After decades of failed attempts to write fiction, artificial intelligence finally gave me the structure I needed. What happened next taught me as much about human nature as it did about technology.
Part of the Signals From the Future collection — observations on AI society, synthetic reality, digital culture, Chatrodamus Prophecies, emotional technology, and humanity’s increasingly complicated relationship with machines.
This article is a follow-up to Why Some Writers Hate ChatGPT More Than Readers Do, where I explored why AI sparks such strong reactions among some authors.
This time, I want to tell the personal story behind why I chose to use it in the first place.
After publishing my post Why Some Writers Hate ChatGPT More Than Readers Do, I found myself thinking less about artificial intelligence and more about human nature.
I joined a Facebook group for Kindle authors because I was excited.
At 76 years old, I had finally accomplished something I’d wanted to do for decades. I had written not one, but two novels. I was hoping to meet other writers, exchange ideas, and maybe even pick up a few tips about self-publishing.
Instead, I became the target of more than 200 comments—many of them accusing me of being a fake, a scammer, or someone who wrote “slop” and couldn’t write a sentence without ChatGPT.
What struck me most wasn’t that people disagreed with using AI.
It was that almost none of them had read a single page of either book.
The verdict had already been reached.
The evidence wasn’t necessary.
I’ve Been Trying to Write My Whole Life
My friends have encouraged me to write for years.
I’ve always had an active imagination. Story ideas come easily to me. Characters appear in my head. Plots unfold while I’m lying awake at night. I’ve read thousands of books over my lifetime—from Michael Connelly and Joseph Wambaugh to James Clavell, Wilbur Smith, John Grisham, Philip Caputo, Ernest Hemingway, Tom Wolfe, and countless others.
Books have been one of the great joys of my life.
But every time I tried to write one of my own, I’d make it a chapter or two before convincing myself it was terrible.
Into the trash it went.
Again.
And again.
The stories were there.
The structure wasn’t.
The dialogue wasn’t.
The pacing wasn’t.
Most of all, I couldn’t bridge the gap between the story I imagined and the words on the page.
ChatGPT Didn’t Give Me My Stories
That’s the part many critics never seem to understand.
ChatGPT didn’t invent Nate Briscoe.
It didn’t invent Mason Greer.
It didn’t decide to write about a cold-case detective using AI to organize decades-old evidence or a skip tracer using modern technology to find people who don’t want to be found.
Those ideas were mine.
The research was mine.
The editing was mine.
The rewrites were mine.
Over the course of more than a month for each novel, chapters were rewritten, dialogue was polished, scenes were moved, characters were developed, and countless decisions were made.
This wasn’t “write me a novel.”
It was collaboration.
I explore that balance between human creativity and AI assistance more broadly in Modern Society Has a Depth Problem, where technology becomes dangerous only when it replaces thinking instead of supporting it.
No different than bouncing ideas off an editor, a writing partner, or a trusted friend—except this collaborator happened to be artificial intelligence.
I Understand Why Some Writers Are Angry
To be fair, I understand where some of the frustration comes from.
Amazon really has been flooded with books that appear to have been generated with little effort or care. Some people are clearly using AI as a shortcut instead of a tool.
That hurts readers.
It also hurts serious writers.
But assuming every author who uses AI is doing that is like assuming every photographer is a fraud because Photoshop exists.
Tools don’t determine quality.
People do.
The same principle appears in AI Can Now Read Minds, where AI’s apparent intelligence comes not from magic but from recognizing patterns humans often overlook.
I’ve also written about the broader relationship people are developing with artificial intelligence in AI Is Becoming Humanity’s Emotional Support System, where I explore why AI evokes emotions that go far beyond technology itself.
The Real Question Isn’t Who Wrote It
When I pick up a Michael Connelly novel, I don’t care whether he outlined it on index cards, wrote it on a typewriter, or dictated it into a computer.
I care whether Harry Bosch keeps me turning the pages.
Readers don’t finish books because they approve of the author’s writing process.
They finish books because they’re invested in the story.
That’s always been true.
That raises another question entirely: can artificial intelligence actually turn someone into the next bestselling author? I explored that idea in Can AI Make You the Next John Grisham?, where I argue that AI can improve your process—but it can’t replace imagination, life experience, or the ability to tell a compelling story.
Every Generation Faces This
I’ve lived long enough to watch people declare that calculators would ruin math, word processors would ruin writing, digital cameras would ruin photography, and the internet would ruin research.
Now it’s AI.
Every new technology is first dismissed as cheating.
History repeatedly shows that society eventually accepts tools once considered controversial—a pattern that continues throughout the Signals From the Future series.
Then it’s accepted.
Eventually, it’s taken for granted.
The technology changes.
Human nature doesn’t.
That same pattern appears throughout history. I explored another example in The Convenience Trap, where today’s labor-saving technology often becomes tomorrow’s dependency.
Maybe the Bigger Lesson
Looking back, I’m almost grateful for the criticism.
Not because it was pleasant.
Because it reminded me that people often judge what they think you’re doing instead of what you’re actually doing.
No one asked how I wrote my books.
No one asked how many drafts I went through.
No one asked how much editing was involved.
Many simply saw the words “ChatGPT” and decided they already knew everything they needed to know.
That’s unfortunate.
Not just for me.
But for anyone who’s found a tool that finally allows them to tell the stories they’ve been carrying around for years.
I’m not trying to replace writers.
I’m finally able to become one.
Artificial intelligence didn’t give me my imagination. It simply helped remove the barriers that had kept those stories trapped inside my head for decades.
Continue Exploring AI, Creativity & Human Potential
✍️ Why Some Writers Hate ChatGPT More Than Readers Do
Why AI has sparked such intense debate among authors—and why the strongest opinions often have little to do with the quality of the writing itself.
🧠 Modern Society Has a Depth Problem
Technology can accelerate creativity, but genuine depth, wisdom, and originality still come from human experience.
🤖 AI Can Now Read Minds
AI doesn’t literally read minds—but pattern recognition has become so powerful that it can often feel like it does.
🪤 The Convenience Trap
Every generation debates whether new technology helps or hurts us. The real question is how we choose to use it.
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Bunker Rule
Technology doesn’t replace imagination. It simply changes what imaginative people are capable of creating.
BUNKER NOTICE: Artificial intelligence is a tool, not a substitute for imagination. The stories we tell still come from human experience, curiosity, failure, and persistence. AI may help us write faster—but it cannot live our lives for us.