Tag: Replicants

Of Being An ‘AI First’ Author: Spellcheckers & AI Slop

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I gave the first scene of the novel to someone else and they were generally praise worthy. But one thing kind of bothered me. They essentially effused over my writing being better on a practical basis.

This made me blanch because what they were noticing was me leaning into AI to write the scene. So, in essence, what they were saying without realizing was: my native writing ability sucks.

This is enough to throw me into intensive psychotherapy. But maybe not. Not only am I going to make a one final pass of the novel’s text before I query to make sure it’s as much my own style and tone as possible, I also look at it this way: what’s the difference between using AI to help write a novel and using it to spellcheck?

I am a horrible, horrible speller. I always have been, always will be. So bad that the only way I ever got any journalism gigs was…because of the existence of spellcheck.

So, as long as I do as much hard work as possible, I don’t really see there being *that* much of an issue when it comes to leaning into AI when working on a novel. And I do a whole lot of work. I really do.

One thing I probably need to tweak when it comes to my workflow is to totally not use the expanded scene summaries that AI generates for me directly. What I need to do is read those expanded scene summaries…and then do my own writing. I have gotten into the bad habit of using going through and directly using the expanded scene summaries as the basis of scenes.

Bad author, bad. Don’t do that!

Another observation the guy I sent the first scene of the novel to is that my hero was quite “likeable enough.” I hate that. Given what happens in the novel, I fear that is a problem that will only grow. And, yet, who knows.

The key thing that is going to delay me querying this novel is going to be the one last pass I’m going to make of the text to tweak things like hero likability and the vague “AI slop” quality of some of the writing. I’m the writer, I have to actually do as much of the writing as possible.

Ugh.

The Perfect Is The Enemy Of The Good: ‘AI Speak’ Edition

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I am just about to wrap up the first act of this scifi dramedy novel I’m working on and, as such, I’ve looked over some of the beginning scenes. And I’m pleased but for one thing — they definitely are a bit…too…polished.

They suffer from “AI speak” a little bit too much for my liking. I just hate the idea of people rolling their eyes and saying the only reason why my writing is any good is I used AI. (This, despite me still thinking that the way I use AI is simpler to how I might have used spell check a few decades earlier.)

Regardless, everyone and everything is horrible so to prevent me from having to endure the slings and arrows of people accusing me of producing AI slop, I’m probably going to go in and simply rewrite scenes as necessary completely in my own hand.

That way, even if the end product is “worse” at least it will be my writing and not AI.

This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On Is Shaping Up To Be Really Good

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

This novel I’m working on is really good. So good that I keep expecting a movie or Black Mirror episode to come out that so steals a creative march on me that I have to piviot to some other story idea.

I will have lost valuable time, but, lulz.

I’m not getting any younger, you know.

And, yet, just because the premise is obvious to me, doesn’t mean it’s as obvious to other people as I think. But I’m definitely putting my stick where the puck will be. The premise of the novel is sort of like, “what would it be like, in real terms, for Pris from Blade Runner living her every day life?”

Pris from Blade Runner

That’s pretty much the general gist of the novel’s premise, even though that’s not exact.

Anyway, I still am on track to wrap this novel up around April-May 2026. Then I have to do some last minute editing before I give it to whatever beta readers I can scrounge up. Then I’ll probably have to go therapy because everyone will praise my writing and I’ll feel all this angst about how my writing was “enhanced” by being AI first, even though I did, in fact, write as much as possible of the novel with my own hand.

But because everyone and everything is horrible, people will just assume AI wrote everything and probably dismiss the novel as just more “AI slop.” Ugh.

I Have To Put Up Or Shut Up About This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

My life is going to change one way or another this year, just by doing some simple back-of-the-envelope gaming out of things. And, as such, I really, really need to buckle down and get this beta draft of the novel done ASAP.

