repeating even though I’ve said it before: there is no universally correct way to use AI for writing. None. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

My husband works in technology. He loves AI. He uses it constantly in his work and finds it genuinely useful. He has also never once opened ChatGPT. Not even once. His favorite tools are ones that most people in my world have never heard of, and he has zero interest in the tools I use every day. And he is completely right to work that way, because his tools fit his brain and his problems.

That’s the thing about this moment in AI: we are all figuring it out at the same time, and the landscape is still chaotic enough that there is no settled consensus about the “right” tools. Some companies will succeed. Others will fold. Over time, the typical author’s AI stack will probably look more consistent than it does today — certain tools will prove themselves and stick around, and the noise will quiet down. But we’re not there yet. Right now, we all have to find what works for us.

Kimberly Gordon, who joined me on Episode 66 of Brave New Bookshelf, put it better than I ever could: “It’s not about the tool, it’s about you. If you know how you work and you are comfortable, just get used to talking with AI. That is the skill you need.”

That skill — learning to communicate with AI — is the one thing that’s genuinely portable. Every tool, every platform, every model is going to change. The ability to talk to AI, to explain what you need and iterate until you get it, goes with you everywhere.

My Own Journey: From Weaver to Architect and Back Again

I’m going to share something a little personal here, because I think it illustrates this perfectly.

At the Future Fiction Academy, we developed a set of AI Writer Archetypes to help authors figure out how they naturally want to work with AI. There are four: the Gardener, the Weaver, the Baker, and the Architect. (You can read more about them here.) When I first started using AI for my fiction, I was a natural Weaver. I’d write by instinct, follow where the story led, and weave in what the AI gave me alongside my own prose. It felt creative and alive and very much like me.

Then, for a long time, I tried to be an Architect. I built out my outlines and ideas first, had the AI generate the bulk of the first draft, and came in afterward to edit and refine. It was efficient. It looked impressive. It’s the kind of workflow that makes for great screenshots and testimonials.

I never really enjoyed it.

Not once did I sit down to an Architect session and think, yes, this is it. The process didn’t fit the way my brain works. I like to mull a story while I’m writing it — to discover things in the middle of a scene that change everything that comes after. The Architect process, as great as it is for many people, cut me off from the part of writing I actually love.

But the good news is that with AI, the mulling doesn’t have to take six weeks or six months anymore. I can write a novel in a much quicker timeframe and still work the way my brain naturally wants to work. I’m back to being a Weaver, and the work is so much better for it — and so am I.

The tools didn’t have to change. My willingness to stop doing it “the right way” and go back to doing it my way made all the difference.

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Permission to Be Curious Instead of Correct

Dana Sacco came on Episode 65 and talked about choosing Antigravity over Claude because it matched her logical, systems-oriented brain. Kimberly Gordon uses coding applications and IDEs because she genuinely believes story is code, and because that mental model opens up creative possibilities for her that standard AI chat just doesn’t. Neither of them is doing it “right.” Both of them have found what works.

What strikes me most about Kimberly isn’t any specific tool in her stack — it’s her energy. She is endlessly curious, always experimenting, always excited to share what she’s found. She works with me at the FFA, and being around her is a genuine joy because she doesn’t approach AI as a problem to be solved or a system to be optimized. She approaches it as a conversation. That curiosity is the workflow.

You don’t need the perfect stack. You need enough curiosity to keep trying things until something clicks.

Okay, But Where Do You Actually Start?

If you’re one of the authors standing at the entrance feeling defeated before you’ve begun, I want to give you something concrete.

Start with the free tiers of ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. Just those three. The frontier models are the best place to get a feel for different AI personalities and tones — they’re the most capable, the most widely used, and the most talked about, which means there’s a huge amount of community knowledge about how to use them well. Spend a little time with each one and notice how they feel. Which one do you like talking to? Which one’s responses feel closest to what you’re looking for?

If you find yourself wanting a more flexible, workhorse option — especially one with lower costs and fewer restrictions — open an account at OpenRouter.ai. It gives you access to all the frontier models plus hundreds of open-source alternatives, and it’s a great place to explore once you’ve got a sense of what you’re looking for.

But don’t try to build an entire system on day one. Start with one small thing — a brainstorming session for a scene you’re stuck on, a summary of your current chapter, a list of possible character names. See how it feels. That’s it. That’s the whole first step.

The Only Thing I Can Promise You

I can’t tell you which tools will be best for you. I can’t tell you whether you’re a Weaver or an Architect, a Gardener or a Baker. I can’t tell you that the workflow that’s working beautifully for me right now will still be the thing I’m using a year from now — because honestly, it probably won’t be.

What I can tell you is this: if you stay open-minded, you will find the right tools for you. You will have to be willing to try things that don’t work out. You’ll have to be willing to walk away from an approach that looked good on paper but didn’t fit your brain. You’ll have to be willing to go back to something you abandoned, or try something you’d dismissed, because sometimes what wasn’t right at month three is exactly right at month twelve.

Your workflow is yours. It gets to look different from mine, different from Kimberly’s, different from every author you admire online. That’s not a failure. That’s the whole point.

I’d love to know: have you ever tried someone else’s AI workflow and found it just didn’t click? Or have you discovered something that surprised you by fitting your brain perfectly? Tell me in the comments — I read every one.

Here’s something I hear all the time: “AI makes authors less human.”

Less authentic. Less real. Less us.

I understand why people feel that way. When you picture AI and writing in the same sentence, it’s easy to imagine some faceless content mill churning out soulless words. I get the fear. But I want to tell you what actually happened to me last year, because it’s the opposite of that story.

Last year, AI was the only reason my readers heard from me at all.

The Year Everything Was Too Much

I was burned out. Thoroughly, down-to-the-bones burned out.

Between my work as CTO of Future Fiction Academy and everything happening at Future Fiction Press, I had nothing left in the tank for the “extra” stuff. And by extra, I mean all the things that keep an author connected to their audience — blog posts, behind-the-scenes content, promotion, the little touches that remind readers you’re a real person who wrote that book they loved.

That’s the stuff that goes first when you’re running on fumes. You tell yourself you’ll get to it next week. Next month. After this deadline. And then months pass and your readers haven’t heard from you, and the silence grows, and you start to feel like a ghost haunting your own career.

I’ve been in this industry for over twelve years. I know what silence does. It doesn’t make you seem like a mysterious artist. It makes people forget you exist.

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What AI Actually Did for Me

I had a book in an anthology, and I needed to promote it. In a normal year, I would have sat down and brainstormed blog post ideas, outlined them, drafted them, revised them — the whole process. But I didn’t have that kind of energy. I barely had the energy to open my laptop some days.

So I turned to AI.

I fed it the book. Not to rewrite it, not to create some synthetic marketing copy — but to help me think about my own work. What themes did this story explore? What would readers find interesting about the world-building? What questions might someone ask after reading it? What angles could I use to write blog posts that would genuinely connect with people?

AI helped me process my own creative work and pull out ideas I was too exhausted to see on my own. It didn’t replace my voice. It helped me find it again when I’d temporarily lost it under a pile of burnout and obligations.

The result? A series of blog posts that went out to my audience during the anthology’s run. Content that was me — my ideas, my perspective, my knowledge of the story — just organized and structured with some help.

Without AI, my readers would have gotten nothing. Radio silence. Another author who disappeared for a year.

The Part That Matters Most

Those blog posts are still getting clicks. Every day, readers are finding them through my newsletter. New readers are discovering me through search engines because the content is rich and specific and genuinely useful.

Let me say that again: content I could only create because AI helped me through a brutal year is still bringing readers to my work months later.

That’s not dehumanizing. That’s the most human thing I could have done — showing up for my audience even when showing up felt impossible.

Visibility Is Humanity

What I think people get wrong about the “AI makes us less human” argument is that they’re focused on the production of words. But readers don’t experience your production process.

They experience your presence.

Every blog post you write is a handshake with a reader. Every newsletter is a reminder that there’s a real person behind those books they love. Every piece of content you put out — whether it’s a craft breakdown, a character deep-dive, a behind-the-scenes look at your process — is you saying, “Hey, I’m here. I’m still creating. I’m still thinking about this story and this world and you.”

AI lets you extend more of those handshakes. Not fake ones — real ones, built on your actual ideas and your actual work. You’re just getting help with the logistics of turning those ideas into finished content.

And the alternative? The alternative isn’t some pure, hand-crafted artisanal experience for your readers. The alternative is silence. The alternative is your audience forgetting you exist because you’re too overwhelmed to show up.

Which one sounds more human to you?

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AI as a Thinking Partner

One of the things that surprised me most about using AI for those blog posts was how it changed my relationship with my own work.

When you feed a book into AI and ask it to help you think about themes and angles, you end up engaging with your writing from perspectives you might never have considered on your own. It’s like having a conversation with a really thoughtful reader who asks good questions. “What about this thread? Have you considered this angle? Your readers might be interested in this aspect of the world-building.”

That’s not outsourcing your creativity. That’s deepening it. You’re reflecting on your own work, finding new layers, discovering things you put into the story without even realizing it. And then you’re sharing those discoveries with your audience.

If anything, AI helped me be more thoughtful about my own writing, not less.

The Real Dehumanizing Force

You know what actually dehumanizes authors? The expectation that we do everything ourselves, from scratch, all the time.

Write the book. Edit the book. Format the book. Design the cover (or manage someone who does). Write the blurb. Set up the ads. Manage the keywords. Write the newsletter. Create the social media posts. Engage with readers. Plan the next book. Attend to your business. Handle the accounting. Keep up with industry changes. And do it all while maintaining a day job, or raising kids, or dealing with health issues, or grieving, or just living a human life.

That’s what’s dehumanizing. That relentless grind with no support and no breathing room — that’s what makes authors burn out and disappear. That’s what makes us go silent on our audiences. That’s what makes us feel like machines, ironically enough.

AI gives you breathing room. It takes some of the cognitive load off the pile so you can actually be a person again — both to your audience and to yourself. Nobody shames a chef for using a food processor. The meal still requires taste and judgment and creativity. The tool just makes it possible to serve dinner before midnight.

More of You, Not Less

Here’s what I want you to sit with:

AI doesn’t replace your humanity. It amplifies it.

Your ideas are still yours. Your opinions are still yours. Your lived experience, your taste, your creative vision — none of that gets outsourced when you use a tool to help you organize your thoughts or structure a blog post or brainstorm angles on your own work.

What changes is your capacity. You can share more of yourself with your audience. You can show up more often. You can take the ideas that are rattling around in your head — the ones you never had time to turn into content — and actually get them out into the world where readers can find them.

More content means more connection points. More connection points means more readers who know you’re a real person with real thoughts and real passion for your work. And that — not the suffering, not the hand-wringing about “purity” — is what builds a lasting relationship between an author and an audience.

The Invitation

So here’s my question for you:

What would you put in front of your readers if the bottleneck wasn’t your energy?

What blog or social media posts would you write? What behind-the-scenes content would you share? What aspects of your creative work would you love to explore and present to your audience, if only you had the bandwidth?

Because the tools exist right now to help you do that. Not by replacing your voice, but by helping your voice travel further.

Last year, AI didn’t make me less human to my readers. It made me more present. More visible. More connected. It kept me in the conversation when burnout was trying to pull me out of it entirely.

And my readers? They’re still clicking. Still reading. Still showing up.

Because I showed up first — with a little help.

How do you show up for your readers when life gets overwhelming? Have AI tools helped you stay connected with your audience? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments.

I see it constantly in author communities: someone opens up ChatGPT or Claude, types in a prompt, gets something back that feels generic, and immediately declares the whole thing a waste of time. “AI writing is slop,” they say. “It doesn’t sound like me. It doesn’t sound like anyone. What’s even the point?”

And honestly? I get the frustration. That first output usually is pretty generic. But most people miss that the first output was never supposed to be the finished product. It was supposed to be the start of a conversation.

The single biggest AI writing tip I can give you is this: treat AI like a conversation, not a vending machine. You don’t put in a quarter, get a chapter, and walk away. You talk to it. You react. You push back. You refine. And by the end of that process, the output doesn’t sound like AI anymore. It sounds like you.

I call this the Conversation Loop, and it’s the difference between authors who love working with AI and authors who tried it once and gave up.

The Moment Most People Quit

The problem is not that the AI “can’t write.” The problem is that the author didn’t tell it what “good” looks like. They expected the AI to read their mind — to intuit their tone, their pacing preferences, their character’s inner voice, the specific emotional register they were going for. And when the AI didn’t magically deliver all of that from a single sentence of instruction, they concluded it was broken.

This is the same reason I wrote my earlier piece, The AI Can’t Read Your Mind. Authors are still, somehow, surprised that a tool designed to respond to input can only be as good as the input it receives. I don’t know why this expectation persists, but it does, and it’s the number one reason people abandon AI before they’ve given it a real shot.

“Revise the Scene” Isn’t a Prompt

Let me give you a concrete example of what I mean. When you tell an AI to “revise the scene,” you haven’t actually said anything useful. Revise it how? More emotional? Faster pacing? More internal dialogue? More sensory detail? A clearer inciting incident? Shorter sentences? Different POV? You could mean any of those things, and the AI has no way of knowing which one you’re after.

A human editor would ask follow-up questions. They’d say, “What’s not working for you? Is it the pacing or the tone? Are you looking for more interiority here?” AI doesn’t do that — at least not unless you’ve specifically trained it to. So you have to do what you’d do with a human collaborator: you have to talk back.

That’s the fundamental mindset shift. AI isn’t a search engine where you type a query and get an answer. It’s a conversation partner. And like any conversation, the quality of what you get out depends entirely on the quality of what you put in — and your willingness to keep the conversation going.

The Conversation Loop

Here’s how the loop works in practice. You generate a draft. You read it and react — not with “I don’t like it,” but with specifics about what’s missing or what’s off. You specify what to change using real craft language. You regenerate. You refine. And you repeat until you hit that moment where you think, “Yep, that’s it.”

This is not extra work on top of the writing process. This is the writing process. It’s the same thing you’d do if you were workshopping a scene with a critique partner or going back and forth with an editor. The only difference is that the feedback loop is faster and you can iterate as many times as you want without anyone getting annoyed.

The number of rounds it takes depends on how much setup you’ve done. If you’re starting cold — just a raw prompt with no context — it might take five to eight rounds to get something you’re genuinely excited about. But if you’ve done the legwork of providing a style guide, sharing example text for the AI to reference, and having an upfront conversation about the kind of output you’re looking for, you can get there in three or four rounds. The setup pays for itself.

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What This Looks Like: My Cozy Mystery Test

One of my go-to test prompts when I’m evaluating a new AI tool looks like this: “Please write Chapter 1 of a cozy mystery novel where a woman is out walking with her dog, the dog gets off the leash, runs away, and finds a dead body in the bushes.”

If you’ve used AI at all, you can probably predict what happens next. The AI will give you something passable. Maybe even a little funny. But it will also be utterly generic, because I didn’t do the legwork of telling it how to write this scene.

Think about everything that’s missing from that prompt. I didn’t mention the woman’s name, the dog’s name, or the town they live in. I didn’t specify what mood I wanted, what POV to use, whether it should be first person or third person, what time of day it is, whether there are other people around, how long the chapter should be, or what kind of voice I’m going for — cozy and quippy? Cozy and lyrical? Something in between? I didn’t tell the AI what kinds of details I like to linger on or what sentence structures I prefer. All of that context is just... absent.

That’s not an AI problem. That’s an input problem. And this is exactly where the Conversation Loop kicks in. I’ll start adding constraints. I’ll tell the AI about the character and the setting. I’ll request specific craft moves. I’ll reshape the tone. I’ll tighten the pacing. Each round gets closer to what I actually want, because each round gives the AI more information about what “good” looks like to me.

Nobody Is Just Pressing a Button

Every time someone argues that authors are “just accepting AI output and publishing it,” I have to laugh a little. That’s really not what’s happening.

Most authors I know who use AI seriously are not accepting first outputs. Even the people who do lean toward a “generate and accept” approach usually do it only after they’ve put in significant setup work. They have a style guide in place. They’ve provided example writing for the AI to mimic. They’ve had conversations — sometimes long ones — about the kind of output they want. And even after all of that, the output still gets edited because it’s going into a larger work that has its own rhythm and continuity.

