Can ChatGPT Write A Book? Your 9-Step Ultimate Guide

If you’re a writer in 2025, you’ve probably wondered, can ChatGPT write a book? With the rise of AI, the question has even shifted a bit from can AI write a book to should AI write a book. 

Writers, including myself, have experienced a range of emotions, from feelings of despair that AI is taking over the creative world, to feelings of hope in how to leverage AI as a tool in the creative process. 

Where exactly does ChatGPT fit into this conversation? Can ChatGPT write a book, and if so, should we use it to do so? What does this mean for writers who love the creative process? For those who create simply for the love of novel writing?

I remember one client who especially requested I use AI as an aid in my copywriting, not to write the material itself, but to help me brainstorm. I had another client who didn’t want me using AI. 

Where does this leave us as creative writers? We cover both of these questions, as well as the nuance of ChatGPT, in this ultimate guide. We ask, and answer, the question: Can ChatGPT write a book?

If you’re curious where our background of expertise originates… We’ve taught over 8,000 authors how to write, publish, and market their books over the last 10 years.

This means we’ve been around since before AI was a conversation starter and through its rise to fame. We’re still here now that it’s a normative part of life, and we’re still helping writers write and publish their books—successfully! If you want this to be you, just keep reading. 

Can ChatGPT write a book? What’s covered:

• What is ChatGPT?
• How LLMs work
• Can ChatGPT write a book? Factors to consider
• How to write a book with ChatGPT?

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is a chatbot developed by OpenAI and based on a large language model (LLM), which simply means it was trained on a large quantity of text data. 

Because it was trained on so much text, it is particularly useful for generating text, answering prompted questions (for example: tell me how to write a book), as well as summarizing text. 

ChatGPT prompts 

The better you learn how to write prompts for ChatGPT, the more effective its output becomes. For example, recently I was looking for clean sunscreen (hello, it’s summer in Michigan!). I prompted ChatGPT with “what are clean sunscreens.”

Of course, as a chatbot, it took my question literally and fed out an answer similar to: clean sunscreen is sunscreen without x, y, z, ingredients. 

I changed my prompt to something along the lines of “find links to clean sunscreen” or “list clean sunscreen brands.” This prompt generated the type of response I needed. 

Why are we discussing sunscreen in a blog asking, can ChatGPT write a book? How you prompt ChatGPT to help you write your book will directly influence the type of character traits and plot structure it generates for you. 

In fact, how you learn to use prompts is one of the most important parts of learning how to use ChatGPT to help you in your creative process.

More on this later, but for now, let’s take a look at ChatGPT’s price points. If you’re wondering, can ChatGPT write a book, you probably want to know how much financial investment it will take.

ChatGPT pricing 

As of the time of this writing, ChatGPT has four price points you can choose from. I won’t discuss the models here, but focus on covering some of their key features as they relate to writing. 

Free Plan: 

• Limited speed
• Limited features 
• No custom GPTs  (you don’t need to worry about this right now)
• No custom file uploads 

The Free Plan can be helpful, especially if you want copy condensed (for example, inputting your book synopsis and asking ChatGPT to condense it into your book’s back cover copy) but its limits can sometimes be frustrating. 

ChatGPT Plus:

• $20/month 
• Faster performance
• Priority access
• File uploads 

ChatGPT Team:

• $25/month for annual billing 
• $30/month for monthly billing 
• All of the Plus features 
• Admin tools
• Shared workspaces 
• Higher usage limits 

ChatGPT Enterprise: 

• Custom pricing 
• Better security 
• Unlimited access to GPT-4o
• Dedicated capacity
• SLAs
• Admin console
• API usage
  

Now that you have a quick overview on ChatGPT and its offerings, let’s take a look at large language models. After all, we’re all probably wondering, can ChatGPT write a book with good dialogue, plot points, and character arcs? Does ChatGPT even know how to write dialogue? Let’s get into it.

How LLMs work

ChatGPT is far from the only AI writing service. An LLM (large language model) is similar to a speed-reading robot that covers pages and pages of online text. While it does not understand the text as a human would, it picks up on the patterns of how words typically go together.

For example, people often ask, “Where do you want to go for…” Based on its training, ChatGPT can guess the next word may be “dinner” or “vacation.” 

However, because AI is, of course, artificial intelligence, based on language patterns, and drawing from what is already on the web, it has drawbacks.

Short generations 

Can ChatGPT write a book? Well, it only has so long of an attention span. In fact, when I prompted ChatGPT about its drawbacks, it outputted the following:

“It can only ‘remember’ a limited amount of what it’s writing at a time. So in a long story, it forgets what happened earlier. Imagine trying to write a story but forgetting the beginning halfway through!” —ChatGPT

If you want to write a thriller with an intricate plot twist, you may find ChatGPT provides you with a fair amount of plot holes. If you want to write a book series, maybe forgo ChatGPT as your main writer, as there are simply too many plot lines to maintain. 

