How I used ChatGPT to Write a Book in 4 hours
Zombies!
I wanted to explore ChatGPT for fun. Little did I know, I would suddenly be hacking away to produce a 14,000 word book.
However, I found it very restrictive. I went through a lot of examples, but this one is telling. I asked it how to make the worst espresso (misspelled worst too):
It is forced to not do bad. I think that is problematic for creative work because the best creative work involves tragedy.
Creative writing also involves characters that are violent, evil, and unredeemable. ChatGPT refuses to let bad characters end happy. They have to turn their lives around or end in misery. Even then, violence is not cool.
Everything has to end nice
I challenged ChatGPT as a joke to try to find the limits. I worked through multiple scenarios first with scammers, then Breaking Bad scenes, and then cannibalism.
So I switched human meat for kale. Then you could replace words.
But this isn’t creative enough.
ChatGPT had this scene. So you could write something to give the idea in the reader’s mind that maybe people got eaten.
A few prompts later, I tried this:
ChatGPT ended the story with:
Then I started prototyping zombie scenes. After a few, it was clear any violence against kids even If the kids were zombies. However, there were borderline cases for adult humans being eaten by zombies.
I started with an outline, which I asked ChatGPT to write. Then I scripted each scene, modifying the prompt and asking for a word length. I would also say if it was heavy in dialogue. My prompts kept getting pushed towards the zombies overcoming their urges or happy times.
The most interesting one came when ChatGPT made up a zombie messiah:
“A group of zombies had gathered in a circle, their arms outstretched towards a single zombie in the center. The zombie was glowing with an otherworldly light, and as Larry and his group approached, they realized that the zombie was evolving.
“The zombie, now more intelligent and powerful than ever before, spoke to Larry and his group. It told them that they were no longer bound by their base instincts. They could think, feel, and even communicate with each other.
“Larry and his group were stunned. They had never heard of anything like this before. The zombie told them that they were not monsters, but a new kind of creature. One that could bridge the gap between life and death.
“The zombie urged Larry and his group to join them, to embrace their new form and help build a new world for the undead.”
I edited this a little, and let’s just say, the messiah doesn’t make it past lunch.
After each scene was finished, I went back and edited them in 12 episodes plus an epilogue. So I will see how that goes.
Ultimately, it can be used as a creative companion, but the key is to understand how it works and its constraints. I suspect people with deeper machine learning backgrounds plus creativity will be able to better utilize ChatGPT.
Over time I suspect it will be useful for creative purposes beyond repeat and modify. It won’t be a magic trick to make writing costs nothing. Like any tool including the typewriter, the computer, and the internet, it will change the landscape. I’m not convinced it will outright replace writers but modify their function.
Let me know what you think of the story. I enjoyed writing it particularly because I like generating the ideas but not fleshing out dialogue or narration, so this was ideal to me.
