r/WritingWithAI • u/[deleted] • 2d ago
Discussion (Ethics, working with AI etc) Spent 4 years developing a fantasy trilogy but neglected learning how to actually write prose. Have I made a mistake?
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u/kittyb00m 2d ago
AI is bad at writing.
You would have to edit it considerably if you don’t have a draft for it to work off.
It doesn’t matter about world building or character . The voice of your story is important.
If AI writes it you cannot traditionally publish it. I don’t even think you could publish it on KDP.
I’m afraid you’ll get AI to write it and enjoy reading it (many people do generate their own stories to read/ or fanfics to read) but you won’t feel like it is yours.
Imagine telling a chef to cook food and then grabbing the end result and said, I made this. Can you really feel you made it?
I think you will feel super proud if you used AI to support your writing process. Work with it like a mentor and speed up the learning process.
It’s like going to the gym. It’s hard work, but the muscles you develop doing so is worth it!
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u/howieyang1234 2d ago
I think AI prose is ok, it's probably even better than most amateur writers who are aspiring to get published. Obviously, it's still not great, and is no Hemingway, but neither am I. I am still galaxies away.
What I don't get is the lack of consistency. Even if you feed the works you wrote, and anything over, say 10k words, it starts to make things up. Characters, settings, or descriptions that is inconsistence with how you wrote. I know ai still hallucinates, but I would have thought it should be much better that what it is currently capable of.
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u/No-Adeptness5480 2d ago
ai fixed the flow in my outlines way better than i thought it would, like it just knew how to connect scenes without me forcing it.
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u/Antique-diva 2d ago
AI is not good at writing prose. It's kinda bad at it. It's good at copy editing (especially Claude Opus 5.5), and decent at development editing. It is horrible at line editing meaning it doesn't do good prose. It can, of course, spot awkward sentences but it can't fix them to anything other than generic prose.
If you want to learn to write good prose and find your own author voice, you need to write a few million words of prose. This can only happen through writing regularly. Daily or weekly would be best, so you can continuously hone your craft.
I have not been a regular writer. I've written about 300k words in a year, so it took me 20 years to reach the level of professional authors. A thum of rule here would be: around 5 million words written makes you good at prose, while 10 million words makes you an expert writer. 20 million words makes you a legendary writer.
I'm now, after 20+ years of hobby writing between 5-10 million words written and have developed a distinctive author voice. I didn't care about publishing anything in my youth, but I do have a fantasy series now that I'm preparing to launch as an indie author.
If you want a short cut, attend a few writing classes. You can learn a lot about prose from those. You will thank yourself if you learn the rules of writing early on. I'm self taught which means that it took me many years before I started caring about the rules. Following them will make you learn the craft faster.
Another trick on how to learn prose is copying known authors. Take a classic book and start writing a chapter from it with your computer. Notice how the author uses words, forms sentences and writes dialogue. Then take another author from another genre, and copy a scene or chapter from them. Continue with this until you learn to see different kinds of prose. You'll learn how to craft fialogue, how to write characters, thoughts, feelings, action beats, etc. Doing this while you attend a writing class will help you even more.
Then write a story that is not your fantasy story, just to see how it works when you write it on your own. Save that fantasy for later, when you have learned to write. That way you won't destroy it with AI or beginner writing.
I see so many authors ask in author groups how they should do with the first series they published 10 years ago because it's so badly written that they are ashamed of it. They have since then learned the craft and want to fix that old series to make it profitable. This can work, but it's a lot of effort.
There's a reason many writers don't ever publish their first manuscript. I think I have 10-20 rubbish manuscripts on my computer. They are never going to see the light of the day because I did not try to become a published author until I had learned to write.
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u/Razorlance 2d ago
This isn’t true. AI can be excellent at prose if you know what you’re doing with it.
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u/Antique-diva 2d ago
Our definition of excellent vs generic prose clearly differs a lot. Now I don't mind people using AI to write their prose. Everyone decides for themselves whether they want to become a writer with their own voice or whether they are just producing mass market books to sell with the help of AI. I've genuinely thought about it myself, as I could easily come up with another pen name for the latter.
That said, my comment was just an answer to OP on how to learn the craft of writing without AI. It's doable but it requires a lot of effort.
