How AI Transformed My Book-Writing Journey

I started my memoir A Russian a decade ago and drafted most of it in a matter of months. But then I stalled — for years. First of all, English is not my first language, and even though I’m confident in my writing skills, I still make mistakes. When I blog, like here, I don’t worry about being perfect. But when it comes to writing a real book, you have to achieve perfection.

That means I have to work with editors. And I tried. But then came the second problem — I found the feedback from editors, especially on the developmental side, overwhelming and very hard to implement. They make a suggestion, you have to rework it, send back your edits, and then they review it again. The loop feels impossible to close, especially when you’re working on a full-blown book of 70,000+ words. There is a financial cost too.

The biggest benefit of AI is that I can close that loop many times faster — and for free. While AI is not a substitute for a highly professional editor who can look at the book holistically and provide feedback on various elements — themes, characters, and scenes — I can still work on everything I’ve just mentioned by breaking my book into smaller sections, such as chapters.

I request AI to handle technical editing, and I also ask for developmental suggestions. Then, I (we!) can instantly review the new edits and incorporate them back into the draft.

I use a mix of ChatGPT and Claude. For the latter, I decided to pay for the premium version — $20/month. I find…