5 Ways Writers can use AI
I am, first and foremost, a writer. I will never use AI to write for me. That’s my red line. I feel many writers are like me and feel slightly threatened by AI coming for our talents. But, fear not (for now). I’ve been using AI as a tool to help me be more creative, showcase my writing in new ways, and help me wear all the different hats like pitching, marketing, PR and others.
ElevenLabs for audio generation. It will do text-to-speech. You can choose or create AI voices and input your words. Then it reads it out to you. It is pure magic and worth the $20 a month for 120,000 credits (which will buy you around 1 hour worth of generation). Honourable mention: Hume. Similar to ElevenLabs but voice selection is more limited. Generation took longer with more buffering between paragraphs, but it’s 50% cheaper.
VEED for video editing. This is great for creating marketing content, book trailers, and even finessing your audio-only text to voice files. You can add sound effects, music, visuals and it will even cut multiple versions for you. There is a monthly fee but, again, quite worth it.
Midjourney for image generation. I have had so much fun generating scenes from my books using Midjourney. I will input a setting, characters, and then watch the magic come to life. It almost brings a tear to my eye to see it jump off the page in a tailored, bespoke, beautiful image. There is a fee but it’s about $10 a month. Plus, Midjourney will now animate images for you - great for websites or social.
Blaze for social media creation and management. OK, full disclosure, I haven’t tried this one yet but I am dying to. For a fraction of the cost of hiring someone to do your social for you, Blaze is like a social media coordinator at your fingertips for about $40 / month. Apparently they will create your website for you, your social content, and even post that content on your behalf.
Veo3 for video creation. Similar to Midjourney, you can now create 5-8 second long video clips in remarkable detail using Google’s video generator. There was a lot of buzz about this when it first launched when Google actually created a short film using this tool. I’ve used it to generate my character’s scenes, create mood, build trailers, and use it in marketing. It’s free but you’re limited to a few videos every few weeks. But so much fun. Honourable mention: LTX Studio. It is very in-depth, costs more, and would be a bit of a learning curve, but the video generation looked remarkable.
