AI Makes This Mistake In Its ‘Writing’ (But I Bet You Do, Too)
The discussion of whether generative AI chatbots can replace human authors continues to drag on and on and on, but I’ll save you some time: the answer is no, they cannot. However, a more interesting topic is what human authors can learn from AI. Namely, what not to do.
If you have any familiarity with genAI, you’ll know many of its ‘tells’. There are the constant emdashes—they add so much dramaaaa! There are the totally common and not at all weird word choices, like a lovely “delve” into nonsense. AI is not only tedious, it’s repetitive. It’s not just harming the planet, it’s making us stupider. It’s not just… well, you get the picture.
In a recent article on genAI in The New Yorker (“I read The New Yorker now,” etc. etc.), the writer Jay Caspian Kang discovered that chatbots can do a pretty decent impression of some of history’s greatest authors. But there’s one sticking point: while the prose they spit out was lively, there was absolutely nothing happening.
The characters generated by AI fidget, they stare into space. When prompted to do something, they concern themselves with busywork, like delivering a package or hopping on a horse.
Does any of this sound interesting? No.
What struck me, however, is that it’s easy for us human authors to make exactly the same mistake as our robot pals.
The prose is nice, but nothing happens.
I can certainly look back on short stories and novel attempts I’ve written in the past and, viewed with fresh eyes, realise there’s a lot of thinking, brooding and busywork, but the characters lack agency. Nothing’s happening! And the characters aren’t doing anything to make stuff happen.
Here’s what I would now scribble in the margin of my old stories in red pen:
“Lack of forward momentum.”
Forward momentum is a concept I rarely see mentioned in tips for better creative writing, but I genuinely think it can make the difference between a successful book (one that gets published, one that sells loads of copies) and a book that languishes in a drawer.
What do I mean by forward momentum? Put simply, it’s a sense that every scene is building towards something vital. The characters act, they take risks, they want things, and they go for what they want.
A book that’s revving forwards like a car with no brakes is unputdownable. But how do you actually create that forward momentum in a novel?
Check out my article: From Sluggish to Fast-Paced: 6 Ways to Create Momentum in Your Novel
