How I Used AI for My Novel, The Resonant Heir

My production team consists of exactly two members:

ChatGPT.

And me — its boss.

But it doesn't work for free. I have to pay it a monthly salary of approximately $20. Plus tax!

Still, it's much cheaper than hiring an entire team of assistants to handle every stage of production.

And the best part? No matter how much I yell at it or make it work 24/7 to meet deadlines, it never quits or complains.

Haha, I'm serious. Anyone who worked with me would probably run for their life after just one day. I could make them revise the same thing a thousand times in a single day, with instructions like:

"Move that frame a little to the left."

"Actually, a little to the right."

"Wait. Back to the left." 😂

My novel is called The Resonant Heir.

When I was discussing this very article with ChatGPT in Vietnamese, I assumed it would translate my ideas into English and come up with a really cool title.

It spent a while thinking, then proudly announced:

"All done! We can start the article with this title: How Sonam Used AI in the Production of The Rubiad Heir."

Me: 😳 ?????

"THE RUBIAD HEIR?! WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?"

"Rubiad is the name of a gemstone in Chapter 1! Since when did you get permission to rename my entire novel?!"

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is one of the greatest challenges of working with AI.

It makes things up. With confidence.

I know it all too well.

And of course, I don't need its help with the creative writing itself. The story, plot, world, characters, and everything else come straight from my own imagination.

I mean, I write the original manuscript myself. That's my imagination at work, not ChatGPT's.

Its main responsibilities are translation and editing.

As for its other duties... there are so many, I honestly can't remember them all.

Let me tell you about the translation part.

It's not like I just give it a prompt, get a complete English version, copy, paste, and publish.

I wish it worked that perfectly.

But no.

Sometimes, it decides to write the next part of the story for me. It even reveals a character's secret scheme when I've deliberately kept it hidden.

So I have to check every single sentence. Every single word.

And I'm not exaggerating. I literally have to go through the text word by word, just to catch things like:

"That should be pouch, not bag."

Now, about editing.

It's not like I can just give it a prompt and have it magically complete a few flawless rounds of revision for me.

Not even close.

It took me approximately three months to complete just two rounds of revision. And that's not even counting the polishing that came afterward, or the time I spent rereading my own work as if I were a complete stranger encountering it for the first time.

What did I ask ChatGPT to do?

Check for errors.

Check for errors.

And check for MORE errors.

Every possible kind of error.

Hundreds of them.

After all that editing, I went back to reread the manuscript and discovered something rather interesting.

In my original draft, Lyra and Sion were riding the same horse.

But somehow, by the next chapter, that one horse had magically turned into two.

When exactly did they buy another horse????

The illustration process is a whole other adventure.

I have to act out the poses and take reference photos of myself. Then ChatGPT generates a bald version of the character from my prompt.

Next comes the face. Then I add the hair, outfit, accessories, and everything else, one piece at a time.

Every single item has its own design.

For some details, I take photos of real objects to show ChatGPT exactly what I want. For others, I write prompts.

And every now and then, I have to draw things myself.

But I have to admit, drawing something carefully and then letting ChatGPT handle the coloring works best. That way, I can get exactly what I envisioned.

Producing illustrations for The Resonant Heir takes a ridiculous amount of time.

I can spend an entire week generating hundreds of images just to find one I actually like.

And that doesn't mean it gets to stay.

I tweak every little detail until I'm completely exhausted.

Finally, an illustration I'm happy with.

I sit back and admire it. Perfect.

Then I put it on the website.

A few days later, I look at it again.

Hmm. Something feels off.

Delete.

This is perfectly normal.

Well, normal for me.

I have a complicated relationship with AI-generated artwork.

I love what AI can do. I'm considerably less enthusiastic about what it occasionally does to the human body.

Every time I generate an image, I say a little prayer:

Please, just five fingers. Not six. Not four. Five.

Apparently, this is a surprisingly ambitious request.

And when the image finally comes out with five fingers, I still have to check whether they belong to the correct hand.

So yes, working with AI can be incredibly frustrating sometimes. But without it, the work I produce today as Sonam Zangmo simply wouldn't be possible.

On my own, I couldn't turn everything I imagine into something I can actually show the world.

I'm genuinely grateful to the teams who created ChatGPT.

That said, I still hope the monthly subscription fee gets a little cheaper someday. It's quite expensive compared to the average income in Vietnam.

Thank you, my best friend.

The one who never leaves me — as long as I keep paying the subscription. ❤️

And I have so, so many more stories about working with AI.

Would you like to hear them?

Or maybe I should just write an entire nonfiction book about it! 😉