Blog Issue #14, February 2026
The more I work with AI, the better I understand the AI dual mental load: It reduces my mental load of having to consider all the writing and image elements, but I also see the cost of it with how I need to “stay on guard” to ensure that I maintain my what I want to express (in writing or as an image) and how I want to present it.
Image: Catharina Steel, drawing a round house layout similar to one she remembers drawing as a nine-year-old, October 2025. Words on the image: AI and How We Think—The Dual Impact on Mental Load with AI (Part Five)
With so much controversy surrounding AI, why risk using it?
Using AI has a dual mental load impact—both on the user and the reader/viewer. There are many and varied reasons why people use AI, but I can only speak for my own use. For me, it’s about the various costs of services and their availability, time, and quality of what I produce. It’s a one-stop for research, editing assistance, and so much more.
The more I work with AI, the better I understand the AI dual mental load: It reduces my mental load of having to consider all the writing and image elements, but I also see the cost of it with how I need to “stay on guard” to ensure that I maintain my what I want to express (in writing or as an image) and how I want to present it.
AI image output quality, particularly compared to my current capabilities, well . . . let’s just say I need to practice this skill more. 😆 I have controls in place to ensure that AI helps me produce content that would otherwise take far longer or require more resources, but I remain the creator. However, using AI means that this is on me to maintain, which is where the negative mental load comes in.
My main perspective is that I must be the one to draft the newsletter, blog, and article, or sketch the image. AI is the assistant I then work with to help me check the flow, scannability, readability, emotional connection, and so on. This reduces the mental load of these tasks.
As you can see, there is a real dual mental load impact with the use of AI. The impact on the reader/viewer will depend on how well I maintain the balance between what I do as the creator and keeping my eye on the ball when working with AI.
Are you aware of AI’s limitations?
The humanity in AI software is the information it sources, what it’s been trained on, and the way it has been designed. AI is guided by humans—whether it’s the books or images that were (wrongly) scanned in to train it, or the way the development teams have coded the AI to source information, and deliver results. The development teams also decide the weighting placed on various aspects—prompt, chat conversation, source information, etc.
My two truths about using AI: 1. It’s useful, helpful, cheap, and conveniently available whenever I need it. 2. It can be frustrating when it wastes time due to misinterpretations of my clear prompts. Toward the end of 2025, changes were made to most AI platforms, and now it tends to ignore half of my prompt and answer a question it derives from the rest of it, which isn’t in line with my prompt’s intent—a mental load increase.
Do I use AI for my fiction writing?
If AI reflects humanity, both the good and the bad, what are the benefits of using it for fiction writing? I believe this is a deeply personal question each author will need to reflect on for themselves. It depends on each person’s writing strengths and weaknesses—we all have them—and how AI impacts their writing flow, brainstorming, character and worldbuilding, mental load, and so much more.
I know writers who benefit from it, but their writing is still their own because their AI use is light and ethical.
To date, I have not used AI for any of my fictional writing. I am undecided as to how beneficial it will be to my fictional writing, my process, and its emotional landing.
Writing and editing my stories is my true passion. This is when everything else falls away, and I become so calm that my heart rate slows down enough for my Fitbit to record me as sleeping—no joke! There is a strong part of me that wants to keep this nugget of joy all to myself. 🥳
I also want to keep my writing safe from any influence, particularly AI! While I have been using AI to help with images for a few years—mostly to create character and scene images for my own purposes—I had already written the drafts of one series, and part of another, and my debut middle grade fantasy mystery novel, Vanishings, The Wythic Wood Mysteries Series, Book One published before I began testing AI to see what it could do in the writing space.
While it can be a useful editing tool, because of certain tendencies such as staying too superficial, softening of tone, and edits that tend to change the nuance and context, I believe it is best to hone your writing craft skills first before working with AI. The main reason for this is that, to be able to evaluate the suggested edits the AI is providing, you need to understand your own choices around words, structure, tone, flow, beats, story arc, character flaws, and so much more. It’s way too easy to accept a suggested edit—that could potentially reduce what makes your story resonate with your reader of focus (this is a writing tool: be specific about who your reader is and why they would love your book).
Once I have finished drafting and doing a few editing rounds, I am going to utilize the power of AI with Grammarly. rather than an AI tool like Gemini.ai, for a round of editing. I may use an AI platform like Gemini.ai to evaluate sections, my outline, and character profiles as a way to check the aspects. However, I will send the manuscript to one of my very human and talented editors for the real editing work. I will always do my own outlining, character work, worldbuilding, and writing because, quite frankly, I enjoy this too much to share it.
How do I use AI for my story visuals?
There is something to be said for considering a creatives personal strengths—it’s something I’m naturally inclined to do, and therefore I’ve spent more time working on it. I also enjoy sketching and, more recently, painting. Sadly, my perfectionist father’s feedback put me off spending more time practicing sketching. For me, this is an added mental load, with my confidence in my ability to improve my skills negatively impacted from the get-go!
The age-old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words influenced my thinking around the number of images I previously used in my newsletters, blogs, and social media posts—but why? When you stop and think about the medium you are working in, the reasons for using images (or not) become clearer.
