In this article we get to know author and City Lit creative writing tutor Helen Cox, as we discuss the impact of generative AI on authenticity, individuality, and the future of creative writing.
Tell us a bit about yourself, your writing, and work at City Lit
I first came to work at City Lit in 2017. My lucky star must have been shining that year because I was recruited as a coordinator in the creative writing department and relished every second.
Yes, even attending office meetings.
And not just because I have been a life-long Goodie Two-Shoes. But because they were inspiring and fun.
As part of my role there, I taught a range of courses including The Advanced Critical Workshop, Writing and Rewriting Fairytales and The Advanced Poetry Workshop at Keats House. In 2020 I started to write books full-time but stayed on at City Lit to teach short courses online.
What role does authenticity play in creative writing?
Authenticity in creative writing is the kind of subject that is often dropped into lofty academic conversations. I’ll let you into a secret, though: it’s not complicated at all.
Honestly.
You may have bought books about it. Heard lectures about it. Listened to podcasts about it and perhaps even come out of all this none the wiser. I know there have been times in my life when this was the case for me.
But it really is quite simple.
At its heart, authenticity centres around a writer bringing some kind of truth to a readership in a voice that is uniquely their own.
This is a vital aspect of creative writing because it is the element of your work that will help you perform the small miracle of making a connection with another human via ink printed on a page. Or, by having those same words displayed or replayed through digital and audio mediums.
As that last sentence infers, in the modern era, your words might reach readers in a variety of formats. Thus, the voice and truth at the core of those words have never mattered more.
If a robot was tasked with reading out your writing, would the reader still know it was you behind the pen? If so, you’ve written something with artistic authenticity in abundance. If not, you get to become an explorer on the hunt for that confident sense of writerly self.
Nobody else in the world will put words together in the distinctive order that you do. That’s authenticity. Embracing and leaning into this helps the readership feel as though they know the author and the characters personally, which only increases their investment in the work.
What does real creative growth look like in your classroom or workshops?
Real creative growth is often strongly linked with leaning further into authenticity.
In memoir workshops I will often hear: I’m thinking of writing this story, but I’m not sure if it matters. To which I always respond: If it matters to you, then it matters.
After this exchange, without fail, I see a light switch on in that learner’s face. They realise that the prism through which they see the world around them is one-of-a-kind and thus precious.
This is not exclusive to memoir. Fiction, plays and poetry are all written through that same prism of our own experience. Given time and the right instruction, we can learn how to refract that into something that strikes a reader as important or interesting.
Do you think there’s a place for AI in creative writing whether for learning or creating?
Any tool we create has the capacity to be used for good or ill. A person can build a whole village with a hammer, or they could use it to destroy property or even people.
AI is no different.
If it is used with the best creative intentions and at the right time in the process, it can be the world’s best research assistant or even help you create the bare bones of a brilliant book blurb to get you started.
So yes, there is a place for it.
Misuse, however, could lead to a creative being robbed of an incredible introspective journey that becomes the foundation of their artistic career. Nothing can replace that no matter how advanced the technology may seem. It is an odyssey worth going on in order to develop that personal understanding of what truths you want to tell as a writer, and why it is so imperative that you tell them over anybody else.
What frustrates or worries you most about how AI is being positioned as a tool in creative writing?
For me, It’s the way AI is positioned as a short cut.
Why bother reading a book because AI can give you the abridged synopsis in five seconds or less? Why worry about learning through dedicated process about what a well-placed semi-colon can add to a poem because AI can read your work and correct it?
Your authentic work does not need correcting as such. It needs the perfect environment to flourish and develop.
If people must use AI right at the beginning of their writing career, it would be best done so in a mindful manner that does not inhibit the joy of discovering new things for themselves.
What would you say to a budding writer who is considering learning using AI?
I would ask a learner to think carefully about how secure they are in their own voice and vision.
Do you think you have a clear writing style that is personal to you? Do you have a strong idea for a story you want to tell that conveys a fundamental truth? Have you opened your mind, and your notebook, to other stimuli such as books, lectures, workshops, tv shows, theatre, films, YouTube videos, comedy shows or other such media?
Have you taken all of those sources of inspiration and synthesised them into something you could truly call your own?
If not, it might be best to hold off on using AI for now.
Once you’ve got a clear voice and vision, then it is usually safe to see what else you might learn about your subject or your work from AI language models. At that point, you know you’ve already got something that is truly yours so there’s little danger of it becoming diluted or polluted.
In your view, what’s at stake if more writers turn to AI instead of taking time to learn the craft?
In a simple word: individuality.
I am in a fortunate position. AI came along late into my writing career.
I never had to face the dilemma of whether I was going to do the hard work of developing my own voice or whether I was going to let AI suggest a relatable voice for me.
I can write this piece, or any other, knowing that this is what my writing sounds like.
Tempting though it may be to let AI do the heavy lifting, you risk one of the most important things we have at our disposal: our individual mode of expression. It may not win awards and it may not be to everybody’s tastes, but it is ours.
Completely.
And that, I think, is something that is worth holding onto.
Final thought: Why do human-led creative writing courses still matter, maybe more than ever?
I understand why it might seem easier to paste your work into an AI language model than attend a creative writing workshop. For many, attending a course or workshop at an institution, especially early in their writing career, is daunting.
You have to look into the eyes of other people who have read your work and accept their raw reaction, preferably with some modicum of grace. No easy task when you had hoped you had written the next bestseller, and you are given notes.
Notes!
But the hard truth is, AI does not operate like human readers. It’s just not in them. One or two language models have admitted this to me personally and I have no reason to doubt them.
AI, for example, doesn’t get bored.
None of us like to admit it, but we all sometimes add a boring bit into our work without meaning to. Something that seems absolutely fascinating to us but loses the reader completely before the bottom of the first page.
That’s no good!
We need people to stick with us. Otherwise, how are we ever going to tell them that important truth?
It’s annoying. The whole killing your darlings thing. I’m with you on that and no number of years writing will ever make me think otherwise.
But it’s a well-worn phrase for a reason. And there’s little chance of us detecting our darlings, let alone brutally massacring them with a wistful smile on our faces, without human intervention.
Luckily, City Lit classes are designed to welcome and support learners rather than daunt them. Not only are the activities varied and inspiring, the tutors are well-practiced in giving feedback that will absolutely usher out the darlings but will also strengthen the parts of your work that resonate.
Thus, if we must look into the eyes of our readership anywhere, City Lit is the safest and most uplifting place to be. I don’t say this often, but you can quote me on that.
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