AI can seem intimidating and confusing, but help is at hand! Hank Quense, my friend and expert on self-publishing and marketing, has created an incredibly helpful and user-friendly AI guide for writers who want to take advantage of AI as a helpful resource. What a valuable, must-have tool he’s created for us all!

The guest post below captures some of Hank’s excellent advice on employing AI from his new guide—including how to create “queries” to get the best results in areas ranging from research and editing to marketing. His section on using AI to leverage marketing and social media is crystal clear and amazingly helpful. If you want to explore AI, be sure to check out Hank’s excellent guide: The Author’s AI Toolkit.

Using Artificial Intelligence by Hank Quense

Writing often bogs down in unexciting chores that have to be done.  Editing and revision are two examples.  Then there are the times when the writer is stymied as to what to write next.  Another painful experience is to get stuck in the middle of a scene.  Your hero is in big trouble and you can’t figure a way to drag her out the mess.

I’ve faced all of these issues in the past, but now I use an Artificial Intelligence app to help me speed through the roadblocks.  In short AI allows me to spend more time on creative activities and less on mundane chores.

I use Perplexity.AI as my writing buddy.  The trick with using an AI app is how you write the query that gives the AI app its instructions. If you write a generic query, the AI will respond with a generic reply.  To get a useful response you have to write a detailed query. 

That last paragraph may be a bit puzzling to those who aren’t familiar with using AI so I’ll provide a list of AI queries that have been tested (by me) to provide useful output. These queries can be used in a variety of AI apps such as Perplexity, ChatGPT, Notebook LM or even the AI feature built into apps like Craft or Fabric or Notion.

Research and brainstorming queries: 

Research query: Show me a list of websites that have information on {topic}

Outline query: Provide an outline for the {book/research paper/website} {insert description}

Brainstorming query: Brainstorm the following  {insert topic} and give me a list of six ideas for an {article/story/project}

Editing and revision queries: 

Editing query: Edit the following piece and highlight your changes: {paste text here}

Editing and Show-Don’t-Tell query: Edit the following piece, highlight your changes and point out examples where show-don’t-tell can be used {paste text here}

Rewrite query: Rewrite this {insert text} two different ways: one in a light-hearted tone, one in a pompous tone.  (yes, you can tell the AI what tone to use!)

Stuck Query: My character is {describe situation}. Tell me {number} of ways he {describe solution}

I don’t restrict my AI usage to writing and research.  I also use it for marketing activities.  Here are a few typical queries.  In these cases, I use a storyline or short synopsis as part of the detailed query.  This gives the AI the background information it needs to respond properly. 

One important comment about these responses.  I consider them to be first drafts and revise them, sometimes quite extensively.  Still, having a first draft to work on saves a lot of time, effort and creativity. 

Marketing queries:

Targeting query: My novel is a {insert genre} story. How can I reach {enter genre} readers rather than the general population

Social media posts: {Insert storyline} write 5 social media posts for {insert social media platform} Use keywords where appropriate.

Blog posts: {insert storyline} write {insert length} blog post. Use keywords where appropriate

Hashtags query: {insert storyline} Generate list of appropriate hashtags

 You can find more excellent self-publishing, business, and marketing advice at Hank’s Website: hankquenseauthor.com

Bravo, Hank, for helping us decode AI and take advantage of it as we all write on!

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