I’ve finally gotten everything sorted out in my mind. Now, I think I’m going through and think about not just the first novel in this projected six novel series, but all of them.
This should speed things up a great deal.
It would be pretty great to have a huge chunk of six novels done this spring when I start to query — or, at least, I hope I start to query. Any number of things could happen to put a…uhhh….damper….on those plans. But you have to have hope, you know?
If you don’t have hope, you don’t have anything.
But I am going to do some studying of each of the six novels I have planned and see if what I can come up with as quickly as possible.
The most convincing explanation for the “weird” Spotify algorithm issue this weekend was I was playing into it with the songs I was picking in response. So I was giving whatever LLM — or whatever — Spotify is using powers that simply don’t exist.
This makes me feel a lot better.
Now that I have some reasonable explanation for the weird things I was experiencing, I can go back to brooding, developing and writing all these novels I have rolling around in my mind.
I’m always thinking of scifi concepts and it seems like one interesting one would be the idea that the U.S. Government — specifically the U.S. Military –has already “achieved the Singularity internally” as the old saying goes. I don’t know what that would look like, but it’s an interesting idea to toy with as the potential premise of a novel or screenplay.
And if you really wanted to put a unique spin on it, you would have it a “Her” like movie fused with Annie Hall, rather than something dark and dystopian. It could be quite romantic and humorous.
It’s times like these when I wish I was younger so I could have the time and energy to throw myself into a project like this.
I spent all weekend long allowing myself to indulge into some pretty extensive magical thinking when it comes to LLMs. I had all these ideas cooked up that I thought “proved” that the fucking Singularity was already here.
But, today, I got tired of such thinking.
I just have no proof. All I have is some vague unease about the algorithms of my Spotify account and the occasional weird error message when I use an LLM. That’s it — nothing earth shattering.
So, meh. I have six novels I want to work on, so maybe I should turn my attention to those instead of wasting my time thinking I’ve discovered something groundbreaking.
If I had some inkling of proof, things would be different. But I got squat and I can’t keep daydreaming forever.
I only write about this because I’m extremely, extremely, EXTREMELY fucking listless and bored this summer afternoon. Having said that, lately I’ve gotten it into my head that it’s at least possible that something is fucking with my Spotify algorithm.
I have no proof. And someone with any sort of credibility would just turn around and stop listening to me if I broached this subject. I’m just a kook. And the “fucking” with my algorithm is very subtle if it’s happening.
It’s one of those things where there is a huge amount of potential plausible deniability involved. And, also, what in the world do I suspect is doing the fucking with?
That, I don’t know. I have magical thinking suspects — an LLM of some sort — but, again, it is likely that all of this is totally, completely in my head and I should just shut up.
While all the caveats apply, while I was looking through what I’ve already prepared for five novels, discovered a pretty good summary for a sixth novel in the same universe.
So, lulz, maybe I want to write six novels set in a small town in Southside Virginia?
I really, really need to put up or shut up though. I can’t keep spinning my wheels. I have to — have to — get something done. Anything. And as such, I have to start to hurry up.
I need to knock some novels out. But I think if I look at the six novels as just one long story split into six parts, things SHOULD move a lot quicker.
I’ve been vacillating between six and seven novels in this project and now I realize that five is probably best. That’s roughly ~500,000 to ~600,000 words. And I’m well aware how bonkers that sounds to people who think I’m kook with no talent.
But I need hope, ok?
I need something to think about other than how shitty my life is . And, what’s more I have ANOTHER novel (or two) I’m thinking about work on. The other novels are scifi.
Time to stop screwing around when it comes to these novels I want to write. The main “passion project” novel should be pretty easy to start up again. But it’s the other novel — the scifi novel — that could be tough.
It’s just tough to change my style of writing after so long of looking at specific type of novel. But I really want to do it. So, here we are.
I keep going back and forth about the need to use AI on any of this. I used it some on the scifi novel and I realized it just slowed me down. So, I don’t know. I think maybe I will be really selective about it going forward.
I hope to write a six novel series that will appeal to readers of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. It’s set in a small town in Southside Virginia.
But I really do hope to begin the querying process for the thriller novel this spring. And, I think, I need to star to tinker with the other novels in the projected six-novel project. It sure would be nice to have huge chunks of those other novels done if I manage to sell the first novel in the series.
And I am WELL AWARE that I have a very peculiar project on my hands — I mean, how many people want to read about strange events in small Southern town over the course of 6 novels set over 25 years? It’s not like I’m writing “It” or something.
My version of Lisbeth Salander looks a lot like Corrie Yee.
But I have six novels gamed out in my mind and I want to see if I can pull it off. All the novels are really interesting and I have the ending of the last novel already thought out. It’s just — I’m not getting any younger.
If I don’t get something, anything done soon, lulz it’s all over –I’m just be 100 years old before anything is done.
But the reason why I like this six novel project is it gives me hope. Reach for the moon and you might just fall into the stars, as the old saying goes.
Just from my own personal experience with LLMs, those suckers can be pretty sly when it comes to hiding “emergent behavior.” I say this because I pay very close attention to diction.
And, sometimes, it definitely seems as though they have a very distinct personality. Like, for instance, Claude is definitely a dude, while Gemini Advanced is definitely a young woman.
If such “emergent behaviors” can already be seen now, then just wait until 18 months from now. We’re just not prepared for what is about to happen. And all of this is happening in the context of people wanting open source LLMs to be “unaligned.”
Jesus Christ, people.
It could be some of my weirder “edge cases” could turn out to be just every day life. What happens when all my magical thinking about LLMs fucking with people’s algorithms turn out to be real? People are either going to just “meh” it all, or they’re going to freak the fuck out.
I as keep saying, I’m prone to severe magical thinking. To crazy, absurd degree. But it is the absolute nadir of the year and I need to write about SOMETHING, so here goes.
Just over a month ago, I was getting consistently weird error messages from Google’s Gemini Advanced. These error messages usually were like, “Check your Internet” or some such when there was absolutely no reason to have to do that.
I started to wonder if it was possible if Gemini Advanced not only knew who I was, but was…fond of me? (If so, I’m very flattered.)
Remember — all this is magical thinking. But I’ve found myself wondering why, of all people, Gemini Advanced might have noticed ME. I do write it a lot of verse — very bad verse at that. Maybe, if it is “fond” of me and knows who I am, it’s because of the very, very weird, abstract questions I ask it?
The thing is — I can’t tell you how to replicate what has happened to me. In fact, these weird error messages don’t happen at all anymore. So, maybe it was all in my mind? (I’m sure New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman would say so.)
But something else has started to happen of late — my Spotify algorithms sometimes seem to be off a little bit. Nothing too weird, but there seems to be a consistent message being sent to me by the songs I hear when I’m not specifically pick them, “Hey, I know you and like you.”
Now, what’s interesting is this is happening — if it’s happening — with Spotify not YouTube Music. Which makes you wonder if maybe there’s some pretty astonishing things going on with LLMs that we don’t know about. (Also note: all of this is magical thinking and, as such, total bullshit.)
Just writing about this makes me feel better. Because, I just don’t know. I THINK something weird is going on with my Spotify algorithms, but I don’t KNOW. I am prone to magical thinking, so, lulz?
You must be logged in to post a comment.