“Generate and accept” is really more like “generate and lightly edit” — and it happens after a ton of front-loaded work that nobody sees. The idea that people are typing “write me a book” and uploading whatever comes back is a fantasy that makes for good outrage on social media but doesn’t reflect what’s actually happening in the community.

Speak in Craft, Not Vibes

The fastest way to get better AI output is to stop speaking in vague vibes and start speaking in craft. This is probably the most practical thing I can tell you.

When I’m steering AI mid-conversation, I use specific writing craft terms. I’ll say things like “add more visceral interiority and internal dialogue here” or “this needs to function as an inciting incident — raise the stakes” or “use shorter, punchier sentences to increase the pace of this scene.” I might ask it to shift to a closer POV, or to make the subtext clearer without making the dialogue on-the-nose.

Notice what all of these have in common: they tell the AI what to do and why. The more specific your craft vocabulary, the fewer rounds you need. If you can name the problem, the AI can usually fix it. But if all you can say is “I don’t like it” or “make it better,” you’re going to go in circles. Investing in your understanding of writing craft — things like POV, pacing, interiority, dialogue mechanics, scene structure — pays enormous dividends when you’re working with AI. The craft knowledge becomes your steering wheel.

Knowing When It’s Good Enough

This part is entirely up to the author, and honestly, it’s a gut thing. I know an output is good enough when it meets my expectations, when it sounds like me, and when my instinct says, “Yes. I can work with this.” That’s the threshold. Not perfection — just the point where the text is ready to be folded into the larger manuscript and refined in the editing process.

That’s easier for me because I already know my voice. I wrote over 40 books before I ever used AI, so slotting AI-generated text into my own work happens naturally because I know exactly what I’m looking for. But this is true for other authors too, even newer ones. The more you write and the more you read, the sharper your sense of what “sounds right” becomes. AI doesn’t replace that instinct. It relies on it.

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The Output Becomes More You with Every Round

This is the part that surprises people, and it’s really the heart of what I want you to take away from this article.

AI is a conversation. Just like talking with another author, an editor, or a critique partner, you’re narrowing the result using your own judgment, curation, and taste. Your preferences are the compass. Your voice is the destination. And after a few rounds of the Conversation Loop, the output stops feeling like “AI writing” and starts feeling like your writing — because it is your writing. You shaped it. You steered it. You decided what stayed and what got cut. The final product is more you than anything else.

That’s the reframe I want to offer: AI doesn’t write for you. It writes with you. And the more you engage with it — the more you push back, specify, and refine — the more the output reflects who you are as a writer.

Try This Before You Quit

If you’ve tried AI once and hated it, I’m going to ask you to do one thing before you declare it hopeless: run three rounds of the Conversation Loop. Generate something. React to it with specifics. Tell the AI what to change and why. Regenerate. Refine. Do that at least three times, and then decide whether AI writing is “slop.”

Because in my experience, most people don’t hate AI writing. They hate the first draft. And honestly? Welcome to writing. First drafts have always been rough. (I’ve never been a fan.) The magic has always been in the revision. AI just makes the revision loop faster.

So have the conversation. Push back. Be specific. And see what happens when you stop treating AI like a vending machine and start treating it like a collaborator.

You might be surprised by what comes out the other side. 😉

Have you found the Conversation Loop helpful, or are you still getting stuck at that first output? I’d love to hear what you’ve tried in the comments.

“AI is going to flood the market with crap.”

You’ve heard it. I’ve heard it. At this point, it’s become the background hum of every publishing conversation — the anxious certainty that a tidal wave of garbage is coming and “real” authors are about to be drowned out forever.

But what if the opposite is happening?

What if, instead of a tsunami of crap, we’re actually witnessing a tsunami of excellence?

I Didn’t Come Up With This

I first heard this reframe from Joanna Penn on her Patreon and podcast, and it stopped me in my tracks. Because she’s right.

The AI tools available to authors right now are genuinely good at writing. Not “passable if you squint” good. Actually good. And more importantly, they’re making authors better — helping us catch what we’d miss, think through what we’d skip, and finish what we’d abandon.

The flood is coming. But it’s not a flood of crap. It’s a flood of quality.

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The Two-Part Myth

Let’s break down the fear, because it usually comes in two stages.

Stage 1: “The market will be flooded with garbage.”

But the algorithm doesn’t reward bad books. It never has.

Amazon’s recommendation engine, the visibility systems on every platform — they’re designed to surface books that readers are more likely to purchase, engage with, finish, and review positively. A poorly written, unedited mess doesn’t climb the charts. It sinks.

The challenge for indie authors has never been “too many good books are competing with mine.” It’s always been discoverability. That hasn’t changed. Bad books have always existed. They’ve just never been your real competition.

Stage 2: “All AI-assisted books are low quality.”

This is where the argument usually retreats when the first point doesn’t land. “Okay, fine, but AI books are still inherently worse.”

This assumes authors are pressing a button, getting a book, and uploading it. That’s not what’s happening.

Authors are using AI to brainstorm ideas and stress-test plots. They’re catching inconsistencies they would have missed on their fifth read-through. They’re getting cleaner prose on the first pass so editing is tightening, not salvaging. They’re finishing books — projects that had been languishing for years.

The human is still steering. The craft knowledge still matters. What’s changed is that the floor has risen. AI is, frankly, a better baseline writer than most humans. That’s not an insult to authors — it’s an observation about the technology. And when you combine solid AI output with an author’s taste, vision, and revision skills? You get better books.

We’ve Seen This Movie Before

If you’ve been in indie publishing for more than five minutes, you’ve heard this panic before.

In 2014, when self-publishing was exploding, traditionally published authors warned that indies were a “tsunami of crap” that would destroy the industry. (Sound familiar?) Indies were told they weren’t “real” authors. That they were cheapening the craft. That readers would never accept them.

Then came rapid release in the mid-to-late 2010s. Authors publishing a book every month or two were accused of cheating — they must have ghostwriters, or they weren’t editing, or they were somehow gaming the system. The truth? Some people just write faster than others. And the jealousy was palpable.

And let’s be honest about what actually flooded the market with problems: the KU page-stuffing scams, the content mills churning out garbage under a thousand pen names, the diamond giveaway manipulation (remember that one?). That was sketchy. That was people exploiting the system.

AI isn’t that. It’s a tool. A powerful one, yes — but a tool used by real authors with real stories to tell, who are using it ethically to write books readers love.

What AI Is Actually Doing

I’ve received countless emails from authors about how AI has changed their process. Here’s what they’re telling me:

• Catching plot holes they would have missed until a reader’s angry review pointed it out

• Better brainstorming that leads to stronger first drafts instead of months of wandering in the weeds

• More consistent prose because the editing pass is polishing, not reconstructing

• Finishing books they’d started and abandoned, sometimes years ago

• Accessibility for neurodivergent authors who now have tools that work with their brains instead of against them

• Recovery from burnout — authors who thought their careers were over finding a way back

This isn’t replacement. This is amplification.

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“It Was Like Being Able to Breathe”

I want to share something from an author friend who wrote to me recently. She’s published 59 books and has been writing full-time since 2020. She’s been indie, trad, and hybrid. She’s seen every iteration of “you’re not a real author” gatekeeping this industry has to offer.

Then 2025 happened.

She was dealing with a new diagnosis, family bereavements, and became a caregiver for an elderly relative facing serious health challenges. Then, she went from producing one book every six weeks to one book in six months.

She’d always been able to write through everything — since she was a teenager. And suddenly, that ability was gone. She watched her royalties drop and felt her dreams slipping away.

AI tools and a supportive community gave her a way back. She started working on a passion project she’d been stuck on for three years, and for the first time in over a year, she could breathe again. She’s done explaining herself to people who’ve already decided she’s wrong. And she’s back to doing what she does best: writing books.

I loved getting this email because her story is an affirmation of what I’ve already heard from many others. AI has changed their life for the good.

The Jealousy Factor

Let’s name what’s really going on with a lot of the AI resistance: it’s not about quality. It’s about watching other people succeed in ways that feel unfair.

Fast has always been suspicious in this industry. If you write quickly, you must be cutting corners. If you’re productive, you must not care about craft. If you’ve found a way to work that doesn’t involve suffering, you must be cheating.

This is jealousy dressed up as principle.

I get it. I’ve never been a particularly fast writer, and I used to look at rapid-release authors with a mix of admiration and envy. But here’s what I’ve learned: comparison is the thief of joy. Keep your eyes on your own paper. Someone else’s success with AI doesn’t diminish your work. Someone else’s speed doesn’t make your process wrong.

The resentment isn’t about protecting readers from bad books. It’s about the discomfort of watching the rules change.

The Real Question

So here’s what I want to ask you:

Are you going to be part of the Tsunami of Excellence? Or are you going to sit on the shore and watch it roll by?

AI has democratized storytelling. It used to be that only a handful of people could write a whole book — you needed a certain combination of time, energy, ability, and persistence that excluded a lot of would-be authors. Now more people than ever can tell their stories. The barriers are lower. The tools are better. The possibilities are wider.

That’s not a threat to publishing. That’s publishing’s future.

The revolution is happening. You can join it.

Ride the Wave

This isn’t about replacing authors. It’s about more authors telling more stories.

The tools are here. The quality is real. The gatekeepers are losing their grip. And the authors who embrace these tools — who use them ethically, who bring their craft and their vision to the process — are writing better books than ever.

You can be one of them.

Ride the wave. 🌊

Have thoughts on the “tsunami of crap” narrative? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments. Next week it’s back to more writing tips and fewer posts on the social aspects of AI in the writing community, I promise.

I see it all the time in author communities: someone tries AI, watches it produce competent prose, and instead of feeling excited, they feel crushed. The internal monologue goes something like this:

“If AI can write this well, what’s the point of me? Why am I even doing this?”

And then they quit. They walk away from the tool — sometimes from writing entirely — convinced that AI has somehow invalidated their work.

Here’s what I want to say to those authors, as gently as I can: that reaction isn’t about AI. It’s about ego.

And until you deal with the ego part, no amount of technological progress or tool improvement is going to feel okay.

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We Meatsacks Think We Have a Corner on Creativity

Let’s be honest about what’s really happening when AI writing triggers an existential crisis.

When it comes to creative work, humans have long believed that we’re special. That creativity is ours — a uniquely human domain that machines could never touch. This belief runs deep. It’s tied up in our sense of identity, our understanding of what makes us valuable, our whole framework for what it means to be human.

But we’ve always been uncomfortable with the idea that creativity might not be exclusively ours.

Just look at the history of reactions to animals making art. When monkeys paint, when elephants create, when crows solve complex puzzles — it causes existential dread and heated debate. People argue endlessly about whether it “really” counts as creativity or whether it’s “just” instinct or imitation.

Why? Because if creativity isn’t uniquely human, what does that mean for us?

The reaction to AI writing is the same thing, amplified. It’s quite egotistical, when you think about it, to assume that we meatsacks are inherently better creative machines than actual machines. But that assumption is so deeply embedded that when evidence challenges it, the response isn’t curiosity — it’s crisis.

Let’s Talk About “Better”

When authors say “AI writes better than me,” what do they actually mean?

Here’s a truth that might sting: AI is a more competent writer than most humans. One scroll through social media is all you need to confirm that most English speakers struggle with spelling, syntax, and grammar. The AI doesn’t.

Now, this wasn’t always the case. Back in the GPT-3 and early GPT-4 days, the AI made plenty of mistakes. I once had GPT-3.5 give me the word “speshul,” which made me laugh. That doesn’t happen anymore. Just like AI image tools rarely produce twenty-fingered humans these days, text generators have gotten remarkably clean at the mechanical level.

But competence isn’t the same as style. Whether you like how the AI writes is subjective. One person’s favorite book is another person’s DNF. The good news? You can coach the AI to write in different styles based on what you like. That’s the whole point of learning to prompt well.

The author is still in charge. The AI is producing options. You’re curating and refining.

“But AI Can’t Understand Human Experience!”

Oh, people love this argument. “AI can’t possibly know feelings or human experience, so it can’t really write.”

Guess what? I don’t need to know everything about my subject to write about it either.

I’ve never been a space pirate or a bodyguard or an immortal goddess, but I’ve written all of those characters. Writers use imagination, research, and craft to write about experiences we haven’t personally lived. That’s... kind of the job.

And in the end, the AI is just producing words that statistically work for the conversation it’s having with you. If you don’t like the words, revise them. That’s what editing is for.

I think the “AI can’t understand feelings” argument is mostly an excuse to dismiss AI without having done the work of actually trying it. It lets people feel intellectually superior while avoiding the uncomfortable experience of having their assumptions challenged.

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My Own Moment of Dread

I’m not going to pretend I was immune to this.

I saw GPT-3 for the first time in the summer of 2022, and I knew immediately that it was going to change the world. A blanket of dread fell over me. I wondered if I would open my eyes one day and find we were all living in a Star Trek universe.

(That hasn’t happened yet, for the record.)

But my second thought — almost immediately after the dread — was: “I should learn this so I’m not left behind.”

I’ll be honest: I’ve never had much of an ego about my writing. I don’t think my own work is amazing. I assume most people have no idea who I am. I don’t expect anyone to take me seriously. Maybe I’m too humble, I don’t know. But that lack of ego made it easier to approach AI with curiosity instead of defensiveness.

If your ego is more attached to your identity as a writer, this transition is going to be harder. I get it. But it’s still possible — if you’re willing to do the work.

This Is Not the Pain Olympics

Here’s the reframe I’d offer to anyone stuck in the “what’s the point?” spiral:

The healthier perspective starts with acceptance. Accept that this technology is here. Accept that companies, publishers, and other authors are using it. Stop fighting reality.

Once acceptance sinks in, my next piece of advice is simple: have fun.

Seriously. What are you even doing if you’re suffering through writing?

This is not the Pain Olympics. You don’t get a medal for suffering through your creative work. If AI tools can make your life a little easier and your process a little more enjoyable, why wouldn’t you use them?

I’m now writing for fun instead of profit, and I’m having a blast. (You can absolutely write for profit AND have fun — I’m just sharing where I’m at personally.)

What Authors Actually Bring

Here’s what doesn’t change when you use AI: YOU.

Authors bring their unique tastes, opinions, and life lessons to their work. That’s what makes your writing yours — and it’s what makes using AI even more individualistic, not less.

Your ability to curate and present creative works to your audience is key. Readers are reading YOUR work because you put YOU into it. You can absolutely still do that with AI tools. They’re assistants, not replacements.

The ego wants you to believe that if you’re not suffering alone, producing every word from scratch, your work doesn’t count. That’s a lie. Your work counts because of the choices you make, the vision you have, the taste you bring. Those things don’t disappear when you use tools.

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The Ones Who Make It

Let me be real here. Being an author is hard, with or without AI.

There’s so much involved — writing, editing, formatting, publishing, promotion, failure, success, fear of success, and a hundred other things. I’ve been in this business for 12 years, and I’ve watched multitudes of people come and go.

If someone uses the advent of AI as an excuse to quit, they were probably never going to make it anyway. The excuses would have come eventually — it just would have been something else.

And the irony is that AI actually gives authors more of a chance, not less. It makes the mundane tasks of authorship easier and cheaper. The barriers to entry are lower than they’ve ever been.

But too many people would rather catastrophize and scream at the clouds than get to work. That’s on them.

The Invitation

If you’ve been resisting AI because it hurts to see a machine produce competent work, I get it. That feeling is real, and it’s uncomfortable.

But I want to invite you to consider: what if you let go of the ego piece?

What if you stopped measuring your worth by whether you can out-write a statistical model? What if you accepted the technology, learned it, and — here’s the radical part — actually had fun with it?

Writing doesn’t have to be a slog. Your value as an author doesn’t depend on suffering. And the tools that are available right now can make your creative life genuinely more enjoyable.

That sounds pretty good to me.

So let go of the ego, accept the change, and have some fun. Your readers are waiting.

Have you struggled with ego around AI and writing? What helped you move past it? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments.

If you’ve spent any time in AI-for-authors spaces, you’ve probably noticed something: there are a lot of tools. New models drop every few weeks. Someone’s always raving about the latest app. Your feed is full of people claiming they’ve found “the one” that changes everything.

It’s exhausting. And honestly? Most of it doesn’t matter.