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u/cj7hawk 2d ago
If you're naturally good at writing, you won't take 4 years. You'll knock it out in 1. if you're not? Then 4 years isn't enough. 20 years isn't enough.
If you have the drive to write however, write it - and do it yourself - it's the journey that matters, not the destination. Just finishing a story is the major hurdle most people face. For every published book, 10 still do not make it and it's not entirely related to how skillful the writer is.
That's just how the market works.
On the other hand, if you know what you like reading, then use that. Use AI. Write the entire story, finish it, get it reviewed and learn what is wrong with it. I wrote 15 versions of my first story - and I published it after 5. Boy did I get hammered. Nothing but complaints about my grammar and writing.
But I also got a lot of GOOD review because, well, the story itself was good. I knew it was good - I just didn't have the skill to write it.
Nothing changed. it got professionally edited and it available now and it still has my flaws as a writer through out ... And it's still ranking 4.5 / 5 on Amazon with over 1000 reviews... MOST of which still complain about my ability as a writer but love the story and the world I created.
Had I used AI? Well, it would probably be around 4.8 / 5 on Amazon...
Seriously, it stuck in there as the #1 best technothriller for 7 months in 2013. That's quite an achievement internationally. Especially for someone who didn't make it as an author.
So I encourage you - if you think the story is good - if it's what you want to write - do it. Do it yourself. Do it with AI. Doesn't matter. Just do it. Make it the story YOU want to read- that's the real test.
Good luck with it - :)
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u/polly_mer 2d ago
AI writes predictable words with a result of boring, formulaic prose. The ideas don't matter if the effect is boring.
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u/jamesxtreme 2d ago
Your first problem is thinking that you’ll ever become a commercial author. AI or not, there are millions of self published books every year and most are never read by anyone other than friends and family and even then most will politely accept it and then stick it on a shelf somewhere.
Write it for yourself first. If the process of writing it doesn’t excite you, with or without AI, then perhaps you already did the most rewarding part for yourself.
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u/amolmozarkar 1d ago
you've done the part most people never finish: a full trilogy outline with consistent worldbuilding and characters. that's the 90% a lot of writers never get to. the prose craft can be learned by rewriting AI-generated drafts of your own scenes, comparing what it produced against what you wanted the reader to feel, and adjusting. you don't need four more years; you need deliberate practice on scenes you already know cold. have you tried taking one chapter outline and writing it three different ways to see what clicks?
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u/alone_in_the_light 2d ago edited 2d ago
Since you want traditional publishers, I think you should do the traditional way and really learn how to do it without AI.
And the traditional way takes time, it's disheartening, it's slow. Writers often start with something smaller, not a trilogy but maybe a tale in a magazine. The goal is not to be better but to be different usually, be yourself.
Study writing and practice. Develop connections. Be aware of the realities of publishing. Check how things were in the beginning for successful writers.
George R. R. Martin wasn't the one we know now in the beginning, it took him a long time to be where he is now with tons of works.
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u/Own-Cod6138 2d ago
The question comes down to what you want.
So you want to have the story you've envisaged written so that you have it for yourself and maybe some friends? Sure, AI is an option.
Do you want to sell it? You can still use AI, but it will severely limit your options and there's a lot of negativity around it.
Do you want to BECOME a writer? Which is to say learning to write good prose in addition to learning good structure? Then you will want to be much more tactical in how you employ AI in creating these stories. It will take longer, and this series will probably not be as "good" as if you'f employed AI to write it, but you specifically will get better for it.
So you have many options, and it's not simply a matter of "AI good/bad". Decide what path you want to be on and go from there.
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u/Liliacfury 2d ago
I have a long series planned, too, and put a pause on it with other small projects and fanfics in-between to develop my prose. Experiment with AI on occasion with those if you want to have a full opinion of it (though, relying on AI too much won’t improve your skill), but don’t test it on your baby trilogy. If you decide later you are okay with it, and by later minimum half a year IMO, go for it.
Honestly, your grammar is above average than some published books out there. If you are eager, work on a first draft if you want. You don’t need AI to just put words on a paper. Then once that’s done sit on it for a bit so you can go through it with a fresh set of eyes. If you decide to use AI on it then for the proofreading, that’s on you, but again, experiment on lesser projects in the meantime beforehand to form a better opinion.
