I was talking to a friend recently who has been telling me she wanted to write a book for years. She has this idea about a romance novel that was also a sort of dramatic thriller.
It honestly wasn’t a bad idea for a story, but still, all these years later, she still hasn’t even started writing it, and yet she’s had this idea for it for a long time now.
So, I finally asked her why she just doesn’t do it. I mean, if nothing else, at least get started. Write out the first chapter or something, right?
There were nearly 50 million romance books sold last year. She won’t make a ton of money with her book (probably), but let’s be real: romance is big business. So it just doesn’t make sense to me not to at least try if it’s something you want to do.
Then she told me she didn’t even know where to begin. To me, you just sit down and start writing, but, there’s apparently a whole process when it comes to writing books, and it all begins with an outline.
I did some googling in my free time and decided that I would help my friend figure it out.
Turns out there’s a lot that goes into writing a book. Who knew?
I was just about to give up when my friend Tracy told me about an AI tool that could help my friend with her book outline that would if nothing else at least get her started with the writing process. I was immediately like, “uh, no, AI, right?”
I think I’ve heard so much about AI taking people’s jobs that I just had this immediate ick about it.
But Tracy made a good point: calculators and computers have advanced mathematics and turned people into mathematicians. AI is a tool, meant to help people, just like calendars and calculators. And then there’s the whole issue with cameras.
It wasn’t like it killed the artistic world. Sure it was different from the traditional painted medium, but it turned out to be different in a good way. Could you imagine a world without photographs?
So I decided to check this “AI Story Guru” website out that she told me about. It doesn’t actually write your book for you; you still have to do that, but it is a tool that will help you get started, which is exactly what my friend needed.
I wrote down what I could remember about the story idea she originally told me about, then submitted it to AI Story Guru, pressed submit, and it kicked out a book synopsis and chapter-by-chapter outline.
I sent it to her, and she’s been using it to guide her through the writing process. And I’m happy to report she’s already written three chapters of her book. I haven’t gotten to read any of it yet but I can’t wait. I love a good romance book. 🙂
So, am I still a little worried about AI? Absolutely, but I also can’t deny just how helpful it’s been, especially when it came to helping my friend start writing her book. A dream she’s had for a long time.
And that’s a good thing.
