Much on our minds nowadays is the issue of human-written versus machine-written fiction. There’s a lot to say about that, but for me it leads to a question: What actually makes human-written fiction human?

This matters not only in terms of readability. Machines already write well enough for many applications. Eventually machines will write fiction indistinguishable from human-written fiction, though it will be necessarily and always to some degree imitative. (So is some human-written fiction, frankly, if we’re honest.)

However, humans are humans and machines are machines. What, exactly, do human beings bring to the page that machines cannot? That, in turn, leads to the question, what exactly does it mean—biology apart—to be human? There is lived human experience, of course, but even more than that there is human consciousness.

Philosophers have tried to define it. Brain and computer scientists have struggled to understand its mechanism. For fun, you can go down the rabbit holes of “episodic memory”, “punctuated equilibrium”, “instinct inference”, “mental time travel”, “integrated information theory”, “recurrent processing theory”, “global neuronal workspace theory”, “Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis” (maybe skip that one, I’m told it’s wrong), and so on but come no closer to understanding what human consciousness is, never mind how it operates in the brain. Even thinking itself is a mystery. The truth is, scientists have no idea.

There are, however, qualities of humanness which machines do not have. Animals may or may not have them to limited degrees—again, scientists have no idea—but the fact is that certain qualities distinguish us as human. And here’s my point: those qualities can be more strongly built into your fiction, regardless of your story type, style, intent, or your commercial pathway.

What follows is my hypothesis of the Seven Qualities Which Comprise Human Consciousness. After explaining each, I’ll suggest prompts to grow their applications in your current WIP.

The Seven Qualities That Comprise
Human Consciousness

1. Self-Awareness. At any given moment, I perceive myself to be in a certain emotional and mental state. I have a view of myself which will be different an hour from now, a day from now, and ten years from now. I have an understanding of myself—a temporary definition of “me”—and I am aware of it.
    
   In the story moment you are writing currently, what is your POV character’s view of himself/herself/themselves? What does it mean to be “me” in this moment? What is that like? What is your POV character’s condition right now?

2. Reflection. We (most of us) have the ability to think before acting, which means to see beforehandthe possible consequences of an action, or even the way in which an action is performed, and to weight whether it will be good or bad. (That further requires a basis for measuring good versus bad—see below.) We experience this as caution, care, and forethought.
    
   In addition, we (most of us) have the ability to examine an action afterward and measure whether it was on balance good or bad, and to consider how it might have been done differently or could be done differently the next time. We commonly experience this as satisfaction or remorse, which in turn guides our future actions.
    
   As your POV character is making the next decision, what tangential consequence is evident? What long-term effect might it produce? How will it change your POV character?
    
   Likewise, after something is said or done, what does your POV character wish to have done differently or instead? What would have been better? Or was perfect?

3. Moral Conviction. We each of us have a feeling of absolute right or wrong which exists above and apart from law, strictures, or what we have been taught. There is Good. There is Bad. We weight those when considering out actions; e.g., whether to break the law for a greater good. We experience our moral convictions as self-satisfied feelings of rightness and justification or painful feelings of wrongness and guilt.
    
   What is your protagonist’s core moral conviction or belief? What would force your protagonist to face it, bend it, compromise it, or break it? What is that like?

4. Loyalty & Love. There is a level of devotion which goes beyond anything rational (beneficial to me) or transactional (this for that), such as romantic love, friendship, family loyalty, or patriotism. Because of loyalty and love, we can accept unfavorable certain aspects of others, cheer on our team, be patient, have empathy, be understanding, be benevolent, and forgive.
    
   To whom is your protagonist irrationally devoted? Who is foundational to your protagonist’s life? What is the glue, the unbreakable trust, the mutual and reliable support? What would stretch that devotion? Rupture it? Return it and heal it? To what place, community, country or nation is your protagonist likewise devoted?

5. Creativity. This is sometimes described as the ability to combine disparate or unalike elements or ideas into something new. It is also to imagine beyond the obvious, as asking in storytelling “what if”. We experience creativity in solving a problem with a different approach, taking a different tack, turning an idea on its head, thinking backwards, or seeing in a scrap of anything the potential of something bigger, such as a story.
    
   In a difficult or tense dialogue, how can your protagonist suddenly switch tactics? What non-logical inference can your protagonist make about another person? What is the simple solution to a complex or intractable problem or conflict?

6. Perception of Meaning. As humans, we look for meaning where it is hidden or even absent. We seek to understand, explain, organize and define what we encounter and observe. We don’t have to do this but we do. We draw lessons from experience, see meaning in art, anthropomorphize animals and our cars, notice ironies and “get” jokes, believe in conspiracies and the supernatural, rationalize the unexplainable, and try (hopelessly) to understand the cosmos, its origins, and our place in it.
    
   On the page you are writing today, what can your POV character notice? What meaning, truth, irony, or significance does he/she/they find in it? Capsulize that in a pithy, poetic or colorful way. How does your POV character sort and classify people? How is everyone divisible into two opposite types?

7. Volition. As humans, we are driven to move, make, do, grow, build, discover, change. We want to accomplish things, even when there is no survival necessity. We do not stay still. Volition is a dynamic (changing) force. It is more than will, which is envisioning and wishing. Volition is acting. As humans we are not content to be. We work to become.
    
   Apart from the plot problem which your protagonist is solving, what is your protagonist trying to become? What sort of person? Living up to what ideal? When and how will your protagonist fail—and ultimately succeed?

Human Story

To write a story like a human means to invest characters with qualities which are not wholly necessary for the plot to function. It is to create moments of experience which cannot be captured with a camera.

It is to eschew easy emotional tags and at any point in a story permit a protagonist or POV character not only to do what they are doing, say what they are saying, but to be conscious of who they are at that point, weigh the consequence of their actions, grasp a greater meaning, and/or be wide awake and aware in the way that humans are and machines are not.

So, let your characters not just churn their worries but think. Let your characters not just react but respond, reflect and reason. Let your characters tell us who they are and how they are changing. The human condition is not a ceiling fresco or a sweeping proclamation: It is the accumulation of tiny bits of evidence that we are here, alive, right now, sensing this moment and experiencing ourselves in it.

Human storytelling is experiential. A story can be seen in the mind but a human story also brings us what is invisible: the full, rich, horrible, hilarious, miserable, meaningful, fearful, joyful, beautiful, ugly, cautionary and inspiring reality of being a human being.

The more of that there is the more we humans win, machines lose, and our human readers can connect.