Identify the story about an author whose work-in-progress is completed by a computer [duplicate]

Question

The protagonist's collected works having been fed in as a database, the machine projects the ending of his current work (I remember that it does a scene break with asterisks), at which point the author denounces it as unimaginative and lacking true human imagination or words to that effect, convincing even his publisher, but in the end admits it was the ending he'd been thinking of. It's not "Galley Slave", but it's probably by Asimov.

Answer 1

It wasn't a database as such, or a machine providing the projection, but this is the key concept of Monkey's Finger by Isaac Asimov. A professor of "psychodynamics" had developed a technique by which some text would be read to a trained monkey, and the monkey would then extrapolate a continuation of it, typing it out on a manual typewriter.

A writer, Marmie Tallinn, was arguing with his editor, Hoskins, about how one of his stories should end, and he brought in Professor Torgesson and his monkey to settle the question:

The typewriter carriage whipped back to begin a new line. Marmie held his breath. Here, if anywhere, would come-

And the little finger moved out and made: * Hoskins yelled, "Asterisk!"

"Marmie muttered, " Asterisk. " Torgesson said, " Asterisk?"

A line of nine more asterisks followed.

"That's all, brother," said Hoskins. He explained quickly to the staring Torgesson, "With Marmie, it's a habit to use a line of asterisks when he wants to indicate a radical shift of scene. And a radical shift of scene is exactly what I wanted. "

The typewriter started a new paragraph: "within the ship-"

The monkey agreed with the editor that there should be a change of scene, marked by a line of asterisks. The writer then had to hurriedly convince the editor that the "predictable outcome" was not the way it should be written, text should not be algorithmically generated, or it would lack imagination.

The story was first published in February 1953 in Startling Stories, and can be read for free at the Internet Archive in the Asimov anthology Buy Jupiter.

Answer 2

Asimov's "Fault-Intolerant" has a robotic, smart-learning "word processor" do the author narrator's proofreading; then learn to type his preferred and deliberate misspellings and colloquialisms; then start typing his novel from the authors rough draft; then finally start writing the novel beyond what the author had drafted.

The narrator (named Abram Ivanov) says

... the last page of the novel I had written appeared on the screen, and then the words began to proceed without me.

He does consider it a worthy improvement, and wonders how he will continue to make his living.

Answer 3

Given the OP suspects the writer is Asimov, then Copy by David Wailing is almost certainly too late to be the right answer. But given that it covers many of the same plot points here's a summary;

Best-selling author AB Foster’s comeback is big news in 2022. Absent for four years, she is now publishing further books and pioneering a new type of interactive digital novel.

Derek Thorpe was her biggest fan in the old days. Not any more. With the help of a private detective agency, Derek plans to expose AB Foster during the launch of her ground-breaking ieBook.

Expose her as a fraud. A copy of the original author. Her name, her characters and her writing style have all been stolen. Derek knows for a fact that this can’t be the real AB Foster.

Because he killed her, four years ago.

Rather than a database, the auto series deals with the next generation phone based personal assistants that have moved on from organising your calendar and keeping your social media feed current to full time impersonation.