Unlocking Your Romance Writing Potential Through AI
AI came up in last week’s call and today a WWH member sent an AI poem for writers written in the form of Green Eggs and Ham. Unfortunately, it’s not posted online, so I can’t send a link. Suffice it to day, it was mostly spot on and hilarious.
AI is all the buzz and it’s likely here to stay. For romance authors, AI can offer a tool to assist you in many aspects of your writing, so I thought I’d share about AI and the tools you can use to write, edit, and promote your books.
NOTE: In my mind, AI is a tool in the same way the Internet, books, and automation are tools. It’s there to help us.
Can AI do all the work for you in writing a book? Maybe, but I’d question the quality.
Instead, see AI as a way to get ideas, brainstorm when you’re stuck, visual or expand on your idea, help you improve your writing, and assist you in the other aspects of being an authorpreneur, such as creating marketing content.
ALLI has a post on AI for authors including ethical considerations.
What is AI, and How Can it Help Romance Authors?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way romance authors create content. AI writing tools can help authors save time and effort by automating certain tasks such as generating or brainstorming ideas, researching topics, and even writing outlines.
With AI-powered author productivity tools, romance authors can focus on what they do best – creating compelling stories that captivate their readers. AI-driven writing tools can also help authors stay organized and efficient while producing quality content at scale.
How to Use AI to Generate Ideas & Content Faster
AI-powered romance novel idea generators are becoming increasingly popular among writers. A WWH member who played around with Chatgpt was able to develop a regency-era romance idea.
AI tools use natural language processing to quickly generate ideas based on keywords or topics provided by the user. For example, “give me three plot ideas involving a grumpy hockey player and an curvy, outgoing dancer.”
Here’s one from Rytr:
Mitch is an NHL hockey player, whose career has been on the decline since he broke his leg a few seasons ago. He’s suffered from depression and become increasingly grumpy and frustrated, pushing away friends and family.
One day, while walking through town, Mitch stumbles upon an audition for a local dance troupe. Despite the fact that the audition is already halfway finished, he is captivated by a particular dancer: an exuberant and curvy woman named Olivia. When she catches Mitch’s eye, she smiles at him invitingly and draws him in to dance with her.
Mitch is hesitant at first but soon finds himself smiling too. After the audition they take their conversation outside and discover they have a lot in common: a love of music, sports, literature—even a favorite type of ice cream!
Instantly, the two of them felt a powerful connection that was much deeper than just mere shared interests; they both had the feeling of being on a search to find someone special and unique, like they had finally found what they were looking for.
Depending on the AI tool and what you want from it, you can generate basic story ideas (a premise) or a complete outline (with conflicts and plot beats) or something in between. As you’ll note from above, there’s a kernel of an idea, but a lot of work is still needed, specifically, the conflicts.
AI tools can be used to brainstorm as well. If you already have your idea somewhat plotted but are stuck, AI can provide you with ideas. Or, if AI generated the idea, you can ask more questions to expand on the concept.
AI for Proofreading and Editing
AI-powered editing and proofreading tools provide a more efficient way to improve the quality of written content, while also helping authors save time and money. With an AI-powered tool, writers can automate tedious tasks such as checking for grammar mistakes and typos. Additionally, they can get automated feedback on their writing, such as overused words, adverbs, and even alternative word choices that might be better. Not only can this improve the quality of the work, but it helps the author improve their skills faster.
That’s not to say that human editors aren’t needed, because they are. AI tools aren’t fool proof. But AI editing can help you deliver a cleaner copy of your manuscript to your editor, and if you pay attention to the corrections and suggestions it makes, you can learn how to write better in the future.
AI for Book Covers and Other Graphics
There has been controversy surrounding AI art, as it appears that some AI doesn’t understand copyright. With that said, there are AI art generators that authors can use to create book covers and other graphics. The Writing Cooperative has a post in which Shelby Sullivan shares her experience using AI to generate images for book covers.
Or use them to create a visual of your setting or character.
AI for Audio Books
The newest source of help for authors is AI for audio book creation. In the past, AI voice wasn’t great. As it improved, it worked well for non-fiction, but not so much for fiction, which needs emotion infused in the voices. But that is improving as well.
There are many authors who have used AI to create audiobooks for the purpose of posting them on YouTube. While many of these “videos” have negative comments for narration, they have many positive comments for the story. Better yet, many have the requisite subscriber and view counts to make money from Google/YouTube’s ad program.
AI to Generate Author Marketing and other Content
Authors need to do more than write books. They need to write synopsis, tag lines, marketing materials, ads and more. AI can help writing these and can do it with your target market in mind. For example, I used Rytr to generate two versions of song lyrics for Valentines Day using a passionate tone. (This is raw text Rytr provided):
Option One
[Intro]
A love like ours won’t soon be found
Why don’t we take it right to the ground
[Verse 1]
This Valentine’s Day, I’m glad you’re here with me
My heart is filled with love, can’t you see?
We’ve been through thick and thin, come what may
And I know I’m yours, and you’re mine to stay
[Chorus]
Oh, what a beautiful thing it is to love somebody
To feel the warmth of your embrace and never let go
Oh, I wanna show you that my love for you will never die
And I’m so happy to call you my valentine tonight
[Verse 2]
My heart beats for the future that we may have together
Let’s light a candle in honor of this day forever
This Valentine’s Day will be like no other
Let’s make a wish and know it’ll come true forever
Option Two
[Verse 1]
It’s Valentine’s Day, and I’m missing you so
A sweet reminder of the love we both hold
My heart is aching, I’ve been searching low
Needing to show you how much I love you so
[Chorus]
Come be my Valentine, fill my heart so divine
Your love is like a river, never ending with time
We’ll light up the night sky, no need to hide what we feel inside
Come be my Valentine, just take this heart of mine
[Verse 2]
My love is real and honest, no need to explain
It’s so pure and magical, like standing in the rain
My arms are open wide for you to come close
Your laugh and your smile make my day just glow
[Chorus]
Come be my Valentine, fill my heart so divine
Your love is like a river, never ending with time
We’ll light up the night sky, no need to hide what we feel inside
Come be my Valentine, just take this heart of mine
They’re not perfect, but there’s something to work with.
