I Used ChatGPT to Write a Book. And I Published it | ChatGPT for Authors | Writing a Novel With AI

I Used ChatGPT to Write a Book. And I Published it | ChatGPT for Authors | Writing a Novel With AI

When I was a kid, I dreamed of having a robot to do my chores. Now, I have a robot doing my work for me, but is this as cool as it sounds? Or should we be worried? This is Legends of the Shadow Woods, and though I’m publishing it, I didn't really write it. Or did I?

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I used ChatGPT to write this novella, and it’s available on Amazon for 99 cents right now. Embark on a journey through the mystical Shadow Woods with Legends of the Shadow Woods, a collection of tales based on Greek mythology. Follow the hero Ajax as he battles sorceresses and monsters, uncovers ancient artifacts, and discovers his true destiny. These action-packed and thrilling stories will keep you on the edge of your seat as you delve deeper into the rich world of the Shadow Woods. AI wrote that blurb too.

Along with using AI to write the book, I also used a different AI to make the cover. I’m sure everybody has heard of ChatGPT by now, but if you’re not familiar, ChatGPT is a computer program that can understand and respond to written language like a human. It can generate text that is coherent and contextually relevant by making use of the input it receives and by learning from the examples of text it has been trained on. And guess what? ChatGPT wrote that part too!

I’ve seen people using ChatGPT for all kinds of things lately, from writing essays and resumes to creating poetry and songs. In early January, I saw a video of somebody using ChatGPT to write a children's picture book and got the idea that hey, I can do that too. So I did. But instead of a children’s book, I wrote a fantasy novella.

Initially, I wasn’t even planning on sharing this. I just wanted to play around with the technology. But as I started working on it, I realized that I was putting a kind of decent amount of time into it and I had so many notes that I thought maybe somebody else would find it interesting too.

In this article, I'll talk about my process for creating the novella and also some of my thoughts on the program in general.

Generating the Content

I started using ChatGPT on January 5th by learning how it works and generally playing around with it. On the 9th, I started working on this project. I didn’t influence it too much with story direction or characters. When creating a world for these stories to take place in, I straight up asked it what kind of fantasy world should I write about. Here are the responses it gave me:

1. A world with multiple intelligent species living together such as humans, elves, dwarfs, and dragons.
2. A world with a unique Magic system such as one where magic is fueled by emotions or one where only certain people are born with the ability to use magic.
3. A world that is inspired by a particular historical time period or culture, such as ancient Egypt or feudal Japan.
4. A world that is entirely made up of one biome such as a world entirely covered in dense rainforest or a world made up of floating islands in the sky.

This is a great example of what most of my prompts and answers looked like. I would ask ChatGPT for some options and choose from the ones I thought would work best. I went with a fantasy world based on Greek mythology because I thought it would give the stories the best chance of succeeding.

With Greek mythology, ChatGPT already has a substantial base of information to work off of and the vague style it produces reminded me of how stories from mythology are told, making it a good fit. In its current state, ChatGPT would find it challenging to write a contemporary novel, and a collection of short stories was more manageable format-wise.

For the first story in the collection, titled The Golden Feather of Friendship (the AI named every story, chapter, and the entire collection), there was a process of trial and error, requiring patience and time to learn the correct prompts for generating desired content. Initially, working in larger chunks of multiple paragraphs made it difficult. Breaking down these tasks into pieces of three paragraphs or less proved more effective.

To create a semi-coherent narrative, I provided ChatGPT with basic outlines, prompting it to add details while making adjustments when things didn't fit naturally.

The Editing Process

From January 9th to January 21st, I generated, edited, and proofread the book, which is just shy of 25,000 words. My estimate is there were 35,000 to 40,000 words of generated content before I took any major editing steps.

The aim with editing this project was not to bring it up to my standard or to use my style but simply to produce something that was readable. I wanted to preserve the generated content wherever possible, showcasing what AI can do. The rough editing, however, took the longest due to removing repeated content and amalgamating multiple versions of text into a coherent chapter.

Limitations and Challenges

ChatGPT has its limitations, such as not being able to generate violent content due to its content policy. Generating coherent action-heavy fantasy stories can be challenging, and sometimes the details generated by the AI can be clumsy, verbose, and repetitive.

Another issue is maintaining continuity. For example, the AI might change a character’s eye color midway through the narrative. The repeated phrases are another challenge, where the AI frequently repeats the character’s goals at the end of paragraphs.

Future Implications for Authors

What does this mean for the future of authors? Honestly, I don't know. For businesses, this technology could be frightening. However, creatively, it's amazing. ChatGPT and similar programs could be incredible tools for people who have stories to tell. While I cannot see it being a huge threat to established authors with large fan bases, mid-listers and independent authors might feel the impact more.

I foresee the potential for platforms like Amazon to ban AI-generated content in the future, but as of now, there's an opportunity for anyone to use this technology to write books.

If you'd like to read Legends of the Shadow Woods, you can check it out on Amazon. I also have other non-AI generated works available.

Thank you for reading!

Keywords

• ChatGPT
• AI writing
• Fantasy novella
• Greek mythology
• AI-generated content
• Self-publishing
• Artificial Intelligence

FAQ

Q: What is ChatGPT? A: ChatGPT is a computer program that understands and responds to written language like a human. It generates text that is coherent and contextually relevant based on the input it receives.

Q: What kind of book did you write using ChatGPT? A: I wrote a fantasy novella titled Legends of the Shadow Woods, which is based on Greek mythology and follows the hero Ajax.

Q: How long did it take to write and edit the book? A: It took approximately two weeks from January 9th to January 21st to generate, edit, and proofread the book, resulting in a final product of just shy of 25,000 words.

Q: What are some of the limitations of ChatGPT? A: ChatGPT has limitations such as adhering to content policies that prevent generating violent content, sometimes producing clumsy and verbose text, and having continuity errors like changing character details mid-story.

Q: What might the future hold for authors with the advent of AI writing tools? A: While it’s uncertain, AI writing tools could significantly impact mid-listers and independent authors by making it easier for anyone to write and publish books. Established authors with large fan bases might experience less impact.