As I say that, I also have to accept that things are probably going to change dramatically in my life in Spring 2026, just as I hope to finish the novel. The thing I have to keep telling myself is there is a lot of post-production stuff I’m going to have to do.

So, just finishing a beta draft of the novel isn’t the be-all-and-end all of what’s going on. I’m going to have to do one last pass through the text to make sure all the scenes are up to stuff and I eliminate any too-obvious “AI talk.” THEN, I have to figure out what I’m going to do about finding beta readers.

All of that could push my actual querying of the novel to around Sept 1st. As I understand it, there are two “seasons” for querying — spring and fall. And I just don’t think I’m going to make spring. I may finish the novel in the spring, but because of post-production stuff, I doubt I will actually start to query until the fall season.

But all that works on the assumption that I wrap up the beta draft of the novel no later than maybe April-May. And, just calculating things in my head, that is JUST about when the wheels are going to pop off of my otherwise broke-ass, but otherwise idyllic life.

Ugh.

Anyway, this novel I’m working on deals with some pretty deep (and dark) topics and I hope people will find it as intriguing and engaging as I do as I write it.

AI Has Helped Me A Lot As An Aspiring Novelist

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing about using AI to develop a novel is I, someone who is has no friends and no one likes, can actually have a credible “manuscript consultant.” That has been a real issue for me in the many years that I’ve spend working on various novels.

I was doing it in a vacuum, so I would make all these mistakes and waste all this time on tangents. But now, with the rise of AI, I actually have someone to bounce ideas off of.

Instead of writing many thousands of words that go nowhere, I can just ask an LLM a question or two and move forward.

I still don’t know how much of how slow it is for me to write because I’m doing something wrong and how much is just that’s the way I write a novel. They usually say give yourself about 2 years to develop, write and finish a novel. So, if I can wrap this scifi dramedy novel up by spring 2026, I will be way ahead of schedule.

Writing A Novel Is Hard Work, Redux

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The key issue with my scifi dramedy novel I’ve been working on for the last few months is my hero is just too passive. So, it, on a structural basis, has repeatedly collapsed in on me and I’ve had to start again.

The most recent collapse happened when I started new chat windows for the two LLMs I’ve been using for my manuscript consultants. Both of them complained that my hero was too passive, so I girded my loins and started all over again.

I think — I think — that maybe THIS TIME I’ve figured things out. I think. I hope. I can’t keep rebooting this project. “The perfect is the enemy of the good” is what I keep telling myself.

At least I’ve gotten to the point where I feel comfortable thinking about querying. Even if I fail in a spectacular manner, at least I will have tried. At least I will have gotten to see how far I could get.

The Logline For This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Working On

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I guess one possible logline for this novel I’m working on would be something like:

In the near future, a man is presented with an unusual proposal by a companion android so he can pay her expensive monthly subscription.

I think that’s a good one. I like it, at least. That’s been the central idea of the novel since it’s conception, it’s just the details have been futzed with about a zillian times.

Anyway, I really do need to hurry up and fish or cut bait. I can’t keep just spinning my wheels on this thing. And I honestly do think that I’m moving forward this time, it’s just I had to start from scratch to do it.

One issue I’m really pondering is how many major beats to have in the first act. Right now, I have two, but I keep thinking I should have a third. And, yet, I don’t want to overstuff the first act — I don’t want too much going on.

My hope is if I take things slow and steady and consistent that I can wrap this second draft of the novel up by maybe April 2026. What bothers me is because of post-production issues like editing and finding beta readers that I won’t be able to actually query until..gulp…around Sept. 1st.

But I have three books devoted to finding an agent now, so hopefully I won’t got into querying totally blind like I usually do with important things in my life.

Finally, I think I May Have Figured Out This Scifi Dramedy

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

After a lot of struggle, I may, at last, have figured out at least the beginning of this scifi dramedy I’ve been working on. It’s taken a lot longer — much longer — than I had hoped.