I’ve been deep in the AI world for a while now, both as an author using these tools and as a co-founder of Future Fiction Academy where we teach authors how to work with AI. And here’s what I’ve observed: the authors who actually succeed with AI aren’t the ones chasing every new release. They’re the ones who’ve committed to a small set of tools and learned them deeply.

This is the 80/20 principle in action. A small number of tools deliver the vast majority of your results. Everything else is noise.

So what are the vital few? I’d argue there are only four categories of AI tools that most authors actually need.

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1. A Chat Utility You’re Committed To

This is your home base — the AI you talk to every day for brainstorming, problem-solving, research, and general assistance. Whether it’s ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, or something else, the key is commitment.

I see authors make the same mistake over and over: they hop from chat to chat, chasing the latest model release or reacting to someone’s rave review. Here’s what usually happens:

A new tool comes out. Someone raves about it. You get FOMO and go check it out. But the new chat doesn’t have any of your previous interactions — it feels “dumb.” You get frustrated and go back to your original tool.

Sound familiar?

The problem isn’t the new tool. The problem is that every chat has a learning curve, and you’re resetting to zero every time you switch. These tools have memory now. They learn your style, your preferences, the way you work. But that only happens if you give them time.

My recommendation: commit to one chat for at least a month of daily use. Let it learn you. Understand its quirks. Figure out what it’s good at and where it struggles. Then you can make an informed decision about whether it’s the right fit.

Different chats do suit different personalities. My business partner loves ChatGPT — it’s her main utility for everything. I personally find ChatGPT a bit too dry, and I prefer Claude or Gemini. But you won’t know what works for you until you’ve actually given something a fair shot.

If you do decide to switch, that’s fine! Just know that you’re signing up for another 4+ weeks of teaching the new tool who you are. Make sure you have the time and energy for that transition.

2. A Note-Taking Utility with AI Built In

Authors deal with an absurd amount of data. Think about everything you’re juggling:

• Your books (manuscripts, outlines, character notes, world-building)

• Marketing materials (blurbs, loglines, social media posts, ad copy)

• Business information (ISBNs, links, sales data, contracts)

• Newsletters, blog posts, reader communications

• Research, inspiration, ideas for future projects

It’s endless. And if this information is scattered across multiple apps, folders, and platforms, you’re going to waste enormous amounts of time just finding things.

This is where an AI-enabled note-taking system becomes essential. I use Notion for everything. Some authors prefer Google Drive (which now has Gemini built in) or Evernote (which is adding AI features). The specific tool matters less than the principle: get all your notes in one place, with AI that can help you search, organize, and work with them.

Right now, I’m using Notion’s AI chat to draft this very article. I can ask it to find notes from previous posts, pull together ideas I’ve scattered across different pages, or help me brainstorm new angles. Having everything centralized makes this possible.

What to look for: At minimum, you want good AI-enabled search. If a note-taking tool doesn’t have that, I’d pass. The ability to ask “where did I put that thing about X?” and actually get an answer is worth its weight in gold.

3. An AI Image Program

Visual content is increasingly important for authors — social media, blog headers, newsletters, character references, and yes, potentially book covers. An AI image generator can help with all of this.

If you’re just getting started, I’d recommend beginning with social media and blog images before moving to anything high-stakes like covers. This gives you space to learn how visual prompting works (which is different from text prompting!) without the pressure of needing perfect results.

Personally, I use Midjourney for character and vibe images — anything where I want a specific aesthetic or emotional quality. For social media graphics, blog images, and covers, I use Ideogram. There are lots of other options out there, and what works for me might not work for you.

What to look for: Pick one program and commit to it for at least a month. Watch some tutorials on YouTube. And critically, accept that your first two weeks are going to have more misses than hits. That’s normal. Prompting for images is a skill, and it takes time to develop. Don’t give up just because your early results look weird.

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4. An AI-Enabled Writing Tool

Here’s the truth: you don’t technically need a dedicated AI writing tool. You can absolutely use your chat utility, generate text there, and copy-paste it into Word or Scrivener or whatever you normally write in. Plenty of authors work this way, and it’s totally fine.

But there are real advantages to having AI built directly into your writing environment:

• It’s faster. No switching between windows, no copy-pasting back and forth.

• It’s better for your body. If you’re doing a lot of AI-assisted writing, reducing repetitive mouse movements and keyboard shortcuts can help prevent strain injuries. (This is an underrated benefit!)

• It keeps you in flow. Staying in one environment means fewer context switches and more focused writing time.

I love using Future Fiction Academy’s Raptor Write, and I also write directly in Notion now that the AI has gotten smarter. When I’m doing more advanced work, I use an IDE called Antigravity that handles writing directly to markdown files. There are endless options out there for authors.

What I’ve noticed is that once authors level up to a writing tool with AI built in, they rarely want to go back. The integration just makes everything smoother.

The Order Matters

If you’re feeling overwhelmed about where to start, here’s my recommended sequence:

1. Chat first. This is your foundation. Get comfortable having conversations with AI, learn how to prompt effectively, understand the basics.

2. Notes second. Once you’re comfortable with AI chat, get your information organized in one place with AI-enabled search.

3. Images third. Start experimenting with visual content once you’ve got the text-based stuff down.

4. Writing tool fourth. This is the “leveling up” move — integrating AI directly into your drafting process.

You don’t have to do all of this at once. In fact, please don’t. Take your time with each category before moving to the next.

The Honest Truth About Learning AI

I want to end with something that doesn’t get said enough: learning AI takes time and effort.

It’s not as easy as everyone makes it sound. The people posting about their amazing results? They’ve put in hours (sometimes months or years) of practice. They’ve failed a lot. They’ve gotten frustrated. They’ve wanted to quit.

But here’s the other side of that truth: with time and perseverance, most authors can find the tools they need to level up their author business. It’s not about being technical or having some special aptitude. It’s about committing to the learning process and not giving up when things feel hard.

Four tools. That’s it. A chat, a note system, an image generator, and a writing tool. Master those, and you’ll be ahead of 90% of authors trying to figure out AI.

Stop chasing every shiny new release. Pick your tools, commit to them, and do the work.

What AI tools have become essential in your author business? I’d love to hear what’s working for you in the comments. Want to learn more about AI? Come join us at the Future Fiction Academy!

I’m going to be honest with you: I took a break.

My dad passed away in late 2025, and between the grief, a work trip to Las Vegas, and preparing for the holidays while feeling profoundly sad, something had to give. For me, that something was this Substack. I needed breathing room, and I gave myself permission to step away.

Now it’s 2026, and I’m back. But here’s the thing about taking time off from AI: the world doesn’t stop moving. In fact, it moves terrifyingly fast.

Case in point: Google released a new IDE called Antigravity in late November, and within a week, my entire feed was full of people raving about it. (Well, except for that one guy who accidentally wiped his entire hard drive. Oops.) If I wasn’t already embedded in the AI world through Future Fiction Academy, I would have been completely overwhelmed trying to figure out what everyone was talking about.

If you’ve also stepped away—whether for grief, burnout, health issues, family obligations, or just life—this post is for you. I want to help you catch up without the overwhelm.

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The Guilt Is Real (But It’s Also Lying to You)

Let me be honest about something: I felt a lot of guilt about checking out.

Not only did I fall behind, but my work colleagues and fellow authors flew right past me. Some of them jumped into Antigravity and started writing like 40 books. Forty books. It was wild how quickly some people picked up new tools and ran with them.

And there I was, feeling like an imposter because I’d only played with it a little. (Though honestly, that’s still more than most people.)

But here’s what I’ve had to remind myself, and what I want you to hear too: You haven’t lost your skills. Everything you learned about prompting, about working with AI, about the fundamentals of this technology—it all still applies. In fact, it applies better now because the tools are smarter than ever.

Your creative judgment. Your storytelling instincts. Your understanding of craft. None of that disappeared while you were away. The tools evolved, yes, but your core strengths remained intact.

Taking a break was the right thing to do. I’m still convincing myself of that, but I know it’s true.

What’s Actually Changed (The Stuff Worth Knowing)

Okay, let’s get practical. What did you actually miss?

The Models Are Better Than Ever

The current generation of models—Claude 4.5, Gemini 3, and ChatGPT 5.2—are some of the best we’ve ever had. They consistently provide better results as long as you’re still prompting them robustly. They’re smarter, more nuanced, and better at understanding what you actually want.

Many of them have also gotten excellent at coding and accessing toolsets and MCP servers, which allows them to reach across different data sources and provide more accurate outputs. If that sounds like jargon, don’t worry—just know that the AI can now connect to more of your stuff and give you better answers because of it.

Agentic AI Is Becoming the Norm

Here’s a shift I’ve really embraced: I’ve switched to writing inside of Notion using their AI tool. Most of the top models are available there, and the chat utility (I’ve named her Miss Thang) can gather data from everything I’ve put inside Notion—all my Substack posts, my personal blog posts, and transcripts from Brave New Bookshelf.

This more “agentic” way of working with AI is slowly becoming standard. Each of the main chat interfaces—Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini—can now do more than just chat. They can access the internet for sourcing, develop slideshows and graphs, hook into other tools like Canva or GitHub, and even produce images and video.

Reasoning Models Feel Like Magic

The reasoning models are especially impressive now. You can actually see the AI going through a thinking process and making decisions. It shows you its work, step by step.

It feels like magic. (It’s not, obviously, but it feels that way.)

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What You Can Safely Ignore

Now for the part you might need even more than the updates: permission to ignore things.

Yes, there’s a lot of hype out there. But here’s my take: there’s a time and a place for everything, and individual authors need to evaluate where they are in the learning process and decide what works best for them right now.

The education path I typically recommend to authors looks something like this:

1. Learning to prompt

2. Prompting (and re-prompting, and failing, and trying again)

3. Getting comfortable with the chat interfaces

4. Understanding APIs so you can try automations

5. Learning AI for coding to make your own tools

6. Exploring agents

If you’ve been prompting in Claude Chat for a while and feeling comfortable, it might be time to look at APIs and automations. If you’ve done that, maybe it’s time to explore AI for coding. But if you’re just starting out? Take a basic prompting class and understand the fundamentals first. Don’t let anyone make you feel like you need to be on step six when you’re still on step two.

The Noise to Filter Out

There’s a lot of panic out there about AI, and I want to give you permission to ignore most of it.

The anti-AI crowd is still spouting talking points from over two years ago—most notably the ones about data center water consumption and training data being “stolen.” These arguments haven’t evolved, which tells you something about how relevant they are to the current conversation.

Then there are the people on the other extreme, talking about how AI can do everything now while giving vague details about how it’s accomplished, never showing you what’s actually behind the curtain. Those people are to be ignored as well.

Stick to the people showing you the secret sauce. The ones on YouTube actually demonstrating their workflows. The ones in Facebook groups answering questions with specifics. The ones in educational communities like Future Fiction Academy who are transparent about what works and what doesn’t.

A Simple Re-Entry Strategy

Here’s my practical suggestion for getting back into the swing of things: start a small side project.

I know how hard it is, as an author, to switch tools in the middle of a project. You’re deep in a manuscript, you have your workflow, and suddenly everyone’s talking about some new thing you “have” to try. That’s a recipe for frustration.

Instead, consider writing a short story or a novella specifically as a playground for experimenting with new tools. Pick one thing you want to try—maybe it’s a new model, maybe it’s writing inside Notion, maybe it’s testing out a reasoning model—and use that small project to get comfortable.

No pressure. No high stakes. Just exploration.

Once you’ve found something that clicks, then you can think about integrating it into your main work.

Resources for Catching Up

If you’re looking for places to learn and stay current, here are my recommendations:

Brave New Bookshelf — The podcast I co-host with Danica Favorite is starting up new episodes in mid-January, but there’s a whole backlog of episodes you can listen to right now. We cover everything from AI tools to author mindset to interviews with people doing interesting things in the space.

Future Fiction Academy — If you want structured learning, FFA has standalone classes if you want to enhance one specific thing in your process. We also have our Accelerator program if you’re just starting out and want a comprehensive foundation.

Both resources are designed to cut through the noise and give you practical, actionable guidance.

The Best Time to Come Back Is Now

If you’ve been away and you’re reading this, you’re already ahead of most people. You’re willing to learn. You’re willing to come back. That counts for more than you might think.

The AI doesn’t judge you for taking time off. It doesn’t keep score. It’s a tool, and it waits patiently for you to pick it up again.

So take a breath. Choose one small thing to explore. And welcome back.

We missed you.

Have you recently come back to AI after time away? What surprised you most about what changed? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments.

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Recently, I came across a post from a popular writing promotions organizer who runs book promotion events. They announced that they would no longer accept submissions with AI-generated covers or AI-assisted writing, boldly declaring: "Don't bother submitting something that's AI and try to get it past me. I will know."

*blink* I’m sorry, what?

I've been working extensively with AI for three years now. I can prompt AI to write in virtually any style or format, and I can confidently say that no one can reliably tell when I'm using AI assistance versus when I'm not. But I’ve also learned I can often spot when other people are using AI poorly.

And therein lies the paradox that reveals everything.

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The Logic That Doesn't Add Up

If you claim you can reliably detect AI writing, you're essentially admitting you know intimately what AI writing looks like. But how would you know that unless you've spent considerable time working with AI tools yourself?

You can't recognize patterns you've never encountered.

I've noticed this pattern repeatedly among prominent figures in the writing community. They adamantly claim they don't use AI, but they also insist they can "just tell" when others do. “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.”

The reality is more nuanced: Most people using AI well are completely undetectable. The ones who get caught are typically those who haven't learned effective prompting techniques yet. (Or they accidentally leave a prompt in a book, oops!)

What AI Detection Actually Reveals

After three years of extensive AI collaboration, I've developed an eye for certain patterns that suggest poor prompting:

AI loves lists of four things when humans typically use two or three. It has an obsession with participial phrases. It defaults to describing scents more often than most human writers would. It adores words like "tapestry" and "cacophony."

In dialogue, AI tends to create echo responses instead of using natural conversational gaps or silence. It has predictable structural patterns that become recognizable once you've seen them enough times.

But here's the rub: I only recognize these patterns because I work with AI constantly. I know its default behaviors because I've spent years learning to prompt it away from them.

Someone who genuinely doesn't use AI wouldn't know what to look for. They wouldn't recognize these subtle tells because they'd have no framework for understanding them.

The Shame Game Needs to End

Let's address the elephant in the room: there's no reason authors should be ashamed of using AI tools.

Virtually every industry is embracing AI assistance. Doctors use AI for diagnostics. Lawyers use AI for research. Graphic designers use AI for ideation. Marketers use AI for content creation. Why should writers be different?

This obsession with keeping writing "pure" feels antiquated in a world where AI assistance is becoming standard across professional fields. We live in a capitalist society where efficiency and productivity are valued. Artificial barriers to useful tools serve no one.

The majority of authors are quietly using AI now, whether they admit it publicly or not. Survey data consistently shows adoption rates around 50% and climbing. When prominent figures protest too loudly about AI while claiming detection abilities, it raises obvious questions about their own practices.

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The Art of Invisible AI Collaboration

For authors who want their AI-assisted work to sound authentically human, the solution isn't avoiding AI. It's learning to collaborate with it more skillfully.

My best advice is to use as many examples as possible of your own writing. As I've discussed in previous articles, AI mirrors what it's given. If you provide your own work and ask AI to match that style, it's far more likely to produce writing that sounds like you rather than a robot.

Once you identify what AI does that you don't like, you can explicitly instruct it to avoid those behaviors. I regularly prompt AI to avoid excessive participial phrases, lists of four items, and overly ornate vocabulary choices.

The authors getting "caught" are typically those who haven't invested time in learning effective prompting techniques. With proper guidance, AI can produce writing that's indistinguishable from human-authored text.

The Underground and the Exodus

This gatekeeping is having predictable effects on the author community.

Many AI-using authors have gone underground, hiding their tools to avoid being kicked out of writing groups or losing long-standing friendships. They're producing excellent work but can't discuss their actual process publicly.

Others, like me, have chosen transparency and faced the consequences. I've lost friendships, missed opportunities, and encountered gatekeeping from established authors who once celebrated breaking down traditional publishing barriers.

The irony there is especially profound. Self-published authors who entered the industry because traditional gatekeepers excluded them are now becoming gatekeepers themselves.

But this is creating an inevitable bifurcation in the industry. AI-positive authors are beginning to band together, creating their own opportunities, networks, and promotional systems. They will not be stuck out in the cold. What goes around comes around.

