Illustrated Michaelmas: A Journey to Incorporate AI Generated Images (Pre-order Now/ Available 1/18/24)

When Open AI announced that they were going to incorporate Dall-E 3 into ChatGPT-4 back in late September, I was in the process of learning about Midjourney. I had seen several people use Midjourney to create images for Graphic Novels and I saw how I could do the same. The thought of having ChatGPT-4 and a solid image generator like Dall-E 3 had me rethink things and roll with Open AI. 

I didn't get access until the second week in October, but once I did I was in love. Like Midjourney, I was receiving four images at a time. You could have ChatGPT-4 help you create the prompt or provide it with the exact prompt you wanted it to send to Dall-E3. I knew within the first week that it was all I would need to start adding images to my written work. 

Within two weeks I was cranking out all kinds of images and I felt supercharged just like when I first started using ChatGPT-4 in Spring. However, by the end of October, Open AI started messing around with things. The next thing I knew I was no longer able to use seeds to try and maintain consistency and they had reduced the image output from four images to one. They had kneecapped me literally as I was starting work on creating images for Michaelmas. 

I felt betrayed and let them know about it. I was still able to create some images but now it was a trickle and the capped messages meant that once I started being able to create the images I needed I had to wait a few hours before I could start creating more images. 

Open AI then decided to do another update to their models before making things right with Dall-E 3. We got the GPTs, which are really cool but even to this day you can only get one image at a time with the main model. You can use the Dall-E 3 GPT that they released which provides you two images at a time, but now this new ChatGPT-4 Turbo model is not quite as intuitive as the older model. It often makes you explain things more than once to get "Turbo" to do what in the past only took one try. And the message cap is even lower now because everyone thinks they are going to create a money-making GPT. So much so that Open AI had to cut off new registrations because they were stressing the servers. 

Yet, I kept at it with Open AI even though I was only receiving one or two images at a time and all the other frustrations. Then they fired Sam and then rehired him during a crazy weekend which made me question my decision to roll with Open AI to create my artwork. Thank goodness for Microsoft Copilot, which over the past few weeks has become a reliable fallback option to the unstable chaotic mess going on with Open AI. This is a bit ironic considering Copilot is ChatGPT-4 Turbo with Dall-E 3 and provides four images at a time just like Open AI did when they first released that model in October. 

Two things suck about creating with Copilot: You can only get the images in square format, and I need them in portrait format. Also, you cannot receive Seeds or Gen Ids for the images you create. This makes it more difficult to create consistent characters. 

Why did I mention all of that, because all of that crap has slowed down my work on creating images to a crawl over the past month and a half. Had Open AI not messed around with a good thing I would be further ahead of where I am now and may have been able to release the illustrated version of Michaelmas before the new year and possibly make some money during the holiday season. 

Do I wish I had stuck with Midjourney or switched to a different AI Generator like Leonardo AI instead of rolling with Open AI through the chaos of the past few months? It's not like people are begging for new material from me like I'm George R. R. Martin, but I would like to move on to working on my first Graphic Novel once I have released the Illustrated version of Michaelmas. Will I stick with Dall-E 3 as my main image generator beyond Michaelmas? I am weighing up my options, and there are a number of them. 

I am grateful for what I have learned this year about Gen AI. Though I have dropped the ball on my writing to do so. My reasoning was that once I incorporate AI into my workflow I can write at least twice as much as I had been able to before my introduction to Gen AI. Hopefully, that will be true but I need to get back into the flow.

Over the past few years, I have been setting these deadlines to achieve certain goals and I have been falling short far too often. The three TV Series I had been working on to pitch are a perfect example. That kept getting dragged out until this Spring when the WGA went on strike and I decided to focus on Gen AI to transform those stories into graphic novels. Maybe the goals I am setting are too unrealistic. I've always been self-motivated to create so I can't complain about not having fans hounding me for my next story. Who knows what that pressure would do to me anyway. 

While it kills me to not have all of the images ready to go before Christmas, I do have a load of other images that I want to start sharing. Most of September and October were spent learning about Midjourney and Dall-E 3 by creating all kinds of different images. I wanted to understand how these images were created and learn the different styles I could use. While I settled on a more historical look for the images I also wanted to experiment and made an effort to avoid focusing on Michaelmas images until November. By that point, Dall-E 3 was only doing one image at a time and I was fuming mad over that. And then literally the weekend before I was to start on Michaelmas images Dall-E 3 decided to again change a major part of how users communicate with it, removing the ability to use parameters like seeds, which threw me into a tizzy. So from the very moment I wanted to start creating Michaelmas images with Dall-E 3 all my research went out the window. 