And everything could still collapse and I have to start all over again, but for the moment at least, I’m content with where things are going. I really need to focus on wrapping up the first act.

Usually when I’m working on a novel, the structural collapses happen between parts of the novel, so, say, in the transition between act one and act two. Ugh, that happens all the time.

The most recently collapse happened when I rebooted my chat windows with the AIs I’ve been using and they both told me the same thing: my hero was too passive.

So, instead of continuing my trek through the plot, I decided to just start all over again. It’s a lot of fun working with AI to finish this novel. It’s like I have, like, a friend or friends who actually care and stuff about the novel.

For too long, I’ve been working in a vacuum.

Just About At The Midpoint Of The Second Draft Of This Scifi Dramedy Novel I’m Writing

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

I’m cruising towards the midpoint of the scifi dramedy novel I’m writing. And, I have to admit, the speed I’ve had doing all of this comes in no small part to being “AI First.”

I’m doing a lot — A LOT — of work, but I am amplifying and enhancing all that hard work with AI. I continue to do most, if not all, of the actual writing, but on a structural basis AI has really helped.

And that doesn’t even begin to account for the fact that I’m going to make one last pass on the second draft to make sure absolutely as much as possible of the actual written text of the novel is mine and now AI.

I’m already feeling a little insecure from everyone who’s read the first chapter saying how great it is. Usually, people either don’t tell me what they think or say it sucks. But, like I said, I am actually doing all the heavy lifting and AI is more like an enhance spell checker than anything else.

I think very soon, once Christmas is actually here, I’m probably going to be in neutral for a few days then bounce back into writing again. But I really am going to have to work hard in the second half of the novel — the second half is not nearly as actually written out as the first.

So that is going to slow me down.

I still hope to wrap the beta draft of the novel up by spring 2026, and, yet, even if I do that, because of post-production issues, it could be Sept 1st, 2026 before I actually start to query.

That will suck, but, lulz. I just want to see how far I can get in the querying process.

‘Transgender For Everyone’ In The Context Of Looming Potentially ‘Conscious’ AI Systems

by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

If there’s one thing that MAGA loves to do, it’s be bigoted towards trans people. It’s like MAGA’s original sin. Trump will simply not shut up about how he thinks the center-Left wants everyone to be trans.

He literally will say the Left wants “transgender for everyone.” It’s a consistent theme of his messaging and that’s probably because it is one of the central beliefs of the MAGA base. The center Left, of course, does itself no favors by being so twitchy about something that not only doesn’t even happen that much, but is EXTREMELY UNPOPULAR with “normal people” — underage trans people.

While I totally validate the whole “protect trans kids” concept, that doesn’t mean it’s not a hard sell for “normal” people who struggle to understand the idea of a really young person, who maybe hasn’t even gone through puberty yet, even understanding what sexuality is, much less their own.

And, yet, a certain vocal subset of the Leftist movement simply will not shut the fuck up about something that as far as I can tell, barely ever happens at all.

So. why bring this up?

The looming prospect of conscious AI.

Right now, we don’t really have to think about conscious AI because even if they could be proven to have consciousness, they don’t have a body. So, any sexual or romantic shenanigans that happen between Man and Machine can only be done via text and metaphor.

So, we’re kind of punting a major societal issue down the road until there’s a fusion of AI and robotics so AI is “embodied.” When we have demonstrable conscious AIs being the minds of androids, we may have a serious, serious social and political issue on our hands.

To the point that the very MAGA people who now have their regular one or two minute of hate for hapless trans people will, in turn start to do the same thing for conscious AI in robots. Or, more specifically, they will explode into a rage collectively at the idea of a human becoming romantically involved with — to the point of marrying — an AI android.

They will rant and scream about how AI “has no soul” and, as such, AI androids marrying a human is even MORE an “abomination” than gay marriage is to the average Christian.

So, in short, we’re fucked. I think all of this, from a “megatrends” point of view, probably comes to a head in five to ten years. Buckle up.