How to see your Writing More Clearly (Without Losing the Will to Live)
A real challenge with writing is the (very) long time between penning the first page and publication.
It’s a huge amount of time to invest without getting feedback on how good the book is. There are tools to help, such as writer’s groups, and I’m going to share another: a self-starter you can use without the fear of another human making the You-Fucked-Up face.
The real problem with humans is that, often, they want to make you feel good, or objectively think your feelings are things to be trashed. Getting good human feedback is super hard, because humans in general: a) think they’re good at feedback, but b) are fucking not.
But reviews before reviews are still hugely valuable. We want to get the unbiased take without the existential dread of Goodreads. We want to improve, but without the gut-punch to the ego (especially when it’s delivered by an anonymous keyboard warrior with a vendetta against adjectives who believes your work is the one he’ll sacrifice on that hill of one-star failures).
I’ve got a new series coming out and wanted to build a system for getting decent pre-release feedback for it. The first step was building a system for works that already exist. I decided to take a fresh look at my debut novel, Night’s Favor, to see how it held up all these years later. I wasn’t looking for validation (that ship has sailed), but rather to understand what I’d learned since then and whether that book still kicks ass for the Lord.
I’ll also share the output at the end in case you want to check out what a “successful render” of this looks like.
A Fresh Perspective Without the Trauma
A challenge with relying on human beta readers is time. Humans are slow, man. We want a system that doesn’t move at the pace of someone’s eyeballs. We also want to avoid doomscrolling reviews until we lose all will to live, let alone write. Here’s what I did:
1️⃣ Generated an unbiased review. I fed my manuscript into ChatGPT and asked for an honest critique of its strengths and weaknesses.
2️⃣ Synthesised real reviews. I gathered my Goodreads reviews (including the spicy ones) and fed them into ChatGPT to analyse patterns.
3️⃣ Created a podcast-style review. I asked NotebookLM to combine both of these outputs into a podcast-like analysis, simulating a critical discussion of my work.
The result: a based AI that’s brutally honest about saying your pacing is dodgy but your dialogue slaps.
Diagnosing Strengths and Weaknesses
What I learned wasn’t shocking, just… clearer. The things I’d suspected about my writing (good and bad) were reinforced, but without the emotional gut punch. This process helped me pinpoint where I’d grown as a writer and what still needed work. Also, I found it more fun to listen to two fictional anchors talk about the work than flensing my brain with review doomscrolling.
For any writer looking to refine their craft, this method isn’t about making an AI podcast empire of your own books (tempting, though)—it’s about perspective.
How You Can Use This to Improve Your Writing
If you’re staring at your manuscript, wondering what’s working and what’s not, try this:
1️⃣ Get a structured review. Ask an AI tool (or even a text summariser) to highlight your book’s strengths and weaknesses. Focus on patterns, not one-off comments.
2️⃣ (If the book has already been seen by human eyeballs, if not, skip to step 3) Look for review trends. If you have existing writer’s group or beta reader feedback, feed it into an analysis tool. Even a simple manual review can help—what keeps coming up? Are multiple readers saying your pacing lags but your characters shine? That’s the sauce.
3️⃣ Use summaries for clarity. AI-generated reviews aren’t gospel, but they can highlight areas you may have overlooked. Feed 1+2 into a tool and instruct it to be honest and structured. Think of it like a second opinion after using Google to research that ailment. You suspect cancer, but Google ain’t no doctor, so this can validate or overthrow your diagnosis.
Can This Replace Beta Readers?
Hell, no. AI won’t replace thoughtful human feedback, but since thoughtful humans are rare, this is a valuable first step. AI tends to suck at knowing if plot twists are predictable or understanding emotions, especially when it comes to character arcs. What AI does is help you spot broad patterns in your writing and give you an early sense of what’s working.
More importantly, it can give you confidence. So much of what we write goes unread (or worse, gets lost in the void of Amazon’s endless shelves). Getting an outside perspective, even from an AI tool, can remind you that your writing has strengths and that you’re always improving.
If you’ve ever needed a confidence boost (or just a fresh way to see your work), this might be worth a shot. Have you tried anything like this? Let me know in the comments!
If this tip was helpful, consider buying me a coffee on Ko-fi. The AI reviewer doesn’t need it, but I sure do.
PS: The “podcast” output I promised!