I’m trying to write a novel - a character-driven thriller. I use ChatGPT here and there, but I try to use it lightly. It’s a time-saver for small changes and touch-ups.

However, ChatGPT is too general-purpose for writers and often resorts to “corporate-speak.” This led me to try Sudowrite, which is built on language models like GPT but designed for aspiring authors.

Sudowrite blends AI with structured writing tools and an interface similar to Scrivener. It understands different forms of writing, from short stories to full-length novels, and supports a handful of genres.

I didn’t buy it, but I was impressed.

Sudowrite offers a guided process. It asks you to brainstorm, write a synopsis, and describe the tone, characters, and setting. These elements form the story “bible.” Once you’ve completed it, you can modify or even generate your prose.

Aside from the AI features, Sudowrite helps authors organize their story elements. It’s similar to an early version of Scrivener from a small British company called Literature and Latte. Like Literature and Latte, Sudowrite sponsors and promotes workshops and resources to help writers improve their craft.

Much like ChatGPT, Sudowrite’s quality suffers the further it strays from your original text. However, its starting point, compared to ChatGPT, is closer to something you might download on your Kindle.

As I previously blogged about, complex tasks aren’t GPT’s strong suit. It works best in simple increments. Sudowrite is built with this in mind, offering small, digestible “cards” of suggestions or edits rather than attempting to tackle an entire project at once.

And yet, this “all-at-once” approach seems popular. In Sudowrite’s Discord community, users generate complete chapters rather than modify their own work.

This seems ideal for Sudowrite’s business model, as it likely encourages high usage and premium subscriptions.

Generating text, rather than modifying your own, results in a mediocre novel - readable but boring. Compared to a good book, it’s cardboard.

The supply side of the book market is going to be flooded with mediocre writing. AI won’t help separate signal from noise artistically.

I do see the allure. Few people ever complete a book, and there’s satisfaction in bringing an idea to life, even with shortcuts.

If you use the tool’s cards and modify rather than generate, it is helpful. Not helpful enough for me to become a customer. I already pay for ChatGPT, and it can fix my grammar and smooth rough edges.

AI is a big piece of my novel’s storyline. Flooding the market with poorly crafted writing, music, and video for profit is relatively harmless. But the slop this new tech sector encourages is disappointing.