When the Writing Is the Work
Hi everyone,
How’s your week going?
For the past three weeks, I’ve been thinking about how to write this newsletter.
Not because I couldn’t come up with an argument. Because I wanted to get it right for the people I care about: authors who have a story inside them, want to tell it, and are afraid AI might somehow take that story away from them.
Helping people tell their stories has always been personal for me. I’ve spent much of my career working with people who have something worth saying and helping them find the form, the words, and the confidence to share it.
So when I see writers wondering whether using AI makes their work less theirs, I don’t see an abstract debate. I see people who may be holding back a story they are ready to tell.
At the end of my last newsletter, I promised I would come back and argue almost the opposite.
I meant it.
From what I’m seeing on social media from publishing experts, you would think AI had already ended humanity.
Last time, I argued that for an authority-building book, the most important question is not whether the expert personally typed every word. It is whether the experience, judgment, ideas, and point of view genuinely belong to the person whose name is on the cover.
But fiction and memoir are different.
The reader is there for the writing itself: the voice, the language, the choices, the way the story is told.
That is the work.
The more I thought about that distinction, and the more I considered the responses to Part 1, the less simple the dividing line became.
But I think the line matters.
A story can be personal without being written alone
When someone writes fiction or memoir, they are making choices about what to reveal, what to hold back, what a character says, how a moment unfolds, and which words carry the feeling they want the reader to experience.
That work is deeply personal.
But personal does not have to mean solitary.
Writers have always turned to other people and tools to help them think. A trusted friend can ask the question that unlocks a scene. A writing group can spot a moment that does not ring true. A perceptive editor can challenge the writer to go deeper.
I believe AI can play a part in that process, too.
It can research a subject, help keep notes and files in order, test a writer’s assumptions, and help unblock a difficult passage. It can open more doors and raise questions the writer had not asked, helping them get beyond the first obvious answer.
Award-winning fiction authors have shown me how they use AI to expand their creativity. They are not handing over the story. They use it to challenge themselves, explore new directions, and see possibilities they might not have found on their own.
The writer still decides what is worth pursuing, what feels false, and what belongs in the book.
That process can increase creativity.
More ideas do not mean less authorship. The important thing is what the writer does with them.
The right editor helps the writer stay true to the story
AI can be useful, but it is not a human editor.
The right editor brings something deeply personal to the relationship: an understanding of what the writer is trying to do and the judgment to challenge the work without taking it away from them.
That matters when someone is writing a story from the heart.
The editor has to be the right one: someone who can help strengthen the book while protecting the voice and intent that make it theirs.
A note for CK subscribers
Since this issue is about helping writers protect and strengthen their voice, I also want to share something useful from one of our industry partners.
Author Connections, founded by Beth Kallman Werner, is offering CK subscribers a free 30-minute conversation about marketing your book.
You are welcome to send a sample of three chapters in advance so the conversation can be specific to your work, your goals, and the options available to you.
There are no strings attached.
To take advantage of the one-to-one session, complete the Author Survey at www.authorconnections.com/author-survey and use code CK26.
The writer’s choices are what make the book theirs
For memoir, I believe there is a line AI should not cross.
It should not invent a memory, manufacture grief, or supply a revelation the writer did not have. Those experiences belong to the person who lived them.
AI might help that person organize a complicated chronology, recognize a question they have avoided, or consider how best to approach a difficult passage. But the memory, the feeling, and the meaning have to come from the person who experienced them.
For fiction, AI might suggest a turn in the story or a line of dialogue.
The writer has to decide whether it belongs, whether it rings true, and whether it serves the story they want to tell.
AI can offer raw material.
The writer brings the intention, taste, and judgment.
So perhaps “Did you use AI?” is not the question that gets us very far.
I would ask:
Did the writer make the choices that shape the book?
Does the language reflect a voice the reader came to hear?
Does the finished work express something the writer meant to say?
The story is still yours to tell
For authority-building books, the central question is whether the thinking belongs to the person whose name is on the cover.
For fiction and memoir, the question reaches into the writing itself:
Is the writer still making the work?
I believe AI can help writers create more. It can challenge the first idea, suggest a path around a block, and make room for exploration that might not otherwise happen.
That does not make the writing less human.
The writer’s imagination is still at the heart of the work. The writer is still responsible for every choice they accept.
That is the opposite I promised to argue.
I believe AI can increase creativity for fiction and memoir writers, as long as it gives them more to explore without taking away the choices that make the book theirs.
And to the author who is afraid AI will take their story away:
The story is still yours to tell.
A tool can help you explore it. It cannot replace the reason you need to tell it.
What do you think?
Can AI help a writer discover more possibilities while keeping the writing unmistakably their own?
Warmly,
Jan
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