Fiction's Place in an AI-Loud Year: Lessons from Andaleeb Wajid and Keshava Guha
AI can write a wedding speech in seconds. It can draft an obituary before the coffee cools. So what's fiction for-empathy, meaning, or just entertainment? At The Hindu Pavilion, during a session titled "The Place of Fiction" on Sunday (January 18, 2026), novelists Andaleeb Wajid and Keshava Guha, moderated by Radhika Santhanam, answered with lived practice, not platitudes.
Fiction as a truthful constraint
Wajid has written about 50 books, many set in Bengaluru. The constraint is real: new stories, familiar city. She admits a current of angst from being married at 19, and that energy insists on honesty. "I wanted every story to be authentic and true to me. It is why stories of women, translated into books," she said.
Two processes, two speeds
Wajid writes two chapters a day. Treats it like a job. "I am a nightmare of a boss to myself," she said, which explains the output and the discipline. The mess stays around the work; the work stays clean.
Guha prefers a slower, sentence-first approach-one or two chapters a month. He aims for the best possible version of each line. On blocked days, he keeps the "channel open," so words can land if they choose. It's less grind, more vigilance.
Writing across gender, without presumption
Guha's latest, The Tiger's Share (2025), centers women protagonists. He stressed tone and voice above everything: get them wrong, the book collapses. "The fiction business is sustained by women. Most people who consume fiction are women. Most editors and publishers are of the same gender too. There is enough space to be called out so it is the additional duty of a man to be careful while writing women."
He also noted a structural awareness that grows draft by draft-knowing where readers might disengage, then reshaping the opening, middle, and endgame with that in mind. Precision isn't only sentence-level; it's architectural.
AI: useful tool or creativity tax?
Both authors agreed: AI is everywhere, but it can blunt reading and writing if you hand it core creative work. Guha won't use it to write fiction; he doesn't want to dull the ability to imagine. Wajid was direct: "How is AI going to know about the life of an Indian Muslim girl better than me? I am very proprietary when it comes to my characters."
Practical note for working writers: define where AI ends. Admin and logistics? Maybe. Drafting voice and character? Keep that human. If you do use tools for non-creative tasks, build a simple policy and stick to it. For neutral, practical walkthroughs of AI basics, see practical AI guides.
Does fiction make us more empathetic?
The short answer: it can. Studies suggest reading literary fiction can improve theory of mind-our ability to read others' emotions and intentions. For a quick overview, this summary is useful: Reading Literary Fiction Improves Empathy. That's one more reason to protect your attention and keep your drafts honest.
What you can apply this week
- Pick your constraint. Location, theme, or form. Constraints accelerate decisions and keep you honest.
- Choose your process speed. Daily chapters (output) or sentence-perfect sprints (quality). Commit for 30 days and reassess.
- Write across gender with humility. Use sensitivity readers, verify cultural and situational specifics, and cut any line that "sounds right" but reads false.
- Fight disengagement. After draft one, mark the first page you'd stop reading. Fix that page before anything else.
- Handle blocks by staying available. Keep a low-friction ritual ready: a timed 10-minute freewrite, a walk with one character question, or a single sentence you must improve.
- Protect your voice from AI. Define a written policy: "AI for research/admin only; plot, character, and line edits are mine." Revisit quarterly.
- Honor the core audience. Women sustain fiction as readers and editors-write with respect, specificity, and no shortcuts.
The point of making things up
Fiction's job isn't to outrun machines. It's to say something true that only you can say, through people who don't exist but feel like they do. In a noisy feed, attention is currency; in fiction, attention becomes care. Keep your process simple, your characters owned, and your sentences alive.
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