The Book That Hooked You? It Might’ve Been Part Machine

Only in New York could someone devour a whole thriller between Brooklyn and Queens, toss it in a bag, and never even realize it was mostly written by artificial intelligence. And honestly? That might be part of the magic.

People here don’t have time to fuss over how the sausage gets made. If the story hits, it hits. And lately, a surprising number of those stories? They’ve got AI fingerprints all over them.

Like Death of an Author—that moody, fast-paced novella that quietly picked up traction on mystery forums. It turns out it was crafted largely by a writing program, with just a bit of human guidance from Canadian author Stephen Marche. Wild, right? But in a city where half the population is already collaborating with machines in some way, it kind of tracks.

Writing With AI—It’s Happening All Over the State

You’ve got writers holed up in Manhattan apartments, chasing deadlines and battling writer’s block. And now? They’ve got AI whispering story ideas at 3 a.m.

Jennifer Lepp, who writes as Leanne Leeds, lives miles away from the noise but gets her mysteries out faster thanks to Sudowrite. For her, it’s not cheating. It’s just smart workflow. Upstate, indie writers are using ChatGPT and Claude to brainstorm plot arcs while sipping coffee in converted barns and lakeside cabins. In a place as diverse as New York, the ways writers work are just as varied—and AI is sneaking into more and more of them.

Paul Bellow, who writes game-inspired fiction, even built his own AI generator to keep up with story demand. He doesn’t see it as replacing creativity—just boosting it. Like an espresso shot for your imagination.

Writers Here Have Opinions. Strong Ones.

This is New York. People have thoughts. And when it comes to AI helping write books, the takes are hot.

Some folks say it’s a tool, like a really smart notebook. Others think it’s a slippery slope toward soulless stories and cookie-cutter plots. But even the skeptics admit: sometimes the results are impressive. Even moving.

Writers balancing jobs, kids, side gigs, and dreams are finding ways to make AI work with them, not instead of them. They’re still making the decisions. Still rewriting. Still sweating over sentences. They’re just not doing it completely alone anymore.

And Yeah—AI Can Write a Decent Story

Let’s be real. AI knows how to work a trope. Give it a genre and some direction, and it’ll hand you a plot twist you didn’t see coming. Especially in romance, thrillers, and sci-fi—genres New Yorkers secretly (and not-so-secretly) love.

One AI-assisted romance novel blew up on TikTok not long ago. The hashtag #BotBanger was everywhere. “I sobbed reading this on the A train,” one person posted. “I don’t even care if it was written by a toaster.”

That’s the thing. When a story hits you in the gut? Most readers don’t care if it came from a machine—as long as it feels real.

But the Ownership Stuff Gets Messy

Here’s where it gets weird. U.S. copyright law doesn’t recognize work made solely by AI. So if you let the machine do everything? You technically don’t own the book. And that matters, especially in a place like New York, where publishing isn’t just a dream—it’s an industry.

Then there’s style mimicry. Some AI tools can write “like” Colleen Hoover or Neil Gaiman. That’s cool in theory, but legally… it’s a bit of a minefield. And ethically? Writers have thoughts. Big ones.

At the End of the Day, It’s Still About the Story

New York readers don’t scare easily. They’re curious. Hungry. Busy. If a book keeps them flipping pages between Canal and 125th, that’s what matters.

Whether it was written in a coffee shop in the East Village or generated by a neural network doesn’t change the way it feels when a line stops you cold—or when a character breaks your heart.

That’s the beauty of it. AI might be part of the process now, but the connection between storyteller and reader? That’s still as human as it gets.