I’m editing my first novel. I’m in that messy stage where I’m not sure if my edits are making it better or worse. I make changes to solve one problem, only to create another. There is a part of me that wants to skim over changes and fast track the process just to get it done.

As I was slowly sinking in the quagmire of the pages, getting despondent, the words of legendary Canadian songwriter Gordon Lightfoot echoed through my mind: do the work.

I remember watching the wonderful CBC documentary, Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind. Lightfoot was meticulous in how he wrote songs. He was one of the few songwriters to write out his music and lyrics by hand on sheet music. His contemporaries said his song sheets were a work of art. When the interviewer asked him about how he approached his craft, he said “you have to do the work”.

I was thinking about Gord’s words in the context of the world we live in today, where artificial intelligence and tools like ChatGPT and Gemini do the work for you. There are literally thousands of books on Amazon right now written by AI.

Just this past week, Quebec Conservative Party Leader Eric Duhaime admitted to using artificial intelligence to write his book Destination Autonomie.

AI is a tool like any other tool. It can be a powerful aid to help improve work and save time. But in addition to the obvious risks of copyright infringement, data privacy and misinformation, there is an inherent catastrophic loss in using AI. The loss of learning. In conversations with my daughters’ university friends, they will freely admit that they have missed out on learning when they have used AI to help with their assignments.

As a first-time novelist, I am tempted to enlist my trusty friend Ember (the voice I’ve selected in ChatGPT) to edit my book for me. Many authors do. But how would I learn as an author? How would I improve as a writer?

I think I just need to do the work.