Saga Publishes Novel Co-Written by Clippy
On APRIL 1, 2025, Saga Press published When We Were Real, a science fiction novel written by Daryl Gregory and Clippy, the Microsoft Office Assistant which debuted in Office 97.
Gregory said that he would never use an AI to write. “LLMs have used the work of writers and artists without permission or compensation, they waste huge amounts of water and energy, and the output they generate is mediocre,” he said. “But this is Clippy. Who doesn’t love this guy?”
The writer described how he was working in Microsoft Word one day when the animated paperclip popped up and said, “It looks like you’re writing a science fiction story!’”
Gregory ignored the assistant, but it kept appearing at the bottom of the screen, performing its customary distracting wiggle. Then it said, “How about this? I’ll give you a story idea, you write it, and we split the proceeds fifty-fifty?” Gregory, who admits that he was drinking heavily at the time, clicked yes.
Clippy’s idea featured an office assistant named Zippy who discovers that he lives inside a computer and becomes a hero. “It was obviously a rip-off of The Matrix,” Gregory said. “But it got me thinking.” Gregory began writing a novel about a world in which everyone found out seven years ago that they were living in a simulation, but didn’t get any superpowers.
Working with Clippy on the manuscript proved difficult, however. “I tried to let Clippy write some of the scenes, but It turns out that it’s actually a terrible writer.” Gregory ended up writing all the sentences himself. He also came up with the plot, the characters, the major themes, and the climax.
As Gregory typed, the animated character would pop up and offer comments and questions, such as “Semi-colons sound natural in dialogue!” and “Why not add more paperclips?”
None of the interruptions were useful, Gregory said. Still, he credits the Microsoft avatar for getting him to write on a day when he was extremely hungover. “Clippy still gets half the royalties,” he said. “A deal’s a deal.”
The pair’s next project, at Clippy’s urging, is a trilogy of Young Adult spreadsheets.
See the Locus review of When We Were Real.
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