The Hypocrisy of New Gatekeepers

What disappoints me most is seeing independent authors who fought against exclusion now practicing their own form of exclusion.

These are authors who self-published because traditional publishers rejected them or because they saw greater opportunities in being independent, who built communities around supporting fellow "outsiders," who understood what it felt like to be dismissed by established industry players.

Now they're doing the same thing to authors who use different tools.

This isn't about protecting literary integrity. It's about maintaining artificial hierarchies and excluding people whose processes differ from the “approved” methods.

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Building Our Own Opportunities

For authors facing this discrimination, I have one primary recommendation: create your own opportunities.

Instead of begging for inclusion in spaces that don't want us, build better spaces. Organize promotions for AI-using authors. Create communities that embrace technological innovation. Support each other when traditional gatekeepers close their doors.

I no longer work with vehemently anti-AI authors or organizers. Instead, I focus my energy on building opportunities for authors who are embracing the tools that enhance their creativity and productivity.

The future belongs to authors who adapt, experiment, and support each other through technological change. Let the gatekeepers maintain their increasingly irrelevant standards while we build something better.

The Real Test of Quality

Here's what actually matters: do readers enjoy your stories? Do your books entertain, inform, or move people? Do you consistently produce work that serves your audience?

The tools you use to create that work are secondary to the value you deliver. Readers don't care whether you used AI assistance any more than they care whether you used spell-check or a grammar tool.

Quality is determined by the final product and its impact on readers, not by the purity of the process used to create it.

The Detection Delusion

The uncomfortable truth for self-appointed AI detectors is this: the best AI-assisted writing is completely undetectable.

Authors who've mastered AI collaboration are producing work that sounds entirely human because they've learned to guide AI toward their authentic voice rather than accepting generic output.

The only AI writing that gets detected is poor AI writing. And recognizing poor AI writing requires extensive familiarity with AI's default patterns — familiarity that can only come from personal use.

So when someone claims they can "just tell" when writing is AI-assisted while simultaneously insisting they never use these tools themselves, they're revealing far more than they intend.

The emperor has no clothes, and the community is starting to notice.

Moving Forward

The AI detection game is ultimately unsustainable. As tools improve and authors become more skilled at collaboration, the supposed "tells" will disappear entirely.

Meanwhile, the authors who are openly experimenting, learning, and improving their AI collaboration skills are building valuable expertise that will serve them well as the industry continues evolving.

The choice is clear: spend your energy trying to detect and exclude, or spend it creating and improving.

I know which side of that divide I want to be on. The question is: which side do you choose?

Have you encountered AI discrimination in writing communities? Are you finding ways to connect with other AI-positive authors? Share your experiences in the comments below — building these connections is how we create better opportunities for everyone.

If you're interested in learning more about effective AI collaboration that produces authentically human-sounding writing, check out our courses at Future Fiction Academy. We teach practical techniques for AI assistance that enhance rather than replace your unique creative voice.

I learned an expensive lesson about context windows recently, and I want to save you from making the same mistake.

I was developing a custom AI writing platform for myself — being a former web developer, I wanted something I could easily use on my phone for writing projects. So I enlisted Claude Sonnet's help to build it. Week after week, I kept adding code, debugging screenshots, revised functions, and more complex features to our ongoing conversation.

After a few weeks of development, I checked my API usage and nearly fell over. That single chat had cost me $80.

The conversation had grown to contain PHP code for dozens of pages, debugging sessions, screenshots, revisions, and every iteration of the development process. I was sending millions of tokens with every single request because I thought Claude needed all that context to be effective.

I was wrong. And authors make this same expensive mistake every day.

The Author's Context Trap

Here's how most authors accidentally burn through their AI budgets: They think the AI needs everything to write effectively. Every character sheet, every setting detail, every previous chapter, every plot outline — all dumped into the conversation for every single prompt.

An author working on an 80,000-word novel might load their conversation with:

• Detailed character sheets for six main characters (5,000 tokens)

• Complete setting and world-building notes (8,000 tokens)

• Plot outline with all the beats (3,000 tokens)

• The last three chapters they wrote (12,000 tokens)

• Style guides and voice notes (2,000 tokens)

That's 30,000 tokens of context before they even ask for the next scene. Do this repeatedly as both your input and the AI's responses accumulate in the conversation, and you can easily send hundreds of thousands of unnecessary tokens.

But here's the reality: your AI doesn't need all of that information for every request. Strategic context management can cut your costs significantly while actually improving your results because the AI gets focused, relevant information instead of being overwhelmed with everything you've ever written about your story.

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Understanding the Real Costs

Let's break down what it actually costs to develop an 80,000-word book using different approaches and models, with the correct API pricing.

For our example, we'll assume:

• 10,000-word Story Dossier with essential information

• 80,000 words of generated content across multiple conversations

• Reasonable context management (not dumping everything every time)

Using Claude Sonnet 4 with smart context management:

• Input costs (roughly 100,000 tokens of prompts + dossier reuse): ~$0.30-0.60

• Output costs (80,000 words = ~107,000 tokens): ~$1.60

• Total estimated cost: $2-3

Using Claude Sonnet 4 with poor context management (everything every time):

• Input costs could easily reach 500,000+ tokens: ~$1.50-3.00

• Output costs remain the same: ~$1.60

• Total estimated cost: $3-5

Compare this to subscription costs:

• Claude Pro: $20/month (but with message limits and timeouts)

• ChatGPT Plus: $20/month (with similar limitations)

The API is dramatically cheaper than subscriptions for almost every use case. Even authors writing multiple books per month will rarely spend more than $10-15 in API costs, while getting unlimited usage and better control.

This means the real value of context window management isn't primarily about cost savings — it's about efficiency, getting better AI responses, and avoiding the frustration of platform limitations like message caps and timeouts.

The Story Dossier Foundation

Instead of context stuffing everything, start with a comprehensive Story Dossier. This single document contains all the essential high-level information your AI needs:

Character essentials: Names, core personality traits, key relationships, major motivations. Not their entire life histories.

Setting basics: Key locations, world-building rules, important details that affect the plot. Not every building and background character.

Plot framework: Major story beats, act structure, key conflicts, and resolution approach. Not every scene detail.

Voice and style notes: Tone, POV decisions, genre conventions, and any specific style preferences.

Think of your Story Dossier as a briefing document, not an encyclopedia. It should contain everything essential and nothing extraneous. Most authors can capture their story essentials in 8,000-12,000 words.

This becomes your foundation for every conversation, providing consistent context while keeping your prompts focused and efficient.

The Act-by-Act Strategy

Here's the key to managing both costs and quality: switch conversations at the end of each major story section.

When you complete an act or major story milestone:

1. Summarize what happened in the act you just finished

2. Add those summaries to your Story Dossier (keeping it current and comprehensive)

3. Start a new conversation with your updated Story Dossier

4. Continue with the next act using the refreshed context

This approach serves multiple purposes:

• Keeps costs minimal by preventing conversations from growing with unnecessary accumulated context

• Maintains story continuity through your updated dossier

• Keeps the AI focused on current story needs rather than drowning in old context

• Provides natural break points for reviewing and refining your story direction

• Improves AI responses by giving it relevant, targeted information instead of overwhelming context

Most authors find that three to four conversations per novel works well: one for each act in a three-act or four-act structure, whichever you prefer. Some prefer more granular breaks, switching every 25,000-30,000 words.

The key is being intentional about when you start fresh rather than letting conversations grow uncontrollably.

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Essential Tools for Context Management

Using the right tools makes context window strategy much easier to implement and monitor.

Typing Mind is my go-to recommendation because it provides incredible flexibility for managing conversations and efficiency:

• Real-time cost estimation shows you exactly how much each prompt will cost before you send it (helpful for awareness even though costs are low)

• Fork conversations to try different approaches without losing your main thread

• Edit previous responses to keep the AI focused and on-track

• Delete unnecessary parts of conversation history to reduce context size

• Access multiple AI models in one interface using your API keys

RaptorWrite offers similar capabilities with a focus specifically on fiction writing:

• Turn documents on and off depending on what information the AI needs for each request

• Control exactly what context gets sent with each prompt

• Organize your story information in manageable, accessible chunks

• Switch between different AI models based on the task at hand

Both tools let you be surgical about context rather than dumping everything into every conversation. You can include character sheets when developing characters, setting information when describing new locations, and plot outlines when planning scenes — but not necessarily all three for every single prompt.

The flexibility to choose what information to include with each request is where both the efficiency gains and cost optimization happen.

API Advantages Beyond Cost

While the dramatic cost savings motivate many authors to switch to API usage, the other benefits quickly become just as valuable.

No message limits or frustrating timeouts. I constantly hear from authors who get cut off mid-conversation with Claude or ChatGPT and have to wait hours before they can continue. This is devastating when you're in a creative flow state and only have limited writing time. With API access, you can work as long and as intensively as you want.

Access to multiple models in one interface. Instead of maintaining separate subscriptions and switching between different websites, you can access Claude, ChatGPT, and other models from a single tool.

Better organization and conversation management. Purpose-built tools like Typing Mind offer superior organization, search, and workflow features compared to the basic interfaces provided by AI companies.

More control over your creative process. You can edit conversations, fork different approaches, and maintain multiple story threads without being limited by platform restrictions.

Professional workflow integration. API access integrates more easily with other writing tools and allows for more sophisticated automation as your AI skills develop.

The freedom to experiment without worry. When your entire novel costs $2-5 to produce with AI assistance, you can afford to try multiple approaches, test different ideas, and refine your process without budget concerns.

Practical Cost Monitoring

Even though API costs are remarkably low for most authors, staying aware of your usage helps you optimize your workflow.

Check your API usage regularly in the provider consoles (Anthropic, OpenAI, etc.). Most providers show detailed usage statistics and cost breakdowns.

Use tools with built-in cost estimation. Typing Mind displays estimated costs right in the chat interface, so you can see how much each prompt will cost before sending it. This helps you understand your usage patterns and optimize your approach.

Watch for unusual usage patterns:

• Conversations that seem to be costing more than expected (indicating very large context windows)

• Repeatedly sending the same large documents when smaller, focused context might work better

• Individual prompts with unexpectedly high token counts

• Monthly usage significantly higher than the $5-20 range most authors experience

Most authors developing multiple 80,000-word novels should expect to spend $10-50 per month in total API costs depending on their writing volume and process. If you're spending significantly more, you may benefit from reviewing your context management strategy.

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Making the Switch

When should you consider moving from subscriptions to API usage with strategic context management?

Consider the switch if you:

• Want unlimited access without message caps or timeouts

• Write regularly (even just a few times per month)

• Want access to multiple AI models

• Need better organization and conversation management

• Get frustrated by subscription platform limitations

• Want more control over your creative workflow

• Prefer paying only for what you actually use

The API approach makes sense for almost every author because the cost savings are so dramatic while the functionality improvements are substantial.

Getting started with context-smart workflows:

1. Create your Story Dossier with essential story information

2. Choose a context management tool (Typing Mind, RaptorWrite, or similar)

3. Set up API access with your preferred AI providers

4. Start with small projects to get comfortable with the workflow

5. Monitor your usage to understand your patterns

6. Gradually expand to more complex projects as you refine your approach

The Strategic Advantage

Effective context window management isn't just about saving money — it's about working smarter with AI.

When you're strategic about context, your AI collaborator gets focused, relevant information rather than being overwhelmed with everything you've ever written about your story. This often leads to better, more targeted responses that require less editing and revision.

You also develop better prompting skills because you're forced to think critically about what information the AI actually needs for each specific task.

Most importantly, you gain complete control over your AI-assisted writing process rather than being at the mercy of platform limitations, message caps, or subscription restrictions.

With API costs so low, you can afford to experiment freely, iterate extensively, and refine your AI collaboration without any budget concerns. This freedom to explore and optimize is where the real value lies.

The authors who master context window strategy are the ones who can work as intensively as they want, try multiple approaches to every creative challenge, and build sophisticated AI workflows that serve their unique creative process.

Your AI writing toolkit should enhance your creativity, not limit it. Learn to manage context strategically, and you'll discover that AI collaboration becomes both incredibly affordable and remarkably powerful.

Start with your next project. Create that Story Dossier, choose your tools, and begin building a sustainable AI writing practice that serves your creative goals without any budget constraints holding you back.

Have you experimented with API usage versus subscriptions for your AI writing work? What's been your experience with context management and efficiency? Share your insights in the comments below — I'd love to hear about your strategies for optimizing AI collaboration.

Want to learn more about efficient AI writing workflows? Check out our courses at Future Fiction Academy, where we teach practical strategies for AI collaboration that maximize results while minimizing costs. You'll especially love our How to Make a Story Dossier class which will teach you how to make that story dossier you'll need to write your next masterpiece!

I tried character-focused marketing once, years before it became trendy. I had written a book featuring a character who was a travel blogger, so I created an actual blog where she could share her adventures in real-time. I thought it was brilliant — authentic content that extended my fictional world into reality.

Nobody understood what was happening.

Readers couldn't figure out if this was a real person or a fictional character. They noped out before it got good. This was before Facebook really took off, before social media made the lines between fiction and reality more fluid, and definitely before AI made this kind of marketing accessible to every author.

I was ahead of my time, but the concept was solid.

Now, thanks to AI tools, character-focused marketing has become one of the most powerful ways authors can promote their books. Instead of constantly posting "buy my book" messages that feel sales-y and impersonal, you can let your characters do the promotional work in ways that are authentic and engaging.

The best part? You've already created all the source material you need. It's called your book.

The Foundation: Getting AI to Know Your Characters

Before you can create compelling character marketing, you need to give your AI assistant enough information to authentically represent your characters.

For character-focused marketing, you'll want to use AI models with large context windows — Claude Sonnet, newer GPT models, Google NotebookLM, or other advanced AIs that can handle substantial amounts of text. This allows you to feed the AI your entire manuscript, giving it complete access to your character's voice, personality, and story arc.

If your chosen AI has a smaller context window, you can work with character sheets and detailed summaries instead. Include personality traits, speech patterns, backstory, motivations, and key relationships. The more specific information you provide, the more authentic your character marketing will feel.

One powerful technique is creating what I call a "Voice Dossier" for each character. Ask your AI to analyze your character's dialogue and narrative voice, then compile a guide that captures their speaking style, vocabulary choices, personality quirks, and emotional patterns. This dossier becomes your reference for maintaining consistency across all marketing materials.

The goal is making your AI assistant so familiar with your characters that it can represent them authentically across different marketing contexts.

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Genre Considerations and What Works Best

Character-focused marketing isn't equally effective for all types of books, and understanding your genre's strengths will help you approach this more strategically.

Romance authors are absolutely dominating character marketing, and for good reason. Romance relies heavily on evoking emotions, and romance characters can tap into powerful feelings of "want" and "need" that compel readers to click, share, and ultimately buy. When readers fall in love with your characters before they've even read your book, you've created marketing gold.

Any genre with strong, memorable central characters can capitalize on this approach. Mystery authors can have their detectives share case insights. Fantasy characters can discuss their magical worlds. Science fiction protagonists can react to current technology trends from their futuristic perspectives.

The authors who struggle most with character marketing are those more focused on settings and worldbuilding than the people who inhabit those worlds. If your strength lies in creating intricate magical systems or detailed historical settings, you might find it harder to create character content that resonates with readers.

But even worldbuilding-focused authors can succeed with this approach by having characters serve as tour guides through the fascinating worlds you've created. There are limitless possibilities!

Platform-Specific Character Marketing Strategies

Different platforms require different approaches to character marketing, and understanding these distinctions will help you create content that feels native to each space.

Visual and Video Platforms (TikTok, Instagram, YouTube)

These platforms thrive on visual and audio content, which means your character marketing needs to be more dynamic and immediate.

Consider creating:

• Character video messages where your protagonist speaks directly to viewers

• Behind-the-scenes character content showing what they do when not dealing with your book's main plot

• Character reaction videos where they respond to current events, trends, or reader questions

• "Day in the life" visual stories following your character through routine activities

• Character tutorials where they share skills or knowledge relevant to your story world

The key is making viewers feel like they're getting exclusive access to your character's thoughts and personality.

Text-Based Platforms (Newsletters, Blogs, Social Media Posts)

These platforms allow for deeper character exploration and more nuanced personality development.

