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Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its use in creative
writing
La Inteligencia Artificial (IA) y su uso en la escritura
creativa
Manuel Villavicencio-Quinde
Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador
Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación, Carrera de Pedagogía de la
Lengua y la Literatura
manuel.villavicencio@ucuenca.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3459-521X
Alison Fajardo-Martínez
Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador
Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación, Carrera de Pedagogía de la
Lengua y la Literatura
alison.fajardo@ucuenca.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0009-0003-3144-1052
Alejandra Suárez-Rivas
Universidad de Cuenca, Ecuador
Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias de la Educación, Carrera de Pedagogía de la
Lengua y la Literatura
alejandra.suarez@ucuenca.edu.ec
https://orcid.org/0009-0009-5294-7822
(Received on: 25/06/2025; Accepted on: 13/10/2025; Final version received on: 29/12/2025)
Suggested citation: Villavicencio-Quinde, M., Fajardo-Martínez, A. y Suárez-Rivas, A. (2026).
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its use in creative writing. Revista Cátedra, 9(1), 113-127.
Abstract
The use of ChatGPT without guidance or support raises concerns among teachers, parents,
and educational administrators. This action research project analyzed and compared the
style of twenty-four micro-stories generated by AI with twenty-four texts written by
university students. Initially, each student asked the ChatGPT application to generate a story
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about the character "ant." Subsequently, a learning sequence was designed, implemented,
and analyzed to guide them in writing the same text. In-depth interviews were also
conducted with the students to understand their experience before, during, and after this
classroom activity. The results showed that AI consistently replicates traditional writing
styles in terms of structure and content, limiting the communicative skills and creative
abilities of the tool's users, as it prevents them from exploring other forms of text
construction or development that transcend the individual writer. Conversely, the stories
created by the students demonstrate greater richness and diversity in the construction of
characters, plots, and endings, reflecting the volitional and identity-based characteristics of
each author. Consequently, classroom experiences, not only those involving writing, should
be transformed into opportunities to learn and rekindle students' creative drive, so that the
overwhelming presence of AI becomes not a threat, but an ally in the collaborative learning
process.
Keywords
ChatGPT, creation, education, writing, Artificial Intelligence
Resumen
Palabras clave
ChatGPT, creación, educación, escritura, Inteligencia Artificial.
1. Introduction
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Fluency is the ability to generate a large number of ideas on a specific
topic; flexibility relates to the diversity and versatility of ideas from
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various approaches; elaboration refers to the effectiveness of ideas in
practice; and finally, originality is the distinction of the idea, process, and
product as unique. (p. 11)
2. Methodology
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2.1 What did we do, and how?
In the first few classes, we read some texts about the arrival of Artificial Intelligence in
classrooms, highlighting some implications in the domestic, academic, and professional
spheres. It was precisely in this section that the presence of ChatGPT and its use in our
writing course were introduced, encouraging students to participate in a classroom
experience focused on writing a micro-story using AI, and following a specific learning
sequence.
Once several agreements were reached with the group, the learning sequence was prepared
in its different phases: Planning, Action, Observation, and Reflection (Fiore and Leymonié,
2014), lasting eight 60-minute periods. The course has four hours of instruction per week.
In the first session of the learning sequence (two hours), the teacher presented the topic
(writing a micro-story about an ant character) that would be covered over the next two
weeks.
The students were asked to download the ChatGPT (Ask AI) application to their mobile
phones. Subsequently, students were asked to enter the following instruction into the
-
their responses (the micro-stories) into the app on their mobile phones, and were asked to
share their texts with the group by reading them aloud. Simultaneously, they were asked to
send these materials to the teacher via the group's WhatsApp.
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In the following two-was
presented. Students were asked to read it silently, noting any terms that required further
explanation. Once this activity was completed, several students were asked to read the
micro-story aloud. The teacher then conducted a similar activity, analyzing some of the
story's structural and stylistic characteristics (beginning, development, end, plot, climax,
setting, characters, among others). This activity was essential, as it is necessary for students
) and learn to differentiate and characterize
the various stylistic elements of the text.
and asked to complete the previous activity at home and prepare a presentation analyzing
the story, using the model provided by the teacher. This activity was completed during the
third two-hour session, which included feedback from both students and the teacher.
