Quote from IFFIN on September 27, 2026, 2:07 pm

Someone left a comment on my story  Doe Between Us   asking about AI, and I had planned on writing more about my experience on this site. I believe there are some lurkers that might be interested. So I thought I would answered the questions here, because I didn’t know how long this was going to be and not sure how many characters Archive of Our Own holds in its comments field. I also wanted to add a photo.

Here is the last part of the comment:

I don’t see anything wrong with using AI as long as you are upfront about it which you have been. I am curious as to your process with AI… which LLM did you use? How much of the final product would you say was AI and how much was your guidance ? How much of an outline did you need to give it? Chapter by chapter? Paragraph by paragraph? And how many iterations did you have to go through?

Asking partially just out of curiosity about AI’s capabilities, but also because I am tempted to try it myself one day with a plot bunny…

Thanks for reading and the comment. First of all, give it a try. That is the only way you will know. I used Type  AI (I am assuming that is what you meant by LLM) and I got some free credits which allowed me to write two short stories. I didn’t shop around. I just jumped into it. Sometimes if I think too much about something I will never get around to it. 

How much of the final product would you say was AI and how much was your guidance? 

There is a lot of guidance that goes on. I had an easier time with the six stories that I used AI that are currently posted, compared to the one I am currently working on. I believe it is because I had the others basically plotted in my mind for years, but I knew what it took to write a fanfic. You will see I also have some that are posted 2012 and before. Those were not written with AI. How much of the product is AI? The story, plot and some of the dialog is mine. AI has sharpened some of the dialogue and added some, added a lot of background description of an England Mill town that I would not know of. Also for Betty No More  I love how AI added the description to add to Queeinie traveling by ship during war time and the port holes having to be covered up. Something I didn’t know.

As for characters sometimes if they are background characters AI doesn’t ask for any info and creates one for you, but if the character is going to play a main part it will ask you for personalities and characteristics. Since it is fanfiction characters already have established personalities even if they are created by fandom and not canon. Of what I noticed. So when I first wrote Tobias and Elieen they came out as how popular fandom sees them and I didn’t want them like that. I see them as being from the Silent Generation and having that personality, so that is what I asked for and got. As for Regulus I didn’t ask, but the first time we see Regulus he is slicing an apple delicately. That image stuck in my head and the other scenes with Regulus were ones I wanted. And I hope he added some comic relief. I the current story I am working on I also have Regulus and I asked for his charter to be a mix of: 

Mr. Boynton for the old radio show from the 1940 Our Miss Brook, Chatsworth Osborne Jr. from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis a 1960s sitcom and Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory. I like that AI is able to come up with dialogue with big words.

How much of an outline did you need to give it? 

You don’t need much to go at first. AI will help you as you go along. And if you do have a big long outline type it in. AI will save it as notes and help you split your story up a little at a time. Unless it is a short story. I copied and pasted the short story One Night in AI and it worked on the entire story right away. I admit that I am not sure if I told it to complete it. I haven’t posted that version. I do like the original better, because there is a quickness that I wanted in the story, granted someone might like the other one with more detail. I can always post it, if any one is interested in doing a comparison of AI vs non AI version. 

Chapter by chapter? Paragraph by paragraph? 

I do find if you don’t have a short story already written, such as I did with One Night. It seems that you do have to work paragraph by paragraph. When you are writing a story with chapters it will write you a chapter. Make sure you give enough information that you want. I was testing to see what it did when I didn’t, and I ended up having to do a lot of rewriting and deleting. 

And how many iterations did you have to go through?

I want to say three or four times for the short stories. For the longer stories four or six times. The one I am working on is a different beast. I’ve already been over it more than six times. I think the other ones were easier because they had been mapped out in my mind for so long and close to canon. I have to say canon complaint, because that starts arguments, but I do believe they fit into those backstories that are left up to our imagination. I also believe that since those other stories were closer to HP cannon that it had a lot of the information in the cloud or wherever AI stores all the ideas. I guess I should look that up one day. 

Here is a photo of a page I am currently working on:

This shows that I have to proof read AI, because it  a doesn't do a lot of things right. And if I don't find these mistakes and fix them or tell AI to fix them. Then you will have a story with very inconsistent dates and questions that might stop the flow of the story. Granted you might not catch all the mistakes, but catch the ones you can.

What I like about AI is that I feel I am working with someone. With my other non AI stories I did. Someone looked over them and offered suggestions. Someone britpicked. Someone looked over grammar. Sometimes it was the same person. I think most writers have others to help them. 

So my thoughts of AI written content is yes let people know you are using it. Don’t hide it. Potential readers have the right to know. Give credit where credit goes.

I am for technology when it comes to writing for many things. I am grateful for spell check, grammar check and other things I am forgetting. Now we have the computer so we don’t have to go to the library and go through old books, microfilm, microfiche or even microcards. We have a computer to translate. And right now I am grateful I got some of those stories out of my mind and wrote them down and was able to share them with a few people. But we will see.

Here is a link to my fanfics:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/citrinestone/works