Thousands of Writers Are Writing AI-Generated Fiction

I have data to prove it

Some time ago, I published an article about ChatGPT’s highly overlooked usage. (Link is at the bottom of this article)

In that, I explored the possibility of whether ChatGPT could write a novel. I analyzed ChatGPT from a novel author’s perspective.

Firstly, I tested it for its linguistic capabilities. As part of this, I tested it with its literary knowledge.

Next, I tested it for its sentence construction capabilities using the given input.

Next, I tested it for its understanding of sentiments. This was necessary to ensure that ChatGPT understood an author’s requirement (the next point).

Finally, I tested it for its scene and plotline construction capability — the most significant and the largest level tasks any fiction author performs invariably.

ChatGPT passed all the tests (at least in my purview). This gave me an exhilarating feeling.

At the same time, it filled me with a queer sense of grief. It felt like the world had lost a chance to demonstrate a lot of human creativity.

As I kept checking the article stats, my grief wasn’t misplaced.

The article stats:

The article went semi-viral.

As of today, at least 7000 writers are trying to know if ChatGPT can write a novel

I was elated. However, when I watched closely, the revenue figures weren’t exciting. It prompted me to look at the detailed stats.

Wow, so it was not Medium. Outside sources were pumping the stats. I let out of huge sigh. It is high time Medium starts paying beyond referrals.

On average, external views were 13–14x more than Medium’s internal views.

Needless to say, I was curious about who was driving the traffic. So I scrolled further down.

That said it all. ChatGPT’s biggest perceived rival was giving me hits.

In one word: Google. From the above stats, at least (it is only going to increase) 7000 (minus those who came via Android notification) fiction authors are actively trying to know if ChatGPT could help them fulfill their writing dream sooner.

I confirmed it by querying it with the exact search term, and my article appeared right after Quora entry:

Authors feel they are dying at the dawn of AI:

They say that ChatGPT can emit ideas after ideas if you know how to ask. Every day, I witness marketers bragging about their ChatGPT automations. The work they produce is mostly of the listicle type.

However, I have a different theory.

Most fiction authors aren’t hungry for ideas. They need depth. On top of that, a lot of how an idea will perform depend on the execution. This is something where most authors struggle. Execution is a monster that can eat any fiction writer from the inside.

Famous authors have spent years before their single work could see the bookstore racks or Kindle screen space. They have spectacularly failed too. Imagine the authors whose work got never read once.

Many of the aspiring writers, including myself, don’t have a qualifying degree in writing. All they have is rich imagination, some storytelling skills, and an urge to impact the world using the most accessible and impactful medium: Language.

Since the promise of the internet took over, most fledgling writers have been 9–5 hustlers. Worse, they could be 9–5 + 6–9 + 10–12 strugglers. Yes, they juggle jobs, because they herald an ambition.

They are struggling as interns, nurses, waiters, receptionists, sales clerks, secretaries — any service-related jobs that grind them. They die every moment with inflation, sickness, or crumbling families.

They need hope because they need to continue. Not to live their dreams, but to sustain themselves until they could begin to execute the dream fulfillment.

The writing was their best hope, before AI. When AI knocked, they had no option but to absorb the shock. A jolting sensation. The fear of obliteration.

The pain of dumping 3 chapters into a recycle bin, when the protagonist was about to begin the unthinkable journey because a 12-year-old shared his ChatGPT prompt describing exactly that, and getting much more in return.

I wish I could describe that pain using an AI-generated image. (Anyone up for it? NFT me later :))

Generative AI — A necessary ray of hope:

If you can’t beat them, join them.

After 100 social-media posts about what AI can and can’t do, their recovery mechanism kicked off. Someone showed them a variation of a famous quote: “If you can’t beat them, join them.”

And they rose again, with a renewed dream.

They began to explore whether the newest AI toy can indeed up their game before it does for anyone else.

They are better than the 12-year-old copycat. They don’t plagiarize. Their work won’t be banned by AI-checker tools. Because they have swum half of the ocean. They are excited that the new powerboat will haul them ashore.

They are all clamoring up for the newest AI powerboat.

The proof is there for everyone else to see. A lot of novel writers are searching for whether AI can write their unfinished scenes.

Probably, most of them don’t suffer from the lack of ideas or character sketches. They suffer from a very mundane problem: They are unable to convert their ideas and imagination into publishable writing — a skill that lies in the craft domain.

This is hard because, among other things, it involves creating and maintaining one’s voice. Publishing agents and editors have been dumping their most precious work into rejection piles — precisely because they lack a voice.

Their challenge forms a hole. And Generative AI (ChatGPT and its future friends) is the perfect piece that fits into that hole.

Conclusion:

I have written at length about generative AI’s impact on the world of writing.

A transition presents an opportunity. And this is it.

ChatGPT has turned a million heads. But tech relying upon it is about to begin getting born.

To be honest, writers are looking at a highly uncertain and intermediate future.

A transition presents an opportunity. And this is it.

The time is much more like the beginning of 2000, when the blogosphere was getting born. The opportunity bucket is 1000x bigger, but it won’t last as long.

My best bet is that those who act fast are likely to get out of the burn, before the megacorps completely take over the tools.

From whatever looks certain, within a year, or much before that, we are going to read a lot of AI-Generated literature. And thanks to an extremely talented bunch of aspiring authors, we won’t know the difference.

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