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Well Jack, regarding "the bot created a whole plotline with scenes, ideas, and themes that I had never imagined...." There is no doubt in my mind that YOU could definitely imagine even more without any help from a bot!

For me, I think I would feel like I was cheating.

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A very cool experiment! Yes, lots of details and it does sound like an interesting story, though I share your doubts of ownership. I can see why you won’t write the story as in so many ways it’s not coming completely from your own imagination.

Thanks for sharing.

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This is an interesting article. I haven’t used any of the AI programs out there, though I knew they were impressive. I think this is going to be/is already a very hard area to navigate, morally and philosophically. I think, in long term, utilizing these tools will probably degrade one’s own craft and creativity, and for me personally, I’ll never feel half as much respect for stories written using heavy AI aid. Humans also have a knack for knowing when to break molds and write the unexpected, versus when to follow a formulaic concept.

Anyways, this is a neat experiment - thanks for sharing.

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I've used both Claude and ChatGPT to get me past sticking points. I use it a bit like a good friend who is always willing to hear me talk my stories out. The AIs almost always give advice on how I might proceed. Occasionally, they'll offer up something I hadn't thought of. More often, what they give me starts a process of asking it questions and talking through the story. This usually ends up giving me new ideas.

TIP: If you're stuck with how to write a particular scene, ask the AI to write it in the style of different authors and give it some authors you like. This usually gives me ideas for moving forward.

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Good advice. Thanks for sharing.

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That was quite an outline! But if you don't feel the story, it will write out flat. I agree the outline would be for a much longer piece than a short story.

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Well, why not narrative self-service? No writers anymore! Readers could subscribe to an AI tool and have it generate the stories they want. Easy peasy. And controllable with ideological filters. IMHO.

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Right, that could soon be a thing, if it's not already.

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