AI is more like an incredible research assistant who never gets tired and you never have to pay. Think of it like a power tool for writing your book.
(You wouldn’t want the bulldozer driving itself, would you?)
In the past, you’d have to spend hours searching manually through books, combing through records or — we may be aging ourselves here — looking at microfiche to find records that corroborate what you’re working on in order to create a well-crafted, well-researched book.
Now, GPT and other tools can cut this time into ribbons. The simplest way to use AI to research is to upload the source material first (for instance, a PDF of the book you’d like to work with) and then ask the AI questions to help you find specific references you’re looking for that align with what you need to know.
From there, the computer will scan through the entire book and return exact quotes, synopses and other relevant data. As you add more information to the database, the program will remember and become even sharper at cross-referencing information. It’s amazing how much time this saves. Days? Months?
I wouldn’t want to write without it at my disposal. At the same time, I know it can’t do the writing for me.
A word of warning: if AI gives you an exact quote, make sure to check the source material itself to make sure the quote is accurate. I’ve seen on occasion that sometimes it just…makes things up. Then when I ask it why it did that…it sheepishly apologizes and tries again. Sometimes, I have to run the same command 3 times before it produces accurate information. Still faster than scanning a 300-page book manually — but something to look out for. It doesn’t happen a lot, but when you’re crediting others, you want to be accurate.
Another pro-tip: use the playground feature in GPT. That will allow you to program specialized assistants for specific books / tasks you’re working on, and the data you input won’t be used to train any future models of GPT (supposedly…)
Happy writing!
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Pictured here: a research prompt for a recent writing session of Dr. Brett Jones’s upcoming book “The Healing Way.” We’re very excited for this release!
If you’re a professional, entrepreneur or expert who is ready to become a bestselling author, I’m happy to answer any questions about writing, publishing and promoting your book. Reach out by completing the application on this page and we can discuss how New Wave Press may be able to support you.
