There’s a major contradiction I keep seeing among screenwriters using AI.
They want to maintain their humanity… But they also want AI to do all the work and hand them a perfect story. The result: they're confused and feel like crap when it’s done. Here’s what’s really going on: You can’t feel creative ownership over something you didn’t contribute meaningfully to. It is impossible. When you let AI carry the majority of the creative load, the result might look impressive but it also feels empty. Because it doesn’t contain any part of you for the simple reason that just how painting uses color, and music uses notes, stories use emotion and without your input... well, you get it. But also - just as importantly - ownership has always come from effort. Even when people used to outsource on a writer-for-hire basis, they paid for it in money that they acquired through time and sweat. That exchange created value. But now, AI does it for basically free. So if you don’t invest your intellectual capital - your taste, your creative fingerprints — there’s nothing binding you to the work. That’s why you feel worthless, and the content itself is worthless. So there's a clear contradiction: Writers want AI to deliver perfection quickly and still feel human pride. But you can’t have both. And this is an important principle, because even if AI does happen to give you something "perfect", it is encumbent upon you to raise the bar. You cannot settle for what it gives you... You have to elevate it. So clearly the only way around this is the way it’s always been... You have to do the work. Not busywork. Meaningful work. Direct, decide, refine, sculpt — step by step. Continuously raise the bar. That’s exactly what I built Scriptmatix Story Engine to do. It gives you structure, speed, and creative support... But keep your hands on the story at every stage so you can raise the standard. AI is helping us write the best screenplays ever... it's just people need to learn to use it. Because if your fingerprints aren’t on it, it’s not yours. AI doesn’t rob your humanity... skipping the work does.