Lab notes: Writing with AI Assistance

Systems for Storytellers / 01

Introduction

Writing with AI assistance is not the same as writing by AI.

When you write directly with AI, you’re prompting it to generate content from scratch. When you write with AI assistance, you remain the author—AI simply helps refine your work rather than doing most of it for you.

The Problem with Full AI Generation

Yes, you can create a story from scratch using AI prompts, but the result will likely be short and won’t capture exactly what you wanted to say.

There are workarounds for the length problem. The most common approach involves asking AI to first create a summary of a story, then expand it by dividing it into chapter summaries—for example, 12 chapters. Each chapter summary then extends into story beats, perhaps 12 beats per chapter. Finally, you can ask AI to expand each story beat to roughly 500 words. This method can yield approximately 6,000 words per chapter and 72,000 words for an entire manuscript.

Quantity-wise, you’ll have a solid manuscript, and it might even have a coherent story structure. But it won’t be your story if AI generates everything itself.

Depending on your goals, you could set up automation and generate one or even multiple manuscripts per day. If your aim is to mass-produce low-effort content and earn money through sheer volume, that’s technically possible. But at that point, you’re not really an author—you’re a salesperson.

The Control Problem

Another significant issue with fully AI-generated manuscripts is the near-total loss of creative control.

Think of your story as a path on a map. If you simply give AI a starting direction, the path will wander in unpredictable ways. You can try to guide it by creating detailed story beats yourself, essentially placing pins on the map to mark where you want the path to go. But AI will find its own route between those points, and you’ll have limited influence over what happens in between.

Those gaps are largely out of your hands. AI might introduce a subplot that derails your intended theme, or shift a character’s motivation in ways that contradict what comes later. By the time you notice, you’ve built subsequent chapters on a foundation you didn’t choose. Fixing it means backtracking—or accepting a story that drifted from your original vision.

You might write faster by only creating story beats, but the end result still won’t be the story you want to tell. It might be close enough—but “close enough” isn’t always good enough.

The AI-Assisted Approach

The alternative is writing with AI assistance. With this approach, you’re in the driver’s seat while AI handles the supporting work.

Imagine going on a road trip and using GPS for navigation. You’re in full control of the vehicle, choosing where to stop, which route to take, and how fast to drive. But when you need help finding your way, the GPS is there to guide you. Sometimes it suggests a faster route, and you take it. Other times, you ignore its recommendation because you know a scenic detour worth making. The GPS doesn’t argue—it recalculates and continues supporting your journey. That’s exactly what AI-assisted writing offers: you maintain creative control while AI provides helpful support when needed.

Simply put, when you write with AI assistance, you compose the manuscript yourself, and AI helps with polishing, style consistency, voice consistency, and overall line editing. AI is almost always better at rephrasing existing content than creating something entirely new.

With fiction, you also face fewer issues with hallucinations—the tendency for AI to generate incorrect information. Since you’re not creating a factual document, any invented details might actually work within your story. And for the factual elements you do include, they’re easy to verify yourself.

Is It Still Your Writing?

A common concern among writers considering AI assistance is authenticity: “If AI helped me, is it still my writing?”

Consider the tools you already use. Spell-check catches your typos. A thesaurus helps you find better word choices. Grammar software flags awkward constructions. Have these tools ever made you feel like less of a writer? Probably not—because the ideas, the story, and the creative decisions remain entirely yours.

AI assistance works the same way, just with greater capability. It’s a more sophisticated tool in your toolkit, not a ghostwriter. The plot you crafted, the characters you created, the themes you’re exploring—none of that changes because AI helped you smooth out a paragraph or maintain consistent dialogue patterns. You’re still the author. AI is simply helping you execute your vision more effectively.

Practical Applications

Creating Distinct Character Voices

One of the significant benefits of AI-assisted writing is the ability to create multiple characters with unique speech patterns. In traditional writing, you’d need to carefully track each character’s voice and ensure consistency throughout. With AI assistance, you can write dialogue naturally and then instruct AI to convert specific characters’ lines into their distinctive styles.

For example, consider this neutral line: “How was your trip? I was so worried about you. I hope you’re all right now.”

