Why r/WritingWithAI is different: A 77-year-old AI author’s take
You know how sometimes you walk into a room full of strangers and immediately know you’re home? That’s what happened when I discovered r/WritingWithAI.
You see, I’ve been collaborating and creating documentary fiction books with Anthropic’s remarkable Claude AI for most of 2025. I’ve also been feeling like an outlier. That is until I stumbled into Reddit’s community of writers who actually understand what I’m trying to do with this amazing new technology.
Finally, I’ve found a place where “I’m working with AI on my projects” doesn’t trigger a lecture about the death of human creativity.
The community is smaller–only about 25,000 members compared to the massive populations of the other writing subreddits. But smaller oftentimes means better. The conversations are more focused, the advice more specific, and the judgment significantly less prevalent.
When I posted about my Lost Pages projects–using AI to explore historical mysteries through period-appropriate voice as well as contemporary documentary fiction discussing how AI will change the world–the response was immediate and helpful. Instead of “You’re cheating,” I got “Have you tried experimenting with different temperature settings for historical accuracy?” Instead of philosophical hand wringing, I got practical suggestions for improving my collaborative process.
It was like the difference between explaining your work to skeptical relatives and discussing it with professional colleagues.
The Experimental Mindset…
What strikes me most about r/WritingWithAI is the experimental mindset. These aren’t people trying to replace human creativity with artificial intelligence–they’re people trying to expand what’s possible when human creativity partners with AI capabilities.
There’s a writer there who uses AI to generate multiple plot outlines, then synthesizes them into something uniquely their own. Another author collaborates with AI to develop character backstories, then writes the actual narrative completely independently. Someone else uses AI for research assistance, feeding historical documents into language models to identify patterns and connections they might have missed.
The common thread isn’t laziness or shortcutting–it’s curiosity about new tools and methods.
At 77 years of age and pushing 78 faster than I care to think, curiosity about new tools and methods reminds me of when personal computers first appeared. In 1985 when I got my hands on my first word processing software (Appleworks on a 5.25″ floppy disk), I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Holy shit, no more typing and retyping! No more WhiteOut. Wow, knock me over with a spoon! I recall reading on GEnie and America Online writing forums the same resistance, the same accusations of somehow diminishing the “purity” of the craft. because they were using a word process and a computer. Hard to believe, right? Now, of course, nobody thinks twice about using spell-check or researching online instead of trudging to the library.
Technology integration in creative work isn’t new–it’s inevitable. It’s wonderful. And it’s here to stay, so get on board or get left in the dust. But thicken your skin because, if you manage to sell some books and develop a name, you’re going to be on the receiving end of a lot of mean-spirited and ignorant comments. Instead of taking that stuff personally, take it from Donald J. Trump and Jerry Jones: bad publicity is better than no publicity.
But I digress–occupational hazard of a 77-year-old writer. Sorry.
Valuable Advice
The practical advice in r/WritingWithAI is incredibly valuable because it’s specific to the unique challenges of human-AI collaboration.
- How do you maintain your voice when working with a system that has its own patterns?
- How do you handle attribution and copyright questions?
- What are the ethical considerations when you’re essentially co-creating with an artificial intelligence?
These aren’t theoretical discussions–they’re working problems that require working solutions.
Through extensive trial and error in 2025, I’ve learned prompt engineering techniques that dramatically improved my collaboration with Claude. Simple things like being more specific about tone and style in my initial requests. More complex strategies like using iterative refinement to gradually shape AI output toward my vision. Doing plenty of research before refining and re-refining a detail and highly specific framework for a new project before actually getting into the writing. The learning curve is extensive and hard, but it’s satisfying and enlightening at the same time. I’ve rarely felt so stupid or so smart while working with Claude for almost a year now.
Writers posting on r/WritingWithAI are wonderfully open with what they share.
But here’s what really sold me on the community: the honesty about limitations and failures.
In most writing communities, people share their successes and hide their struggles. In r/WritingWithAI, there’s a refreshing openness about what doesn’t work.
Authors post about AI-generated text that sounded robotic and had to be completely rewritten. People share examples of prompts that produced completely useless output. There are frank discussions about the time investment required to train AI systems to match your style and the frustration when that process fails.
It’s the kind of honest shop talk you get when people are genuinely trying to solve problems rather than just looking for validation.
