Using AI to rewrite your story vs. using it to target *your* rewriting.

Why Backstory Matters

In the classic Hollywood screwball comedy remarriage story, the audience needs to know why the couple isn't together anymore.

• In The Philadelphia Story, it was Dexter's drinking.

• In His Girl Friday, Walter abandoned his honeymoon with Hildy for a scoop.

This detail is essential—it sets up the problem the couple must overcome to earn their HEA (happily ever after).

Handling the Setup in The Keystone

Keystone is a genre mashup between screwball comedy and epic space opera. That means I need to launch two sets of story tropes, including this key detail.

There are three ways to handle it:

1. Start before the divorce (like The Awful Truth).

2. Reveal the reason through dialogue (like His Girl Friday).

3. Use a flashback to show—not-tell (like The Philadelphia Story).

I chose the flashback.

When AI Flags Flashbacks

AI editors can be… overzealous. My flashback was flagged as a digression because it interrupts the story to introduce backstory—practically the definition of a flashback.

Here’s the passage that offended the AI:

Though she'd been looking down to avoid catching the eyes of the crowd, Kate still felt those eyes pressing on her. That made her feel naked, despite wearing a hundred and fifty yards of white silk taffeta, organza, and crinoline tulle. When she reached the end of the nave she risked looking up to check that Archie was waiting for her, but found herself looking straight into banks of broadcast cameras. Those hadn't been there during rehearsal...

Not my finest work, admittedly, but it gets the job done.

Here’s how the AI “fixed” it:

… just like the day she'd walked up the aisle to exchange vows with Archie. The sightless wall brought back a sharp memory of that day—the hundred yards of silk, the eyes pressing in, the unexpected banks of broadcast cameras.

Efficient? Yes. Novelistic? Definitely not. This is the kind of telescoping of detail you want when a bot summarizes a long, rambling Zoom call, but it's not immersive.

Letting the Flashback Breathe

Trimming is one solution, but often a better approach is to let the scene breathe, really rack the protagonist over the coals. Here’s my version:

The cathedral nave was vast. She’d counted the steps during rehearsal so she could mark her progress while keeping her eyes nailed to the rose-petal-strewn marble floor tiles. But she'd lost count.

Her procession was an army: the dean’s mace bearer then the dean himself in his huge golden cape, footmen assigned to manage her train, and a rear guard of flower girls. She felt naked, despite wearing a hundred and fifty yards of white silk taffeta, organza, and crinoline tulle—a dress so vast that without those footmen she'd be fouled dead in her tracks. The fabric against her skin was the richest in the galaxy, fine and confining as spider's silk.

The weight of the dress made it feel like she was pushing her way through waist-deep honey as she pressed ahead, into the gaze of thousands of eyes. She could hear the murmur of the crowd, and a little wave of exclamations and excited whispers followed her as she drew abreast of pew after pew after pew.

To distract herself, she watched the tip of one satin shoe crest the hem of her silver-brocade dress, and then the other. It made a soft swishing sound that clashed with the rhythm of the footmen’s boots clicking on the marble floor.

Frankincense and sandalwood wafted into her veil; and she felt an unexpected heat fall upon her face, although she dare not look up to identify the source.

Finally, the orientation of the marble tiles changed from along to athwart her path. That meant she'd reached the transept. Archie would be just across it, waiting for her at the base of the quire. There was a sudden chittering of camera shutters, sounding for all the world like millions of locusts.

She risked a glance up to check, and found herself staring into a battery of broadcast cameras. They weren’t there during rehearsal.

Conclusion

A rewrite shouldn't just efficiently tell the reader what happened—it should let them experience it. That’s the difference between an AI-summarized flashback and a fully novelistic one.

Now I want to hear from you: What version do you like best—the AI’s, my original, or my rewritten flashback? Which version makes the most clear and compelling case that Archie and Kate can't live together? Share your thoughts in the comments!