How Will AI Change the Novel?
Generative AI is impersonal. Great writing is the opposite.
New technology changes how we think and absorb information. Art adapts accordingly. Take Japanese cell-phone novels as an example—they combined poetic online storytelling with prose, creating very short chapters of 50–100 words. Similarly, book lengths have shortened over the last decade. Between 2011 and 2021, bestsellers lost more than 50 pages on average, and most titles on the latest Booker Prize longlist had fewer than 200 pages. Novels evolve with the times.
Some critics claim this means the novel is dead—again. But evolution is part of life. Modern novels reflect our changing minds: they’re shorter, sharper, often non-linear, and written by diverse voices revealing new perspectives.
AI’s Growing Role in Writing
Generative AI is everywhere: in smartphones, search engines, classrooms, meetings, social media, and email platforms. Its rise has been compared to major historical shifts like the printing press and the internet.
People debate AI’s risks—disinformation, political manipulation, threats to democracy—but also ask: how do we embrace it? The truth is, generative AI is here to stay and will disrupt creative industries.
At first glance, AI writing seems impressive. Large language models (LLMs) predict the next word based on vast training data, generating text quickly. But their output is often inaccurate, biased, and derivative.
Why AI Writing Falls Short
AI writing is predictable and formulaic. It follows rules strictly and cannot break them in ways that surprise or challenge the reader. Good writing thrives on unpredictability—syntax breaks, neologisms, fragmented sentences, and grammatical quirks that add texture and voice.
AI provides grammatical correctness and logical flow but lacks the ability to disrupt meaning playfully. Humor, for example, depends on incongruity—something AI can't replicate because it’s built on patterns and congruity.
Most importantly, AI writing is impersonal. It cannot feel or express genuine human vulnerability or experience. Readers sense the humanity behind words, even when the author’s intention is ambiguous. The emotional weight of a line like “Mother died today,” from Albert Camus’ The Stranger, hits because it’s rooted in human experience. AI can’t offer that.
The Novel’s Future: Defying AI
AI will change the novel’s shape, but the transformation will come from resistance. Writers will push back by creating work AI can’t imitate—work that surprises, confounds, and challenges.
Future novels will likely play with time, perspective, and form. Hybrid genres and multi-layered narratives will become more common. Strong, distinctive voices that bend or break grammatical rules—like those in Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride or Marlon James’ A Brief History of Seven Killings—will stand out for their humanity.
Personal storytelling will gain urgency, with more first-person and close-third narratives, and a rise in autofiction. The novel isn’t dying because of AI; it’s evolving.
Writers who rely on originality, fresh ideas, and authentic human experience will have an advantage. AI depends on patterns and repetition, so truly unique work will be harder to mimic and more valuable.
If you’re a writer looking to adapt, focus on what AI can’t replicate: personal voice, emotional depth, and inventive storytelling. The novel’s future is bright for those who keep surprising readers.
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