Regarding AI, Part Four
by Evan Braun
Don’t Skip Your Apprenticeship
Let me return to a previous point I made in this blog series. Generative AI is about predicting language more than about synthesizing ideas. It works according to pattern recognition. As a result, AI models are trained to imitate the statistical centre of good writing, hitting a competent average. But humans can’t help but depart from that centre, fleeing to the stylistic margins as a matter of instinct. That’s why we have so many blind spots and unexpected turns of phrase.
It’s easy to conclude that your writing will get better if you smooth over the rough patches. But those quirks are a big part of what makes you… you.
There’s a very famous saying—famous almost to the point of falling into platitude nowadays—that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to master a complex skill. Indeed, this is often referred to as the 10,000-hour rule, and it was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers.
Now, no one is claiming that 10,000 hours is some kind of magical threshold after which a person graduates into total proficiency in their field of study. But the idea holds true in a general sense: if you devote a large amount of time to a skill, you will gradually get better and better at it until you’re an expert, often a self-taught one.
Writing presents a really good application of this principle. In fact, there’s a similarly common saying among writers that your first million words are practice. Or indeed, that your first million words “don’t count.”
Again, this isn’t exact. There’s no guarantee you’ll be a great writer after composing a million words, but chances are you will have gotten pretty good by that point. It would be hard not to.
My personal worry about AI is that a lot of authors will abandon this idea of growing their craft through hard work and ceaseless practice. Why struggle through hundreds of thousands of potentially poorly written words for the future hope of really good ones when you could bypass that whole tedious process and have AI produce good words with the click of a few buttons?
By this point, I think you can probably guess what I’m going to say.
If all you want are words that are “good enough,” then relying heavily on AI may give you exactly what you’re looking for. But if your goal is to excel and communicate at a high level, you’ll need to develop those skills yourself—over time. There’s nothing wrong with AI playing a role in your writing development, but it certainly shouldn’t be a starring role.
Writing success almost never happens in a straight line. There are many drafts and false starts. When I look back over the early drafts of a book I later finish, the writing seems bad to me. I cringe to see how my younger self progressed through the story. The prose feels unfinished and unpolished.
But I’m incredibly grateful to have gone through that process, because it made me into a stronger writer. Spending so many years in the proverbial wilderness led me to transform into the communicator I am today.
The key is that I had to think my way through it. I’m concerned that in some people’s impatience to produce finished books with the least amount of work possible, and often for the least expense, they’re not learning to think their way through creative problems. Unfortunately, they’re settling for mediocrity.
It’s like an apprenticeship in any field, not just a creative one. Whether you’re training to become a plumber, a lawyer, or an airline pilot, there’s a thorough development process in place to ensure that you’re able to do the job and do it well. You really don’t want to find out what happens when professionals in training suddenly start to skip those steps.
So, yes, AI can help you arrive at an answer. What it can’t do is give you the experience of discovering that answer for yourself. Discovery is the heart of creativity and learning.
As I’ve said many times, it’s okay if the first draft of your book isn’t good. It’s okay if it’s bad. If you did the work of writing it, next time will be better, and you will improve steadily. Working with an editor and readers who are invested in your writing could very well supercharge you and get you to the finish line a bit faster, but you’re not circumventing the process.
Please don’t do yourself the disservice of skipping your apprenticeship on the way to publication, because it will limit your potential for success. Crossing the finish line can’t be your only objective. You undertake a complicated journey to get there, one filled with hairpin turns, steep climbs, and twisting descents. AI is like the high-speed expressway that detours you around everything worth seeing and experiencing on your road trip in the interests of getting you to your destination in the shortest travel time possible.
It’s fast, but it may not make for a fun road trip.
I hope this isn’t coming across as all doom and gloom. I love writing! I love editing! It’s my passion and my life’s work.
And the best part of writing is that nobody begins as a master. I’m not sure I believe in true literary prodigies. Every novelist you admire, I can almost guarantee, started their masterwork with an embarrassing first draft. It’s hidden away somewhere on their laptop hard drive, never to see the light of day on pain of death.
I have a whole folder with such embarrassments. Maybe you do too.
My goal as an editor is to coach writers back to that underlying feeling of joy that pushes them to write in the first place, whether AI is part of the process or not. Yes, there are some new problems to be solved in this new publishing era in which we find ourselves, but the joy will always be there. That’s what this creative enterprise is all about.
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Did you enjoy this post? Discover more helpful advice from Evan Braun here or read the entire series on AI as posts become available.
About this Contributor:
Evan Braun is a full-time author and editor. He has authored three novels, the first of which, The Book of Creation, was shortlisted in two categories at the 2012 Word Awards. He has released two sequels, The City of Darkness (2013) and The Law of Radiance (2015), completing the series. Braun is an experienced professional editor, and has worked with Word Alive Press authors since 2006. He is also a regular contributor at The Fictorians, a popular writing blog.