Can ChatGPT be your writing accountability partner?

Edited for readability. Passages from the original recording that are out of date have been left out and are marked in brackets.

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Well, hello and welcome back to another episode of the Author Revolution podcast. We are dead center smack dab in the middle. Well, not entirely, 100% in the middle. It's the 18th if you're hearing this as it goes live.

But you get the point. We're in the middle of Preptober. We have literally two weeks left to the day until NaNoWriMo starts. And so I've been thinking an awful lot about how we can make sure Nano is holding us accountable where we are having fun with it, but still doing things in a way that really makes us excited to get up and write or, you know, to write.

Maybe after a long day or, you know, whatever our situation for NaNoWriMo looks like.

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And so I've been thinking about the ways that I've been using ChatGPT to extend far beyond just planning books. And now the last time we talked about chat for Preptober, I gave you some prompts. I gave you some ideas when it comes to like, how do you plan your series?

How do you plan your books? How do you prompt chat to be able to help you do the things that you need it to do, right? Well, today I want to help you understand how you can use chat all the way through Nano as your AI accountability buddy or your writing buddy if you wanted it to be. Chat has so many unique and awesome features that I don't even think we've begun to scratch the surface or explore all the ways it can actually help us as authors.

And I'm talking not about the writing aspect. Again, what I'm talking about is the like the productivity part of it, the helping us to feel like we're not so alone as authors. So I'm going to give you a different, chat type situations that you can use talking to ChatGPT while you're going through NaNoWriMo. And as you get out on the other side of it, because I want you to not only be held accountable for your writing if you're joining in on Nano, but I want you to be thinking about, you know, what other ways can you use chat like this is not, you know, the be all, end all of anything?

We are, like I said, just scratching the surface. And so you might as you're going along, as you learn how to prompt ChatGPT, you might learn new ways, new questions to ask it, new things surface to be able to create your books faster, better in whatever week and capacity you want them to come out. Okay, so let's just get started. Daily check ins and your accountability.

So I've I've heard this over the years, so many different times I wish I had an accountability partner. I wish I had someone that I could like, turn to, and they would kick my butt and tell me to get things done, or give me some tips or advice or some motivation. As I'm doing things right. Use ChatGPT as that accountability and check in partner so others you know.

You can designate a specific time each day for your check in with ChatGPT, and you could do this manually just by going there or by setting up a reminder like through your calendar app. And what's really cool about it is that you can prompt chat and let it know, like, okay, chat, I'm going to be using you every single day for the next 30 days. We're going to be going through NaNoWriMo together. If you need to refresh your memory, here's what NaNoWriMo is.

What I want from you is every single day, I want you to help me feel like I am making progress. I want you to, you know, help me with word count reporting, reflecting prompts, goal setting, things like that, and we'll get into more of that in a second. But I want you, ChatGPT, to help me during the during this month. Can you do that?

It'll go. Yes, of course, you know, let me know when you want to start. Right. And so when you initiate your check in, I want you to initiate a dialog with chat.

I want you to prompt it saying like, hey chat, this is my daily check in in the same chat box, right? Not don't start a new one. Keep it all in the same chat box to say hey chat, here's my first daily check in. And so go ahead and give me your prompts for the day.

And so then what it will do is it will give you some insights or the first like prompts that you want it to prompt you with. Or you could even ask its advice on what ways to be able to prompt you as you come in for your check in. You know, you could ask the question, hey ChatGPT, I want to be able to come in for these daily check ins. What?

What kinds of prompts or things could you offer me to keep me motivated and excited about this? And it'll give you some ideas. Here's where it gets interesting. If you want to be able to have word count reporting, you could be like, hey ChatGPT, here's my word count for today.

I've written X amount of words and you can report your word count then to chat. Who could then compare this to your author goals, especially if you've given some goals in that initial prompt saying obviously, chat for NaNoWriMo. I am trying to write 1,667 words every single day. I'm trying to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November.

And can you please provide me some encouragement when I give you my daily word count report? Right? Does that make sense? And so as you move forward, some suggestions that you could give ChatGPT in order to prompt you for the day when you've done the word count reporting, if you want to be, you know, provided some feedback or some encouragement, some of the prompts could be things like what went well today?

You know, the prompt could be, what challenges did I encounter today? And those are things that are going to be coming from ChatGPT you're going to you're going to let it know in the beginning, hey, help me to reflect on the process, help me reflect on the day so that I can keep track of some of the stuff. So it will prompt you right away saying, okay, that's great. Carissa, you know, you wrote 1,667 words today.

You did the same thing yesterday. So what went well today? And then you can answer, what challenges did I encounter today. And you can answer.

