Coauthoring With ChatGPT: How to Deal With Its Multiple Personas

Tips and Tricks for Coauthoring With an AI and Dealing With Multiple Personas

I’ve been using ChatGPT as my sidekick in the process of writing a novel that I had sketched eons ago. The great advantage that I have realized from this process is that I can experiment with different ideas relatively easy.

I want to share some of the fun things that I have learned along the way.

You probably have heard it, the dreaded writer’s block. When the writer sits in front of a keyboard and does not know how to start the next paragraph. Do I start with some humor? Shall I just state the facts? What about some poetic lines?

When you are using ChatGPT to coauthor, these questions can be answered with relative ease. You can use a prompt and ask ChatGPT to word it in different styles, from different points of view and even using different personas.

“Shall I make this funny, serious, arcane? All of them?”

Let me give you some examples. In the novel I am writing, I needed to bring across the issue that there are only a limited set of Bitcoins that can be mined. My first idea was to use the presentation of a professor that used the arcane language of academy to express a simple concept.

What is more arcane than Shakespeare-speak? So I gave it a try:

My prompt to ChatGPT:
In the style of Shakespeare write a paragraph that describes that the amount of bitcoins is limited by a ceiling set by the algorithm, and that this limit is being reached in an inverted exponential mode. That this means that at some point in the future miners will only be paid by the transaction fees

Chat GPT answered:

Alas, the bitcoins are but a finite treasure,
Mined by digital alchemy, yet bound by a ceiling set.
As the years pass, the mines yield less and less,
And the rate of gain doth inversely progress.
This limit doth approach with each block mined,
And soon the reward shall be but a pittance,
Merely the coin of the realm for transactions,
And not the bountiful harvest of yore.

As the mines grow barren, the miners must adapt,
For in this digital realm, change is the only constant.
Thus, they must seek new ways to earn their keep,
For in the future, the reward shall not be reaped.

And so, let this serve as a warning, dear miners,
To look to the future and diversify,
For the days of riches from mining alone,
Are but a fleeting memory in the digital sky.

Not as complicated as my philosophy teacher in high school would have put it, and I have to admit, with some cool artsy vibe. But what if I could get a different angle, the one of a stand-up comedian?

My prompt:
Create standup comedy of a guy trying to understand the complicated presentation of Professor Smith as he was explaining that the best times for bitcoin miners might already be over

ChatGPT created this:

“Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever sat through a presentation by a Professor Smith?
I mean, it’s like trying to understand a foreign language without subtitles.
I swear, the only thing more confusing than his PowerPoints is my ex’s text messages.
He was talking about something called Bitcoin mining and how the best times might already be over.
I’m like, ‘Okay, wait, so you’re telling me that I can’t just sit on my couch and make money?
But that’s my whole retirement plan!’
But then he starts throwing around words like ‘blockchain’ and ‘hashrate’ and I’m just sitting there like a deer in the headlights.
I mean, I barely know what my bank account balance is, let alone how to mine for Bitcoins.
I think he might as well have been speaking in Klingon for all I understood.
But hey, at least I know one thing for sure, I’m not gonna be a Bitcoin miner.
Thank you, you’ve been a great audience.”

You can, of course, judge this text as not very funny, yet you probably smirked at the comparison with the texts from the Ex. Yet, I do have to admit that I have never given a try to write standup comedy dialogue.

I’ve known folks that can start throwing jokes at you until several minutes down the line your belly is hurting from so much laughing. ChatGPT is not yet really there, but maybe it is because there is no feedback loop.

Comedians know how to “read the room”, know when to throw the next jewel of a joke, or just fart on the mic like Bob Burnham once did.

The point I am trying to make is that ChatGPT is actually a great tool to get your creative juices flowing. It feels a bit like when you are doing pair programming. In pair programming, you are usually working on the same software code together with another person.

There is a lot of back and forth, with you sharing ideas and correcting concepts all the time. Sometimes, you are the one coding, at other times, your partner is coding, and you are looking over at what they are doing.

This “Pair coauthoring” with Chat GPT feels just like the pair programming counterpart. You start prompting for ideas, and they keep coming back. You actually discharge many of them, but often, you will find something that you like and that drives the story forward.

After all, the storyline is your job, the putting of paragraphs together is something you work on together.

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Also published here