From Pen to Prompt: How Creative Writers Integrate AI into their Writing Practice

TL;DR

This paper explores how creative writers intentionally integrate AI into their writing process, balancing their core values with AI's capabilities through deliberate strategies, and offers insights for developers and communities.

Contribution

It provides an in-depth qualitative analysis of creative writers' deliberate AI integration strategies, emphasizing value-driven decision-making and workflow customization.

Findings

Writers make deliberate choices about AI use based on core values.

AI integration strategies are fluid and personalized.

Supporting transparency can enhance AI's role in creative writing.

Abstract

Creative writing is a deeply human craft, yet AI systems using large language models (LLMs) offer the automation of significant parts of the writing process. So why do some creative writers choose to use AI? Through interviews and observed writing sessions with 18 creative writers who already use AI regularly in their writing practice, we find that creative writers are intentional about how they incorporate AI, making many deliberate decisions about when and how to engage AI based on their core values, such as authenticity and craftsmanship. We characterize the interplay between writers' values, their fluid relationships with AI, and specific integration strategies -- ultimately enabling writers to create new AI workflows without compromising their creative values. We provide insight for writing communities, AI developers and future researchers on the importance of supporting transparency of these emerging writing processes and rethinking what AI features can best serve writers.