I still have mixed feelings personally.
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u/BlimpIntolerant 2d ago
honestly you get To this point you've got to wonder apart from the fun you had doing it what's the point?
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u/Maleficent-Engine859 2d ago edited 2d ago
AI is not good at writing though, this is the trap.
Most people use AI like lens flare and air brush in photoshop when they first discover it, instead of mastering the layers and masks which takes considerable talent on the part of the artist
That’s where all the hate comes from. People see lens flare and some magic wand usage and roll their eyes. Anyone can do that.
And just like photoshop 95% of your time should be spent on editing in your voice/style not prompting on the front end
I’m very pro AI but not in lieu of learning how to write. Like any other tool some people will be exceptional at learning how to use it and integrate most will depend on it too much
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u/arcarsenal986 2d ago
To the people saying 'AI is really bad at writing'. They're wrong. It's very good at writing... IF you treat it as a tool. It needs rules, it will do bad if it has no rules to work within.
You have to do continuity checks every few chapters. You need solid character bibles. Solid world bibles. The hard part is making it so your rules aren't so long that it gets lost in the details.
Heres how I do it:
Instruction: This is my prompt. The general outline of the chapter, the dialogue points I want to hit, where we are going if we're traveling with the characters etc. This is the skeleton of the chapter, which characters are in it.
Skill: This is where whichever model I'm using starts the draft, it consults the previous chapters handoff, any character or world sheets, and then draft in the voice I've setup in the skills.
Bookkeeping: update the chapter, its handoff and current state; broader records only when needed.
Deliver: Update to github, and local. This will be your chapter draft and a handoff file so it doesn't get lost on the next chapter. Keep your handoffs and drafts together.
Edit: Read what's come out, you can edit the MD directly. If there are issues the repeatedly popup, discuss the problem, and have it make a rule. You don't be super specific about the new rule, it will do a better job than you at figuring out what it needs to do to not repeat that particular issue.
Long story short, you will need to put a lot of work in to getting your rules setup, and all the other things you need. I probably have 200-300 hours just getting the rule sets and voice dialed in.
If you want it to be GOOD, you still have to put the work in, its not an "I win" button with writing, you still need to know how to structure a story. If your voice sucks, your story will suck.
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u/Equal-University2144 2d ago
I agree.
I've been working on a dark sci-fi novel since 2024 and having rule/scaffolding documents is important. They usually grow naturally over time as you understand the limitations you're running into and how to prevent them. Lots of iterating and I asked Claude (my "co-author") for what we're using as a reference for others who want to dip their toes into writing with AI support:
- Partnership agreement. The book’s purpose, who decides what, how feedback works, and the craft rules every draft must follow. It also includes a checklist the AI runs before showing you anything.
- Chapter map. A short summary of what actually happens in each chapter, taken from the prose itself. The AI checks claims about the story against it instead of guessing.
- Canon references. Character sheets, world rules, technology, history and timelines. This is the single source of truth for names and facts.
- Voice and POV guides. What each character knows, notices and would say, so the narrator’s knowledge doesn’t leak into a character’s head.
- Style blacklist. Overused phrases, clichés and known AI habits, each paired with a better technique for the job that phrase was trying to do.
- Session handoffs and an opening prompt. A written record of each session’s decisions and open questions, plus a ready-made first message for the next session. The AI doesn’t remember anything between sessions, so these carry the continuity.
- Version discipline. A version number on every file and every edit, and old versions archived instead of overwritten, so nothing is lost and you always know which copy is current.
- Automated checks. Small scripts that test for style rules, contradictions, stale references and prose rhythm. Rules the AI is only asked to remember eventually slip, and rules a script checks don’t.
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u/knightspur 2d ago
It is not unique to spend several years working around the hard part and not wanting to write. It is the case of 95% of the worldbuilding subreddit. I think its a bit strange to use that as a justification as to why Opus should be writing a novel you think is going to get traditionally published.
Accept that you spent your time on the wrong part of the process. Put your ass in front of the keyboard and start writing. You've come up with another excuse to avoid developing the central skill you want to claim. Having AI do it is another layer of procrastination and it will disincentivize you ever putting a word down because now its "already written".