Effective approaches include:

• Character interviews where you or another character asks about the events in your book

• Character-written newsletters where your protagonist "takes over" your author newsletter for special editions

• Character diaries or journal entries sharing private thoughts and reactions

• Letters from your character to readers, other characters, or people from their past

• Character advice columns where they help readers with problems related to your book's themes

Audio-Focused Content

Platforms like YouTube, podcast interviews, or audio-first social media features offer unique character marketing opportunities.

• Character podcast episodes discussing events from their perspective

• Voice messages from your character to readers

• Character audiobook samples that aren't in the actual book

• Character phone calls or conversations with other characters

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Creative Content Ideas Beyond the Basics

Once you understand the platform-specific approaches, you can get creative with more sophisticated character marketing concepts.

Character Social Media Takeovers: Let your protagonist "take over" your author accounts for a day, posting in their voice about their interests, reactions to current events, or behind-the-scenes insights into your story world.

Character Playlists: Have your characters curate music playlists that reflect their personalities, moods, or the themes of your book. Include explanations for why each song matters to them.

Character Reaction Content: Your characters can respond to book reviews, reader theories about your plot, or questions about their decisions in the story.

Seasonal or Holiday Content: Show how your characters celebrate holidays, handle seasonal changes, or react to special occasions.

Character Book Recommendations: Have your characters suggest other books they would enjoy, creating content that serves your readers while showcasing personality.

"What Happened After" Content: Explore your characters' lives beyond the ending of your book, giving readers the continuation they crave.

Making It Interactive and Engaging

The most successful character marketing invites reader participation rather than just broadcasting character content.

AI Character Chatbots: Create AI-powered chatbots that readers can actually talk to as if they're conversing with your character. Tools are emerging that make this increasingly accessible to individual authors.

Ask Me Anything (AMA) Campaigns: Host regular sessions where readers can ask your character questions, then use AI to generate authentic responses based on your character's voice and knowledge.

Reader Choice Content: Let readers vote on decisions your character should make in bonus content, creating investment in outcomes.

Character Contests: Ask readers to guess what your character would do in specific situations, or have them submit questions for your character to answer.

Character Collaboration: Have your character "collaborate" with reader-submitted content — maybe they react to fan art, respond to reader theories, or comment on reader-created character playlists.

Character Challenges: Create social media challenges where readers post content related to your character's interests, skills, or personality traits.

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Measuring Success and Iteration

Character marketing success looks different across platforms, but there are clear indicators that your approach is working.

For social media platforms, watch for:

• Virality metrics: How quickly and widely your character content gets shared

• Engagement rates: Comments, likes, shares, and saves on character posts

• Follower growth: New followers gained during character marketing campaigns

• Click-through rates: How many people click from character content to your book links

For newsletters and blogs, focus on:

• Open rates: Higher opens on character-focused newsletters versus standard author updates

• Reader responses: Comments, replies, and reader-generated content inspired by your character posts

• Subscriber growth: New newsletter signups during character marketing periods

• Time spent reading: Longer engagement with character content versus other posts

Most importantly, track book sales and overall reader engagement with your brand. If character marketing is working, you should see increased interest in your books, more reader interaction across all platforms, and stronger emotional connections with your audience.

Getting Started: Your First Character Campaign

Ready to let your characters start selling your books? Here's how to begin:

1. Choose your strongest character — the one with the most distinctive voice and personality

2. Create a Voice Dossier using AI analysis of their dialogue and behavior patterns

3. Start with one platform where you're already comfortable and active

4. Plan a simple week-long campaign — maybe character social media posts or a character newsletter takeover

5. Create 5-7 pieces of character content using your AI assistant and Voice Dossier

6. Post consistently and engage with reader responses in character

7. Track engagement and reader reactions

8. Iterate based on what works and gradually expand to other platforms or characters

Remember: the goal isn't perfection. It's connection.

Your readers want to fall in love with your characters, and character-focused marketing gives them permission to do that before they've even bought your book. When someone is already emotionally invested in your protagonist, selling them the story becomes effortless.

AI makes it possible to create this content at scale without burning out on marketing tasks. Your characters can work for you 24/7, building relationships with readers and creating the authentic connections that turn casual browsers into devoted fans.

The best marketing doesn't feel like marketing at all. It feels like getting to spend more time with characters you already love. Give your readers that gift, and watch your book sales follow naturally.

Which of your characters has the strongest marketing potential? Have you experimented with any character-focused marketing approaches already? Share your experiences in the comments below — I'd love to hear about your character marketing successes and challenges.

Want to learn more about AI marketing strategies for authors? Check out our courses at Future Fiction Academy, where we dive deep into practical AI applications that can transform your author business.

And purchase Seasons of Writing with AI! The idea for this post came from that book. You'll love all the nuggets of wisdom in there!

So, you're scrolling through social media and see authors raving about the latest AI tool that's "revolutionizing" their writing process. Your inbox is full of newsletters about new AI developments. Your to-do list includes "learn prompting," "try that new image generator," "figure out AI editing tools," and "research voice cloning for audiobooks." Meanwhile, your actual manuscript sits untouched because you're spending all your time trying to keep up with AI developments.

Sound familiar?

You're experiencing AI overwhelm, and you're definitely not alone.

The rapid pace of AI development creates a constant feeling that we're falling behind, that we must learn everything immediately, or that we're missing out on game-changing tools. But the truth is you don't need to do everything, learn every tool, or chase every shiny new AI development.

What you need is a framework for making smart decisions about where to invest your limited time and energy.

Enter the Eisenhower Matrix

In Stacey Anderson's upcoming release, Seasons of Writing with AI, she advised using the Eisenhower Matrix to help with AI Overwhelm. Named after President Dwight D. Eisenhower, this simple but powerful framework helps you sort tasks into four categories based on their urgency and importance:

Important and Urgent: Do these tasks immediately.
Important and Not Urgent: Schedule these for later. This is where most long-term goals like learning, relationship building, and creative projects fall.
Urgent and Not Important: Delegate or minimize these.
Not Urgent and Not Important: Eliminate these if possible.

This matrix works beautifully for managing AI overwhelm because it forces you to distinguish between what feels urgent (that new tool everyone's talking about) and what's actually important (the skills that will move your writing career forward).

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Sorting Your AI Priorities

Let's break down how common AI-related tasks typically fall into each quadrant:

Important and Urgent: Do Now

• Learning basic prompting skills when you have a book deadline approaching

• Figuring out AI assistance for a specific project bottleneck you're facing today

• Understanding AI tools that could solve immediate pain points in your current workflow

• Setting up AI assistance for a marketing campaign that launches next week

These are tasks that directly impact your immediate goals and deadlines. If you're struggling to finish your manuscript and AI could help with that specific challenge, learning those skills becomes both important and urgent.

Important and Not Urgent: Schedule for Later

• Exploring advanced AI techniques that could enhance your long-term productivity

• Learning about AI tools for future projects or different genres you want to try

• Understanding how to fine-tune AI models for your unique voice

• Building comprehensive AI workflows for business processes

This quadrant is where most of your AI skill development should happen. These are valuable investments in your future capabilities that don't need to be mastered immediately but will pay dividends over time.

Urgent and Not Important: Minimize or Ignore

• Keeping up with every AI tool release announcement just because everyone's talking about it

• Reading every article about AI developments in the writing industry

• Participating in every online debate about AI ethics or tool comparisons

• Testing every new AI tool that gets mentioned in author groups

The key insight here: just because everyone is talking about something doesn't make it important to your specific goals. Social media can make everything feel urgent, but most AI developments won't significantly impact your immediate writing success.

Not Urgent and Not Important: Eliminate

• Mastering AI art generation when you don't use images in your work

• Learning AI tools for genres you never write and don't plan to write

• Following AI drama and controversies that don't affect your decision-making

• Experimenting with AI tools just because they're free or trendy

This quadrant is where you give yourself permission to say no. Not every AI development is relevant to your career, and that's perfectly okay.

Practical Application: The "Do I Have To?" Question

One of the most liberating questions you can ask yourself is: "Do I actually have to use AI tools for this?"

The answer is almost always no. AI tools are meant to enhance your process, not become another obligation. If learning a particular AI tool feels overwhelming or doesn't align with your immediate goals, you have permission to skip it.

Consider these scenarios:

• Everyone's talking about AI voice cloning, but you're not interested in audiobooks right now. Skip it.

• A new writing AI launched, but you're happy with your current tool. Skip it.

• AI image generators are trending, but you write text-only books and hire cover designers. Skip it.

• Advanced prompting techniques are being discussed, but basic prompting meets your current needs. Come back to it later.

The goal isn't to use every AI tool available. The goal is to use the right tools for your specific needs and timeline.

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Managing FOMO: The "Right Now" Test

FOMO (fear of missing out) is particularly rough in the AI space because new tools launch constantly, and authors love sharing their excitement about discoveries. Social media amplifies this with people both raving about and ranting about new developments.

My antidote to FOMO: concentrate on what matters to you RIGHT NOW.

Ask yourself:

• What tasks am I trying to complete this week?

• What specific challenges am I facing in my current projects?

• What would genuinely help me make progress on my immediate goals?

Everything else can wait. And if you're worried about missing something truly revolutionary, here's a secret: if an AI tool is genuinely game-changing, you'll hear about it again.

Budget your exploration time. If you want to stay current with AI developments, set aside specific time for experimentation — maybe 30 minutes per week or one hour per month. But don't let exploration time take over your productive work time.

Integration with Your Multi-Tool Strategy

The Eisenhower Matrix works beautifully alongside the multi-tool approach we discussed previously. Understanding that different AI tools excel at different tasks actually helps fill in the matrix squares more accurately.

For example:

• If you know Claude excels at creative prose, you don't need to urgently test every new creative writing AI that launches

• If ChatGPT handles your brainstorming needs well, new brainstorming tools become less urgent

• If you have a reliable image generation workflow, new art AIs might fall into the "not urgent" category

Having a solid understanding of each tool's strengths helps you make smarter priority decisions because you're not operating from a place of uncertainty or FOMO.

Recognizing When You Need the Matrix

Most authors know when they're overwhelmed because they stop making progress. The warning signs are usually obvious:

• Your manuscript sits untouched while you research AI tools

• Your to-do list keeps growing but never gets shorter

• You feel anxious about "falling behind" on AI developments

• You start multiple AI learning projects but don't finish any of them

• You spend more time reading about AI than actually using it for your work

When you recognize these patterns, it's time to step back and use the matrix to refocus your priorities.

Putting It Into Practice

Here's how to use the Eisenhower Matrix for your AI decisions:

1. List all the AI-related tasks, tools, and learning goals currently on your mind

2. For each item, ask: "Is this important to my writing goals?" and "Is this urgent for my current projects?"

3. Sort everything into the four quadrants

4. Focus only on the "Important and Urgent" quadrant for now

5. Schedule specific times for "Important and Not Urgent" items

6. Give yourself permission to ignore or eliminate the rest

Remember: the matrix isn't permanent. What's urgent today might not be urgent next month. What's unimportant for your current genre might become important if you switch to writing something different.

The key is using it as a decision-making tool rather than a rigid rule system.

The Permission to Focus

Perhaps the most valuable aspect of the Eisenhower Matrix is the permission it gives you to focus on what truly matters.

You don't have to:

• Learn every AI tool that launches

• Keep up with every AI development

• Use AI for every aspect of your writing process

• Feel guilty about "falling behind" on AI trends

You do get to:

• Choose AI tools that genuinely serve your goals

• Focus on mastering a few tools rather than dabbling with dozens

• Prioritize your actual writing over AI experimentation

• Say no to AI developments that don't align with your needs

The authors who succeed with AI aren't the ones who use the most tools or follow every trend. They're the ones who make strategic decisions about where to invest their time and energy.

The Eisenhower Matrix helps you become one of those strategic authors.

Your writing career deserves your focused attention, not scattered across every shiny new AI development. Use the matrix to protect that focus while still remaining open to genuinely valuable opportunities.

The next time you feel overwhelmed by AI options, remember: important and urgent first, everything else can wait.

Want to learn more about prompting and writing with AI without becoming overwhelmed? You should join us at the Future Fiction Academy where we keep you in the loop and on top of everything you need to know to write with AI. Our Accelerator program will get you up and running in only a few weeks, focusing on tools that will get you from idea to fully written story without wondering which tool to use next. Come join us!

Purchase Seasons of Writing with AI when it launches by signing up for our newsletter at Future Fiction Press!

I constantly meet authors who proudly tell me they "use ChatGPT for everything" or "only work with Claude." While I admire their enthusiasm for AI, I can't help but think they're missing out on so much potential.

It's like having a fully equipped kitchen but only using one pot for every dish you make.

The rapid proliferation of AI tools can feel overwhelming, but the truth is there’s no one-size-fits-all AI solution for authors. Different models excel at different tasks, have different personalities, and will resonate differently with your unique creative voice.

The authors getting the best results aren't the ones who've mastered a single tool. They're the ones who've built personalized toolkits that leverage the specific strengths of multiple AI models to enhance every aspect of their creative and business processes.

If you've been limiting yourself to one AI assistant, it's time to expand your horizons and discover what you've been missing.

Understanding Each Tool's Unique Strengths

Just like human collaborators, different AI models have different personalities and capabilities. Understanding these distinctions is important for building an effective author toolkit.

Claude (Anthropic) excels at creative prose and long-context work. If you're working with lengthy manuscripts, complex character development, or need nuanced creative writing assistance, Claude's ability to maintain consistency across large documents makes it invaluable. Many authors find Claude's "voice" feels more literary and sophisticated.

Gemini (Google), particularly their thinking models, shines with creative work. I find myself gravitating towards Gemini and Claude for the majority of my creative projects because the thinking models cut out unnecessary steps and make my work faster and leaner. The quality of creative output often feels more polished and thoughtful.

ChatGPT/OpenAI models remain excellent for general utility, analytical tasks, and structured thinking. When I need analytical help, data interpretation, or systematic problem-solving, OpenAI's models often provide the most useful approach. Some authors also find that OpenAI's "voice" best matches their own writing style.

Open source models are constantly evolving and worth exploring. New models appear regularly that might surprise you with their capabilities. The landscape changes so quickly that dismissing open source options means missing potential gems.

The specialized tool debate: In general, I find specialized tools less useful if you learn to prompt properly. Why lock yourself into a tool that only does one thing when a well-prompted general AI can handle multiple tasks with more flexibility?

The key insight: Some authors may find that OpenAI's voice perfectly suits their style, while others hate it completely. This is exactly why testing multiple models is essential rather than optional.

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The Discovery Process: Making Exploration Fun

I approach AI tool discovery as a challenge rather than a chore.

My favorite method is giving the same prompt to several different models and comparing the results. This isn't just about finding the "best" output—it's about understanding how each model thinks, what direction each one takes, and what unique strengths each brings to the table.

For example, you might prompt all your available AIs with: "Help me brainstorm a compelling opening scene for a mystery novel set in a small coastal town."

Watch how each model approaches this:

• One might focus on atmospheric description

• Another might jump straight to character conflict

• A third might suggest a unique mystery hook

• Yet another might provide structural advice about opening scenes

These different approaches reveal each model's personality and help you understand when to reach for which tool. Maybe Claude gives you the most atmospheric prose, while ChatGPT provides the most systematic plot structure, and Gemini offers the most unexpected creative twists.

This comparative approach transforms tool selection from guesswork into strategic choice-making.

Budget-Smart Approach: Getting More for Less

Many authors get overwhelmed by subscription costs, but there's a smarter way to approach AI tool budgets.

I recommend learning to use APIs and paying only for what you actually use. This approach requires learning how to prompt effectively and manage context windows, but these are valuable skills every AI-using author should develop anyway.

Tools like RaptorWrite and Typing Mind allow you to use API keys instead of paying fixed monthly fees. This means you can access multiple AI models through a single interface while only paying for your actual usage rather than subscriptions to multiple platforms.

Learning context window management becomes especially important with this approach. Understanding how to maintain conversation flow, when to summarize previous interactions, and how to structure prompts for maximum effectiveness will save you money and improve your results.

This budget-smart approach also encourages more intentional AI use. When you're paying per token, you naturally become more focused and strategic with your prompts, which often leads to better outcomes anyway.

Workflow Integration and Organization

The biggest challenge with using multiple AI tools isn't technical. It's organizational.

