In my previous post here, I mentioned how AI is being used by writers and some of the controversy surrounding it in the publishing community. While I’m a firm believer that AI should not be a substitute for good writing and creativity, it can help brainstorm your ideas, refine your writing, and streamline the steps that authors struggle with the most.

Out of all the examples of AI tools I listed in my post, ChatGPT is one of the most well-known and arguably most versatile AI tools available for free use because you can use it for so many different things. While working on my latest draft, Domain of Power (Book 3) in the Legend Series, I realized just how powerful ChatGPT is and why it can help writers at any stage in their writing/publishing journey.

Research

Depending on the genre and the subject matter, research is an essential step in the early stages of the writing process. This is especially true for nonfiction (biographies, how-to, etc) where readers are expecting factually-based information. Even in fiction genres like historical fiction and sci-fi, readers are still expecting a story grounded in realism. ChatGPT can be a very useful tool for asking specific questions you have on technology that your characters would have access to, or what they would eat for dinner! No matter what you are looking for, the key to using ChatGPT effectively is being specific about what you are looking for.

Scenario: Let’s say you want to write a historical fiction novel taking place in ancient Roman times, and you want to know how they traveled in ancient Rome.

You could type:

What did Romans use to travel?

ChatGPT lists several transportation modes ancient Romans would have used, including:

WalkingHorseback ridingChariotsShipsCarts and wagons drawn by animals

You could stop there. But suppose your character is wealthy? And to provide further context, your story mainly takes place on land. You will want to narrow down the specific types of modes of travel your character could have used to add another layer of realism.

Let’s ask ChatGPT this question:

what means of transportation would wealthy Romans use to travel by land?

The above is a snippet of the results ChatGPT returns. Notice ChatGPT not only gives you the names but also important details like how many passengers each one could carry and the advantages each one offered. If your Roman character was taking a short trip and they needed to get somewhere quickly, a cisium would be the most practical choice.

Granted, most of us have never seen a cisium close-up, but the nice thing about ChatGPT is that you can ask it what a cisium looks like, so you can get a written description of its features. ChatGPT can even take it one step further, showing you a picture. Here’s an example of what I got after asking ChatGPT:

show me a picture of an ancient cisium

When it comes to historical fiction, the details matter when creating an immersive setting that transports the reader to that period. While I would encourage readers not to rely solely on ChatGPT for fact-checking, it can be a helpful tool to point you in the right direction.

Again, we’re only scratching the surface of the capabilities of ChatGPT. There are so many ways this tool can be used besides research and brainstorming your next novel, which will be explored in future posts. Don’t forget to hit that follow button so you can be alerted every time I publish a new post.

Overall, here are some key takeaways when using this tool:

Be specific. The more specific you are, the better. No, you don’t have to write out a long, drawn-out paragraph. That’s not needed either. Instead, a concise sentence or two of what you are looking for will suffice so that ChatGPT will narrow your results. You can also provide clear instructions to help the AI structure the information in a certain way (i.e., main and subpoints in a blog article) Dig deeper. After typing your initial questions, ChatGPT may generate follow-up questions. This can help fine-tune your results and provide more in-depth research.

Do you have another genre that you like to write? Try looking up some facts from ChatGPT and see what you come up with, and share your results below in the comments!

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