In the fourth session, students were given the following assign
-hour session, students wrote their
story. Students were asked to let their texts sit for a week and submit the final version
afterward.
Using a corpus of forty-eight texts (twenty-four generated by ChatGPT (Ask AI) and twenty-
four created through the didactic sequence), the materials were first analyzed according to
the essential characteristics of the short story, without adhering exclusively to any
particular movement or theory, as this genre enjoys flexibility in form and content. A table
was created that included the two texts belonging to each student: the first generated by
ChatGPT (Ask AI), and the second written through the didactic sequence, in order to
appreciate and analyze the written products from the stylistic perspective of the micro-
story, namely: how the stories begin, what the central theme is, how the characters are
presented, what roles they play, and how the text concludes. Similarly, the students were
interviewed (Hernández et al., 2014) to learn their opinions about the didactic experience
during the pre-writing, writing, and post-writing phases. and to reflect together on teaching
practice. This is important to understand the participants' impressions during the writing
experience, which included professional and inclusive support from the first session to the
submission of the final product.
Finally, the ChatGPT was asked about the dangers of using AI in creative writing. Some of
their responses are included in the following section, as resources for extrapolating the data
obtained in the teaching sequence.
3. Results
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However useful these programs may be in certain specific areas (they can
be useful in computer programming, for example, or for suggesting
rhymes for light verse), we know from the science of linguistics and the
philosophy of knowledge that they differ greatly from the way human
beings reason and use language. These differences impose significant
limitations on what these programs can do, encoding them with flaws
that are impossible to eradicate (para. 3)
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I really enjoyed what we did. Writing fosters respect for other people's
ideas, as well as creativity, because it's important to know that everyone
writes and thinks differently, and it makes us better people, because we
learn to respect the ideas of others (E16, personal communication, June
25, 2024).
Teaching creativity gives us the possibility of discovering life beyond the
factory, the monopoly, the banking chain, and fashions and brands.
Creativity, in education today, can certainly be linked to ethical
relationships, coexistence, and the well-being of everyone and the planet.
If it has been a territory primarily held, fortunately, by the arts and
sciences and, less fortunately, by the capital market, it is legitimate and
urgent to also link it to teaching and learning processes (p. 8).
4. Discussion
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Student
Instructions for students:
A small ant was walking along the ground
.
An ant was walking through
Once upon a time, there was a little ant who
Once upon a time, there was a little ant named Anita
Once upon a time, there was a hardworking and diligent
ant
Once upon a time, there was a little ant named Anita. Anita
Once upon a time, there was a little ant named Anita
Table 1. Micro-stories generated by AI. Responses from ChatGPT (Ask AI, 2024))
True intelligence is also capable of moral thought. This means
constraining the otherwise limitless creativity of our minds to a set of
ethical principles that determine what should and should not be (and, of
course, subjecting those same principles to creative critique). To be
useful, ChatGPT must be capable of generating novel results; to be
acceptable to most of its users, it must steer clear of morally
objectionable content. But the programmers of ChatGPT and other
marvels of machine learning struggle, and will continue to struggle, to
achieve this kind of balance (Chomsky et al., 2023, para. 17).
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Student
Instructions for students:
Ant
that you, too, have a life? That you need to love, to be loved. That
love exists. Your death was another failure..
The backpacking ant
One morning, after a long night of rain and storms, I arrived home
tired from work; from the back and forth carrying the leaves for
mushroom cultivation on my rough back.
Mad Dream
I was in a dream, the most impure and repugnant dream, without a
doubt. How crazy! We were all ants, and I was the prettiest ant, of
course.
A Part of the World
Jack, an ant who lived far from the colony, went for a stroll around
his home when he spotted a giant pole in the distance that almost
touched the stars.