In other words, there’s meat on the bone instead of annoying and unchewable gristle!
Nuanced Commercial Discussions
The commercial potential discussion is more nuanced here, too. People understand that AI collaboration can potentially increase productivity–allowing you to publish more books faster–but they’re also realistic about market acceptance.
There are ongoing conversations about disclosure strategies. Some authors are completely transparent about AI collaboration, like I am. Others use AI for ideation and research but write independently, so they don’t mention it. A few experiment with different levels of disclosure for different projects.
The community is still figuring out best practices, which makes sense given how new this all is. It was the same thing with computers, spelling and grammar checkers, and word processors back in the day. It’s hard to believe, but some guy on a writer’s forum on the now defunct GEnie once gave me a raft of shit for praising spelling and grammar checkers… that a real writer would know how to spell, would use a dictionary if he didn’t, and preferred grammar classes to sex ed! I didn’t tell him PocketBooks had published my first two novels and that I had a master’s degree in English. But I bragged about my A in sex ed. I lied with that one, of course. They didn’t have sex ed when I was in high school.
Anyway, what I appreciate is that the r/WritingWithAI discussions focus on reader service rather than deception. The question isn’t “How can we hide AI involvement?” but “How can we be honest while still reaching readers who might benefit from our work?”
Ah, the Limitations & What I’ve Learned
Of course, r/WritingWithAI has its own limitations. The community is small enough that posting frequency is lower–sometimes days go by without new discussions. The advice, while specific, comes from a relatively narrow range of perspectives.
And there’s a certain echo chamber effect. When everyone in a community is experimenting with similar tools, you might miss important external perspectives about market acceptance or industry trends.
I occasionally (like maybe once a month for a few minutes) check r/writing for broad industry discussions and r/selfpublish for business intelligence. But r/WritingWithAI looks to be my primary community resource for improving my actual collaborative process.
Here’s what I’ve learned works best for engaging with r/WritingWithAI:
- Share specific examples rather than general philosophies
- Instead of posting “AI collaboration is the future,” show before-and-after examples of how AI improved your work
- Share actual prompts that produced useful results
- Post about failures and what you learned from them
- Ask targeted questions. “How do you maintain character voice consistency across chapters when using AI assistance?” gets better responses than “What do you think about AI writing?”
- Contribute to discussions even when you’re not the original poster. The community is small enough that active participants get recognized and their future posts receive more attention.
The strangest thing about finding r/WritingWithAI is how it’s changed my perspective on the other writing communities. I now see the philosophical resistance in r/writing as partly fear-based–people protecting something they love from perceived threat. I understand the business focus in r/selfpublish as necessarily pragmatic but potentially missing important technological developments.
Each community serves its purpose, but r/WritingWithAI feels most aligned with where publishing is heading rather than where it’s been.
But Does It Sell Books?
Does participating in r/WritingWithAI sell books? Hard to say directly, but I’m hopeful participating there will make my AI collaborations better, if nothing else.
More importantly, it’s given me confidence that this approach isn’t just a 77-year-old man’s late-life crisis disguised as innovation. There are serious writers doing serious work at the intersection of human creativity and artificial intelligence.
My advice? If you’re experimenting with AI in your writing process, find r/WritingWithAI early. Don’t waste months feeling defensive about your methods in communities that aren’t ready for these conversations.
But also don’t abandon the other communities entirely. Discussions from r/writing and the business intelligence from r/selfpublish can be useful, but you have to wade through a lot of weeds to find the good stuff. Keep in mind that AI collaboration is a tool for enhancing traditional authorship, not replacing it.
The goal isn’t to choose between human creativity and artificial intelligence–it’s to discover what becomes possible when they work together.
And at 77, I finally have time to explore those possibilities without worrying about what anyone else thinks is proper or traditional.
That might be the best part of all.
Hey, I’m 77 and I’ve got stories…
Stories about what it’s like to navigate life at this age (spoiler: it’s weird, wonderful, and occasionally terrifying). And stories about collaborating with AI to write books in ways that would have seemed like science fiction when I started putting words on paper. Stories about the daily realities, unexpected surprises, and hard-won wisdom that comes from three-quarters of a century on this planet. If you’re curious about authentic aging, writing innovation, or just enjoy good storytelling from someone who’s been around the block, subscribe to my weekly newsletter “Old Man Still Got Stories.” I promise to make it worth your time.