When and why include images?
It’s the “why?” behind why someone is reading your newsletter or blog compared to following you on one of your social media platforms.
But isn’t a picture worth a thousand words?
People who subscribe to your email newsletter/posts want to hear from you and are interested in what you have to say, not so much images.
You may include a few images, as is relevant to your content, but a header image is plenty if the content doesn’t require more. An example may be you talking about a pet, so including a picture of said pet is expected. Here is a picture of my sweet greyhound Macherie—she wears dog goggles to protect her eyes since she has Pannus—a common eye condition for sight hounds. (Ha, snuck that in!)
Surely social media needs images?
It depends. These days, for my social media posts, I use my newsletter or blog header image in the background and record a video of me talking about the newsletter or blog in general, a point from one of them, or the kids’ worksheet. This reduces the need for any AI images for these particular posts.
However, when gearing up for advertising, launches, and other such events, I will be using images that are generated from an image which I have created, and then edited further with photoshop—refer to my newsletter: 7@7 with Catharina Steel—Behind the Scenes of an Author’s Business (Part Six), Issue February 7, 2026—Creating Reels and Posts (Final Part)—to use in my reels to help build awareness about the sale, book launch, or other event.
Overuse of images in posts, particularly badly created AI Images, can emotionally land negatively. Sometimes, less is more, is more in tune with your readers/viewers.
Do I use AI-generated images for any of my covers?
There are a lot of issues around this, and using AI Images will likely affect sales. Sadly, even covers where people believe it’s AI-generated, when it isn’t, are being targeted.
The mental load on authors with getting book covers—the stress around using AI Images, even partially, is already stressful. But now there is the added stress with covers that are perceived to be—it’s becoming problematic. I understand the reasons behind the negativity, and I agree with much of it, but penalizing an author who has a legitimate artist-created cover because the people perceive that it looks AI-generated, that’s not okay.
I use AI-generated images as a placeholder cover—but the actual cover will be done by an artist, cover designer, or me. I prefer not to use AI in an actual product.
I think art that is too life-like, when it isn’t a photo, can lose appeal for book covers, with consideration of genre and trend expectations. There is a certain tone that becomes part of a cover when it’s created by a human.
I have some cover art that is currently in progress. I have sketched the outlines of characters and scenes, scanned these in, and have been working on them in Photoshop when I have time—which isn’t much lately due to a major life event that is currently in progress—life happens, and I will share what this is when the time is right.
Cover art, and it is art—and a form of copy as well in how it is laid out, the typography, the colors, all of it—is deeply human, as is writing. The mental load with creation changes with the creator, which will impact the viewer, and this is all dependent on our state of mind at the time, as well as our lived experiences.
What other reasons do I use AI-generated images for?
For me, creating images from my stories is about joy—a happy emotional landing place with a visual that reflects my imagined world. I mostly use AI-generated images for my own purposes—to help me maintain a steady picture of scenes, the world, and characters.
I normally draw the starting image because the AI image generation tools typically work better. Part of this is because I have quite specific ideas in my mind, and I need the AI to follow a massive list of specific points, which it simply can’t do. So, I need to provide it with a starting image, which also means that I am using my own artwork, and it’s not drawing so much from other artists.
Still, it often takes multiple runs before I have enough images with elements that I am happy with, and then I work with those images in Photoshop, combining the parts that fit what I want into one cohesive image.
This can take time, but it also ensures the work is my own, and the personal joy at seeing visuals from my story brings me happiness.
Do I ever create my own images?
There is a real joy to creating art. But time limits become a cost decision. Spending time on my art is less time writing. The number of times I’ve wished I could clone myself to get certain tasks done so that I could focus on my writing or my art—but haven’t we all wished this at one time or another? The pressure to create my own art, even bad art, versus using AI-generated images—despite the time involved in creating one piece of artwork—when my writing also demands my attention (as does the grocery shopping, housework, food preparation and cooking, and my sweet Macherie as well), well, it’s big on the mental load too.
I have drawn and painted (with real paper, pencil, paint, etc.) over the years. I have attended some art classes over the years—sketching, charcoal, and an acrylic paint course, which gave me some basic understanding of art (proportions, light and shade, etc.). I struggle to draw an image from my imagination and am rarely satisfied with my own artwork, which is why I currently use AI to assist me.
However, working with images in Photoshop has improved my electronic art skills, and I have been practicing creating images from scratch in there. Here’s to hoping I get better, and faster, at this . . . It would sure make things easier.
Do I worry about what people think of my use of AI?
I am writing this series on AI as a direct result of my worry. It has also taken time for me to fully understand AI—its limitations, benefits, issues, design flaws—all of it to fully grasp the concerns about AI, and whether these are truly feasible. One question to think about in the context of its feasibility is “Do we want quality—or quantity?”
What are your concerns with using AI, and how does it impact your stress levels?
Next month
This is the last blog in this series about AI and how we think. I have several drafts of content ideas to choose from, but I will surprise even myself which one I decide to go with next.
To read my previous post about the AI Developers’ Mindset, click here.
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