Eventually, they got their act together after I lost a week plus because of the Gen ID implementation nonsense, where you could only use Gen IDs instead of Seeds. I love Open AI but they are frustrating as hell sometimes. We are all trying to learn how to use these awesome tools they have created and then they go and change it every other week in ways that are beyond frustrating. 

That said, it's amazing how lifelike images have become. Dall-E 3 is okay with lifelike close-ups whereas Midjourney, Adobe Firefly 2, Leonardo, and others are actually a bit better. Since the images I am creating are meant to look like they were taken back in the day I am more concerned with prompt adherence than lifelike images. Dall-E 3 excels at a lot of things that others don't come close to. 

The image at the top of this page was one of the first Michaelmas-themed images I created. At the time, colorful paintings similar to those from that period really appealed to me. For the first few weeks, I was creating similar images with loads of color that looked like they could have been hanging in a museum. 

If you want to create amazing images using AI, I would strongly advise following people on Twitter/X who constantly upload images and the Prompts they use to create them. There is so much to learn there. I have gone through and bookmarked thousands of tweets and made documents based on those that I really like. Much of the work I have done over the past few months was inspired by what others were doing. And there are some amazing AI Artists out there and you can learn a hell of a lot by simply following them and what they do. 

It has taken the better part of a year to get comfortable working with AI. I am nowhere near where I want to be but I am further along than most. The new year will be interesting. I definitely feel I have begun to adapt to this new world we are entering, which was one of the reasons I invested so much time into learning about everything I could about AI over the past nine months. 

As far as Michaelmas, I have gone ahead and set a release date of January 18th for the Illustrated version. Which gives me one month to finish things up. While I had hoped to have it ready in time for Christmas, you can go ahead and preorder your digital copy on Amazon. Amazon.com: Michaelmas (Illustrated Edition) eBook : Pitters, Aaron 

The paperback version will also be available on the 18th as well. If they allow me to do a preorder I will provide that link as well. Keep an eye out for more Michaelmas-themed and non-Michaelmas images between now and then as I want to start sharing more of my AI-assisted work over the next few weeks. Here is an example of another Michaelmas-themed image that will not be in the book. 

2024 will undoubtedly be a memorable year for a lot of reasons. I am looking forward to the new year and I can't wait to show you even more of what I've been working on. Until then, I hope you all have a Happy Holidays, a Merry Christmas, and a Happy And Healthy New Year. Thanks for reading!

Shocktober

    

I hope everyone is well. Before I begin I need to make a clarification. A month or so ago I was contemplating doing a book about the incorporation of AI into my process. Then I realized that would just be a distraction from creating new material with AI. I need to focus on this new process instead of getting sidetracked by my excitement over these new AI superpowers and my desire to help others be able to do the same. This blog will suffice for now as an online journal about my exciting new process alongside these constantly updating AI capabilities. 

What I am excited to talk about is actually implementing AI into my process. Maybe when I release an AI-assisted work I can give even more info about how I did so. While I may not be able to copyright the images I create (per current Copyright Laws), I can sell them with my written work. Much of what I plan to add images to is existing copyrighted works, but the Copyright Laws also allow for AI to assist in the writing process as long as I am doing the actual writing. 

I have found AI to be a great assistant in organizing my thoughts. It is also good as an idea generator. Where I noticed it struggled was in making it seem like a human wrote the words it was laying out before me. Cool ideas and a bouquet of beautiful words, but missing something. And that something is not having lived within a flesh and blood skin suit where decisions have mortal consequences. 

Granted, I have not tried all the tools available, but from what I've seen of AI's creative outputs: the images are now lifelike, video is still a bit off but growing closer every day to putting pressure on Hollywood, audio may be even further along than video, and the storytelling capabilities are incredibly impressive. 

However, as a writer, I have a little more insight into this area, and with creative writing, no one should be allowed to put their name on a story that was written 100% by AI. And yet AI can still create that material. So, who can profit from that? Joe Schmoe? It will be a sad day when the only human involvement in any creative process is a creative prompter who has mastered the ability to manipulate the entirety of Generative AI's outputs. Seems inevitable that it will happen and sad to lose all need for collaboration with another human in the creation process. 