Repetitiveness 

ChatGPT can become repetitive, highlighting specific aspects of a scene more than once, and thus making you look like a redundant writer. 

You may prompt ChatGPT to write a scene for you with your hero entering a dark room. The response may come back similar to the following: 

“John entered the dark room. It was hard to see through the darkness. With the darkness pressing around him, he stumbled forward.” 

You may catch this in an edit, or your developmental editor may highlight it and say, “I’m not a line editor, but this needs to be fixed!”

Lack of creativity 

Remember how I said that LLMs learn language patterns based on the large quantity of what’s already out there, published, and written by other writers?

Much of the joy in writing comes from learning the skill of creativity. Great writers are great readers, but this is because they draw inspiration from others’ creativity, rather than taking it as their own. 

One of the issues that crops up when writers ask, can ChatGPT write a book, is the fact that it does not generate new language patterns. 

What it will generate is based on what has already been done. Add to this the fact that it’s drawing from material that’s already out there on the web. 

ChatGPT is simply regurgitating information in the way this information has already been presented by other writers.

You’re unlikely to get your book noticed as something new and original when you use ChatGPT to write it…unless it’s a reader pointing out that it looks generated by AI. 

Can ChatGPT write a book? Technically, yes, but let’s look at if you should and how to do so well.  

Can ChatGPT write a book? Factors to consider

We’ve asked, can ChatGPT write a book, and we know it can, but what’s the best way to do so? Let’s get a few important details out of the way. 

Transparency and disclosure 

Just as it’s important to provide attribution to any sources you use (this is more directly applicable when writing nonfiction), the same goes for using ChatGPT.

Think of it as similar to ghostwriting. While many authors who use ghostwriters understandably put their name on the front of their book, they also give credit where credit is due. Oftentimes, this may look like simply saying “with [ghostwriter name].”

If I wrote a book with a ghostwriter, it would simply look like “Sarah Rexford, with Jane Smith.” This way, I’m transparent that while it was my idea and vision behind the book, it was “Jane Smith” who also helped me write it. 

There has been quite a bit of buzz around authors in traditional publishing not disclosing their use of AI in writing. If you do decide to use it, simply be transparent about it. 

Text generation 

Can ChatGPT write a book without drawing from other material? This is a second important factor to consider. ChatGPT is trained on an LLM, meaning it generates text based on the copy it draws from.

However, some of that text can include material that is nearly word-for-word the same as that of other writers…without attributing the author’s name to the copy. 

Recently, an email came through my inbox about an author whose work had been used by AI without her permission. This was understandably upsetting to the author. 

If you choose to use ChatGPT to write your book, it’s important to take note of where this copy comes from and that you aren’t taking other writers’ copyrighted material as your own. 

How to write a book with ChatGPT

With this groundwork laid, let’s take a look at ChatGPT as the tool it is, and how you can use it to demonstrate the answer to our pressing question…can ChatGPT write a book? 

1. Define your parameters 

This is really step zero, but because it’s so important, I include it as step one. Before I write a book, no matter my book genre, I want to know my parameters. You can apply this same mindset to using ChatGPT to write a book. 

Can ChatGPT write a book? Yes. Do you want ChatGPT to be in charge of the entirety of the creative process? Probably not.  

For example, you may want to use ChatGPT to write a book outline for you. Using ChatGPT as a book idea generator is a positive way to use it as a tool, rather than as a replacement. 

2. Conduct your research 

Now that you’ve answered, can ChatGPT write a book, it’s time to use it to do…but with guidelines.

Many people use ChatGPT as a search engine, and for good reason. It can scour the internet and find resources on a particular topic in no time (even clean sunscreen brands).

Let’s say you want to write a nonfiction book on how to start a business, but you’d like some statistics on how many new businesses succeed in the United States.

You can simply type your prompt into ChatGPT and find a plethora of answers. Be sure to fact check, as ChatGPT can certainly make mistakes, but this is a solid starting point. 

3. Generate a rough outline

Once you have quite a bit of research done, it’s time to outline. This is a toss-up for me, as I prefer to outline myself, but if you’re really stuck, you could use ChatGPT to help you out of a rut.

Input your main plot points and characters, and ask for a rough outline. From here, you can add, cut, or rearrange anything you want to make this outline best fit with your own vision for your book. 

4. Develop your synopsis 

While I tend to use ChatGPT more as a brainstorming aid than a base for my writing, you could ask it to generate a story synopsis based on your outline.

From here, as always, edit it to make it your own. Once you have your outline and synopsis, you can sit down to draft your manuscript yourself. From here, move on to option five.

