Oh, I am definitely NOT using AI for the actual writing. Like you, I find AI is simply uncreative, flat, and forced. I originally had some fear of AI. No more.
I am, however, using it for suggestions on how to improve my writing. It seems to work fairly well in that regard.
You will come to fear AI (fraud) again. The next time you use it, it will accuse you of plagiarizing! Then it will ask you if you know what FAFO truly means.;)
Yeah, it would have been funny if the last suggestion was "let me have a crack at it". lol
Unless this is an established world with established characters, then a little more description can definitely help bring characters and scenes to life.
When I first started, I used to devote pages to the set up - sometimes in excruciating detail - thinking I was doing the reader a favor by laying out the world. In truth, I was boring them to death.
So now, I start my story with underlying tension (enemy at the gate, fortress has already been sacked and almost everyone is dead, mourners standing around a grave, etc.) and splice in details in between dialog.
One of the best uses of this approach I can recall came from a surprising source: NYT best-seller LaVyrle Spencer in her book Hummingbird. Almost the entire first chapter is devoted to a train being late in a small frontier-style Midwestern town. As each of the residents react to this odd event, she introduces them and the entire town comes to life. Tension builds further when the train pulls in and two injured men are removed - the villain and the hero.
As everyone on this thread knows, the best way to test the material is to take it to someone who is a perpetual critic.
Years ago, I had a young writer come to me very excited about a book she was writing. She asked me to read the first chapter. I was 5 pages in and stopped: I didn’t know what these characters looked like, there was no central latch to how they approached the world, without the latch I didn’t understand their responses, she didn’t even create the stage let alone put a single prop on it.
I explained that it needed more detail because I couldn’t see them. She insisted she knew everything about her characters. “That’s good, but I don’t because it’s all still in your head. You see them clearly when you are reading the pages but you didn’t put any of that on paper.”
You could tell that up to that point, everyone had only given her praise. I’m sure what I said hurt. It’s like having a stranger say that your child is ugly.
I explained how she didn’t need pages of set up, she could sprinkle details in. Her writing improved immensely.