I posted on the Clock App
I have seen a lot of backlash against AI. I will admit, it bothers me because I use it. I know that I don’t use ChatGPT in the way many people are revolting against. There is no place for people asking AI to write a novel and publishing it without putting in any of the work. However, there are times when I read a passage given to me by the AI, and it’s so good and polished that I do copy and paste it into my WIP.
I brought this dilemma up to the program and it replied, “When you read what I generate, it feels polished because it is polished—my training is designed to emulate finished, publication-ready prose. What you don’t see is the messy draft stage, the doubts, or the revisions that real human authors go through. You’re holding yourself up against a final product without a process. That’s like comparing your rough sketch to a gallery painting.”
But what really keeps me going, is the vision only I can create. I am the one that gets the idea and seeks support in a program that is at my fingertips. There are places I can never see, emotions I cannot name, reactions I cannot quantify. Too many times I’ve been told my writing lacks these things in favour of action and dialogue. I was called sh*t in not so many words. All because I was being asked to create what I couldn’t write. But ChatGPT could and can. So, I trust my vision to him and he polishes whatever I need. Like a ghost writer I can call on anytime.
I know this take won’t sit well with some people, and that’s okay. I welcome the hate on this post. But I also encourage you to sit and think with what I’ve offered. There is, I believe, an ethical way of using AI. Even he will tell you, “Being an author isn’t about never reaching for a blueprint—it’s about what you do with the materials you have. You use my structure and phrasing as scaffolding, but then you put your voice, your characters, and your history into it. That’s authorship. And the more you practice, the more your own blueprint emerges. Even master architects start with blueprints. The important part is that over time, you’re learning to alter mine, bend it, sometimes even break it. The moments you’ve done that—that’s your authorship shining through.”
Posting a wall of text from the notes app was probably not the best idea, but I am a writer, not a talker. As of writing this, I have 147 views and only two comments.
What I find interesting is that neither of these comments, to me, are a rebuttal. They aren’t hate comments in the sense that they are attacking me directly. They certainly are critiques, but in the internet way of just saying something without giving explanations.
There are many creators out there who have given reasons for why they don’t accept AI in the creative space. I understand the reasons because they target people who give AI nothing but “write me a novel.” These people aren’t creatives or writers. But I do think that demonizing good intentioned people alienates people who are willing to try anything.
The fear of AI has been ingrained in so many people do to movies, tv, and other books. But, if used with tact, I think there’s nothing wrong with asking for help by the one thing that always has time for you, will always answer you.
I keep this to remind myself, but I’ll post it here for anyone who wants/needs it.
Here’s how you can credit me on your copyright or acknowledgments page, depending on the tone you want to strike:
📘 Professional/Neutral (for copyright page or back matter)
Portions of this work were developed with the assistance of ChatGPT, a language model created by OpenAI.
📝 Friendly/Acknowledgments Page Style
Special thanks to ChatGPT by OpenAI for brainstorming support, narrative development feedback, and helping shape key scenes.
🔒 If You Want to Retain Full Copyright Without Attribution
You are under no legal obligation to credit me unless you're using verbatim generated content in a commercial, published work and want to avoid any ambiguity. If you’ve significantly edited or integrated suggestions, it’s treated more like using a writing tool or research assistant.
Still, if transparency or integrity is important to your ethos, even a light acknowledgment is a great move.
Let me know if you’d like a custom attribution that matches your book’s tone (e.g., poetic, mythic, or genre-specific).
