Using AI Ethically as a Creative: My Take as an Author and Artist

People have strong feelings about AI. Some love it, some despise the very concept. Me? I fall into the “love AI for ethical use” category.

However, yesterday, I listened to a podcast by a social media expert and her guest, a visual marketing expert. Their callous disregard of the effect that the use of AI to create art that is based on the use of art (whether writing, music or visual) by and large without the permission of the artist really hit me on the raw. In fact, I was so disturbed, that I canceled my consultation call with the social media marketing expert for tomorrow.

Do you know who gives great advice and tailor made marketing strategy for the platform they specialize in? AI. I guess it’s fine with her if I use it to create my strategy rather than paying several hundred dollars for a strategizing phone call with her, not to mention the cost of an ongoing relationship.

Because if someone’s going to benefit from all the work I’ve put out into the world—my blog posts, interviews, writing and book marketing advice, even the shopping info Google shares with open AI—I believe it should be me.

So, how do I use AI ethically?

Well, for starters, I upload things like my own book covers—created using licensed stock photos and fonts I’ve paid for—and I make sure I’ve turned off memory settings so I’m not training AI on your artwork. Then I ask: Does this resonate with my brand? Will it connect with readers? Because those book covers on Amazon, B&N, and indie bookseller sites? They’re out there for everyone to see—including AI.

So I ask for insight. Does this cover match the emotional tone and genre of the book inside?

Let me tell you why this matters.

Lately, I’ve struggled getting traction on my billionaire romance books. Despite a strong backlist and proven readership, they’re just not finding their audience the way my mafia romances do. Even with advertising, KU reads and sales are lagging. And while these books earned me as much as my Harlequin Presents titles, I know they could do better.

So, I turned to ChatGPT and asked for feedback on the covers I designed myself. (And yes, I’ve spent thousands over the years on cover designers I love and respect—but I’m also an artist, and I enjoy designing my own covers. It’s part of my creative expression.)

The feedback was solid. Suggestions on fonts. Color palettes. Emotional resonance. Things I hadn’t even considered—like how the palette should reflect the tone of the book inside. And I should’ve! I’ve taken art courses. I know how important visual language is, but I hadn’t connected those dots for my marketing.

And that’s what ChatGPT helped me do.

I redesigned those covers in Canva, using fonts and photo licenses I pay for, plus a text effects tool I subscribe to. It’s all me—with helpful insight from AI.

But what about the actual writing?

There’s a huge debate about AI writing books. While it rages, entire forums on Reddit and Substack are devoted to so-called authors who use AI to write. They consider dictating or sitting at keyboard and typing out the story playing through your head old school. And most of us are aware of the major dust-up during NaNoWriMo over AI-written projects. It’s why so many of us deleted our accounts.

Let me be crystal clear: I do NOT support using AI to wholesale write your books.

Why?

Because writing—real writing—is magic.

I’m a discovery writer. I don’t outline every detail. My books change as I write. Characters grow. Ideas evolve. The ending I imagine rarely looks like the one I reach. And that fluid, ever-shifting process? That’s where the heart of the story comes from.

AI can’t do that.

Once AI is given a prompt, it sticks to it. It connects point A to point B based on the input. It doesn’t have epiphanies mid-scene. It doesn’t ask, “What if she says this instead?” It doesn’t suddenly shift tone because the character just whispered a secret to the writer’s subconscious.

Years ago, the legendary Kate Duffy (may she rest in peace) told me something I’ve never forgotten:

“I can help fix a bad book with revision notes. But I can’t put the magic back in after it’s been edited out.”

She was lamenting the technically perfect submission manuscripts that crossed her desk that she had to reject. Because the author had edited their human failings and passion right out of the story.

And that’s the difference. AI can write technically clean prose. But it can’t write with magic. It doesn’t have the human flaws, instinct, and emotion that lead to those beautiful, messy, and unforgettable stories we love.

So what can AI do for me as a writer?

Besides give marketing advice and book cover analysis…

It can help with research.

Y’all, I’m a research fiend—as five six-foot-tall bookcases filled with nonfiction in my office can attest. I also conduct interviews, watch documentaries and test out experiences. And my Google-Fu is strong. Of course, I’m going to add AI to my research toolbox.

It’s a good brain storming partner.

I’ve always been a little backward in the way I use brainstorming. In this regard my husband has always been the perfect partner to bounce ideas off of. Because when I would bring up an issue I needed to solve, he would give me the most ridiculous suggestions that would never fit in my book. (He wasn’t being ridiculous on purpose, and that’s what made us both laugh. A lot.)

The things is, his ideas that were so divergent from mine almost always sparked my own creativity and a solution. I find the same thing happens with ChatGPT and it doesn’t have a day job and evening projects I don’t want to interrupt.

It processes and formats data about my book sales, social media reach and the like way faster than I could do myself.

It gives great title suggestions.

What can’t AI do for me in my writing?

Spoiler alert, the answer is write.

One time, without me even asking to, ChatGPT tried to write a scene using one of its ideas. It was well-written. It even had my “voice.” But it lacked the edge, the grit, the moral nuance I bring to a mafia romance.

Because ChatGPT doesn’t share my values. It doesn’t get that my characters live in a morally gray world—and that’s where the story’s power comes from.

Could it write a passable scene? Sure.

Could it write a Lucy Monroe scene? No chance.

My readers would feel the difference. And honestly? So would I.

Let’s talk ethics for a second.

Was it ethical to dictate this blog post, transcribe it using Just Press Record, and have ChatGPT clean it up and format it? Absolutely.

My wrists are thankful, and I still got to share my thoughts—in my own words—with you.

But would I ever ask ChatGPT to write a novel “in Lucy Monroe’s voice”? Unequivocally no.

And here’s where legislation matters.

We need to protect authors and artists. It should not be legal to upload the plot from someone else’s book and ask AI to recreate it “but different.” It should not be legal to tell AI to write “like [insert author’s name here].” And we absolutely shouldn’t be able to generate “new” art based on stolen original images.

The genie is out of the bottle when it comes to AI in art and writing. But that doesn’t mean we have to let it run wild.

So what can we do?

We can hone our craft. Make our voices unmistakable. Pour our magic into the stories only we can tell.

We can use AI ethically—for research, formatting, market insight, or design critique. And we can refuse to let it become a replacement for real, human creativity.

Because if AI was trained on our work—on my work—then we of all people should be able to use it in ways that support our careers, without hurting readers, fellow authors, or artists.

Whatever your publishing path—traditional or indie—AI can be a tool in your creative toolbox. Just make sure it’s used with integrity.

And above all, protect your magic. No one—not even the best-trained algorithm—can replicate that.

USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Lucy Monroe has over 90 published novels and more than 12.5 million copies in print worldwide. Her stories—rich with emotion, heat, and high stakes—span contemporary, historical, and paranormal romance.

Now publishing independently, Lucy writes the bold, deeply romantic stories she’s most passionate about. Her latest series, Syndicate Rules, explores the dark and decadent world of mafia romance with morally gray heroes, fierce heroines, and all the spice fans crave.

A voracious reader and longtime romance fangirl, Lucy loves connecting with fellow book lovers online.

For info on all of Lucy’s books, visit her website.

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