So, You Found a Book Like Mine? Wheeee!

Dear reader,

Someone on my discord tentatively brought up an interesting subject; they had found books that were similar to things I write to the point they thought about asking if I’d written them. (Spoiler alert: I hadn’t.)

Plagiarism is never okay, so we’ll start there. That’s when someone directly steals my stuff and claims they wrote it, especially for profit. (This is bad, don’t do this.) I also strongly dislike piracy… I like getting paid. I don’t get paid when people pirate my books.

Please use your public library or a cheap subscription service that I’m legitimately part of instead, pretty please. Please. (Money makes the books get written.)

So, that’s as far as we’ll talk about plagiarism and piracy.

Here are the pen names I currently write under:

• R.J. Blain (All things Spec Fic)
• Lilith Daniels (Urban Fantasy with Romantic Tendencies; Murder Mystery Thriller vibes.)
• G.P. Robbins (Urban Fantasy with Romantic Tendencies; Procedural. Cops vs Murderers and Robbers, oh my!)
• Audrey Greene (Science Fiction meets Paranormal Romance)
• Susan Copperfield (Royalty Themed Paranormal Romance)
• Bernadette Franklin (Contemporary Romantic Comedy)
• Trillian Anderson (defunct; when she shows up it is as “Trillian Anderson writing as R.J. Blain” nowadays, and it’ll only be for a few more books so I can finish that failed series.) (Science Fiction Meets UF meets Paranormal)

So, the first thing the person was concerned about was whether or not the author had “written” the books using AI; the style very strongly reminded them of mine.

I expect this will happen, but here’s the reality: AI can’t write good books. AI has no ability to create good characters. It has no ability to write emotion. It has no ability to juggle fine plot lines. It is mathematical equations that use another author’s writing as a general guideline for how to “write.”

People who use AI to “write” books aren’t writers, they aren’t authors, and they aren’t creators.

Real authors are not really threatened by AI. Real authors will always write better books.

If someone fed my books to an AI program trying to “write” a book, I mostly just feel sorry for them.

They’re not artists, they’re not creators, and they’re not going to be ever “writing” a decent book. The mangled bits of text they create are going to be, at its heart, lifeless.

There’s no creativity in it.

You aren’t going to get wonderful world building with AI. You’re not going to get artistic turns of phrase… because art requires humanity.

So, mostly, I pity those who will never be actually good enough to write a book, so they rely on AI instead. That’s sad.

When someone steals my stuff and loads it into AI, they’re basically saying “I can’t ever do something nearly as well as this person.” Do I approve of AI? Hell no.

There’s no soul in a book written by a machine.

Then there was this person’s next concern… what if the author was using me as a model for their series, their writing, and their career?

There is no greater compliment than someone working their ass off, learning from how I write books, and trying their best to write a good book. Now, if they’re stealing my ideas and characters? That would suck. But when someone truly loves an author’s work, their writing, often initially, shares many similarities with that person.

They’re learning through imitation. They’re learning how to write through reading. To me, there is no greater honor than a young author looking at my books, reading them, and loving them so very much that they try to capture what they love about my writing in theirs.

And one day, I truly hope that these authors spread their wings and fly, finding their own unique style until it gets to the point their readers can pick up their books without seeing their title or author name and going “Huh, this is something this author would write.”

You know you’ve found your style when that happens.

Readers love certain authors because of that unique style. Because of how the author handles their plots, their characters, and their unique way of putting words together.

I really do hope that the author in question (I don’t know who it is) gets to the point they develop a style that is uniquely them.

This is what people mean when they say “imitation is the greatest form of flattery.” It’s not about theft. It’s about learning through the art of another on the journey of artistic self-discovery. If someone develops a style similar to mine because they learned to write from reading my books, that’s truly a special thing.

AI? Not so much. Flat out plagiarism? No. But accidental imitation through the painful process of learning and developing one’s own style?

Yes, that’s very flattering.

Writing is hard, and yes… the first step towards learning how to write a good book is to figure out just why someone else’s book is fabulous.

I studied Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory with adoration during my journey as a writer. Specifically, in 2004, I picked up a copy of To Light a Candle, and I read it so many times… I wanted to tell sweeping stories of magic, horses, and adventure.

Valdemar started that journey, but To Light a Candle cinched a lot for me. Before I devoured every Lackey book I could get my hands on, there was a little book called The Birth of the Firebringer by Meredith Ann Pierce that encouraged me to dream. Then there was the Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. (Horses, again… horses and an indomitable and harsh landscape.)

But before all those books, there was one book that made me want to read: A Wrinkle in Time.

All of these books, in their way, defined me as both reader and writer. And I’m sure, that along the way, all these authors were reflected in my words… because even now, I still sit here and wish I could wield a pen nearly as well as they can.

At the end of the day, I write books I want to read.

Some food for thought.

I’ll probably be quiet for the next little while. I have dental surgery on Saturday, and I’m always a major mess afterwards for a week. At least, hopefully once the extraction pain and implant install pain settles, things will start to feel better. (I was ready to be rid of this one tooth a month ago.)

Happy reading and writing, folks.

~R.J.