Will that work be able to be copyrighted by a human who merely pulled all of the strings to manipulate the AI to create what he or she wanted? Sounds a bit like a producer of a movie or music record, someone who oversees the creation and has control over its overall outcome but may or may not do any of the actual creation. Creative AI Producers seem to be the eventual outcome once talented and intelligent people learn enough about Gen AI. At some point, the updates will begin to slow down and everyone will be able to try their hand at creating their dreams and telling their stories. If you thought streaming was saturated, wait until we all have our own AI-created VR stories to share with each other. I believe the correct 80s quote here is, "Gag me with a spoon."

While I have known for months that AI had progressed enough to help me adapt my creative process in wonderful ways, I had not educated myself enough to be able to achieve that with any level of confidence. I want to use AI in my process, but I want to make sure that the quality is something worth sharing with others. And I want it to supplement what I do to be able to realize my stories in ways that enrich the experience for others, not bastardize my work for a quick buck. This is why I have created a plan that focuses on augmenting existing work originally written before March of 2023 when I began to research Gen AI. 

Experimenting with Midjourney, I realized that we were at a point where with plenty of research and a load of patience it was possible to create the images I wish I could have created twenty years ago. And, with ChatGPT-4 and Dall-E 3 combined to be super intuitive, the time to achieve what I could with Midjourney alone will save more time and help the storytelling process at the same time. A win-win.   

When I watched the first video from Open AI about ChatGPT-4 and Dall-E 3 being combined my first thought was, "I can monetize this." I am not a natural entrepreneur. For twenty years I have been happy to work for others while I do my own creative thing during my free time. Have I ever dreamed that I might catch a big break with my writing and be able to live off of the money I make from my writing? Of course. 

Then I realized how difficult that was. Having a good story was not the only important part of the process of finding success with writing. As an extroverted introvert, I am fairly good at communicating with others but it is not something that I enjoy more than creating stories. Therefore, I tend to lean more toward being an introvert out of default and try and avoid having to be extroverted as much as possible, even though I do enjoy it in fits and starts, but not as my baseline. Which is probably why my foray into acting ended so abruptly. The off-and-on nature of acting caused too much stress and provided no help in creating the boundless number of stories I had bursting out of me. 

What made me think I could use the combined intelligence of GPT-4 in partnership with the creativity of a much-improved Dall-E 3 to monetize it? My library of unproduced and unpublished works inspired by anthology movies and tv shows that were inspired by comic books and graphic novels, of course. 

Again, if you were hoping for a book about my implementation of AI into my process please don't hold your breath. It ain't happening anytime soon, if ever. Besides, things are moving so fast in the world of Generative AI that I am just trying to keep up. If I were to write a book about all the tools that I have been learning about it would be outdated by the time of publication. I have so much to share with you about the changing process that I can barely contain myself. It will just take place here as more of a journal instead of a book. So, let's have at it, shall we? 

Big Update:  I have decided as a way to get the ball rolling on my implementation of AI into my storytelling process to re-release both House Fly (Part I) and Michaelmas as illustrated books. Not as graphic novels. I need more time to gain the confidence I need to approach my Graphic Novel phase. It is fast approaching but I still have some learning to do before that. 

By re-releasing these two stories first I can focus solely on the images. I expect to produce at least ten images for each of the books. An image a chapter at least.

My test subject for being able to create consistent style and characters started with me thinking of a figure standing in a field of wheat with a tree in the middle. From there I made that character into a samurai. I have always loved old samurai movies and have a great appreciation for Japanese culture during the time period when samurai roamed the land. In addition, the one play idea I have had over the past decade is about a samurai. Therefore, I focused on one simple scene, "A samurai walks through a vast field of wheat to a temple at the base of Mt. Fuji where he stops to drink some tea in the garden." 

                             

                     

                           

                       

While I have been able to create some wonderful artwork with Midjourney, I find that ChatGPT-4 + Dall-E = quality results in less time. Once I learned that I decided to step away from Midjourney for the moment and the $30 I was paying them each month. I then signed back up with ChatGPT-4 for access to Dall-E 3 ($20) as well as for Adobe Lightroom ($10), which includes Photoshop, Firefly, and some of the Adobe Express features, as well as a few other apps.

