Author Allen M Werner

Let me start by saying it is theft to use A.I. in writing and art. It steals from other people’s talents to create a soulless idol dedicated on the altar of commercial success.

I believe it has its positive uses in saving lives and avoiding potential disasters by collating and organizing data quickly for human minds to use. But it should never be used for the arts.

Artists who use A.I. in order to create artwork, be it writing, drawing or painting, are simply telling the world they have neither the talent nor patience to put their heart and soul into a project. They are as fake as their creation.

I spent nearly a decade of my life writing five epic fantasy books. (The Crystal Crux Series)

The characters, the plots, the schemes, the passions, the desires, the sentence structures, and the accompanying artwork were all mine. I did those things. They were born out of my experiences and imagination, my memories and desires. I am part of the story, my spirit inside of it all, giving it life – a piece of my life.

And because I have been writing about these characters for so long, they became imbedded in my psyche. I could see them all in my head, imagine how they looked and behaved, share in their joys and griefs, their triumphs and terrors.

Now I’m starting a new book with a completely different host of characters, and it is very eye opening. I don’t know these people. I don’t know their minds or histories. I don’t know why they exist or what their motivations are. I have to create all of them from scratch.

A.I. allows fake writers to cheat on this part. They can simply ask and receive characters with no soul, their experiences and goals a soup of other characters written about by others. There is nothing of the author put in it. It says nothing about the writer, No heart. No soul.

And they can do the same with the plots and schemes. A.I. will create it all for them. In a short period of time, they can stitch these empty pieces together and call it art.

Writing is unlike anything else you do in life.

To get started, you have to toss away the idea that you know what you are doing. What does that mean? It means you are baking a dish without any recipe, no list of ingredients, no measurements, no baking times or advice. You are completely on your own. And unlike baking, you won’t ever get better at this part. Every time you begin to prepare a new dish, it’s a mess.

Right now, I am throwing everything in the bowl. I just make up things. I have an idea in my head of how I want it to look, sound and taste, but no idea how to accomplish it. A thousand ingredients mixed in no particular order or measure.

You can’t focus on particular words or phrases, sentence structures, paragraphs and chapters. Sometimes you use nonsense to convey what you can’t reason out or understand yet. You know in the future you are going to have to do some research to learn the proper way to describe certain things. I know very little about medieval blacksmithing but if I want to write something that has details about that, I don’t include it in my first draft. It slows your writing down to a snail’s crawl, and that is not what you want at the beginning.

You just want to get all the ingredients in the bowl, eggshells, coffee grounds and all. Put pen to paper and get it done. You can’t get to the next stage until you do that.

Your first draft is going to look like pig slop, unfit for human consumption. It’s the worst and you might beat yourself up for writing something so awful. But it’s not awful. It’s the structure no one else will ever see or read. This is the foundation your masterpiece will be built upon.

And there are no shortcuts if you are truly an artist and want your heart and soul to be part of your work.

A.I., in my opinion, is simply for cheaters. They don’t want to go through this process because the only thing on their mind is creating something quick to sell and make money. They don’t really have anything to say. There is no part of their heart in the work. They just want to fool enough people to make a lot of money quick. It’s no better than cheating.

The world is already polluted by too much vanity. Even music is produced by people who program computers and have no skill to play an instrument. It is often mass produced and ran through devices to disguise the flaws in a singer’s voice or ability to play an instrument. It’s a lie.

I love music that is raw and not overproduced, that is created by the musicians themselves and carries their souls inside the work. There is something to be said for the old recordings of artists where there are noises and unexpected echoes in the background, perhaps a bit tinny or thunderous because they didn’t necessarily have access to the best recording machines.

I can’t imagine how anyone gets any satisfaction after using A.I. to create art. But I figure they aren’t really doing it to express anything or display their talents. To them, it is just a medium to exploit for profit. And the less time and effort it takes for them to profit by it is gold.

Fool’s gold.

Whatever art it is in your heart to do, do it with your heart, pure and unadulterated. Leave something of yourself behind for others to enjoy. Selah.

‘What does it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his own soul?’
– Mark 8:36-37

Allen M Werner is the author of the epic fantasy series The Crystal Crux