How many times have you thought, "I had a great conversation with AI about this topic, but was it in ChatGPT or Claude?" This problem compounds quickly when you're using multiple models regularly.

My solution: Typing Mind, which centralizes all my chats regardless of which model I'm using. All my conversations, whether with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or any other model, live in one searchable, organized interface. This eliminates the frustration of hunting through different platforms for previous conversations.

If authors become overwhelmed by too many options, I recommend choosing one model and sticking with it for a few weeks before trying something new. This prevents tool-switching fatigue while still allowing for systematic exploration over time.

The key is building sustainable workflows that serve your creative process rather than complicating it. Start simple, add complexity gradually, and always prioritize tools that genuinely enhance your productivity over ones that just seem cool.

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Maintaining Consistency and Future-Proofing Your Setup

As you expand your AI toolkit, two challenges emerge: maintaining consistency across different tools and protecting your work from the inevitable changes in the AI landscape.

Learning to maintain consistent tone and style across different AI models is becoming an essential author skill. Each model has its own personality, and part of effective AI collaboration is knowing how to guide each one towards your desired voice and approach. This takes practice and attention, but it's a skill that will serve you well as the technology continues to evolve.

For future-proofing, organization is everything. I recommend using a tool like Notion, Evernote, Obsidian, or OneNote to keep all your important information in one centralized location — API keys, useful outputs, prompt templates, and project notes.

This organizational approach means that if you need to switch from one AI model to another, all your essential content remains accessible and portable. You're not trapped by any single platform or dependent on any particular tool's survival.

The AI landscape changes rapidly. Models get updated, new ones appear, others disappear or change their pricing. Building adaptable workflows that can accommodate these changes protects your creative process from external disruptions.

Store your best prompts, save your most useful outputs, and maintain your own knowledge base that transcends any individual AI tool. This approach ensures your AI-enhanced creative process remains stable even as the underlying technology shifts.

Community Resources and Staying Current

The AI tool landscape evolves so quickly that staying current can feel like a full-time job. Fortunately, there are excellent resources that can help you stay informed without getting overwhelmed.

The "AI Writing for Authors" Facebook group is an invaluable resource for tool recommendations and shared experiences. Authors regularly share discoveries, compare tools, and help each other troubleshoot workflows. The collective knowledge of thousands of AI-using authors is far more valuable than any individual review or tutorial.

For broader AI tool updates, I recommend Future Tools by Matt Wolfe. His newsletter provides excellent coverage of new AI developments without getting too technical or overwhelming.

The Future Fiction Academy YouTube channel focuses specifically on AI applications for authors, providing tutorials, tool comparisons, and practical workflows designed for creative professionals.

The key is finding a balance between staying informed and avoiding information overload. Pick one or two reliable sources and check in regularly rather than trying to follow every AI development everywhere.

Your Multi-Tool Future

Here's what I want you to understand: expanding your AI toolkit isn't about using more tools for the sake of complexity. It's about finding the right tool for each specific task and building workflows that enhance rather than complicate your creative process.

Some days you might use multiple models for different aspects of the same project. Other days you might stick with just one that's perfectly suited to your current task. The flexibility to choose based on your needs rather than being locked into a single option is liberating.

Start with experimentation. Take a prompt you've used before and try it with different AI models. Pay attention to the different approaches, voices, and results you get. Notice which outputs excite you most and which feel most useful for your specific goals.

Remember: there's no perfect AI tool that will solve all your creative challenges. But there's definitely a personalized combination of tools that can dramatically enhance your creative process, productivity, and business success.

The authors who thrive in the coming years won't be the ones who resist AI or the ones who blindly accept whatever tool they tried first. They'll be the ones who thoughtfully build AI toolkits that serve their unique creative visions and business goals.

Your toolkit should be as individual as your writing voice. Take the time to explore, experiment, and discover what works best for you.

The perfect AI writing assistant doesn't exist. But the perfect combination of AI tools for your specific needs? That's definitely out there waiting for you to discover it.

Which AI tools are you currently using, and what tasks do you wish you had better AI assistance with? Share your experiences and questions in the comments below. I'd love to hear about your tool discoveries and help you explore new options that might enhance your creative workflow.

Ask any author about their biggest professional challenge, and "marketing" will top the list almost every time. While most writers fell in love with storytelling, few signed up to become social media managers, advertising analysts, or content marketing specialists.

But here's the reality: successful authors aren't just writers anymore. They're publishers, which means they run the whole business. They're content creators, community builders, and marketing strategists. The good news? AI can handle much of the heavy lifting in these areas, freeing you to focus on what you love most while still building the marketing foundation your books need to find their readers.

The Content Creation Advantage

The biggest advantage of using AI for author marketing is that you can create significantly more content without proportionally more work. One book can generate months of social media posts, multiple bonus scenes, several different blurb versions, targeted ads for different audiences, and comprehensive reader engagement campaigns.

This volume approach serves multiple purposes:

• More touchpoints with potential readers increase your discoverability

• Consistent content keeps your audience engaged between book releases

• Multiple approaches help you find what resonates most with your specific readership

• Expanded content ecosystem makes you more attractive to algorithm-based discovery systems

Getting Started: The Interview Approach

If you're new to using AI for marketing, start by interviewing the AI about your specific goals. The AI can provide advice on what to prioritize and help you create prompts to accomplish your marketing tasks.

Begin with questions like:

• "I'm a [genre] author who struggles with marketing. What are the most important marketing activities I should focus on?"

• "Help me create a marketing plan for my upcoming book launch."

• "I have [X] hours per week for marketing. How should I prioritize my efforts?"

• "What marketing approaches work best for authors in my genre?"

For best results, use advanced AI models — Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gemini 2.5, or GPT-4 and above. The more sophisticated thinking models are particularly effective at marketing analysis and strategy development.

Let's explore the many ways AI can transform your approach to marketing beyond just the books themselves.

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Metadata and Keywords: The Foundation of Discoverability

Your book's metadata — title, subtitle, description, keywords, and categories — determines whether readers can find your work in the vast ocean of available books. AI excels at analyzing your manuscript alongside market data to suggest optimal positioning.

Try uploading your manuscript and using prompts like:

• "Based on this manuscript summary, suggest 10 relevant keywords for Amazon KDP that balance search volume with competition."

• "Analyze the top books in [your genre/subgenre] and identify the most effective metadata patterns."

• "Help me choose between these three subtitle options based on search optimization and reader appeal."

The key is providing context. Don't just ask for keywords in a vacuum. Give the AI your book, your book summary, target audience description, and comparable titles to get more strategic suggestions.

Sales Copy and Blurbs That Convert

Writing compelling book descriptions is a specialized skill that many authors never master. AI can help you craft sales copy that hooks readers and drives purchases by analyzing successful books in your genre and adapting those patterns to your specific story.

Start by giving the AI examples of blurbs from bestselling books similar to yours, then ask it to identify what makes them effective. Once you understand the patterns, you can collaborate on creating descriptions that follow proven formulas while highlighting your book's unique elements.

Effective prompts include:

• "Here are three successful blurbs from [genre] bestsellers. Analyze what makes them compelling and create a similar structure for my book."

• "Write five different versions of this book description, each emphasizing different emotional hooks or tropes."

• "Adapt this blurb for different platforms (Amazon vs. social media vs. newsletter) while maintaining the core appeal."

Social Media Content That Doesn't Feel Like Work

Social media marketing feels overwhelming because authors think they need to constantly create original content. AI can help you develop months of social media posts based on your books, themes, and reader interests.

Give your AI the basic information about your book — plot, characters, themes, target audience — and ask it to generate content calendars, post ideas, and even specific copy for different platforms.

Try these approaches:

• "Create 30 social media post ideas based on the themes in my romance novel about second chances and small-town life."

• "Generate Instagram captions for book promotion posts that feel authentic rather than sales-focused."

• "Suggest viral video concepts for BookTok based on the tropes in my fantasy series."

• "Help me create a month-long social media campaign for my book launch."

Hot tip! Ask the AI to write catchy copy and hooks for TikTok using "second person voice POV." Those viral TikToks written in second person are really catchy!

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Reader Engagement Content: Building Your Fandom

This is where AI truly shines for authors. Once you've written your book, you can use AI to create bonus content that keeps readers engaged between releases and builds the kind of devoted fandom that sustains long-term careers.

Bonus scenes are the most effective reader engagement content because they're relatively easy to create and deliver genuine value to fans. These are scenes written from different character perspectives or exploring moments that happen "off-page" in your main story.

Here's how to approach this with AI:

• "Write a bonus scene from [character name]'s POV showing their thoughts during [specific scene from the book]."

• "Create a 'what happened after' scene that takes place six months after my novel ends."

• "Give me a plan for a prequel scene showing how [two characters] first met before the events of my story."

You can also create flash fiction and shorter serial content for newsletter subscribers. Give your AI the world and characters from your books, then ask it to generate short stories, character vignettes, or even "deleted scenes" that expand your fictional universe.

Target Audience Analysis and Personalization

Understanding your readers is important for effective marketing, but many authors rely on guesswork rather than analysis. AI can help you identify ideal readers and their preferences based on your book's content, genre conventions, and market research.

Use AI to analyze:

• Reader reviews of similar books to identify what appeals to your target audience

• Social media discussions about your genre or themes

• Successful marketing campaigns in your space

• Reader preferences and pain points that your book addresses

Then use these insights to tailor your marketing messages. Instead of generic promotion, you can create content that speaks directly to your readers' specific interests and needs.

Integration Strategy: Making It All Work Together

The key to successful author marketing is cohesion. All your marketing efforts should point back to a central hub where you can communicate with readers directly — either through a website blog or, preferably, a newsletter.

I strongly recommend against relying solely on social media platforms. If a platform changes its algorithm or shuts down your account, you lose access to your audience. Build your own platform that you control.

AI can help you maintain consistency across all your marketing channels by adapting core messages for different platforms while maintaining your voice and brand.

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Streamlining Your Marketing Workflow

Here's a time-saving approach: fold marketing tasks into your book production process rather than treating them as separate projects. When you're writing your book, that's also when you create bonus scenes. When you're designing your cover, create marketing images at the same time.

This approach prevents you from forgetting important marketing elements and makes the work feel like part of the creative process rather than a separate, dreaded chore.

The Marketing Pain Points Authors Face

Most authors struggle with the tasks they know the least about. For many, that means dealing with advertising platforms and technical analysis. The reports from Amazon Ads, Google Ads, or Facebook advertising are full of numbers, percentages, and metrics that might as well be written in a foreign language.

This is where AI becomes invaluable. Instead of staring at confusing data tables, you can upload your ad reports to AI and ask for plain-English analysis:

• "What does this Amazon Ads report tell me about my campaign performance?"

• "Which keywords are driving the most profitable clicks?"

• "Based on this data, what changes should I make to improve my ad performance?"

• "Explain these metrics in simple terms and give me three actionable next steps."

AI can also help you understand the advertising systems themselves. Before launching campaigns, interview your AI about best practices, targeting strategies, and budget allocation for your specific genre and goals.

Measuring What Matters

You don't need complex analytics to know if your marketing is working. The metrics that matter are simple: Are you gaining newsletter subscribers? Are you selling more books? Are readers engaging with your content?

AI can help you track these basic metrics and make adjustments based on what you observe, but don't get lost in vanity metrics that don't translate to actual book sales or reader relationships.

Your Marketing Future

The authors who thrive in today's market won't necessarily be the best writers — they'll be the best communicators. They'll build relationships with readers, create content that serves their audience, and maintain consistent presence across multiple channels.

AI makes this level of marketing activity accessible to individual authors for the first time. You no longer need a marketing team or huge budget to compete effectively. You just need willingness to experiment with AI tools and consistency in implementing the content they help you create.

Your books are just the beginning. The real business is in building lasting relationships with readers who love your stories and want more of your creative work. AI can help you create the content, campaigns, and connections that turn casual readers into devoted fans.

Start with one area — maybe bonus scenes for your newsletter or social media content for your next release. Experiment, learn what works, and gradually expand your AI-assisted marketing efforts.

Your future readers are out there waiting to discover your stories. AI can help you reach them more effectively than ever before.

What marketing tasks would you most like AI to help you with? Have you experimented with any of these approaches already? Share your experiences in the comments below — I'd love to hear what's working for you.

There's a persistent myth floating around about AI and writing that needs to be demolished: the idea that artificial intelligence has made learning writing craft obsolete. That you can simply press a button, get a book, and skip all that tedious studying of story structure and character development.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

AI doesn't eliminate the need for craft knowledge. It amplifies it. The authors getting the best results from AI tools aren't the ones trying to bypass craft fundamentals. They're the ones who understand story deeply enough to guide their AI collaborators toward meaningful, satisfying narratives.

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The "Magic Button" Misconception

The most common misconception I encounter about AI and writing is that the AI does everything for you. That it's some kind of literary vending machine where you insert a genre request and receive a finished novel.

The reality is AI is a co-writer, a junior writer, who knows about craft but doesn't always know how to apply it effectively.

AI understands what an outline structure looks like. It knows what an inciting incident is supposed to do. It can identify the elements of a three-act structure. But it doesn't always know what makes a good inciting incident for your specific story, or how to craft plot points that serve your particular characters and themes.

That's your job as the human collaborator. You're not just pressing buttons and hoping for magic. You're directing, evaluating, and making creative decisions at every stage of the process.

Why Craft Knowledge Is Your Superpower

Think of AI as an incredibly well-read writing assistant who's absorbed thousands of books but lacks the wisdom to know which techniques to apply when. Your craft knowledge becomes the navigation system that helps you steer this powerful tool toward your creative vision.

When you understand story structure, you can:

• Recognize when AI output aligns with proven storytelling principles and when it's meandering into generic territory

• Ask specific questions about pacing, character arcs, and plot development instead of vague requests for "make it better"

• Identify structural problems early before they compound throughout your entire manuscript

• Guide the AI toward genre-appropriate choices that will satisfy your target readers

Without this foundation, you're essentially asking a sophisticated parrot to tell you a story. It might produce grammatically correct sentences, but it won't necessarily create a compelling narrative that keeps readers turning pages.

The Learning Curve: Beginners and AI

For authors who are weak on craft basics, I have good news: you don't need to be an expert before you start experimenting with AI. You can learn craft and AI collaboration simultaneously. But you do need to acknowledge what you don't know and be willing to learn.

The key is setting ego aside and embracing a learning mindset.

Here's what I recommend: Interview the AI as you work. Ask questions about story structure, where you are in the narrative, and what typically comes next. Use prompts like:

• "Based on story structure principles, what should happen next in this scene?"

• "How does this plot point serve the overall character arc?"

• "What genre expectations should I be considering at this stage of the story?"

But don't stop there. Check out books on structure from the library, buy craft guides, ask experienced author friends for recommendations. The AI can be part of your craft education, but it shouldn't be your only teacher.

Quality Control: When AI Goes Off Track

How do you know when your AI collaboration is working versus when it's producing generic garbage? This is where craft knowledge becomes invaluable.

When something isn't working in your AI output and you're becoming frustrated, it's time to step back and evaluate the bigger picture. Here's my process:

1. Ask the AI to analyze your work so far based on established story structures (Save the Cat, James Scott Bell's Super Structure, Romancing the Beats for romance, etc.)

2. Request specific feedback: "What's missing from this story based on three-act structure?" or "How well are we hitting the expected beats for this genre?"

3. Get recommendations: "What should we focus on to strengthen the narrative foundation?"

4. Then make informed decisions about how to proceed

This approach only works if you understand enough about story structure to evaluate the AI's feedback and make good choices about implementation.

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Genre Mastery: The Secret Sauce

Understanding your genre's expectations and conventions is important for effective AI collaboration. Romance novels need specific beats to satisfy readers, including a Happily Ever After or Happy For Now ending. Mystery novels require fair play clues and satisfying reveals. Literary fiction has different pacing and character development expectations than thrillers.

If you don't understand these conventions, you can't guide your AI partner to deliver them.

Before you start any project, spend time discussing genre expectations with your AI. Ask questions like:

• "What are the essential beats for a [genre] novel?"

• "What do readers expect from the character development in this type of story?"

• "How should the pacing differ from other genres?"

• "What are the common pitfalls to avoid in [genre]?"