I don't know what programs I'll be using for the graphic novels, but for the illustrated books I will begin by using ChatGPT-4 w/ Dall-E 3 + Adobe Lightroom w/ Photoshop, Firefly, and Express. For the same $30 I was paying for Midjourney I have two image generators that our more intuitive than Midjourney but may lack some of the truly artistic work that MJ is so good at. It's a good trade-off for now and I may be one of the first to discover what ChatGPT-4 w/ Dall-E 3 and Firefly 2 are capable of.

My goal is to have all the images I need for both books before the end of November. I may even be able to re-release one of the books just in time for Christmas. We'll see. I will provide an update after Halloween. 

Another exciting aspect of all of this is that once I am done with the illustrated books I should have the wherewithal to try and tackle my first graphic novel. Once I cross that threshold, I will be working on other ways to enhance each of the larger stories and also a way to market them and provide additional merchandise to enhance the overall story experience in one's life. 

The talk has been all about Intellectual Property for a while. Once I released Monarch I tried to focus on writing High-Concept material that people would want to sit down with their best friend or partner with to watch and talk about afterward. I strive to make people think while they're having a good time. Not sure I've yet to achieve that, but it has always been the goal. High-Concept IPs are the key. And, I believe I am well situated to deliver several of these in Digital Comic Book and Physical Graphic Novel format over the next year or so. If I were more extroverted maybe I might have had more success earlier, but to now have my pick of stories that I can supercharge with AI is unbelievably exciting. 

Why I had considered starting down the Digital Comic Path with a totally new story about Dragons or a series of AI Morality Tales, I decided that I would focus on the two larger stories associated with House Fly and Michaelmas respectively. I released these two as novellas because each of these stories can stand apart from the two larger series of which they are a part of respectively. 

Garage Sale and Animalz are stories I started writing a long time ago. Movies like Creepshow and Trick 'r Treat, which each have roots in graphic novels, helped inspire them. Both were written initially as separate anthology movie scripts before anthology series became popular again. They were then both rewritten as series for streaming services. Both were part of the four series that I had been preparing to pitch before AI swept over the Earth and the WGA went on strike. 

During the past six months, I realized that I could add a new layer to my writing, one that I have always wanted to explore but lacked the wherewithal to create. Graphic Novels and Comics link me back to my time as a child when I would spend time over at my Uncle's house. He was an avid comic book collector and my brother and I both loved to sit a flip through old Spiderman comics at his house. Unfortunately, he lost all of his collection in a flood. I can only imagine how awful that must have been for him. I know my brother and I were distraught once we heard of the destruction. And it cut me off from a connection to comics and my uncle. I never collected myself but I always respected the format and seeing Creepshow for the first time as a teenager cemented that format in my head as a way to tell several stories within a larger story. 

Much of the material I have created over the years has had an anthology and therefore a comic or graphic novel feel, with multiple stories woven into a larger story. Even my most recent TV series is built upon the "anthology" model as opposed to the traditional model that most television shows are geared towards. I don't know why I gravitated to it but I am glad I did because I now have about a dozen stories that I can reformat as graphic novels. With the help of AI, I can illustrate them all without having to pay someone thousands of dollars and wait months for them to complete the work. This way I can possibly get these first two illustrated stories to you around the turn of the year. 

Maybe I'll tire of the format and all the extra work of reformatting the stories and illustrating them. But considering that the creation of a graphic novel has always been a dream of mine, I think I should be able to get through the first one or two without complaining too much. These are definitely interesting times and I have been as shocked as anyone with the rapid rise of AI this year. Don't even get me started on what I might be able to do with AI Video in the new year. All any of us can do is learn more about AI and try and find ways it can help each of us because it won't be going away. 

We'll see how it goes these next two weeks. 

The Art of Telling Stories with the Help of AI Tools

 

The Art of Telling Stories with the Help of AI is a different journey for each of us who venture down that path. I can only speak with any knowledge about how the introduction of AI this year has affected me and my creative process since then. I am aware that some will never, under any circumstances, introduce AI into their process. And I totally respect that. To each their own. 

In my situation, the introduction of AI came at the perfect time. I was planning to make massive changes this year, and once AI swept over us, I was carried away with it and immediately tried to find ways to adapt myself and my process to accommodate it. 

