The Writer-Editor Relationship: You Deserve Better than AI

“Will AI take your job in the future?”

“I write my blogs with AI. You’re obsolete.”

“I can even add little errors that will make it sound human.” 

“Time to find a new job. No one is hiring editors.” 

These are all direct quotes. After I introduce myself as an editor, I usually get asked about my views on AI and/or get directly told that I will be phased out. 

It’s no secret that companies have set aside large budgets for AI to automate processes that humans have spent years refining and that people turn to large language models (LLMs) for research, inspiration, or feedback. 

At this point, my collaborators and myself have talked to death about the impacts on AI and its use. 

I’m going to step in as your editor for a moment. My audience, right now, are individuals who don’t feel confident in their writing abilities who have great ideas for projects. They might not have the budget for an editor, so they’ll plug their ideas into a LLM for something they see as professional, correct, and as something that can bring their stories to life. 

What you received from your LLM is the result of following your rules as it understands them, pieces of writing that were programmed into it, and a lot of filler. Your LLM was not intentional about choosing the best possible word to match your needs. It was concerned with the simplest and the “most efficient”. Efficient for what or for whom is anybody’s guess. 

AI is meant to be a productivity tool and it’s meant to help us, but it does not have your best interests in mind as a creative.

Editors knew from the beginning that this tool wasn’t going to replace us. We knew that our clients wouldn’t be the people who saw us as expendable. Our people are writers, and we’re here to tell you that you deserve better than a program that’ll turn your ideas into repetitive filler. 

On top of that, when you feed your idea into an LLM, you are leaving your work open to being reproduced and plagiarized. There is no contract or agreement of any kind that will protect your privacy.  

We’ve been using types of AI to correct our grammar and spelling for years. It will still put a red line under your last name, misinterpret context, or fail to recognize certain errors. If you ask today’s LLMs to explain a grammatical rule, you’ll get something back, but you’re better off doing your own research. 

English is a tough language to learn, and written communication can be a struggle, even for native speakers. Rules of grammar and style aren’t usually absolute. They have nuance and exceptions, and it can be difficult to know what sources a LLM will pull from when you ask it to explain that rule. 

If you’re feeling lost and don’t know where to start, try the tools that editors use. 

Certain current style guides can be found online, so if you’re confused about a grammatical rule, try using one of those!

As a writer, you probably use something akin to Google Docs and Microsoft Word. When we’re editing, we usually use “Suggestion” mode or “Track Changes”. These and the “Comment” function are invaluable. This helps us to retrace our steps in our revision processes and mark areas that we want to go back to. 

We usually have some books on writing that have shaped our approaches. Haruki Murakami’s Novelist as a Vocation, Reading Life a Writer by Francine Prose, and Writing Tools by Roy Peter Clark are three of mine.

These tools can help you be productive while self-editing, but self-editing usually isn’t enough on its own. You are going to understand your story better than any of your readers, and you will be approaching your self-edits as someone with context and foreknowledge that your readers will not have. 

You will not see the errors in continuity, structure, dialogue tags, syntax, unintentionally ambiguous language that your editor/advocate will see. AI, while it seems to be a quick fix, is more likely to create more problems than provide necessary feedback. 

A good editor will be your advocate and collaborator, and if you’re uncertain about what bringing an editor into your manuscript will mean for you, talk to us. 

Are your concerns money-focused? We know we’re expensive. Talk to us, and talk to more than one of us.

 When you turn to AI, you’re settling. Your editor knows you’re worth more than that. 

Do you have any questions about editing or do you want to talk about your latest project? Reach out for a free consultation today!