Would you, could you...

"No! no! no!" I hear you say. "I would never use an AI to write my novel for me." That would be cheating, wouldn't it? Take away the human element of the story writing, and would be no fun at all. Or would it?

Firstly, could a generative artificial intelligence, a natural language processing engine (we'll call it an 'AI' for brevity) write a novel? From all I have read and learnt about so-called artificial intelligence over the decades, and especially in the last few years, AI could probably generate a novel. Whether it would be worth reading is another matter.

According to a recent article in The Independent (UK), excitement about text-generating systems such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT "has led many to publish blog posts and other content created by those systems, and ever more of the internet has been produced by AI." This, says The Independent means that AIs are in danger of endless copying of their own nonsense to the point of collapse. Not very intelligent, ha!

That's the whole point though, isn't it? Artificial Intelligence is not intelligent at all. It is not in the least discriminating, cannot tell the difference between fact and fiction, cannot be happy, sad, excited, or create stories that elicit such emotions. So why bother?

Well, you could ask why bother with wordprocessing software, spellcheck, dictionaries, or any other tools that we use as writers. Get the issue into perspective and then it makes more sense. My view is that you can use an AI to help write your next novel, the question is: how?

On this basis, purely as an experiment, I have brought Chapt GPT in to assist with writing my next novel. How? Well, by asking Chat GPT to create a structure for a novel based on a starting point that I have provided. In doing this, Chat GPT, I know, will look at standard models for planning a novel. Yes, I know, I could go read some books about how to write a novel, or attend 'creative writing' classes. But I am not going to do either of those things as I would find them extremely boring.

How will I use an outline provided by Chat GPT? Well I am not going to follow it slavishly, of course, because that would also be very boring too. AI is not at all creative and only ever comes up with the obvious and who wants to read a novel in which the story is obvious? Also, I am pretty certain I can come up with far more exciting story lines than anything suggested by and AI. In short, I will (or may) use anything suggested by Chat GPT as a starting point and will almost certainly go off at a tangent. as I write my masterwork.

Why not try it yourself?

For the benefit of this experiment, I have asked GPT to generate a novel outline based on a work of art I have previously used as inspiration for a quirky short story. Again, don't expect GPT to be quirky because you will be disappointed. You have to add the quirk to your own vanilla mixture provided by the AI. That's the whole point, isn't it? Great cooks don't disdain using traditional (obvious) recipes any more than great musicians ignore traditional approaches to music or great artists ignore all other art. They use what comes before them to create something knew and exciting. Novelists do exactly the same. Try writing a love story without referencing Romeo and Juliet!

In my short story, the artwork I used for inspiration was Gainsborough: Mrs Elizabeth Moody with her sons Samuel and Thomas. Here it is if you would like to take a look.

And so on to the AI generated novel outline. For this, I fed the following input into the AI machine:

Generate a novel outline inspired by the painting by Gainsborough: Mrs Elizabeth Moody with her sons.

What follows is entirely generated by Chat GPT and reproduced, verbatim, for the benefit of the experiment. I have merely formatted the text for ease of reading. I make no claim of copyright to the outline so please feel free to make use of it. Neither does Chat GPT make any legal claims as it is a bit of computer software, and does not have legal personality, according to any court of law in any jurisdiction that I am aware of.

The following text is AI-generated

Here’s an outline inspired by Thomas Gainsborough’s portrait “Mrs Elizabeth Moody with her sons Samuel and Thomas”:

Introduction

Set the scene: Late 18th-century England.

Introduce Mrs. Elizabeth Moody, a strong-willed widow, and her two sons, Samuel and Thomas.

Describe their estate, a sprawling manor surrounded by lush countryside.

The Moody Family Dynamics

Explore the relationship between Mrs. Moody and her sons.

Samuel, the elder son, is responsible and dutiful, while Thomas is more rebellious and artistic.

Highlight their contrasting personalities and aspirations.

The Mysterious Past

Uncover secrets from Mrs. Moody’s past.

Was her late husband’s death truly accidental?

Why does she keep a locked room in the manor?

The Arrival of a Stranger

A mysterious stranger arrives in the village.

He claims to know Mrs. Moody from her youth.

His presence disrupts the family’s equilibrium.

The Portrait Commission

Samuel suggests commissioning a portrait of the family.

Mrs. Moody agrees reluctantly.

Thomas, an aspiring artist, is excited about capturing their essence.

The Unveiling

The portrait is complete.

Mrs. Moody gazes at her sons with a mix of pride and sorrow.

The stranger recognizes her from the painting.

Revelations and Betrayals

The stranger reveals Mrs. Moody’s true identity.

She was once involved in a scandalous affair.

Samuel feels betrayed; Thomas is intrigued.

The Hidden Room

Thomas discovers the locked room.

Inside, he finds letters, old diaries, and forbidden memories.

The truth about Mrs. Moody’s past unfolds.

Choices and Redemption

Mrs. Moody must confront her past.

Samuel grapples with forgiveness.

Thomas decides whether to expose the truth or protect his family.

Conclusion

The portrait becomes a symbol of resilience and forgiveness.

Mrs. Moody’s secrets are laid bare.

The family finds healing and redemption.

Remember, this is just an outline—feel free to expand on these points and add your own twists!

End of AI-generated text

GPT quotes the following sources:

en.wikipedia.org

dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk

artuk.org

When I have previously asked GPT about story outlines, it has quoted sources for standard approaches but has not on this occasion. As I say, if you want to use some or all of the above outline, please feel free. I strongly suggest, however, that you weave your own magic into your finished work. You might also consider entering the write a chapter of your novel challenge that I have launched, with cash prizes, here:

You could of course generate your own story outline either from your own knowledge of how to structure a novel, or by feeding your own requirements into the GPT engine, with your own choice of artwork. Whatever you decide...

Best wishes for your writing journey.

Thanks for reading

Ray