Is AI an Effective Outlining Tool for Writers?
With all this talk about AI lately, it’s hard to know whether it’s ethical to use it as a writer, let alone how to use it. Having it write stories for you? Obviously not a good idea. But what about asking it to help you with a story outline?
I decided to conduct an experiment to try and answer these questions.
(AI Stole My Name: A Chat with Jane Friedman)
The Experiment
To explore this, I pulled up both Claude and ChatGPT and gave them the exact same task:
Create a story outline about a man who has been caught cheating on his girlfriend, who is a witch, and leaves him in the middle of the night taking all of her belongings except for a small black box. The man tries to throw the box away, but it appears back in his house. It has a siren call and one night, he wakes up finding himself naked and clutching the box to his chest. Afraid of what will happen to him if he opens it, he gives the box away at his company’s secret santa event. He’s been assigned to Lee (pronouns they/them), the new IT hire, and feels good to have it out of his house. Over the next few months, Lee’s behavior becomes more and more erratic. Meanwhile, the man’s computer and files start sabotaging him at work and he swears he sees Lee places around his home. Eventually, Lee causes a scene at work that ends in them being fired and then that night when the man goes home, Lee is lying in wait at his home, ending in a physical confrontation between them. Lee is faster and stronger than they should be, and the man ends up narrowly escaping them, wounded, running out into the street, only to be hit by an oncoming car. As he lays there, his ex gets out of the car, leisurely on the phone with 911, a smile on her face.
This is what Claude gave me:
And this is what ChatGPT gave me:
Analysis
You’ll note that the initial outline has a ton of details. I originally gave the AIs much less material, but there were hardly enough details in their answer to constitute an outline. That in itself is both a relief and problematic—I wouldn’t want AI to write my story for me, but how helpful is it if I have to have all the details already written down?
The first thing I noticed is that ChatGPT gave my characters names, as well as giving the male MC an age and Lee an “enigmatic presence.” Other than those embellishments, it has made up that Lee “seems fascinated by odd and mystical items” and the female antagonist a stereotypical villain speech scene that I would absolutely not include. This was annoying, because I had to comb the outline, change details, and remove things that didn’t align with my idea. Upside: I know from past dealings with this platform that some of the things ChatGPT puts into an outline are hysterical.
Claude, on the other hand, does not include any embellishments that I hadn’t included in the original prompt. This was much preferable, as it only utilized the information I gave it and simply organized the chaos of my thoughts into something more reasonable.
Both AI platforms gave me an organized outline, though ChatGPT has separated it into four distinct acts with three main points each while Claude has given me eight distinct parts with 2–4 main points each. Either could work if I were to start writing using them, and it does make me consider whether an 8-point story structure (which focuses on stasis, trigger, quest, surprise, critical choice, climax, reversal, and resolution) or a 4-act structure (which focuses on setup, rising action, crisis, and resolution) would better service my story.
Otherwise, they didn’t give me much to consider—no ideas for world-building, no room for subplots, etc. You could probably ask the AI to build those things into it as you flesh the story out, but you could also just copy/paste the initial outline into a Word document and keep planning that way.
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Conclusion
So, is AI worthwhile to outline your stories?
This writer/editor says nah.
Without even considering the way that AI developers are training their programs, they’re not set up to do everything that a writer needs. You’re better off setting up shop with programs like The Novel Factory and Dabble, which have tons of features that help you keep track of your outlines, manage your notes, create a character bible, and even help you create and keep goals and organize writing sprints.
It’s a fun exercise, but for all the intricacies that go into plotting a story, it doesn’t seem like AI is currently up to the task of supporting writers through the outlining stage.
Build Your Novel Scene by Scene will offer you the impetus, the guidance, the support, and the deadline you need to finally stop talking, start writing, and, ultimately, complete that novel you always said you wanted to write.