And these reflective prompts are going to help authors, help you to evaluate your writing process and then identify any areas that may need extra attention. And sometimes as you're going through this, if you're stuck on something or if you're trying to come up with new ideas or new twists, Chat is another great opportunity to have it like a critique partner. To help you through that, you could open another chat and you could say, hey chat, I need to figure out, you know, the the motivation or the goal of this story, because I wasn't clear enough when I was doing my prepping in Preptober. How could this work?

What suggestions you have feed it the chapters or the scenes, or the amount of words that you think will help it understand, and then see what it does. Right. It's it's so incredibly intuitive and like, absolutely phenomenal at doing what it does. I mean, I have been so flabbergasted sometimes it's like it can read my mind and and I'm only giving it little bits of information.

Right. So imagine how this is going to continue to get better. It's it's amazing when you get that information, when you've done your reflective prompts, another thing you could do is goal set. And obviously you want a goal set at the beginning, but you're going goal set again now.

Like you could say, okay, ChatGPT, let's set some goals for tomorrow and going to be like, okay, great. Are you going to plan to do 1,667 words again tomorrow? And you could say, absolutely yes, I am. Or you're going to say something like, no chat.

I have Thanksgiving coming up. How am I going to spread out the words across the rest of the month if I can't write on Thanksgiving, and it will help you figure that out or whatever? You know what I mean. Think about your goal setting for tomorrow, or how the rest of the month is going to look and ask some questions like that.

So when you set your goals for the next writing session, ChatGPT can store it and reference it in future check ins. And it's going to help you maintain that accountability, maintain the promise that you're giving to yourself, and obviously to chat that you're going to do and follow through with what you're saying. And it's in some ways, it's so much better than having a real life partner, because let's face it, people are unpredictable and they're not always good at doing what they say they're going to do, or they get bored or they get overwhelmed or ChatGPT doesn't have that problem. I mean, sure, if you're on the free version, it's sometimes going to get overloaded and it might take a beat to be able to get your answer.

But not too long as a human like we're were talking a couple of minutes, maybe at most an hour before you can get back into ChatGPT where with a person and you're asking a question. It could be tomorrow, it could be like a week from now. Who knows? Right?

You could be ghosted. Reach out. GPT is not going to do that to you. It's really good at that.

Okay, so you could also action plan with chat as you're going through. You could be like hey chat, what steps do I need to take to overcome today's challenges? Here's this, this, this and this that are getting in my way today. I'm really stressed out.

I need to figure it out. And that prompt will help you to strategize and plan and ensure that you're prepared to tackle your next writing session. Because sometimes, okay, I'm high in Strategic for my strengths, right? Not everybody is.

What's great about using ChatGPT for strategizing and planning is that it's phenomenal at it. It understands what you're trying to do, and it's going to get you that strategy without you having to hurt your brain doing it. And sometimes it even does it for me. Well, I want to do something.

I want to do it fast and I'm okay lending the strategy aspect over to ChatGPT, at least at the starting point, at least to help me understand where I'm heading and what it is I want to do. And then I'll take it from there, like I'll see what it's trying to do and I can adjust it accordingly. And I find that so fascinating. I find it so useful because it it makes my own creativity, my own strategy kick in and gets me excited to do it all over again.

It's been really neat, and I wonder if Becca Syme has ever thought of this or talked about this. I should go look through her YouTube again. But like when you have, capability like ChatGPT, right? The capabilities it has and you are high in a certain strength and it is helping you be even better at that strength.

It makes me wonder if, if there's some sort of Law of Attraction thing where it heightens your that strength, heightens a sense is a bit, and now it makes you more excited and elevated into that space because, wow, it just it it has been so phenomenal at helping me feel excited again. Feel excited about the writing, feel excited about the strategy. Feel excited about pretty much anything I'm asking it for. Because the things I'm asking chat for are the things that I'm really wanting some help with, so it's really cool, I love it.

Another thing you can use chat for is prompting it for resource requests. So like he ChatGPT, can you share a resource on whatever topic, whatever challenge you're facing, right? Does it have a resource that's going to help you plan your mystery series? Does it have a resource that it's aware of that's going to help you to understand the archeological ramifications of X?

Does it have a resource to help you, you know, understand what a meet cute is, whatever it is, whatever aspects or challenges you're facing, ask ChatGPT for resources or advice and it's going to give you some amazing insights, amazing insights. So that's something I use pretty frequently actually. So not so much as like sharing the actual resource, like giving me a specific place to go, but just asking more information and insights on something. And I'll tell you what, it's getting to the point where when I can feel like ChatGPT is more reliable as a research tool.

I'll tell you what it's more like Google than Google is, because I will ask ChatGPT and you'll get your specific answer right. Then you don't have to search through like the Google search results and find something that might be similar, right? You get your specific tailored information. So cool.