5. Engage as a writing assistant 

While we do not want to grow dependent on ChatGPT, it can be a helpful resource as a writing assistant. 

I sometimes will input text into the prompt box and ask ChatGPT to make it more x, y, and z. For example, let’s say you wrote a lengthy paragraph describing your scene’s setting.

You could type the following into the prompt box: “Condense my following copy without losing the original tone or voice.” While you will certainly want to edit the text it spits back, it can be a helpful way to brainstorm edits.

Do be cautious about using ChatGPT as a writing assistant. I’ve certainly experienced frustration with putting in a prompt and then ChatGPT giving me a response that ignored my prompt completely.

Example: I once wanted to condense a paragraph by cutting words out but not rephrasing my copy. I described this in a prompt, and pasted my text in. 

ChatGPT did condense my copy, but only by rephrasing it. Back to the drawing board! 

6. Ask for negative feedback  

Can ChatGPT write a book and provide negative feedback on its own work? One of my favorite ways to check my writing is by prompting ChatGPT to assess my text through a negative angle. 

Recently, I did this for an article. I had done my best to approach the topic with nuance and empathy, but I knew it may reach readers who felt strongly about the topic and may need a bit of extra gentleness in my writing. 

I didn’t want to post the article and then get a comment or email from a reader who had misunderstood my writing, when I could have simply elaborated on the point or showcased another angle.

To help combat this, I asked ChatGPT to analyze my text and find the negative angles readers may take or places readers could find offense. This was actually extremely helpful, and I added a few phrases to my original piece for further clarity.

Do be careful with this aspect, however. I noticed that as I asked for different input, the results fed back to me started simply changing my copy, not enhancing it. 

For example, ChatGPT would give advice along the lines of: Fix X because your stance could be taken as a blanket statement. You should consider other viewpoints. 

I’d fix it, then input my text back and receive advice along the lines of: Your stance, while nuanced, could be taken as inconclusive. Consider taking a bolder stance to truly resonate with your audience.

My edits swung from one angle to another, first fixing something, then changing it back. This is where human feedback is the best form of constructive criticism. 

That said, ChatGPT can certainly be one tool in your writer’s toolbox. It can catch issues you may have missed, simply because you are so close to the material.

7. Write another character’s perspective 

While we do not recommend you write the entire book with AI, it can be helpful to use AI to write scenes you won’t include in your book.

Why would you do this? Let’s set the scene (pun intended). Your heroine has been best friends with your secondary character for three years and just now discovers his entire background is fabricated. 

Stunned and overwhelmed, she cuts off the friendship. Now, you want to write her response to this information in alignment with her character, but you also want to write the secondary character well.

Assuming you use one point-of-view (POV) character for this novel, you will never write a scene from his perspective. But, to help you create an empathetic character, prompt ChatGPT to write a scene from his viewpoint for you. 

This will give you more context to draw from, and maybe even enhance his own character arc. Can ChatGPT write a book from his viewpoint? Yes, but it can also write just one scene. This can help propel you forward in your own writing, as you discover a new angle you may not have considered.

8. Employ an AI editor (just for starters) 

I work with a diverse array of authors, from CEOs writing about their business to seasoned individuals sharing their life stories. Recently, I’ve been working with an author who is also a successful businessman.

He decided to take his book through a light edit with AI. While it’s vital to learn all about self-editing, you could consider using ChatGPT to edit your manuscript for you. 

While I suggest using ChatGPT editing more so for specific problem paragraphs, this author took his manuscript through a light edit and seemed to enjoy the process. 

When he sent his manuscript to me, I could tell he’d taken it through AI, so this added a different layer to my editing work, but it was a relatively clean manuscript. 

Regardless of how you use ChatGPT, as a writing assistant or as a light editor, the entire book should unequivocally not be written fully by AI. 

9. Critique your progress

One aspect I love about the question, can ChatGPT write a book, is that the answer is so broad. The amount of work it takes to write a book is astronomical, and using AI as a helpful tool can take some of the pressure.

A way I’ve found to do so is by leveraging AI to assess other books in your genre, then asking it to critique how your work stacks up against the bestsellers.

Recently, I asked ChatGPT to assess the different themes, plots, etc., in some of the top bestsellers in my genre. 

I then asked for a bullet-point, PDF checklist of what made these titles go from an idea in the author’s mind to bestselling book series and major feature films. 

The next way to answer, can ChatGPT write a book, is to input your own story outline or synopsis. Ask how your work compares to the bestsellers in your genre. 

Tip: This is a great time to ask for constructive criticism from ChatGPT. Ask it to look for plot holes, inconsistencies, or characters whose arcs fall flat. 

In this way, you can use ChatGPT to help you write your book, while still saving the best part (the actual writing process) for yourself. 

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