AI cannot write your book. In fact, AI cannot write anything.

Before you label me a luddite fighting against the inevitable march of progress, I’m not talking about the output of the process. I’m talking about the process itself.

Most people think that the reason to write a book is for the book to exist. They think that the book’s existence will bring them some benefit (fame, riches, credibility, prestige). Mostly, they’re wrong. A tiny fraction of books actually create such value.

The reality is that the only true reason to write a book is that the act of writing it will fundamentally change you in ways you cannot possibly expect.

And even though you might not believe it now, that transformational change is worth ten times whatever benefit you’ll get in money, prestige, or credibility.

Write your book to discover yourself

I’ve coached dozens of people through this, and it’s always the same.

People start out thinking they want a coach to help with discipline, accountability, and process so they can finally get their book written and published. What they find is a whole new level of personal growth, emotional excavation, and self-awareness.

I have never known anyone who finished writing a manuscript and then declared they learned nothing from the process. I have written 11 novel-length manuscripts. Although only four were good enough to publish, every one taught me something new. [See all my published books here.]

A marathoner told me something similar. They started out training for a marathon because they wanted to accomplish a big goal. What they got was an incredible journey of self-discovery.

You wouldn’t say you did carpentry after hiring a handyman to assemble an IKEA bookshelf. You wouldn’t say you ran a marathon after having a marathoner wear your Apple Watch.

I’m not trying to argue for an elitist definition of writing or writer, though I think there’s merit in fighting back against such dilution of meaning.

I’m arguing that if you have AI write something for you, you’re cheating yourself out of a profoundly human and meaningful self-discovery experience.

Write your book—more than journaling

It turns out this is true even for people who are completely certain they’ve fully processed the thing they’re writing about.

“I will share the lessons from my lived experience,” they think. Little do they know how different writing for an audience is from simply writing something down.

It doesn’t really matter how much you’ve journaled about something. Journaling is still an internal dialog with yourself, just happening slower and on paper.

When you write for someone else to read, however, everything changes. That’s when the personal growth truly begins.

Every successful person should have a book

Someone I know who works with a lot of powerful, rich, and famous people told me on Friday, “I don’t know a single successful person who shouldn’t have a book.”

He was thinking about the knowledge they have to share, the prestige a book would give their personal brand, and the value a book would bring at all levels of their sales funnel.

He’s not wrong. But that’s not why I agree with what he said. If it were just about having a book with your name on it, there are ghostwriters and AI tools for that.

Every successful person who hasn’t written a book is missing out on one of the most profound self-discovery activities available to them. No amount of meditation, psychedelics, yoga, or wealth accumulation can match it.

That is the real reason to write a book, and AI cannot do that for you.

Connect with me

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