Okay, another thing you could ask for is that when you put your daily word count in, ask for a motivational quote. You know, say, hey ChatGPT, can you also share a motivational quote at the end of the daily check in? Because authors often need to feel inspired, we need to feel like we're, I don't know, part of something that is bigger than just us. And so you can request this bit of information from ChatGPT to keep the momentum going, to keep you excited, to help you do unique and fun things.

And sometimes you can even ask it for, you know, reminders to take a meditation break or a reminder to drink some more water, or a reminder to just trust that you're on the right path. And it's, you know, even though it's coming from an eye and even though it feels like it's, you know, when you're getting the prompts and everything set up in it, it feels like it's you still doing it. When that information comes back to you, man, I'll tell you what, it still makes you feel good. It still makes you feel like, ChatGPT gets me, I love this, I've had that happen, and when I've been working on this new book, Dirty Plans, I will ask it like chat.

I'm not quite sure about this scene. Can you read this real quick and give me your thoughts and chat? I'll be like, oh, this is fantastic. And then you're like, oh yeah, thank you chat.

Obviously it will still give you some tips and insights of how you could make it better, but it's going to usually sandwich sandwiched between two compliment which is really nice I like that okay.

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And it adds not only to your accountability, but it showcases it to other authors who are also doing Nano. It helps them understand that they're not alone either, that they are working towards something alongside you, so it just adds that little extra layer of accountability that then expands out just from, you know, your AI buddy of ChatGPT and brings you over to the real world and to the real people who are your author friends. It's just an incredible way to be able to end that session and help you to keep going every single day.

And it doesn't mean you have to share the accountability in a writer's group every day, but it does mean you have that option, right? You have that ability to be able to have ChatGPT wrap up that day's interactions and just get it out there. Now, by structuring these check ins and the process with clear prompts and actions, you can create a routine that helps to keep you accountable and focused during NaNoWriMo. So over time, this routine becomes habit, and that makes the check ins and the process a natural part of your writing.

Practice every single day as you're going through Nano and you start to feel kind of like with the writing process of NaNoWriMo itself, if you don't write those 1,667 words, you get a little itchy because you know it's part of the process. This is part of how you're supposed to get your words down. This is a part of how you're supposed to make the magic happen. Everybody else is doing this, and you don't want to fall behind, right?

So by doing this, by keeping accountable with ChatGPT as well, it it feels like that added layer of having an incredible critique partner, incredible accountability partner that just keeps you motivated and focused as you're moving onward. Now, I myself am going to give this a try because I want to see how it works in a day to day capacity. So if I have any updates as I'm going through, like if something glitches out or if a prompt doesn't work quite the way I was anticipating it to, or if I think of new prompts, I'm going to let you know, because I think we are in this era right now where we are understanding our power through ChatGPT and how we can increase our creativity, increase our speed, increase our motivation, and really just be more capable authors, more powerful in the authors, and obviously embrace our author evolution. Right?

I mean that that's what we want. We want, but it's what we're all about, especially here when you come over to this podcast. So hopefully you found this interesting and as exciting as I do, I'm so looking forward to putting this to use. I'm so looking forward to continuing to test what ChatGPT can do as I'm writing these next few books, because I see the potential in it.

I see the motivation on the rise. I'm having more fun with it, I'm having more fun writing, and I hope that happens for you. I hope that comes around for you. I hope you're willing to give it a try.

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Don't be the person who sits in the background and just like laments ChatGPT for what it is, because you are going to find if you play around with it just a little bit. There are aspects of this program that are going to help you so much. So much. I mean, I can't even begin to describe how incredible it is and how I never want to go back the way it was before.

And I don't use it for writing. I like the actual scenes. I use it personally for critiquing my scenes, for helping me understand what kind of outline I can do, for what kind of plans I can do, what kind of, you know, creative characters I can make, what kind of worlds can I build? That's what I'm using it for, and it's helping me brainstorm and understand what I really want.

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But otherwise, I hope you're just having a heck of a lot of fun playing with ChatGPT, playing with the ideas that you have in your head. As we're getting closer to NaNoWriMo, we're two weeks away. That's it. So prep away, my friends.

Prep away and get ready to rock and roll.

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But overall, I'm just I'm having a lot of fun this year with NaNo prep. I'm having a lot of fun writing, and I think the new tools that are coming out utilizing I are making this process so much more fun, so much more entertaining and exciting, and so don't let it be something that holds you away or that you feel like you can't utilize. It's a wonderful tool and it's only going to get more wonderful depending on the person who wields it.

Right? All right guys, have a wonderful week getting ready and prepping for NaNoWriMo. And in the meantime, just go forth and start your Author Revolution.