Since ChatGPT came out, I've had a lot of interactions with AI-generated romance writing.

And it can all be summed up with two words: not great.

Here are 7 reasons it can't plot a good (read: marketable, enjoyable) romance:

1. It generates stories based on stolen work. This is the biggie; large language models like those used to generate fiction writing are trained on pirated books. Authors never gave the company that trained the LLMs permission to use their books to train the machine. And the companies haven't compensated authors for use of their books. And since authors rely on royalties to pay the bills, and these companies can more than afford to pay authors for their work, but just chose not to, it makes the whole enterprise more than a little gross.

   
   

2. It sucks at picking out character names. It either chooses the whitest, most common names, like John Smith, or it copies character and, in some cases, author names from popular romance series. Oh, and once, it just named a character "Fetus."

   
   

3. It loves stereotypes. Like making bisexuals indecisive, or non-white characters villainous, or disabled people weak.

   
   

4. Its plots are Very White. So many of the AI-generated plots I've seen feature no representation whatsoever. It's white people in a white town.

   
   

5. It stinks at making memorable hooks. The best romance novels are a combination of great writing and a good hook. But AI can't write a hook to save its life. It creates boring stories about flat characters, which not only makes for a boring reading experience, but it also makes book promotion way harder. Few people will buy a book if you can't say anything interesting about the characters, the setting, or the love story. No one has ever 1-clicked for a book only described as "second chance romance set in a small town." But a surprise baby second chance romance between a grumpy lumberjack and the high school sweetheart who left him behind to pursue her dreams of becoming a musician? Way more likely.

   
   

6. It barely skims the surface level of tropes. AI plots that aren't specifically prompted with a specific trope invariably use one of a handful: second chance, love triangle, brother's best friend, enemies to lovers. But there are SO MANY MORE out there that readers love and want more of.

   
   

7. It doesn't understand romance structure. Admittedly, every AI-generated romance plot I've seen has included a meet-cute, but after that, things go a little off the rails. Often, there's no scene showing a declaration of feelings. The characters go right from an inkling of attraction to in love. I've also seen plots without any tension in the second act, or too much in the third, with the break-up overshadowing the other essential beats from that part of the book.

I'm not sure if people are doing TL;DR anymore, but if they are, then here's one for this blog post: AI is never going to write a great romance plot. It will write an okay-ish one that you can heavily edit, but at that point, wouldn't it just be easier to write it yourself, since rewriting is so much harder than writing fresh?

Even if you're just looking for plot ideas, AI isn't the way to go, because a good romance novel needs a unique plot idea, something that stands out to readers. That meets a demand for stories there either aren't enough of, or that readers love and want more of. And finding that idea requires a level of market knowledge your average LLM just doesn't have.

But you know who does have it? Me. A romance genre specialist who dreams up plot ideas more often than she makes a cup of tea (and I live in England, so I drink a lot of tea). Check out my plot outline and plot concept offerings to learn more.

Until next blog post, happy reading and writing!