Then incorporate these insights into your story structure before you begin drafting. This prevents you from having to retrofit genre elements later, which is always more difficult and less effective.

The Teaching vs. Directing Distinction

There's an important difference between using AI to learn craft and using AI as a collaborator when you already understand craft.

Learning mode: AI becomes a patient tutor, explaining concepts, providing examples, and helping you understand why certain techniques work.

Collaboration mode: AI becomes a skilled assistant, implementing your creative vision and offering suggestions within the framework of your established expertise.

Both approaches are valuable, but they require different mindsets and produce different results. Beginners should embrace the learning mode without shame. Experienced writers can leverage collaboration mode for enhanced productivity and creative exploration.

But the biggest mistake authors make is asking AI to do everything for them. When you abdicate creative control entirely, you lose track of important story details that you expect the AI to remember but it forgets or misapplies, and the narrative loses cohesion because no one is maintaining the overall vision.

AI needs a guiding hand — it's a partner, not a replacement. The most successful AI collaborations happen when authors clearly understand which parts of the process they want to handle personally and which parts they want to delegate, with the author always remaining the creative director who makes final decisions about story direction, character development, and thematic elements.

Advanced Craft: Speaking the Language

Once you have solid fundamentals, craft knowledge becomes your vocabulary for more sophisticated AI collaboration. Instead of struggling to explain what you want, you can communicate in precise literary terms that the AI understands immediately.

Consider the difference between these requests:

Vague request: "Make this scene more exciting."

Craft-informed request: "Increase the dramatic tension in this scene by adding a ticking clock element and raising the stakes for the protagonist. The scene should end on a cliffhanger that propels us into the next plot point."

The second approach gets better results faster because you're speaking the AI's language and providing specific, actionable direction.

Knowledge truly is power in AI collaboration. The more you understand about story craft, the more control you have over your creative output.

Craft mastery doesn't just make AI collaboration easier—it makes it more creative and sophisticated. Advanced writers can:

• Push AI to explore complex character psychology by asking specific questions about motivation, internal conflict, and character growth

• Experiment with narrative techniques like unreliable narrators, multiple POVs, or non-linear timelines with AI assistance

• Blend genres deliberately by understanding the conventions of each and asking AI to help navigate the intersection

• Create nuanced thematic elements by discussing how plot events can reinforce deeper meanings

None of this is possible without a solid understanding of how stories work at a fundamental level.

The Future Belongs to the Craft-Savvy

As AI tools become more sophisticated and widespread, the authors who thrive will be those who combine technical proficiency with deep craft knowledge. Understanding story isn't becoming less important — it's becoming the differentiating factor between generic AI-assisted content and genuinely compelling narratives.

The writers who study character development, master story structure, and understand their genres deeply will be the ones who can guide AI toward truly exceptional work. They'll know how to ask the right questions, recognize quality output, and maintain creative control over their narratives.

The writers who try to skip craft fundamentals will find themselves lost in a sea of technically competent but emotionally hollow text.

Read the classics of writing instruction: McKee's Story, Bell's Plot & Structure, Vogler's The Writer's Journey. Study your genre's conventions. Analyze books you love to understand why they work.

Then bring that knowledge into your AI collaborations. Use it to guide your prompts, evaluate your output, and maintain creative control over your stories.

The craft can't be replaced because the craft is what makes stories matter. AI can help you implement it more efficiently, explore it more thoroughly, and express it more clearly. But understanding what makes a story work? That remains entirely, irreplaceably human.

What writing craft resources have been most valuable in your journey? And how has understanding story structure changed the way you work with AI tools? I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments below.

Kevin McLaughlin almost quit writing.

This successful author with 108 published novels, someone who'd been writing professionally for over a decade, was ready to walk away from the career he'd built. Not because of market changes or burnout or any of the usual suspects that drive authors to retirement.

He was ready to quit because AI was stealing his joy.

In an interview on our Brave New Bookshelf podcast, Kevin shared his story of experimenting with AI for drafting, only to discover that it was shortening the part of writing he loved most (creating the initial draft) while adding mountains of revision work — the part he enjoyed least.

"I hit the point last summer where I almost quit writing. I almost just gave it up. I almost just stopped. And I was like, this isn't fun. So if I have to use the tool in this way, then I'm gonna quit because it's just not fun for me anymore."

But here's the beautiful part: Kevin didn't quit. Instead, he made a revolutionary decision. He chose joy over pressure, happiness over productivity metrics, and his own creative fulfillment over what anyone else thought he "should" be doing with AI.

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The False Choice We've Been Sold

Somewhere along the way, we've been sold a false narrative about AI and creativity. The extremes dominate the conversation:

• One side screams: "AI is theft! If you use it at all, you're not a real author!"

• The other side insists: "You must use AI for everything or you'll be left behind!"

Both sides are wrong.

The real answer lies in a question most authors have never been asked: What brings you joy in the writing process?

Not what's most productive. Not what's most efficient. Not what will make you the most money or get you the most praise or avoid the most criticism.

What makes you happy?

Rediscovering Your Creative Joy

Kevin's solution was brilliant in its simplicity. He kept the drafting for himself — the part that made him excited to sit down at his computer every day. But he let AI handle transcription when he dictated, brainstorming when he needed fresh ideas, and image creation for his covers.

He even returned to handwriting in notebooks, using AI to transcribe his work later. "Everything old is new again," he told us, describing how he could now leave his computer and phone at home, sit somewhere beautiful with just a pen and paper, and write without distractions.

This isn't about rejecting AI. It's about being intentional with it.

My Own Joy Revolution

I've had to make similar choices. I've always hated writing first drafts. Always. It's been a painful, dreaded part of my process since the very beginning. But I love story development, working with AI to flesh out details, connecting dots, creating compelling narratives that make readers invested in the characters.

And I absolutely love editing. Taking all the pieces and making them shine, polishing until the story gleams — that's where I find my creative bliss.

So why would I force myself to suffer through first drafts when AI can handle that heavy lifting? Why would I let anyone else's opinion about "real" writing make me miserable during the part of my job that used to drain my creative energy?

I chose joy. And my writing career has never been better.

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The Balance Between Joy and Productivity

I see authors struggling with two extremes:

1. Maximum productivity, minimum joy — Using AI for everything, cranking out content, but feeling disconnected from their creative work.

2. Maximum joy, no finished projects — Protecting their creative process so fiercely that they never actually complete anything.

The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle, and it's different for everyone.

Kevin chose joy over pure productivity when he decided to keep drafting for himself, even though AI assistance might have been faster. I chose productivity for first drafts because that's where I was stuck and miserable.

Finding your balance requires experimentation. Try different approaches. Pay attention to how you feel during and after different parts of your process. Adjust accordingly.

Finding Your Pain Points and Joy Points

Most authors instinctively know what brings them joy in the writing process, but they've been trained to ignore it in favor of what they think they "should" be doing.

Here's what I tell authors: Identify your pain points — the parts of the process that are most annoying and aggravating. Then let AI handle the majority of the work in those areas.

Some examples I've seen:

• The author who loves plotting but hates description now uses AI to flesh out scene details while keeping all the plot development for themselves.

• The author who adores character development but struggles with pacing uses AI to help structure scenes while diving deep into character work personally.

• The author who enjoys dialogue but finds action scenes tedious collaborates with AI on fight scenes while writing every conversation by hand.

There's no right or wrong way to divide this work. The only rule is to protect your joy.

The Suffering Myth Needs to Die

Let's crush this toxic idea once and for all: You are not supposed to suffer for your art.

The notion that you have to practically open your veins and bleed onto the page for your work to be any good is romantic nonsense that's keeping authors miserable. If writing is your full-time job, why are you making yourself miserable doing it?

Think about it this way: If you had a friend who was constantly miserable at their job, you'd tell them to quit or find a different approach. You wouldn't tell them that suffering was necessary for success.

I want my writing career to be a total joy. I can still write stories that people love and enjoy every moment of the process. I don't need to suffer, and neither do you.

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Escaping the Outrage Culture

One of the biggest threats to creative joy right now is the constant outrage surrounding AI. Social media is flooded with hot takes, virtue signaling, and performative anger designed to get clicks and engagement.

"AI is theft!" "AI was trained on stolen work!" "If you use AI, you're complicit!"

Here's what I've learned: This noise exists primarily on social media, and you can choose not to engage with it.

I've largely stepped away from the outrage cycle. I stopped engaging with controversial AI posts on Facebook. I only spend time in specialty groups focused on constructive discussion. I've drastically reduced my social media consumption and instead spend that time reading and enjoying puzzle games.

I'm all about the joy now. I will not play into the outrage anymore.

The Permission You Don't Need (But I'm Giving You Anyway)

Many authors feel guilty about using AI at all. They worry that using AI assistance means they don't "own" their stories anymore, or that they're somehow cheating.

Let me be clear: AI is a tool. It doesn't do anything on its own without your direction. All it's doing is assisting you, the author. You don't feel guilty about using spell check or grammar tools or writing prompts or any of the other countless tools that help you craft better stories.

You don't need anyone's permission to use AI exactly how you want to use it. Not mine, not your critique partner's, not some stranger ranting on social media about "real" authorship.

You also don't need permission to NOT use AI for everything. Despite what some productivity gurus might tell you, you don't have to maximize every possible efficiency. You don't have to use AI for every task just because it exists.

Your Creative Future is in Your Hands

The beautiful truth about AI and creativity is that you get to choose how to use it. Not the productivity gurus, not the outrage merchants, not the gatekeepers who want to tell you what "real" authorship looks like.

You get to decide:

• Which parts of your process bring you joy and deserve protection

• Which parts cause you stress and could benefit from AI assistance

• How to balance efficiency with creative fulfillment

• What tools serve your creative vision and which ones don't

Kevin almost quit writing because he thought he had to use AI in a way that made him miserable. The breakthrough came when he realized he could use it exactly how he wanted — or not at all.

Your breakthrough will come when you give yourself the same permission.

The Joy-Centered Approach

Here's what I want you to try:

1. Identify your joy points — What parts of writing make you excited to sit down at your computer?

2. Identify your pain points — What parts make you procrastinate or feel drained?

3. Protect the joy — Keep those parts for yourself, regardless of what anyone else says about efficiency.

4. Experiment with assistance — Try using AI for the parts that drain your energy.

5. Ignore the noise — Social media outrage is not your creative compass.

6. Remember why you started — You became a writer because you love stories, not because you love suffering.

The technology will keep evolving. The outrage will keep cycling. But your creative joy? That's precious and irreplaceable.

Kevin found his joy in drafting and kept it for himself. I found mine in story development and editing, and handed off the parts that made me miserable. Your joy configuration will be different from both of ours, and that's exactly as it should be.

The future of creative work isn't about humans versus machines. It's about humans using machines to amplify the parts of creativity that bring them the most fulfillment.

Choose joy. Protect what matters. And ignore anyone who tells you that suffering is required for great art.

What brings you the most joy in your writing process? And what parts would you be happy to hand off to AI assistance? Share your thoughts in the comments below. I'd love to hear about your own joy-centered approach to writing. Learn more about Kevin McLaughlin and listen to his interview on Brave New Bookshelf.

Have you ever had a brilliant story idea that excited you, only to sit down to write and realize you had no clue how to develop it? Or maybe you've stared at a blank page, knowing you want to write something but feeling overwhelmed by all the decisions you need to make?

This is where the Expand Method becomes invaluable.

Based on Randy Ingermanson's famous Snowflake Method, the Expand Method uses AI collaboration to take any seed of an idea — no matter how small — and systematically develop it into a complete story. Think of it like looking at a photo on your tablet and gradually zooming in until you can see every detail clearly.

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Starting with Any Fragment

The beauty of the Expand Method is that you can start with literally anything. A one-sentence pitch. A vibe. A situation. A character. A fragment of dialogue you overheard. It doesn't matter how small or underdeveloped your initial idea is.

The key is setting up the collaboration properly from the beginning. Here's how I typically start:

"Hey there! We're going to start working on a story together. I only have a fragment of an idea, and I want to expand it to a full story. You're going to help me by asking questions and helping me refine and expand my idea. Let's get started."

Then I share whatever I have. For this article, let's use this example:

"Here's my idea for a romantic comedy: a woman is set to go on vacation with her best friend at the Jersey Shore. She takes the train from Manhattan in the grueling summer heat and a car to the beach house. But her friend cancels on her and leaves her the house for the week. Then she makes friends with the guy next door whose extended family are all a little crazy."

That's it. That's all I need to get started.

The Expansion Stages

The Expand Method follows a logical progression that builds systematically:

1. Idea expands to Hook and Pitch

2. Hook and Pitch expands to Synopsis

3. Synopsis expands to Character Sheets

4. Character Sheets expand to Setting Information

5. Setting Information expands to Outline

6. Outline expands to Chapter Breakdown

7. Chapter Breakdown expands to Scene Beats

8. Scene Beats expand to Skeleton Draft

9. Skeleton Draft expands to Detailed Draft

Each one of these steps builds on the information provided in the previous steps because everything you brainstorm with the AI ends up in the context of the conversation. So, by the time you get to the Outline, you have everything you and the AI needs to make that outline happen. That's the beauty of working in a conversation with the AI!

You can stop at any stage where you feel comfortable taking over the writing yourself. Some authors only want an outline. Others want AI assistance all the way through the drafting process. The choice is entirely yours.

Expanding Our Example: From Idea to Hook and Pitch

Let's see this method in action. Starting with our Jersey Shore idea, I would say to the AI:

"Now, let's expand this idea to a hook and pitch for the book. I want something that captures the romantic comedy elements and the setting clearly."

The AI might respond with something like:

Hook: When Manhattan marketing executive Sarah's best friend bails on their Jersey Shore vacation, she's stuck alone in a beach house next to the loudest, most chaotic Italian-American family on the coast — and their gorgeous, surprisingly sweet son who keeps rescuing her from one vacation disaster after another.

Pitch: Sarah Lenton has been planning this Jersey Shore getaway for months — a chance to decompress from her high-stress marketing job and reconnect with her college roommate. But when her friend cancels last minute, Sarah finds herself alone in an unfamiliar beach house with nothing but terrible weather and her own workaholic tendencies for company. Enter the Rosetti family next door: three generations of loud, loving, opinionated relatives who treat every meal like a celebration and every conversation like a debate. At the center of the chaos is Marco, the family's reluctant peacekeeper who's been tasked with managing the annual family reunion while nursing his own broken heart. As Sarah gets pulled into their world of impromptu dance parties, competitive bocce ball tournaments, and enough food to feed half of New Jersey, she begins to question everything she thought she wanted from life — and love.

Now we have something much more substantial to work with. (Darn it all, now I want to really write this story, not just use it as an example! Lol. This always happens to me...)

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The Collaborative Balance

At each expansion stage, I remain in control of the final output. The AI provides suggestions, alternatives, and helps reduce the cognitive load of story development, but I'm making all the creative decisions.

This collaboration is particularly valuable because building a story requires enormous executive functioning. You need to track characters, plotlines, setting details, emotional arcs, pacing, and countless other elements simultaneously. This can be exhausting, especially if you are already dealing with plenty of real-life decisions as well. AI can handle much of this grunt work, freeing you to focus on the creative choices that matter most.

Sometimes I know exactly what I want and can give specific direction. Other times, I need the AI to generate options because I'm genuinely stuck. Both approaches work perfectly within this system.

Prompting Strategies That Work

The word "expand" is your friend. I use it consistently throughout the process because it tells the AI exactly what I want it to do with the existing material.

Be specific when you can, but don't worry when you can't. Sometimes you'll know exactly what you want from a character sheet or setting description. Other times, you'll need the AI to suggest possibilities. Both situations are normal and productive.

Always declare your genre early in the process. If you're not sure what genre you're writing, ask the AI to suggest options based on your initial idea. Don't try to use too many genres at once! I know it's all the rage for new authors to say, "I am writing this super unique book that's an epic fantasy, cozy mystery, with a little body horror thrown in." No, please don't do that to yourself. Not only is that confusing to write, but it will eventually be a pain to market it and find the audience. Stick to one genre and one to two subgenres. The AI needs to understand genre conventions to make informed suggestions about plot structure, character archetypes, and reader expectations.

This method works for every genre, but you need to be explicit about what you're writing. Romance has different structural requirements than mystery. Literary fiction follows different conventions than urban fantasy. The more specific you can be about genre and subgenre, the better the AI can help you develop elements that will satisfy reader expectations while still creating something unique and engaging.

