Writing your book with AI
Can you? Will you? Should you?
Gary Bloomer | SHAKING THE TREE # 296
The digital ink isn’t even dry on the latest LLM update, and already the creative world is fractured. On one side, the purists are clutching their Moleskines; on the other, the “prompt engineers” are churning out manuscripts faster than you can say “generative pre-trained transformer.”
As someone who spends a lot of time at the intersection of strategy, design, and the human element, I find the conversation usually boils down to three distinct questions.
If you’re sitting on a book idea and staring at a blinking cursor, you need to answer these before you hit “Generate.”
1. Can you? (the technical reality)
The short answer: absolutely. We are past the era of “hallucinating” gibberish. Today’s AI can maintain narrative arcs, mimic specific tonal voices, and structure a 300-page business book or a high-fantasy novel in a weekend. If you provide the skeletal structure, the AI provides the muscle and skin.
From a technical standpoint, the barrier to entry has vanished. You no longer need “the gift” to produce a coherent, grammatically perfect manuscript. The machine is a world-class mimic.
2. Will you? (the psychological hurdle)
This is where the friction begins. Writing a book is—or used to be—an act of intellectual stamina. It’s a marathon that changes the runner. When you outsource the “slog” to an algorithm, you bypass the struggle.
The Pro: You overcome writer’s block instantly.
The Con: You lose the “Eureka!” moments that only happen when you’re forced to reconcile a difficult thought on the page.
Will you be satisfied with a book you didn’t technically labor over? For some, the goal is the artifact (the published book). For others, the goal is the authority gained through the process. You have to decide which camp you’re in.
3. Should you? (the ethical question)
This is the most important question of the three. Just because you can scale your output doesn’t mean you should dilute your brand. Readers—real, breathing human beings—have a high-definition “uncanny valley” filter. They can smell processed prose.
If your book is a collection of “10 Tips for Productivity” that sounds like every other blog post on the internet, you haven’t written a book; you’ve generated noise.
Use AI as your research assistant, as your developmental editor, and as your sounding board. But do not let it be your heart. If there isn’t a “ghost in the machine”—specifically your ghost, your unique perspective, and your flawed, beautiful human voice—then why should anyone spend five hours of their life reading it?
The verdict
Write with AI? Yes. It’s the most powerful creative lever we’ve ever seen. Let AI write for you? Only if you want your legacy to be as forgettable as a software update.
The best books of the next decade won’t be “AI-written” or “human-only.” They will be Centaur creations: human-led strategy fueled by machine-assisted execution.
As always, thanks for reading.
—Gary
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Next time on Shaking the Tree: The banana seller
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.