Yes, You Are the Literary Asshole If You Use AI to Edit Your Fiction

Hello all you gals and ghouls!

Welcome back to internet’s spookiest advice column, Am I the Literary Asshole?, a place where the monster mash is not only a graveyard smash, but also a drunken good time. I’m your host, Kristen Arnett, and hot damn! We managed three columns this month! It must be some kind of omen; quick, someone perform the sign of the cross over this keg!

In honor of Halloween, we’ve got a special one this week (even though I’m of the personal opinion that they’re always special). Today we’re featuring a trip back into HELL (aka another AI question), a previous caller who’s come back to haunt us once more (we always welcome this), and finally we’re ending on a fun note! Tricks AND treats! It’s Halloween, ya’ll! Let’s get frightening!

Listen, I’m gay, so that means Halloween is essentially my Christmas. Costumes on, party locked and loaded; let’s bob for apples in a vat of hunch punch while we check out these questions:

1) Hi Kristen,

First time, long time! I was so inspired by your letter to the writer who is using AI that I wanted to ask a follow-up question. A friend of mine recently confessed that they used AI to edit their novel. They’re querying agents and wanted to get it in the best possible shape and so, after years of work, they fed the whole thing into Chat-GPT. We had a pretty open conversation where I told them that the things they were using AI for are the hard parts that make your work more complex and interesting, and that if you skip that work, you’re doing your writing a disservice. Their argument is that AI is just a tool, and anyway, everyone’s going to be using it sooner or later. (I reject this idea!) I read their AI use as an act of desperation in a vulnerable moment.

That said, they are definitely in an economic position to hire a career coach, an editor, or a proofreader. And more to the point, they have the resources to collaborate with actual humans. This is not someone who lacks a writing community: they have an MFA and we are in a crit group together! I’ve read many drafts of their novel and was previously happy to champion their work, but it feels shitty to have my and our friends’ time and effort and care bypassed in this way. I don’t know how to tell them that a good agent won’t respect work written, or even assisted, with AI. I also don’t know how to tell them that I don’t want to read their work anymore if they’re using AI at any stage in the process. Am I the literary asshole?

Hello, friend!

I’m very sorry to say that I think we’re going to start experiencing more and more of this as time goes by; an era where people lean into “easy” fixes for their work instead of taking the time to confront stuff that scares them. Because you know what? Writing can be scary!

I mean sure, it’s wonderful; it’s art and it can be beautiful and passionate and funny and genius and delightful, but like everything in life, it contains multitudes. Writing can terrify us, confuse us, devastate us. Good writing means that you’re engaging with practices that will force you to lean into things that make you uncomfortable. Work that’s doing its job is inevitably hard. It asks you to look very deeply at things that are often obscured for good reason (they are tough pills to swallow).

When we choose to purposefully look away, we aren’t fully realizing the potential of a project. That’s essentially what your friend is doing with their work. You understand that, and it’s good that you’ve already sat down with them and tried to have these hard conversations. They already know that they’ve got other options when it comes to accessing human editors and proofreaders. They have an MFA. They’re part of your crit group! You’re not telling them anything they don’t already know. When they say “AI is already part of everything, it’s a tool, everyone will soon be using it” we know that’s not true. It’s something they’re telling themselves (and you) to feel better about making a bad choice.

And I think that’s the hardest part about all of this. They’ve got the information. They’ve chosen to be lazy about it. There’s nothing further you can do. I will say that you can make choices for yourself here, however. You can choose not to engage with their work if you know that it’s being processed with AI. You can simply opt out of being their reader. You can slowly but surely choose other people to talk to when it comes to writing, work, and art.

I am not telling you to abandon this friendship. It seems like they need a voice of reason now more than ever! But you can choose to ghost their AI writing. When you signed on for this friendship, you didn’t sign on for that.

SPOOKY! Simply gave me the shivers!

The party is just revving up; we’ve got buckets of peeled grapes… er… I mean eyeballs! And someone put some fake spiderweb in my hair! Oh wait, I live in Florida, the bugs are all real. I’m gonna chug a beer and search for the spider, but let’s dig into our next question:

2) Dear Dad, I wanted to provide an update on a previous letter you ran from me—this one about being asked to host events at bookstores that don’t stock my book. In the year since the letter ran, I have hosted more times at all the independent bookstores in my town. I have since learned that hosting another author’s launch can result in a variety of responses from bookstores. Some booksellers are very excited to see me and want me to sign stock and stay after to sign along with the other. Other booksellers at other stores—and this is hard for me to articulate—seem bewildered by my presence. Like, “oh.. you’re here. okay.” (Then I leave at the end while the author stays to sign.) In one case, the author was kind of enough to have high praise for my first book, saying “you should absolutely check it out” to the audience—the bookseller, *completely* caught off guard, was like, “Um, I think we have it downstairs.” They didn’t.

I just find it puzzling because I don’t know why you wouldn’t see an author being present as a potential opportunity to sell books—at worst they could order a handful of my books and then return them if no one buys them. I’ve thought about this and I think it arises from the fact that it is either the author’s publicists or the authors themselves who are asking me to host, and not the booksellers. At this point, it doesn’t bother me. I still shop at all these stores. TBH, I still haven’t been able to bring myself to ask “can you stock my book?” whenever I get asked to host—I don’t know, it feels gauche and I’m not the best at advocating for myself. I do know that when my next book comes out, I will ask them to stock the book of whoever is my conversation partner. Anyhow, I love your column!

Hello again! Thanks for this update!

I do think that you’re right when it comes to practices at varying bookstores: it’s very much to each their own. Different people, different places, different attitudes when it comes to stocking materials. Generally speaking, most bookstores are going to cater toward the clientele that they most frequently receive. Every store is going to choose what sells best for their particular readership.

Now that your book has been out for a while, it’s possible that stores wouldn’t have it regularly on shelves because—like any place that sells products—they have to make room for new materials. Indie bookstores aren’t usually maxxing out when it comes to space (many of them can be on the smaller side, as I’m sure you’ve noticed). It’s helpful for booksellers to have a reminder about what they might need to have in stock when an author comes to visit who’s moderating instead of directly on tour.

I want to urge you (gently, kindly) to simply ask these booksellers to have your book on hand ahead of the events. This is not a “gauche” thing to do, I promise. Especially if you’re giving ample notice! I would imagine you know at least a month in advance that you’re going to be assisting with an event. If you want to make sure that you have copies on hand, simply check with the store ahead of time. Many people do this (myself included).

If you don’t care about them having your book for sale, you can just keep moderating events and move forward that way. But it seems like you would like them to have these books for readers, so just asking won’t do any harm. I appreciate you keeping me posted! And if any booksellers have particular thoughts on this one, please drop me a line and I’ll be sure to include them in the next column!

I’ve eaten so much candy I’m about to burst, but I’ve got room for one more drink (and one more question):

3) Thank you for convincing me to continue being an “asshole.” I find writing isn’t a selfish thing through the way you answered those questions. I feel love and empathy when reading your words, and I think that is proof that sharing art is an act of love. I have more faith today. I decide to take action starting right now.

Okay, okay, I know this wasn’t a question… but I really needed to hear this today. I hope it helps you, too. Let’s take today and spend at least a small amount of time focusing on joy instead of the relentless pain. Let’s make something good, friends. I believe in you.

And that’s all the time we have for today! Join us next time when I’m still probably eating all this leftover Halloween candy (and don’t forget to send me more of your questions)!

Happy Halloween,
Dad

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Are you worried you’re the literary asshole? Ask Kristen via email at AskKristen@lithub.com, or anonymously here.