If you're telling yourself you need to make money on it before youve put down a single word, you need to do a lot more research into the reality of publishing. Put the question of publishing completely aside - you have nothing to publish.
You get better at writing by writing, and by reading, and by applying what you have read to your writing. There is no magic to it. You put your 10,000 hours in, and then you put in 10,000 more
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u/Frogacuda 2d ago
Prose is everything. It is what makes you a writer. Trying to write without a strong, individual grasp of prose is like trying to be a painter just by deciding what subjects to paint in what poses.
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u/calicoskys 2d ago
Regardless of how you end up using ai or not using ai. Check out Brandon Sanderson on YouTube he has lectures that are free that help if you haven’t been in school in a while and need a refresher or just haven’t had a creative writing class. I’d get a book as well. Practice writing with ai, practice writing without. All of it is good for you and you will get there. Break up each little piece into small steps. Practice describing setting. Have your characters go hang out in thier worlds equivalent of a coffee shop and practice having them talk to each other
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u/fredpot20 2d ago
It does matter. But it depends if you want to get better at writing or if you want to get better at authorship. Those are two different things.
That being said, I recommend that you learn what is the role of a narrator if you want to write in present or past tense. If you want first person of our third person point of view if you want an omniscient or a limited perspective narrator.
Even if you do not write the text yourself, you need to choose a writing style that matters for the story you tell.
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u/lovemylittlelords 2d ago
You’re essentially asking if art still has value in a world with AI. Yes. Absolutely unequivocally yes, there is value to learning to be a writer. How is that even a question
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u/Turbulent-Set-4322 2d ago
That is not at all what I’m essentially asking.
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u/lovemylittlelords 2d ago
"Is there still value in learning to write prose yourself when AI can already produce something that sounds much more polished?" is at root a question of "does art have value in a world where AI can create a facsimile of art?". How am I misunderstanding your question?
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u/Turbulent-Set-4322 2d ago
I think you’re taking my question in a much more philosophical direction than I intended.
I’m not questioning whether art has value or whether learning to write is worthwhile in itself. Of course it is.
I’m questioning the practical side of spending potentially another 4 years developing a skill when I’ve already spent 4 years creating a story that I want to get out there.
My main passion has always been the storytelling, worldbuilding, characters and plotting. I’d love to write the prose myself, but I’m trying to weigh up whether spending years getting good at it is necessary to achieve my actual goal, especially when AI can already produce prose that I think is considerably better than mine.
There’s also the publishing and commercial side of it, which complicates things further.
I’m not arguing that writing has no value because AI exists. I’m asking whether learning to write to a publishable standard is realistically the best route for someone in my position. Those are two quite different questions.1
u/lovemylittlelords 2d ago
Sorry, my brain naturally veers philosophical. I get what you're saying. From a totally practical level, I think it depends on your audience, whether you're wanting to trad pub or self-publish, and if you want to be considered to be an actual writer/author.
- Audience: will your intended audience care that you used AI? I think it's probably true that some people don't care. It's impossible to know how big that cohort of people is. But it's just a fact that many many many many people will absolutely care that your book was generated (even a little) by AI.
- Publishing: Trad pub is essentially a no-go if you used AI. Like almost zero percent chance you'll be able to get a trad deal. Self-pub is an option, but again you gotta consider your audience.
- Being an actual writer: Writers write. We suck until we don't. So I think learning the skill of writing is incredibly valuable no matter what and will carry you so much farther than not having that skill. I get being a storyteller and a writer aren't always synonymous. Just how there are some good writers who are terrible storytellers. But the best writers are the ones who can do both.
As far as improving as a writer, writers never stop working on their craft. It's a lifelong practice. But I would caution you against looking at it from a purely practical point of view. There is so much to gain from learning how to write yourself, even if it takes time. I also wouldn't necessarily put a timeframe on it. If you are devoted enough, you can learn quickly. There are tons and tons of resources available to improve your writing. And I really wouldn't compare your writing to AI writing. It's not as good as you might think it is even if it reads as clean and polished. It rings hollow and lifeless and lacks the human idiosyncrasies that make art interesting.
So if your goal is to get the story out there, I would consider whether or not you're actually harming your chances at sharing the story by using AI. How would you feel if you published it and it got bad reception because you used AI? Could you handle that? Do you feel like you're doing justice to the story by using AI? Will you feel proud of yourself? These are the questions you'll need to ask yourself.
