AI Policy

Privacy Protection

If you feed any portion of my manuscript into AI, isn’t that now out there for others to use and steal? 

No. When I use AI tools, I have data training turned off, meaning your manuscript is never used to train AI. Even though this is true even for the free version, I protect  your privacy further with a paid plan. Paid plans are treated as business use under the terms of service so your data isn’t mixed in with general consumer traffic. By law, these paid versions have to be in compliance with corporate standards, so they have data encryption both in transit and at rest. Then I delete all conversations containing any portion of client work immediately after use.

I won’t necessarily use AI for every one of these tasks, but these are tasks I may use it for to assist with editing.

Disclaimer

With all of the uses below, I remain at the center. I do not use AI output without careful review of everything it suggests. In the end I decide what suggestions from AI to use, what to use but tweak, and what to reject entirely. The idea here is I’m the editor. It’s an assistant. Everything is carefully reviewed.

I always create this data, with or without AI. Before AI, I did it myself. Now, AI can do it quicker, freeing up my time and brain for actual editing.

Having this data helps me:

• Suggest reorganization edits for better flow in a nonfiction book.
• Analyze a novel’s story arc and spot what beats are missing, whether beats are in the wrong place, what scenes may not be necessary, etc.

Developmentally editing fiction requires keeping track of character, setting, and timeline details. This is something I do every time I edit a novel. If I have AI do it for me, this frees up my brain for more actual editing.

After my first developmental editing pass on a novel, I identify what plot structure is best for analysis: Hero’s Journey, Freytag’s pyramid, 3-act structure, Save the Cat 15-beats, Fichtean Curve, 7-point structure, 5-act structure, Dan Harmon’s story circle, etc.

I already have an idea based on the notes I took of where it may be missing the mark in terms of structure, but I could see it being helpful to ask AI this and comparing to what I saw and noticed. Sometimes it helps identify gaps a bit more clearly to talk this out with a partner (aka AI). It saves me time from having to conduct a full-scale analysis and instead I can use this analysis to help me focus in certain areas during my second pass.

As an aphant, I don’t visualize. So it’s hard for me to ascertain whether the visual imagery is clear enough for the reader. So if I’m having a hard time following it, I can ask AI if it’s clear and it’s just me and my visualization issues.

I don’t know everything. I just don’t. So sometimes I flag something as potentially confusing that may actually be clear to your intended audience. So I can use AI to check myself, asking it if it’s just me or if [insert audience] might struggle to understand as well.

If it is just me, AI can explain it in a way I understand to better inform my edits.

If I see a section that could benefit from a headline or subheadline, I may ask AI to help me with ideas for the wording of said headline. I’m the one that noticed the need for a heading, but I’m not always the best at how to word it. Of course, as the author, you can reject the suggested headline and write your own. You’re just using my suggestion (if I came up with myself) or AI’s suggestion (if I used it) as a springboard for you.

I want to ensure my feedback is helpful and clear, so if I’m worried that my explanation was a bit too convoluted or not clear to one unfamiliar with the concept, I can turn to AI to help me clarify the feedback.

Also sometimes I know something is off but can’t quite put my finger on what or notice the lower-level issue and fail to see how it’s connected to a bigger issue. So I can also use AI to talk it out and help me more clearly pinpoint and ensure I’m finding the root of the problem to best help you and your reader.

My editing style is not to just point out issues but to give you examples of how you might fix the issue I spotted. I then flag later instances of the same issue for you to fix yourself (fiction) or continue with hands-on (nonfiction).

Sometimes I come up with an example right away. Other times it takes me a while, and even after I do come up with one, it may not be as strong as it could be. If given enough time, I could certainly get there, but in order to give the best example, if I feel I need some assistance, I will ask AI how it would rewrite my suggestion based on [insert craft technique].

Before I do so, I feed it my blog or other teaching tools about that craft technique to increase the likelihood of a good output. 

Some craft techniques I model and may turn to AI to help me model:

Fiction

• Creating deeper character interiority
• Using free indirect speech
• Rewriting to show instead of tell
• Fixing head hopping
• Fixing info dumping
• Ensuring good sentence fluency

Nonfiction

• Ensuring good Sentence fluency
• Fixing wordy or convoluted sentences
• Creating effective transitions
• Adding in content to fully explain the concept

Clarification on that last use

I always try to come up with the example myself, and often times, I do. If I don’t have permission to use AI, then I will definitely be the one coming up with the example.

The only reason I include this as a potential use case is in the past I have given some examples that I had to just call good enough because I didn’t have the time to improve it. As you know, good writing can take some time. If I have permission to use AI, AI can then assist me at times when my example doesn’t feel good enough.

As always I check its input and edit if needed to strengthen it to the best example possible.

AI helps me work more efficiently and thoughtfully, but every decision still goes through me. Rest assured, you’re not getting an AI edit. You’re getting my professional edit, enhanced by selective use of technology.