AI for Marketing and Other Business Tasks
Automation in marketing is nothing new. Autoresponders and social media schedulers are two examples of automation that help authors save time in promoting their books. But AI in marketing is slightly different. AI in marketing can help you:
- Discover best keywords to optimize your books, blog posts, etc
- Talk to your potential readers through chatbots on social media or your website to guide them to your lead magnet or books
- Brainstorm marketing ideas ala Chatgpt and similar AI
- Video generators
- Transcribing dictation
- And more.
Again, AI offers assistance to authors who are generally solo-preneurs, having to wear all hats in their romance writing business. Whether it’s help brainstorming or fleshing out ideas, editing, or creating marketing materials, AI can help in a way that is cheaper and faster than hiring outside help. With that said, there’s no replacing human creativity…at least not yet. So AI generated content shouldn’t be your final draft of anything you use it to create. In put your voice and style. Make it your own.
AI Tools for Authors
Here is a list of what I use, along with a list of other resources I haven’t had a chance to check out yet, but look interesting.
AI Jenna Harte Uses
Rytr: I use it mostly to help me outline blog posts (including this one), but it can do more including write ads, lyrics, plot ideas, emails, taglines, copywriting and more. Note, for fiction AI generators, I’d use one of the options below such as Sudowrite or NovalAi. Rytr is helpful with other AI writing, but not so much with fiction plotting.
Dragon Naturally Speaking Professional: I use this to transcribe my recorded dictation into text.
AutoCrit: I use ProwritingAid on my computer to deal with editing initially, but when I’m done, I use AutoCrit, which not only finds the stuff Prowriting Aid missed, but I can also have the book compared to the top books in my category to see that I’ve met similar criteria. I also like that it doesn’t try to get me to eliminate every “bad” thing. For example, it will highlight adverbs, but then will tell me how many I should get rid of to be similar to other books in my genre.
Ocoya: This is a social media generator and scheduler. I haven’t used it much, but I want to start using it more. My social media is haphazard because I often don’t know what to post. Ocoya helps generate ideas for the major platforms, has AI copywriting, help in creating graphics, and the ability to help you find ideas based on keywords and hashtags. It even will generate and create quote posts if you’re really stuck.
Pictory: This AI can turn text into video and can help you turn long-form video into shorter (think social media) video for marketing.
Lumen5: Like Pictory, Lumin can turn text into video.
Voicetapp: I own this, but haven’t used it yet. My goal is to use it to transcribe video and audio. Because Dragon requires punctuation commands, I needed to find something that could transcribe audio without that.
One Transcriber: Like VoiceApp this app transcribes, but I picked it up to transcribe courses I bought so I could have text version of the lesson without having to rely on my scribbled notes.
Revoicer: I bought Speechelo awhile back, but it didn’t really do the trick for creating voiceovers for social video book trailers liked I hoped. But I just found Revoicer, and while I haven’t completed a project yet, the voices are better, and I can manipulate them (slow, tone, etc) to fit the content. It can work for audio books, but if you wanted multi-cast and real-sounding dialogue, it will take time to generate, as each voice will need it’s own file, and each line that needs a voice tweak will need to be edited to add the tone, etc. Multiple audios can be combined for a single file, but again, if you’re creating audio for a book, it will take time. However, creating audio from snippets of your book and then putting them to video with something like Wave.video, that could be cool for marketing (think TikTok!). You’ll need to splurge for the pro version for all the best voices and tones.
Other AI Tools
(I haven’t tried these, but some are on my list to check out)
AI for Writers
Subtxt.app: Outlining tool
Sudowrite: Brainstorm, write, expand (show & tell), and more
NovelAI: Brainstorm, write, create visual representations of characters and setting.
AI Editing
AuthorsAi: Creates a report that can help with pacing and arc, along with other editing such as overused words, etc.
Prowriting Aid: AI editor
Grammarly:AI Editor
AI Text to Speech (Audio Book):
Note that Audible (Amazon) doesn’t take AI generated books
Murf.Ai: This tool can clone voices (e.g. you can use your voice). It says you can use different voices (multi-cast anyone!) as well. This is the one I want to check out.
MicMonster Here is the post at MicMonster on creating audio books using it’s tool. If you search for audio books with MicMonster, you’ll get a list of YouTube posted audio books (these authors are giving the audio away for free but have the potential to earn Adsense income from Google/YouTube). Here is one example, Mistletoe Kiss by Andrea Boyd (it’s a sweet romance)
Google Play Books – AI Narrated Audio Books
VictoryTale has a list of AI audio narration options that includes pros and cons, and pricing.
Generic AI
Chatgpt: This one is getting all the buzz, but it’s not the only one out there.
You Chat: This one works like the others, but will also provide links to resources if you’re query needs more information or research.
AI Art
Art Breeder (Art)
MidJourney (Art)
MakeUseOf has a list of other art AI generator tools. It has a list of AI video generators as well.
AI for Marketing
Descript: This may not be for all authors, but it can video and audio record and transcribe all at once. Plus you can edit the video like you edit a Word doc. I’m looking at this for WWH, but I think if you make video marketing content, this could be something to consider as well.
Reply.io: Email AI. Personally, I think email should be handled…well…personally, but if you have a ton of it, this can help.
Here’s an article at NoGood on top AI marketing tools in 2023.
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