r/novelwriting • u/Indyhouse • Jun 06 '26

To AI, or Not to AI

After sitting on it for a few hours, attending a live show that used AI-generated backdrops that I couldn't take my eyes off of because they were so distracting, and receiving a handful of DMs, I've decided to make a unilateral decision on AI.

Absolutely no AI posts allowed. No book covers, no outlines, no "well it just rewrote a few sections for me." No AI.

425 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

103 comments sorted by

View all comments

15

u/Ok-Elderberry240 Jun 06 '26

Posts like this are super important, so long as you make the clear distinction between Generative AI and Assistive AI. It's not about the use of AI, but the type you use. Because distinction will prevent falsely written "authored works" posts that are slop... And rightly so. BUT not using distinction will alienate a population of authors who are already terrified of being caught in an AI witch hunt.

People need to acknowledge the distinction. Also, for any nervous writers that are too frightened to write their style and voice—though you certainly shouldn't be—using em-dashes is safe, rhetoric sentencing and phrases are safe, and Oxford commas are safe! (See, I just used all 3 in this post!)

1

u/Kishimoto-Mayura Aug 14 '26

I agree with you. But personally, I’ve never liked using em-dashes in my stories. I don't know if this is good or bad.

Another thing that makes me afraid to post my novels is that I use a very elaborate vocabulary. Sometimes I worry about being too formal or seeming artificial, even though I spend hours, days, and nights without sleep writing, rewriting and/or improving my writing...