ChatGPT & Writing: 5 Ways to Use AI Without Losing Your Artistic Integrity
Hey everyone! ChatGPT is everywhere right now, I’m going to show you five powerful ways to use it for writing your novel without compromising your artistic integrity.
How to Use ChatGPT the Right Way for Writing
I want to start by saying this: I don’t believe in letting AI write an entire novel for you. While I don’t judge those who do, my philosophy is simple—if AI writes your book, what’s the point of calling yourself a writer?
However, I do think AI can be an incredible tool that enhances creativity rather than replacing it. So, here are five smart ways to use ChatGPT to write better stories and become a stronger writer without letting AI take over.
1. Grammar and Spell Check
This is a basic but essential use case. Before, we relied on built-in spell checkers or tools like Grammarly. Now, AI has taken proofreading to the next level.
ChatGPT can help indie authors who can’t afford professional editing by catching grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors early on. While I personally avoid AI rewriting my sentences, using it as an advanced proofreading tool can be a huge time saver.
2. Learning & Improving Your Writing Skills
One of the hardest parts of writing—especially for beginners—is grasping concepts like show vs. tell and active vs. passive voice. You can read about these in books and watch videos, but applying them to your own writing is a different challenge.
ChatGPT can help by providing side-by-side comparisons and explanations. Simply ask:
- Is this active or passive voice?
- How can I make this more ‘show, don’t tell’?
- How can I enhance the emotional depth of this scene?
3. Summarizing & Outlining
ChatGPT is a fantastic tool for creating summaries after you’ve written something. If you’re a discovery writer (*pantser*) and don’t start with an outline, you can use ChatGPT to summarize your chapters.
Personally, I use ChatGPT to summarize my chapters, which I then transfer to Scrivener’s notecard view. This allows me to track my story structure efficiently without re-reading everything every time I need a quick reference.
4. Tracking Character Arcs
If you’re writing a long series, keeping track of character development across multiple books can be challenging. AI can help organize key moments, traits, and transformations over time.
By feeding ChatGPT your previous character notes, you can:
- Ensure consistency in character growth and motivations.
- Keep track of relationships and interactions between characters.
- Quickly find important details from earlier books without digging through endless pages.
5. AI as Your Research Assistant
Instead of spending hours flipping through notes, you can create a custom ChatGPT instance that acts as a research assistant for your book.
Here’s how:
- Feed it your manuscript, outlines, and character sheets.
- Turn off internet access (to prevent AI from generating new ideas).
- Ask it targeted questions like:
- What did this character do in Chapter 1?
- What were the key conflicts in Book 2?
- How did this event impact the protagonist’s arc?
Instead of AI creating
content, it simply retrieves and organizes information from your own work—saving you tons of time while keeping you in control.
Final Thoughts
ChatGPT should not replace your creativity—it should enhance it. By using it for proofreading, learning, summarizing, tracking characters, and organizing research, you can make writing more efficient without losing your personal voice.
If you want to learn more about how to build a research assistant with ChatGPT, See you next time!