How I Wrote a 180,000-Word Book Using AI

There are very few books in the world that cross the 100,000-word mark. Of course, there are many reasons for this. Most authors usually restrict their books between 80,000 and 100,000 words to ensure it’s not too long and readers don’t feel bored. And the other: a lot of words means more pages, heavier books and outrageous pricing by publishers.

Despite these considerations, I opted to write a book that stretches 182,000 words. My book should depict my story correctly and without any dilution, were my thoughts when I began. Rightly so. Because the book that I wrote deals with a very sensitive, intricate, joyful yet painful part of my life.

I could not sum up this in a few words. Basically, I needed the freedom to write as much as I could to describe each situation in vivid detail.

So join me, as I take you on my personal journey about how I wrote my first book, ‘Lamplight Whispers.’ Though the bulk of ‘Lamplight Whispers’ consists of my own words and emotions, I have harnessed the power of Artificial Intelligence, basically ChatGPT-4, to overcome certain hurdles that I faced while authoring this epic saga of two souls.

Let’s start by understanding the various things I had to consider before writing Lamplight Whispers.

Considerations Before Writing Lamplight Whispers

Before proceeding further, I will write about the complex considerations that went into writing Lamplight Whispers.

Firstly, I want the world to know my story as it happened, through Lamplight Whispers. Hence, I resolved there would be no dilution of any aspect of that real-life event. Nor did I wish to embellish my story to give a false impression to my readers. 

Secondly, I had to take extra care. Lamplight Whispers deals with real-life events involving people that still exist in various countries of the world. These are persons whom I hold very close to my heart and there is no way that I can harm them, even by writing factual situations. 

Thirdly, I wanted readers like you to understand that Lamplight Whispers, which many might consider a love story or romantic novel, is not about an amorous adventure. Instead, it is about the psychology that goes into the wonderful love story of two persons caught in extraordinary circumstances in distant countries. Reading Lamplight Whispers would clearly show you the difference between an ordinary romance novel and an epic saga.

Lamplight Whispers is the first book I’ve penned. Authoring it was joyful beyond comparison. Indeed, Lamplight Whispers has encouraged me to continue writing more books, which I will be doing in the immediate future.

Origins of My Authorship

Since childhood, I dreamt of becoming an author. In those days, I would read famous authors such as Enid Blyton and later, someone known as Franklin W. Dixon, the author of this detective series that broadly went under the name Hardy Boys. Of course, later I found that Franklin W. Dixon was a fictional name and all adventures of Hardy Boys were penned by ghostwriters.

As I grew up, my tastes changed and the spymaster Nick Carter’s adventures were attractive. More so because they described the carnal adventures of this fictitious espionage agent- Nick Carter- in vivid detail that would appeal to my inquisitiveness about such pleasures.

Then there were other authors I loved to read too, notably Robert Ludlum, Sidney Sheldon, René Lodge Brabazon Raymond aka James Hadley Chase, Leon Uris and so on. In fact, I was an avid reader and that perhaps fueled my dreams of becoming an author someday. 

Other favourite authors included Alfred Hitchcock, Agatha Christie, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allen Poe, to name a few. I also would love to read books by different authors such as Malgudi Days by the Indian legend, RK Narayan. The bestseller ‘Eye of the Needle’ introduced me to the works of Welsh writer Ken Follett. 

However, the process of growing up and making a career in India often overrides most other considerations. Like all my wonderful hobbies that included philately, numismatics, amateur radio and photography, reading also began taking a backseat and eventually faded into oblivion to some extent. 

Reading books was the greatest casualty of my prolonged use of computers since my eyes water and burn whenever I try to read.

Since you’re now aware of my love for reading and reasons for writing, let’s move forward and understand how I wrote an 181,000-word book and where I leveraged the power of AI in its creation.

Preparing to Write Lamplight Whispers

Preparing to write my epic Lamplight Whispers wasn’t easy by any yardstick. Indeed, it was full of hurdles. If you’re planning to write a book, read onwards with great attention. From now on, I will describe the entire process that helped me write Lamplight Whispers while overcoming all sorts of hurdles, including the proverbial Writer’s Block.

To begin with, I was very confused about where to begin. True that Lamplight Whispers would be based on real-life events. However, there needed to be a starting point for the story. Secondly, how would I write the story itself: as a personal narrative in first person or as a third person account? And thirdly, how would I ensure reader interest?

It took me a week to grapple with these questions. Finally, I found the answers gradually. I decided to start the story with the event that was the very origin of a specific event in my life. It was nothing significant at the time but now, that small meeting has had a great impact and touched lives around the world.

Coming down to writing style or structure, I felt it was best to write as my personal narrative. Why should I write it as a second or third-person account when all these very personal and real-life experiences are mine? 

Finally, the most important: interest could be maintained if I ensured there were enough real-life situations and facts presented in a manner that would instantly help the reader to conjure up a mental picture.

The other things were relatively easy: I gave fictional names to people. However, I decided to use the names of the places and organizations as they exist to give my story, that real-life touch. In some cases, I had to alter some dates and facts because, over the years, I could not recollect when a specific thing happened and its specific date. However, what was most important was getting the story out and letting the world know that secret slice of me. It was with these intentions that I finally got about writing my debut book, Lamplight Whispers.

Finding the Title

To begin with, I had no plans to use AI for writing my book. For the simple reason: I’m a journalist with 33 years of varied experience in India and abroad. I’ve covered a plethora of subjects, from ordinary product launches to complex press conferences held by heads of state, accidents, armed conflicts, wars and terrorism. Hence, using AI was the last thing on my mind.

