Firstly, hello! Mslexia's mission is to encourage women to express themselves in writing and to submit that writing for publication. So you've come to the right place.
Secondly, we want to stress that it's women's writing that we are interested in reading and publishing. And that is particularly important to us in the age of AI.
The type of AI I'm talking about here is generative AI – programmes such as ChatGPT and Claude – that develop texts derived from Large Language Models. In case you're not familiar with the term, Large Language Models gather texts from all available published sources into a massive smorgasbord of linguistic data that can then be processed in myriad ways to produce new texts on demand.
Setting aside the enormous environmental damage caused by data processing on this scale, and the fact that few of the authors of the original texts gave permission for their writing to be used in this way, I want to start by considering the demographic profile of these Large Language Models.
Because they are derived from texts that already exist, Large Language Models reflect longstanding norms relating to the authors of those texts – and those authors have historically been overwhelmingly male, white, middle-class, heterosexual and able-bodied. As Mslexia is an organisation committed to supporting women's writing in all its forms, this fact alone makes us deeply suspicious of creative texts derived from or modified by generative AI.
Imagining Claude as a composite human, do we really want our personal writing to be inspired, shaped, edited, critiqued or rewritten by an entity trained on material that reflects so little of our lived experience as women?
So I'm starting with a general plea for us all – all women writers – to grapple with our writing by ourselves, or with the help of guidance from fellow humans, so that we can feel confident that our work is authentically our own. (And the more our writing deviates from the norms that shape AI, the more authentically our own it will be.)
A question of trust
Because Mslexia is run by a team of just nine full- and part-time human beings, we are not able to scrutinise every piece of writing that is entered for our competitions or submitted to the magazine, to assess whether it has been produced partly or wholly by generative AI. But we trust that any text you send us has been written by you personally, in an authentically human way, based on your own ideas, and expressed in words that have been carefully put together, using literary skills that you have developed throughout your life.
We will of course look especially closely at shortlisted texts, but if you are really desperate for success, and decide to use generative AI to help achieve that success, it's possible that you will be able to deceive our judges and editors.
But at what cost?
True, you may pocket a cache of prize money, or add another publication to your CV, but will you feel the deep glow of pleasure and satisfaction that comes from knowing that your talent and hard work have been recognised? Or will you feel slightly uncomfortable because you've been rewarded undeservedly? And when you come to write your next piece of text, will you feel less confident than before about your true literary skills?
Creativity and craft
Before I go on to talk about practicalities, I want to address an issue that has been raised by several writers who have a specific difficulty in putting their thoughts into words. They have asked whether we would allow fiction submissions that have been based on their original story ideas, characters and settings, but that have been turned into actual texts by generative AI. Regardless of the source of that difficulty, our answer is regretfully 'no'.
This is because we believe that a good piece of writing is produced by a combination of both creativity and craft. Coming up with a creative idea can be the work of moments, but a writer's craft is developed over years of observation and application. The nitty gritty of expressing your ideas on the page, the nuances of poetic concision and formatting, the intricacies of prose plotting and pacing, are all integral to the power of your finished piece of work. To allow these craft aspects of a submission or competition entry to be produced using a Large Language Model undervalues all those years of diligent labour other writers have devoted to developing their literary skills.
Some practicalities
This practical guidance covers issues that some writers have raised with us over in recent months.
1. Grammar, spelling and punctuation
Grammar-checking software will ensure your tenses and plurals are consistent, your open brackets are closed, and your punctuation complies with normal printed usage. Provided it doesn't rewrite your sentences for you or suggest replacement texts based on Large Language Models, we are happy for you to use this kind of software – though we'd never pass over a piece of otherwise excellent writing because of the odd grammatical blooper. (Speaking as an editor, I'd have nothing to do if every submission arrived in a totally pristine condition.)
However, be warned! Grammar-checkers may 'correct' your idiosyncratic phrasing and syntax, or regularise your punctuation, in ways that may dilute your distinctive writerly voice.
(But feel free to spell-check your text before pressing 'send' – I can never remember how to spell 'weird' either...)
2. Beta reading
We have been asked whether it's permissible to use an AI programme such as ChatGPT as a beta-reader, to check for the logic and readability of a piece of text. As a matter of principle, we'd urge you to avoid using AI for this purpose, and to ask fellow human beings for feedback if you need a second opinion.
The Copilot assistant that pops up on Word documents these days is a form of generative AI that offers to summarise or rewrite large amounts of text. Please don't use this for 'improving' texts you plan to send to Mslexia.
3. Transcribing your spoken words
We're happy for you to use word-recognition software to transcribe your spoken texts for us, but please do not use a generative AI programme to interpret or rewrite the raw texts that result from this sometimes-inexact process. Instead, please try to correct any pronunciation glitches using grammar- or spell-checking software, as described above, or with the aid of a human helper.
4. Translations
Please do not use AI to translate a text into English that you have originally created in a different language. The arguments set out in the section on 'Creativity and craft' (above) also apply in this situation. You may use your own craft skills in English to translate your own texts in your own words, but please don't use an AI programme to do this work for you.
5. Research
Many internet searches now begin with an automatic AI summary of the information you are seeking, and some of you have sent in queries about this. We understand that many writers use AI in this way, but we'd advise you to follow the link/s accompanying every AI statement of 'fact', to reassure yourself that the information comes from a reputable source. If you are uncomfortable using AI for your research, simply scroll past the default summary to find alternative sources of information, or type '-ai' (minus ai) after every search query.
6. Creative prompts
From the very first issue of Mslexia magazine, we have been providing readers with prompts designed to spark fresh ideas and help generate interesting new creative work. Most creative writing tutors use prompts in their workshops too, and there are many published books, resources on the internet, and software programmes, that provide a similar service. These resources do not generate any text for you; they are simply nudges to set you off in a fresh direction and help you conjure ideas you might not have thought of straight away. We are more than happy for you create texts that are initiated by a prompt, but please don't feed a prompt into a generative AI programme and ask it to produce a text for you.
I could continue with other practical examples – about plotting, scansion, metaphor, dialogue, setting, characterisation and so on – but if you have read what I've said so far, I hope you can now predict what the answer will be in each case:
If you are sending your creative writing to Mslexia, please do not use generative AI derived from Large Language Models to originate, develop or edit your texts.
With that simple proviso, we really do look forward to reading your work!
Debbie T
Mslexia Founder and Consulting Editor
The Author