Disenchantment
Time passed and I no longer saw her. That ant walked, searching
for a direction; she must find somewhere. She was capable of
loving and hating at the same time, so distant and yet so near. She
connected effortlessly with nature, so strong and so fragile. My
only desire was to see her. But no more, ant who walks past my
path, I will no longer open the door for you.
God
Somewhere hidden in the middle of the lush plains of the city of
Cuenca, there lived an ant named Filomena. This was a very
hardworking insect who used to get up early to look for food for her
colony…
The Importance of Teamwork
The three friends: Sali, Lucy, and Dross. Sali was a small ant who liked
to work every day, but she was shy; Lucy, a butterfly who didn't work
much and had difficulty socializing with others; on the other hand,
Dross, a small and friendly cricket…
Table 2. Stories (micro-stories) written by the students after the teaching sequence
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Time passed and I no longer saw her; that ant walked, searching for a
direction, she had to find somewhere. She was capable of loving and
hating at the same time, so distant and yet so near, she connected
effortlessly with nature, so strong and fragile, my only desire was to see
her. But no more, ant that walks past my path, I will no longer open the
door for you. (E9, unpublished micro-
18, 2024).
I really enjoyed what we did. Writing fosters respect for other people's
ideas, as well as creativity, because it's important to know that everyone
writes and thinks differently, and it makes us better people, because we
learn to respect the ideas of others (E22, personal communication, June
25, 2024).
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Question
What are the risks or dangers of using Artificial Intelligence in
writing?
Answer
Table 3. Request (question) to ChatGPT about the dangers of AI in creative writing
While some researchers have found that tools like ChatGPT can generate
a well-structured or at least standard abstract (if given precise and
accurate instructions), others have identified significant limitations in
their use as a writing aid. (...) For example, ChatGPT can provide
fabricated references, cannot adequately synthesize the literature, and
tends to produce predictable text (...). Because MLEs like ChatGPT rely on
information from the internet that may not be reliable (e.g., research
containing outdated or inaccurate theories/data), they can present
inaccurate or incorrect information as accepted knowledge (p. 41).
5. Conclusions
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Authors
MANUEL VILLAVICENCIO-QUINDE. Doctoral and postdoctoral studies in Chile and
Argentina. He has participated in academic events in several Latin American countries, the
United States, and Spain. He has authored several books on culture, linguistics, and
literature, and his articles appear in Latin American journals.
Currently, he teaches in the Language and Literature Pedagogy program at the Faculty of
Philosophy, Letters, and Educational Sciences of the University of Cuenca, coordinates the
UNESCO Chair for Reading and Writing, Ecuador branch, and is Editor-in-Chief of the
Humanities and Education Journal Pucara. His research interests include contemporary
Ecuadorian and Latin American narrative, writing, and lexicography.
ALISON FAJARDO-MARTÍNEZ. Studies in the Language and Literature Pedagogy program
at the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters, and Educational Sciences of the University of Cuenca.
She belongs to the Language, Cultures, and Representations Research Group of the Vice-
Rectorate for Research and Innovation. She is currently involved in research projects
related to Andean literature and archaeology.
ALEJANDRA SUÁREZ-RIVAS. She studied Language and Literature Pedagogy at the Faculty
of Philosophy, Letters, and Educational Sciences of the University of Cuenca.
She belongs to the Language, Cultures, and Representations Research Group of the Vice-
Rectorate for Research and Innovation. She is currently involved in research projects
related to Andean literature and archaeology.
Declaration of authorship-CRediT
MANUEL VILLAVICENCIO-QUINDE:
ALISON FAJARDO-MARTÍNEZ:
ALEJANDRA SUÁREZ-RIVAS:
Declaration of the use of artificial intelligence
The authors report that they partially used the ChatGPT (Ask) tool, July 2024 version, during
the micro-story generation stage on the theme of the "ant." Subsequently, the tool was asked
to identify the challenges AI presents for creative writing, and its response is included in the
article. AI was not used to draft the sections related to methodological design, data analysis,
results interpretation, or academic discussion. No data, documents, or sensitive information
were entered into the tool during its use.
