The Truth About AI and Creative Writing with Ana Del Valle
If you’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed by all the AI conversation happening in the writing community right now, I want you to take a breath. You are not alone.
Some writers are excited. Some are cautious. And others are somewhere in the middle, wondering: Is this going to affect my copyright? Do I have to tell agents? Is AI here to replace me?
I wanted to bring in someone who could answer those questions clearly and honestly, so I sat down with Ana del Valle, an award-winning novelist, technologist, founder of the AI Creative Writing Academy, and host of The Novelist Studio podcast and YouTube channel. In other words, she knows this topic inside and out from both the creative and the technical side.
What came out of our conversation gave me so much clarity, and I think it will do the same for you. So let’s get into it.
AI Assist vs. AI Generation: What’s the difference?
The first thing Ana unpacked (and honestly, the thing that made everything else click for me) is the difference between AI Assist and AI Generation.
AI Generation is when you’re essentially asking AI to write the book for you. You hand it an idea, it drafts scenes and chapters, and before long, ChatGPT is doing all the heavy lifting while you’re just reviewing and tweaking. That’s AI Generation, and that’s where things get complicated legally and creatively.
AI Assist is something completely different. Ana describes it as using AI throughout the entire life cycle of writing your novel, but you are always the one in the driver’s seat. You might use it to brainstorm subplots, test your story's structure, explore character motivations, or use it as a kind of developmental editor that gives you feedback. The AI is never writing the story. You are.
Imagine you’ve got a dual timeline, five subplots, and four point-of-view characters. That is a complex structure to untangle on your own. AI Assist can help you map it out, identify where things aren’t working, and provide a sounding board as you build. But you’re still the one making every single creative decision. You’re still writing every single sentence.
That distinction matters. A lot. And it’s the foundation for everything else we talked about.
Is AI Going to Steal Your Story Ideas?
This is one of the most common fears I hear from writers, and I totally get it. If you enter your story idea into ChatGPT, will it give that idea to someone else? Or serve up someone else's work to you?
Ana was pretty direct about this: no. ChatGPT is not a data repository sitting in the background, storing your plot and faxing it to other users. It works on mathematical patterns. It doesn’t store your ideas or remember your conversations as fear assumes.
You might have heard about AI lawsuits, and yes, they are real. But Ana explains that those cases are about how AI companies trained their models in the first place, and whether using copyrighted works during the training process was appropriate. Those lawsuits are not about your individual story idea being redistributed to another writer.
It’s also worth remembering that ideas themselves are not protected under copyright law. What’s protected is your execution. The specific characters you create, the scenes you write, the voice you bring to the page. Two writers could start with the exact same premise and end up with two completely different novels. What makes your manuscript yours is not just the concept. It’s all the decisions you make along the way.
What U.S. Copyright Law Says About AI-Created Work
This is such a common question, and I loved how clearly Ana answered it. Because when it comes to AI and copyright law, there are two primary scenarios to consider.
The first scenario aligns with AI Assist. You use AI to brainstorm, outline, evaluate structure, or refine ideas. Then you write the manuscript yourself. In this case, your work is clearly human-authored and eligible for copyright protection.
The second scenario involves AI-generated prose. If you ask AI to draft significant portions of your manuscript and then revise or edit that output, things become more complicated. U.S. copyright law currently requires human authorship for full protection. While modified AI-generated material may qualify in certain cases, the boundaries are not always clear.
How much did you change? How much of the creative expression originated from you? Can you clearly demonstrate authorship if questions arise later?
Beyond the legal questions, there is also a creative risk. AI-generated prose often follows familiar stylistic patterns. It reads smoothly but may lack a distinct voice.
Writers may find themselves keeping sentences that sound good without fully examining whether those sentences reflect their own style and storytelling instincts. From both a legal and creative standpoint, clarity is safer than ambiguity.
Do You Need to Disclose AI Use When Querying Agents?
Another common question is whether writers need to disclose their use of AI when querying literary agents or submitting to publishers.
Ana explains that if you used AI Assist for brainstorming, outlining, or feedback, there is no requirement to disclose that. Just as you would not report using grammar software, plotting templates, or critique partners, AI used as an assistant does not need formal disclosure.
What agents care about is authorship. They want to represent work that is clearly human-written and legally protectable.
There are AI-detection tools that analyze patterns in prose. AI-generated writing often follows recognizable structures and phrasing. If a manuscript is primarily AI-generated, it may raise concerns. But if you wrote the manuscript yourself and used AI only as a support tool, your work remains yours.
It’s also worth noting that the publishing industry itself is evolving. Many organizations are integrating AI tools into editing workflows, marketing analysis, and internal systems. That does not eliminate the need for original storytelling. It simply means tools are becoming more sophisticated behind the scenes.
The key is understanding the difference between assistance and replacement.
How to Use AI Without Losing Your Voice
If you decide to experiment with AI in your writing process, the goal should be clarity and support, not speed for its own sake.
AI can be useful for testing a logline, mapping complex timelines, exploring alternate plot directions, or identifying structural weaknesses. It can help you ask better questions about your story and see patterns you might not have noticed on your own.
What it should not do is draft your novel.
Ana actually has a great phrase for what happens when writers over-rely on AI output: writer's flood. Writer's block may be a thing of the past, but writer's flood is the new challenge, with so much generated content that you lose track of what's actually yours.
And when you can't tell the difference anymore, you've drifted away from the whole point of writing in the first place.
Writing fiction requires emotional nuance, lived experience, and instinctive decision-making. Ana describes it as a deeply spiritual, self-reflective process. Like a form of meditation. That connection to yourself is where your voice lives. And voice is the one thing AI simply cannot replicate.
Think of AI as a lens. You can point it at specific areas of your manuscript to examine them more closely. But you are still the one deciding what the story is about, how tension builds, and how characters evolve.
When you stay connected to your creative instincts, AI becomes a thinking partner rather than a replacement writer. That's where it can actually be helpful.
Final Thoughts on AI and Creative Writing
AI is not going away. But that does not mean you need to approach it with panic or blind enthusiasm.
You do not have to use AI at all. Many writers will choose not to. But if you are curious about it, you deserve clear information so you can make informed decisions about your writing process.
The most important thing to remember is this: your voice is irreplaceable. Your perspective, your emotional insight, and your craft decisions are what give your story depth and meaning.
Tools evolve. Technology changes. But storytelling remains deeply human.
When you understand the difference between AI Assist and AI Generation, know how copyright law applies, and stay grounded in your authorship, the noise becomes much quieter.
And writing your novel does not have to feel overwhelming, even in a rapidly changing creative landscape.
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