However, ChatGPT-4 proved very useful for searching for a superb title for my book. It wasn’t easy by any standards. I gave it prompts such as a long description of what my story would be about and the characters, the emotions and other details. Each time, the AI resource would throw up some title that was either in use for a different book or something that didn’t really convey the meaning properly. 

This was a serious stumbling block. 

Every book merits a superb title. In fact, the better the title, the greater your chances of catching the attention of readers and reviewers.

Finally, after lots of thought, I decided to dig deeper into my story, which I had begun writing by now. There was something that struck me. The heroine of the story would appreciate beautiful lamps when they were lit. That’s how I found the word Lamplight. 

I keyed in the same info back into ChatGPT-4 and asked the AI resource to generate titles that start with the word ‘Lamplight’. And this time, ChatGPT-4 did a wonderful job. Of the several titles it displayed, Lamplight Whispers was the best. However, I was doubtful if the title would really hold and what it conveys.

Therefore, I asked ChatGPT-4 and other AI resources to analyze it. Their analysis proved that Lamplight Whispers would indeed be the best title since it would astutely convey both mystery and romance and the beauty of their symbiosis.

Writing in My Style

As I started writing the book, I decided that at some point I might need the help of AI. We have ChatGPT-4 and hence, I chose to see where it could be effectively deployed for my benefit. 

Initially, I tried giving a few detailed prompts to ChatGPT-4.  Unfortunately, the results were disastrous. More than sounding or reading like my words, the output from ChatGPT-4 was utterly disconnected from even my basic style of writing.

I managed to overcome this deficiency in AI by feeding it with a couple of paras that I had written and asking the AI to analyze them. I introduced myself. That worked wonders, the AI resource would churn out entire paras written almost similar to my style, with matching usage of words.

Overcoming Writer’s Blocks

As I progressed through writing the book with my own vocabulary and skills, there were countless occasions when I would hit the Writer’s Block. Meaning, I simply wouldn’t know how to convey my complex feelings during a specific situation that I was describing in the book.

This time too, I decided to check if AI can help. Indeed, it did. 

I would key in the words that I wanted to write, after which I could not proceed further. I would prompt ChatGPT-4 to expand on the couple of paras- sometimes- as much as 300 words. And ChatGPT-4 would expand it fairly well. Of course, I had to make a few edits but otherwise, the output from AI was quite acceptable by any standards.

Avoiding Vulgarity with AI

Lamplight Whispers is a love story between two consenting adults. Therefore, it’s natural that I would have to describe some of the intimate moments shared with my partner, in the privacy of our bedrooms. Remember, I was writing for a mature audience and not a fairy tale or fable for kids. I was about to describe real-life intimacy as it occurred between us.

At the same time, I had to protect my partner from any harm arising out of writing about our intimacy. I cannot tolerate anyone looking at her lecherously or passing any snide remarks, should they discover the true identity of that woman, in real life, by any fluke of fate.

At this point, ChatGPT-4 was an utter failure, to my chagrin. Despite giving clear and multiple prompts and asking the AI resource to tone down intimate descriptions, ChatGPT-4 would fail miserably. I would throw up a response saying that it can’t write on such issues. At times when it did work- which was pretty rare and erratic- the response would be displayed in red letters.

Adding Dialogues

Adding dialogues is where I will assign full marks to AI. 

To give you some perspective, the real-life story that I was narrating to write Lamplight Whispers, occurred way back in 2006. Therefore, it was humanly impossible for me to remember a lot of words and our romantic exchanges of those days. I could only remember some of these vaguely.

Here, I would feed the entire scenario as a prompt to ChatGPT-4. I would explain the settings, our mood and other details minor and major and ask it to rewrite my prompts, using the given data and adding dialogues.

ChatGPT-4 would do an excellent job here. It would give an output that contained real-sounding dialogues that could aptly convey the convivial, romantic and seriousness of any situation and conversation.

As a matter of fact, some of the dialogues created by ChatGPT-4 were exactly similar to what my beloved would have said in any of those circumstances. Without exaggeration I will add that at times, I felt as though the AI was reading my mind and excavating words that were lost somewhere in the deep dungeons of my memory.

The Final Test

Now, having written the book, a full 181,000 plus words with all romance, fictionalization and dramatization, the next and most obvious step was to publish it. I chose Kindle Direct Publishing since they offer a lot of benefits and their service is free. This includes the facility to design your own cover from their templates.

However, before uploading the book manuscript, KDP asks one question: AI was used to generate its content and to what extent? I had to respond truthfully that some of the content was indeed generated by ChatGPT-4 but edited extensively. This is extremely important. KDP checks all content with AI and also deploys human editors to ensure that every book complies with its standards. 

If you’re planning to write a book, please be very careful. KDP’s AI and other algorithms as well as human editors will immediately detect if you’ve created it using only AI and if you’ve used AI for some sections, to what extent have you included such content.

Thanks to my writing skills, I could proudly state that only a few selected portions of Lamplight Whispers were written by AI and that too, was heavily edited by me before uploading for printing.

Closing Thoughts

While AI is definitely useful for writing a book, it’s compulsory that you should have some idea of the story. Preparing to write is a must and planning the form- whether a first-person narrative or second-party description- is a decision you’ve to take.

AI can definitely help you find a good title, provided you use your own creativity. It can help overcome the Writer’s Block, should you stumble upon one. And it can create dialogues where appropriate. However, depending solely on AI to write a book based on a theme and getting it published under your name does not make you a writer.

And I doubt whether KDP accepts such books for publication. Therefore, if you’re planning on writing a book, by all means, go ahead and do so. However, bear in mind that only books with original ideas and written mostly in the words of the author command respect.