When asked to rephrase it for different character types, AI produces distinctly different results:

20-year-old valley girl:

“Oh my God, so like, how was your trip? I was literally SO worried about you—like, I couldn’t even. Are you okay now? Please tell me you’re okay!”

75-year-old grumpy man:

“Well? How’d it go? I wasn’t gonna say anything, but I didn’t sleep a wink worryin’ about you. You doin’ all right or what?”

35-year-old mother:

“Hey, sweetheart. How was the trip? I have to be honest—I was worried sick the whole time. Are you feeling okay now? Do you need anything?”

45-year-old Victorian gentleman:

“Pray tell, how did you find your journey? I confess I was most anxious during your absence. I do hope you have returned to us in good health and spirits.”

30-year-old tech professional:

“Dude, how was the trip? Not gonna lie, I was low-key stressing about you. You good now? Everything optimized?”

15-year-old teenage boy:

“Yo, how was your trip or whatever? I mean, I wasn’t like worried worried, but... yeah. You good now?”

As you can see, the core intent remains identical, but each line takes on a completely different personality. If you can already write fluently in multiple voices, this feature might not be necessary. But for most writers, it’s a valuable tool for filling gaps in their range.

Line Editing and Polish

AI-assisted writing also excels at direct line editing: checking spelling, punctuation, passive voice, and other mechanical issues.

Consider what AI can catch that you might miss after staring at your manuscript for hours. It can identify passive voice constructions and suggest active alternatives—transforming “The door was opened by Sarah” into “Sarah opened the door.” It can flag repetitive word usage, alerting you when you’ve used “suddenly” four times in two pages. It can analyze sentence rhythm, noting when you’ve strung together five short sentences in a row or written a paragraph of nothing but complex constructions.

AI can also help with consistency issues that are notoriously difficult to track manually. Are your dialogue tags consistent throughout? Have you accidentally switched from past to present tense mid-chapter? Does your character’s name spelling stay the same? These mechanical details matter, and AI catches them without fatigue or frustration.

Of course, a human editor with years of experience will perform better—and charge accordingly. If you can afford professional editing, it’s worth the investment. But AI can do a competent job, likely better than most writers can manage on their own.

Getting Started with AI-Assisted Writing

If you’re ready to try AI-assisted writing, here’s a straightforward workflow to begin.

First, write your draft yourself. Get your ideas down without worrying about perfection. This is your creative foundation—the story, the voice, the vision. Don’t involve AI at this stage; you want the raw material to be authentically yours.

Second, identify specific tasks for AI. Rather than asking AI to “make this better,” be precise. Ask it to check for passive voice. Request that it rephrase a particular character’s dialogue in a gruff, working-class style. Have it identify repetitive words in a chapter. Specific prompts yield better results than vague ones.

Third, review everything. Accept the suggestions that improve your work. Reject the ones that don’t fit. Modify others to better match your voice. You’re the final authority—AI proposes, but you decide.

Finally, iterate. AI-assisted editing isn’t a one-pass process. You might run dialogue through voice refinement, then check the whole chapter for consistency, then do a final polish for flow. Each pass serves a different purpose.

Important Caveats

AI may occasionally add extra details beyond what you’ve written. Sometimes these additions are welcome surprises that enhance your manuscript. Other times, they’re not.

The golden rule: always read everything AI generates. Never blindly trust AI output. Review every suggestion, every edit, every addition. You can always accept what works and reject what doesn’t—but only if you’re paying attention.

Be especially cautious about over-reliance. If you find yourself accepting every AI suggestion without thought, you risk losing your distinctive voice. The goal is collaboration, not abdication. AI should enhance your writing, not replace your judgment.

Conclusion

AI-assisted writing represents a middle path between doing everything yourself and letting AI do everything for you. It keeps you in creative control while leveraging AI’s strengths: consistency, polish, and the ability to transform content in ways that might be tedious or difficult to do manually.

Think of AI as a skilled assistant rather than a replacement author. Use it to enhance your writing, maintain consistency across characters and scenes, catch errors you might miss, and refine your prose. But remember—the story, the voice, and the vision should always be yours.

When used thoughtfully, AI assistance doesn’t diminish your role as an author. It amplifies it.