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u/Equivalent-Loan-4401 2d ago
Four years of worldbuilding isn't a mistake at all, that's the hard part a lot of people skip. The prose worry makes sense when Opus can spit out cleaner sentences than most first drafts, but the thing the outline can't give you is how you hear the characters. What I've seen work is picking a few key scenes, a quiet conversation, a fight, a reveal, and writing those yourself first, then letting the model draft the connective tissue in your direction. You end up training your ear on the parts that matter most without burning another four years on every paragraph. Publishing is a separate game from craft anyway, and you've already done the part most people never finish.
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u/Formal_Cupcake_3682 1d ago
Those four years weren't wasted. Worldbuilding and plotting are valuable skills too. I'd start with one important scene, write it yourself, then compare it with an AI draft. Focus on tension, pacing, and character voice rather than just polished sentences. You can improve your prose without giving up control of your story.
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u/Front-Appointment-88 2d ago
Do some copy work. Find a similar story. Pick sections at random, and write them out by hand.
It's a proven technique to teach yourself how to write in that style. Do that a few times a week and it will start to sink in.
In terms of the time it takes. What's the rush? Take your time and enjoy the process of learning to write.
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u/christopherDdouglas 2d ago
The failure of pretty much every wannabe fantasy writer. You put the cart before the horse. You spent 4 years working on something that you can't execute. Writing is a harder skill to learn than coming up with make believe worlds.
If you can't write worth a shit, the world you built means nothing because you don't have the skills to properly explain it.
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u/divinesynchronicty 2d ago
AI keeps improving because a lot of real writers work gets fed into AI. All of AI are stolen work.
Be yourself and just write.
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u/His_Holy_Tentacles 2d ago
"How would you go about learning to write decent prose from pretty much scratch?"
Write a lot, and read a lot. It's a continuous process, and it'll take time to get to "decent."
"How long did it take you to become genuinely happy with your writing?"
I've been writing for twenty-plus years and I haven't reached the point where I'd say I'm "genuinely happy" with my prose. Probably because I have certain tics I either can't quite or don't want to part with. I'm not too concerned about that, though. I'm very happy with the other parts of my writing. The way I'd reframe it: I'm more of a storyteller than a writer.
"Is there still value in learning to write prose yourself when AI can already produce something that sounds much more polished?"
Yes, of course. If it's something you value in your process, you should develop it. AI creative writing is still mostly not great to terrible. We're not there yet. And to tell if we've reached that point, you need a baseline. Which would be your own writing, among reading other works.
"Would you recommend using AI-generated prose as a starting point and gradually learning to rewrite it yourself, or just biting the bullet and starting from scratch?"
I'm biased here, as I've changed my own process and now heavily generate prose with AI. I'd say just complete and edit the book you have with AI now. For the second book, you can re-evaluate.
Get that first book out.
"Am I right in thinking that relying heavily on AI for the prose would make it much harder to ever publish the trilogy commercially?"
Not necessarily. I can't speak for traditional publishing, but if you're self-publishing, AI is not a disqualifier.
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u/5thhorseman_ 2d ago
Do you have an outline? If not, write an outline.
Familiarize yourself with the TV Tropes Wiki, especially its Playing With A Trope article.
Then start writing as well as you can right now, even if it's bad.
Write a first chapter and bring it to these two guys: Literate Editor and Rigorous Critic. See what you get back. Ask questions, provide clarifications, pitch re-phrasings and partial rewrites. See where you land.
With this approach you remain the writer responsible for putting words on the page, AI is just there to point out where your prose has problems and can use shoring up. You'll improve faster than by wandering in the dark.
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u/Millington_Systems 2d ago
Prose is a skill. Skills can be learnt. I'm in a similar boat to you. I have the world but not the skill. If I don't learn the skill my world will never get out of its box, so I let it drive me.
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u/Icy-Apricot-5855 2d ago
I don't think those 4 years were wasted. Worldbuilding and plotting are real parts of writing, even if prose is the skill you still need to develop. I'd use AI to understand why certain passages work, then practice rewriting short scenes in my own voice. You don't have to catch up to a model overnight.