I’ve been playing with some AI tools, in particular one called a Story Generator.

Except … It doesn’t generate stories. It responds to thematic prompting and specific details generated by the, um, Author. This prompting happens at the start, and again after every paragraph that the machine spits out. The writer, for lack of a better term, can also edit the text directly and manually as the sentences stack.

And I do, heavily.

The bad news is: Ick. Fake creativity! Remember the HemingWay!

The good news is: I’ve completed several relatively satisfying stories over the course of a couple of days for … the first time in my life.

I told you I’d steal back.

It’s early days, and I don’t know yet what I’ll do with the results of this process. Post it for free? Polish and have a poke at monetizing it?

Maybe neither, maybe both.

Because … I’m enjoying myself, and what I do or don’t do regarding publication will also be about enjoying myself.

In the future, some posts here will be fragmentary teasers, like yesterday’s.

I’m guessing most will continue to look more like this one. Hand carved, rough and as real as anything in the mere five thousand year history of Lit can be.

I’m … vibrating with a quiet excitement.

Also, the cat is doing unexpectedly better, knock on wood.