In Today’s Journal
* Quote of the Day
* On Generative AI, Revisited
* Sarah Connor (Terminator series)
* The Writing
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quote of the Day
“Chat gpt was able to give me keyword lists, tropes, blurbs, book launch plans, all those publishing and marketing things. Within seconds and free. It told me which genres out of the ones I selected were more competitive, which would be easier to break into. Pros and cons of each.
“It can also give you a 30 day writing plan with word count goals and trackers if you want those things. It was also super user friendly. I did not have to use any specific ‘prompts’ I just had a conversation with it.” Carrie G.
Thanks, Carrie.
On Generative AI, Revisited
In my humble opinion, all of the uses of AI that Carrie lists in the Quote of the Day are valid.
I did have a minor !!! moment when I read “which would be easier to break into.”
Break into?
With indie publishing you literally don’t have to “break into” anything. Unless you’re going for a traditional publishing contract, and I say quite literally, “Why in the world would you do that? There is nothing to ‘break into’.”
The beauty of the current Golden Age of publishing is that you can write whatever you want whenever you want and it can be any length you want. Your readers are out there, and if you write it, they will come.
But back to AI for a moment, and specifically GENERATIVE AI, by which I mean using AI to actually write the story for you (yes, even if you edit it later).
As I said, all of the uses Carrie listed above are valid, ethical uses of AI. You simply key in whatever prompt you want (or have a conversation with your chosen AI platform, as Carrie wrote), then reap the benefits.
IF you can trust them. AI has developed the ability to lie, so caution on that. But otherwise, knock yourself out.
For example, I use Word’s allegedly contexture spell checker to check over every issue of TNDJ and every short story and novella and novel I write. I don’t consider that an unethical use of AI because it isn’t “generating” the story or changing my content. It’s just checking the spelling for me.
I don’t even use the grammar checker because I despise being told what to do and because characters talk the way they talk. Don’t get me started on mouthy characters.
Sarah Connor (Terminator series)
I found this cartoon/meme yesterday on Facebook and thought I’d share it. If you don’t know who Sarah Connor is, do yourself a favor and watch the Terminator movies sometime. (grin)
The Writing
took a really weird turn yesterday. It was an emotional roller coaster, and not a fun ride.
Smack in the middle of a scene, one of my characters and then the POV character himself started saying things and doing things and having thoughts that were completely against their personality.
I’ve had this happen only one time before, also in the Blackwell Ops series, in Blackwell Ops 33: Temple’s Way (if memory serves). That time, I went with the weirdness, but I ended up retelling that story—in part and in an alternate way—to let the characters be who they actually were in Blackwell Ops 36: Temple’s Dream.
Of course in the current novel I kept writing, but the whole time I knew this was a bizzarro world version of the characters. One was doing something that was certain to make the other rabidly jealous, and the other was becoming rabidly jealous. As I said, that was ‘out of character’ for both of them.
I let it run like that for 1863 words. Then I cut that whole segment out of the novel and put it into my short story template and temporarily named it “Jealousy.” I’ll finish it maybe tomorrow or maybe after the novel wraps.
I’ve been surprised by characters dozens or even hundreds of times, but the surprise (sometimes good and sometimes bad) was always within the ‘character’ and personality of the character.
So this was a first for me. Just thought I’d mention it as part of the ongoing transparency thing I have going on. Wow. It was really weird.
Of Interest
Rules for Each SUPER GREAT CHALLENGE
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 720
Writing of “Jealousy” (tentative title)
Day 1…… 1863 words. To date…… 1863
Writing of Blackwell Ops 44: Sam Granger | Following the Ghost Trail
Day 1…… 3613 words. To date…… 3613
Day 2…… 2893 words. To date…… 6506
Day 3…… 1824 words. To date…… 8330
Day 4…… 3025 words. To date…… 11355
Day 5…… 3697 words. To date…… 15052
Day 6…… 3428 words. To date…… 18480
Day 7…… 1013 words. To date…… 19493
Day 8…… 2993 words. To date…… 22486
Day 9…… 3310 words. To date…… 25796
Day 10…. 4379 words. To date…… 30175
Day 11…. 3952 words. To date…… 34127
Day 12…. 3809 words. To date…… 37936
Day 13…. 2497 words. To date…… 41047
Fiction for May………………………… 69300
Fiction for 2025………………………. 447713
Nonfiction for May…………………….. 17920
Nonfiction for 2025…………………… 119010
2025 consumable words…………….. 560213
Average Fiction WPD (May)………… 3465
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 10
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 26
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 114
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 296
Short story collections……………………. 29
Whatever you believe, unreasoning fear and the myths that outlining, revising, and rewriting will make your work better are lies. They will always slow your progress as a writer or stop you cold. I will never teach the myths on this blog.
Writing fiction should never be something that stresses you out. It should be fun. On this blog I teach Writing Into the Dark and adherence to Heinlein’s Rules. Because of WITD and because I endeavor to follow those Rules I am a prolific professional fiction writer. You can be too.
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If you’re new to TNDJ, you might want to check out these links:
- On Writing Fiction
- Gifts
- Writing Resources
- Oh, and here’s My Bio. It’s always a good idea to vet the expertise of people who are giving you advice.
Questions are always welcome at harveystanbrough@gmail.com. But please limit yourself to the topics of writing and publishing.