Common Pitfalls to Avoid

The biggest mistake authors make is getting too detailed too early. They'll spend hours perfecting a character's backstory before they even have a solid plot, or they'll obsess over setting details that may not even matter to the final story. The KISS principle works here, Keep It Simple, Stupid. Focus on the most basic and straightforward solutions to a problem to ensure clarity and efficiency.

Another common problem is not knowing how to ask for what they want. Authors get lost because they're not communicating clearly with the AI about their vision or preferences. Use craft terminology as much as possible. You know what an "inciting incident" is, so ask for that! The AI understands story terminology.

Here's a solution: create an expansion roadmap at the beginning. Tell the AI something like:

"We're going to expand this idea step by step. First, we'll create a hook and pitch. Then we'll develop a synopsis. After that, we'll create character sheets, then setting information, then an outline. At each stage, I want you to ask me questions if anything is unclear, and I'll guide the direction based on my preferences."

This gives both you and the AI a clear path forward.

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When to Stop Expanding

The beauty of this method is its flexibility. You can use AI assistance up to any point where you feel comfortable taking over. Use it as little or as much as you want! You'll find the right balance after working with AI for a while.

If you're comfortable outlining but prefer to write your own first drafts, stop after the outline stage. If you love character development but struggle with plot structure, focus the expansion on plotting elements. If you want AI help with everything from beats to actual prose, keep expanding through all the stages.

Your comfort level with AI determines how far you take the expansion, not some arbitrary standard of what "real" writing looks like. Remember that no one but you defines how an author can work. Anyone out there who tells you you're not a "real author" because you use AI is only looking to gate-keep and stamp out any competition. Don't listen to them.

Beyond the Blank Page

The Expand Method solves one of the most frustrating problems authors face: the tyranny of the blank page. Instead of sitting there wondering where to start, you have a systematic process for developing any idea, no matter how small or underdeveloped. You can start with the barest of ideas with this method!

It also addresses the overwhelming nature of story development. Rather than trying to figure out characters, plot, setting, and structure all at once, you tackle one element at a time, building systematically toward a complete story. And because AI can make decisions based on context, you'll get richer story ideas the longer the conversation goes on.

Most importantly, it leverages AI's strengths while keeping you in the creative driver's seat. The AI handles the cognitive load and grunt work, while you make the artistic choices that determine your story's unique voice and vision.

Starting Your Own Expansion

Ready to try the Expand Method yourself? Here's your starter prompt template:

"We're going to develop a story together using an expansion method. I'll start with a basic idea, and you'll help me expand it step by step into a complete story. At each stage, I want you to ask clarifying questions and offer suggestions, but I'll make all the final creative decisions. Our expansion stages will be: idea → hook and pitch → synopsis → character sheets → setting information → outline → chapter breakdown → scene beats. Let's begin with this idea: [your story fragment]"

Then see where the collaboration takes you. You might be surprised how quickly that tiny seed of an idea blooms into a story you're excited to write!

Remember: every published novel started with a fragment just like yours. The Expand Method simply gives you a systematic way to nurture that fragment into full bloom.

Want to learn more systematic approaches to AI-assisted writing? Check out our courses at the Future Fiction Academy, where we teach everything from basic prompting to advanced story development techniques. And if you try the Expand Method with your own story idea, I'd love to hear how it works for you in the comments below.

Last week, I received a comment that perfectly encapsulates the current state of AI anxiety in the author community. A fellow author restacked my recent article about AI sequencing with this charming note:

"AI ALERT: This totally misguided cretin is promoting AI generated garbage. AI is NOT just another writing tool. When I use Word 2003 or LibreOffice Writer 7.xx, the words I type COME OUT OF MY HEAD!! Time to shun people like this. They help the cheaters rob us of sales and readership, not to mention clogging up the inboxes of every publisher out there."

I'm sharing this not because it hurt my feelings (my skin is plenty thick at this point), but because it perfectly illustrates the fear-driven hostility that's been tearing apart our author community. And with recent court decisions and survey results, the tensions are only getting higher.

It's time we addressed this head-on.

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The Legal Landscape Has Shifted

Two significant court cases [1- Anthropic wins key US ruling on AI training in authors' copyright lawsuit] [2 - Meta fends off authors' US copyright lawsuit over AI] decided this past week have fundamentally changed the AI training landscape. In separate rulings involving Meta and Anthropic, federal judges determined that training AI on copyrighted works constitutes "fair use" under U.S. copyright law.

This isn't a minor legal footnote. This is the new reality.

Judge William Alsup ruled that Anthropic's use of books to train its Claude AI was "exceedingly transformative," comparing it to "any reader aspiring to be a writer" who studies existing works to "create something different." While Anthropic was found liable for storing pirated copies of books, the training itself was deemed legal.

What this means: AI companies can continue training their models on copyrighted material without permission from creators. The legal uncertainty that kept many authors on the sidelines has been largely resolved.

My own books were in those training datasets. And you know what? If AI companies used my work to train their models, then I'm going to use those models right back. That seems like fair play to me.

The Survey That Shattered Illusions

A month before these court decisions landed, BookBub released survey results that sent shockwaves through the anti-AI community. Of 1,200+ authors surveyed, 45% are currently using AI in their work.

The anti-AI crowd was dismayed. They'd convinced themselves that "real" authors weren't using these tools. The survey results were a harsh wake-up call.

On Threads, the reactions ranged from denial to despair:

"These numbers were much higher than I expected, and left me feeling disturbed."

"There are ABSOLUTELY pro AI authors in this industry and I side-eye all of them."

"They probably had ChatGPT fill out the form for them."

Here's what I suspect: the real numbers are even higher. Many AI-positive authors likely avoided the survey, worried about anonymity and potential backlash from the torches-and-pitchforks crowd. They were trying to protect themselves, and I can understand why.

The Shunning Campaign's Real Impact

Yes, there are organized efforts to blacklist AI-using authors. Lists on Goodreads. Attempted blacklists on Facebook (until legal threats shut them down). Coordinated review bombing. The whole pitchforks-and-torches routine. You may think, from the amount of screaming, that all authors are anti-AI.

But here's the reality: it's mostly sound and fury, signifying nothing.

The authors I know who've been targeted? Their books are climbing the charts and selling well. And others, even if they did get buried by bad reviews, they could spin up a new pen name tomorrow and keep writing.

The anti-AI crowd is engaging in an exercise in defeatism. They scream and expend enormous energy, while we just keep calm and carry on.

The Community Divide

The pro-AI community remains open to helping people transition, as long as those people weren't total jerks before they decided to try AI. There are plenty of authors who were initially skeptical but are now curious to learn. We welcome them with open arms.

But I've noticed something telling: this openness doesn't go both directions. I've never seen an anti-AI author offer help or empathy to someone who decided to try AI tools. They condemn them for even experimenting.

This one-way hostility is unsustainable and ultimately self-defeating.

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The Karma Factor

Here's what I see coming: AI adoption will become increasingly inevitable. The authors who are aggressively anti-AI today will find themselves isolated as more colleagues embrace these tools.

Some may eventually swallow their pride and want to learn. But if they've spent years alienating the people who are fluent in AI — the ones who could help them transition — who will they turn to?

This is why I believe their current behavior will bite them in the ass someday. Not because I wish them ill, but because they're burning bridges they may desperately need later.

The Psychology of the Uncomfortable Middle

Who's driving most of this hostility? It's not the brand-new authors (they're often eager to learn new tools) or the highly successful ones (they see AI as a way to 10x their already-thriving careers).

It's the authors stuck in the uncomfortable middle. They've developed some skills, published some books, and worked hard to reach their current non-expert level. But they're not making good money yet, and they see AI as threatening to make their hard-won progress worthless.

I understand this fear. For them, it feels like the time and energy invested in getting this far was wasted. It's devastating to feel like you're finally getting somewhere, only to have the rules change.

But here's the truth: your existing skills aren't worthless. They're the foundation that makes AI collaboration possible.

The Productive Path Forward

For authors willing to be open-minded, there's a better way through this. I start by identifying pain points — tasks in their process that cause frustration or take too much time. Usually for "middle" authors, this means editing, social media, or other business tasks they don't enjoy.

Once they learn to use AI for these pain points, I show them how it can enhance and level up the skills they already have. Their craft knowledge becomes the director's chair for AI collaboration.

But first, they need to know the tools. They can do this by being open-minded, willing to try new things. I know it's hard, but it's the only way to start.

Moving Beyond the Witch Hunts

Look, I try to be empathetic. Empathy and Harmony are high in my CliftonStrengths. I understand that change is scary and that people's livelihoods feel threatened. They lash out and attack out of fear. They scream, they review bomb, they try to “destroy” those they fear.

But, ultimately, these are grown adults acting like children. I can show some empathy, then I need to deliver the cold, hard truth:

AI isn't going anywhere. Learn to live with it or sit down and be quiet.

Practical Advice for Tired Pro-AI Authors

If you're exhausted by the hostility and division, here's my best advice: protect your peace.

Don't feel obligated to educate every hard-headed person on the internet about AI. If engaging with hostile anti-AI voices is causing you grief, block them and move on. Let them figure out their own path.

We're responsible for our own families, businesses, and creative lives. We're not responsible for dragging unwilling people into the future.

The Choice Before Us

The recent court decisions and survey results make one thing clear: AI is here to stay. The legal framework supports it. Nearly half of authors are already using it. The technology continues to improve rapidly.

We have a choice as a community. We can continue tearing each other apart over tools and techniques, or we can focus on what actually matters: telling great stories that readers love.

I know which side I'm on.

The authors who choose curiosity over fear, collaboration over isolation, and progress over panic will thrive in this new landscape. The ones who choose witch hunts and shunning campaigns will find themselves increasingly irrelevant.

As one BookBub survey respondent put it beautifully:

"The creative landscape is shifting and AI is becoming a major force in our reality as creators. Let's help each other learn, adapt, mourn where needed, and embrace change as empowered individuals and communities. It's time to stop tearing each other down for opinions and usage about AI."

The future belongs to authors who adapt, experiment, and support each other through change. The witch hunts and fear-mongering? That's just the sound of the past trying to hold back the tide.

Choose your side wisely.

Interested in learning how to use AI tools productively in your writing career? Check out our courses at the Future Fiction Academy. Want to learn more about flexible AI use? You’ll love this Substack article I wrote on figuring out what works best for you.

I see it constantly in our Future Fiction Academy community: an author types a single prompt into ChatGPT or Claude, hits enter, and then feels disappointed when the output doesn't match their vision. They'll write something like "Create a detailed outline for my fantasy romance novel" and expect the AI to somehow divine exactly what beats, conflicts, and emotional arcs they want.

This is what I call "magic button" thinking, and it's the biggest barrier preventing authors from getting truly useful results from AI tools.

The solution isn't better prompts. It's thinking in sequences.

The One-Shot Trap

The most common example of magic button thinking I encounter is with outlines. Authors seem to believe they can get a perfect, detailed outline from AI in a single prompt that will nail all the appropriate beats of their genre with rich, specific details.

What they actually get is a skeleton outline. A basic structure that reads like it came from a "Story Structure 101" textbook. Generic plot points with no personality, no unique twists, and no connection to their specific story vision.

Then they conclude that AI is terrible at outlining, when really, they're just using it wrong.

The same thing happens with character creation, world-building, marketing copy, and countless other writing tasks. Authors approach AI like a vending machine: insert prompt, receive perfect output.

But AI doesn't work that way. It works through conversation, iteration, and building understanding over multiple exchanges.

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Why Authors Resist Sequential Thinking

For many authors, understanding story is instinctual. We don't always know the ending of the story we want to tell. Some of us feel the story out as we go, discovering plot twists and character revelations along the way. That process of discovery is often what we love most about writing.

When you don't know where you're going, planning backwards from an outcome feels impossible, even antithetical to your creative process.

But here's what I've learned: you can still do discovery writing with AI, but you do your exploration as part of the sequence-building process. Instead of discovering your story during the first draft, you discover it during the planning phase through strategic questioning and iteration.

You ask a lot of "what-ifs." You build sequences that explore different possibilities. It may take more iterations, but it's worth it to get the sequence right because then you can reproduce and refine your results.

The Power of Sequential Thinking: A Real Example

Let me show you the difference with a concrete example. Most authors approach writing book blurbs like this:

"Here's my entire finished novel. Write me a blurb for this book."

What they get back is often disappointing. The AI tries to summarize the whole plot, includes too many characters, and lacks the punchy, focused appeal that makes readers want to buy.

Here's how I approach it with a sequence:

Step 1: I find a blurb I love from a successful book in my genre and show it to the AI.

Step 2: I ask the AI to analyze this blurb: "Break down this blurb and tell me what the components are and why it works."

Step 3: The AI identifies elements like the hook, the stakes, the emotional conflict, the voice, and the structure.

Step 4: I give the AI my book's synopsis (not the whole manuscript) and say: "Now craft a blurb for my book using the same style and structure as the example we just analyzed."

The output is dramatically sharper and more focused than anything I could get from a one-shot prompt. The AI has context about what makes a good blurb, understands the specific style I want, and has clear direction about how to approach my particular story.

The Benefits of Sequential Thinking

Sequences do more than just improve individual outputs. They "prime the pump" of the AI conversation. By stepping through information systematically, you're setting examples of how you want the AI to behave and what standards you expect.

This gives you:

• Consistency: The AI maintains your preferences across multiple outputs.

• Reproducibility: You can use the same sequence for multiple projects.

• Better context: Each step builds on the previous one, creating richer understanding.

• Quality control: You can catch and correct problems before they compound.

Most importantly, sequences give you the desired outcomes because you've set them up from the beginning rather than hoping the AI will guess correctly.

The Most Common Sequence Mistakes

The biggest mistake authors make is assuming AI can read their minds (which it cannot, and I've written about this extensively in a previous post). They don't give the AI enough information to work with, then wonder why the output misses the mark.

Another common problem is not keeping the AI updated with the most current information. If you correct an output in step 3 of your sequence, make sure that correction carries forward to steps 4, 5, and beyond. Don't let the AI work with outdated or incorrect assumptions.

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Making the Mindset Shift

The key realization that helps authors embrace sequential thinking is this: AI is usually no better than a junior writer. It's not meant to write your whole book without significant input from you.

Even our tool at Future Fiction Academy, YourFirstDraft.ai, requires authors to invest significant time and energy filling out story details before it can generate a first draft. You're never just saying "Write me a sci-fi romance." You're always giving the AI as much context as possible to work with.

Authors who only ever go into a story with a "vibe" and a few scattered ideas will probably never use AI for more than basic brainstorming because they want to figure everything out as they write. And that's fine! Not every author needs to work with AI extensively.

But authors who are comfortable with outlining, or who are willing to use their "vibe" to discovery-write an outline through AI conversation, can make this shift successfully.

Getting Started with Sequences

The planning method is totally individual. Some authors love sticky notes. Others prefer mind maps or simple lists. Use whatever system helps you think through the steps logically.

Start by identifying a writing task that consistently disappoints you when you use a single prompt. Character creation? Plot development? Marketing copy? Pick one area where you know you need better results.

Then work backwards: What would a perfect outcome look like? What information would the AI need to deliver that outcome? What steps could you take to provide that information systematically?

Don't worry about building the perfect sequence immediately. Start simple, test it out, and refine based on what works and what doesn't. The goal is to move beyond magic button thinking toward strategic collaboration.

The Strategic Collaboration Mindset

Here's the fundamental shift: stop expecting AI to read your mind and start directing it through a planned process.

Instead of hoping for magic, create a system. Instead of one perfect prompt, build a conversation. Instead of crossing your fingers and hoping for the best, take control of the outcome by designing the journey.

This doesn't eliminate creativity or spontaneity from your writing process. It channels those impulses more effectively. You can still discover surprising plot twists and unexpected character developments. You're just doing that discovery in a more intentional, reproducible way.

Sequential thinking transforms AI from a disappointing magic button into a powerful creative collaborator. But only if you're willing to put in the strategic thinking upfront to design sequences that serve your specific creative goals.

Want to learn more about building effective AI sequences for your writing? Check out our courses at the Future Fiction Academy. And if you missed my previous article about why the AI can't read your mind, that's essential background for understanding why sequences work so much better than one-shot prompts.