Why? 

Being open to change made it easier for me to jump right in; time was also a factor. Before AI, there was no way I would have been able to write all the stories I wanted to tell. That may still be true, but with the help of AI, I have a much better chance of getting more work done than before AI. In addition, with enough practice and with enough upgrades to the different technologies I may be able to provide even more visual context to my stories. And in some cases that may be me doing everything myself, a normally laborious and daunting task that I would not have been able to try before this year. 

As someone who has written, produced, directed, and acted in short films to make sure that they got made, I have worn a few hats and have an inkling about the importance of all the steps in the process of creating films. And with each passing day, I gain more confidence with AI tools. So, the potential is there for me to take giant leaps forward in my ability to offer more to my readers and viewers. 

Proper-looking video is still not there yet from AI but it is getting closer by the day. However, from what I have seen, animation appears to be the medium to delve into if you want to involve motion in your AI art.  

The few animators I've seen comment on AI's rise recently are not against AI because it does help lessen some of the repetition in their work. Many of them had already been using AI in one way or another in their workflow. It really is just another tool for them to have at their disposal. 

That may be the most important part for everyone when it comes to AI: working AI into your own workflow (a 2023 power word). We will all have different workflows, but there is likely to be at least one AI tool that can improve your own workflow. You just have to find it. 

There are fears that AI will replace people. This is happening and will undoubtedly continue to happen. However, animators, filmmakers, and game developers already using AI are only becoming better at what they do and are therefore irreplaceable. (As I type this I see that Marvel's VFX team wants to unionize.)

Once the WGA and SAG/AFTRA have resolved their issues with the producers things could get interesting. I think we have passed the point of no return and the entertainment industry will be forever changed once the new normal business starts back up again.  

For people like myself who have no animation training and lack the knack for drawing and painting, having the ability to bring to life that which has been limited to mere thoughts and words on a page with the help of technology is like magic. I can envision and write on paper worlds that do not exist anywhere else. I don't yet know what it will feel like to visually realize those worlds without having to beg, borrow, and steal, but I hope it gets close to how I imagined it could be when I first realized this spring that it might be possible. I was beaming with joy as the "hope" that it might all be possible washed over me. The initial excitement has abated a bit as I have focused on learning about the technologies I am going to need to use to realize my goals. As the improvements to the various AI tools rolled out over the summer it became clear that the hope of it all being possible would not rely on the AI, as it is clear that it will be up to the task; no, it will rely upon my learning and adapting to AI. That is something we all have in common with this emerging technology. 

You have to put in the time to learn these resources properly. Too many people are not creating good prompts and getting frustrated when generations don't go the way they want. Some people are just giving up because some of these tools are not even easier to use than they already are. Some will never have the patience to get the best out of the current iterations of AI. 

I read the other day that only 3% of people who start writing a novel actually finish it. That's an astonishingly low number. It's not easy, but for 97% to abandon the process before completion is remarkable. Finishing what I start is not a big concern for me, getting all the stories I want to tell out there is my concern. I know I can implement these tools because I have already started to do so. For me, it is just getting good enough with these tools to allow the outputs to be a part of something that I would actually try and sell to people. 

I'm still on Twitter/ X out of habit and for the AI updates more than my ability to get seen by people because I don't want to pay the richest man in the world for something I used for free for over a decade.  The AI Bros and their updates have kept me up to date, which is kind of why Twitter was created in the first place, to provide timely news updates. 

People are already creating better images with AI than I will ever need for any illustrated book that I may want to publish. Life-like video is close but it is still a bit dodgy, even the animation is still a little bit off. But having seen all the updates and all the money being thrown at AI you can be certain that there will be updates that improve on both life-like and animation video capabilities soon. The director's editing tool for Runway and Pika Labs is the most recent impressive update that gets us that much closer. 

That is why, for me at this moment, it is best to focus mainly on improving my outputs for static images. My instinct is to try and develop my own AI art style that can be consistent across several stories. We'll see, I can also understand changing the look for different types of work. 

Within a few months, after I have created some images to accompany my written work, I will be attempting to make my first AI-assisted teaser for one of my stories. I've watched the evolution of AI images and video over the past five months; it has been a period filled with updates and new and better tools, and the people using them are pioneers. The best part is so many of them are sharing their workflows with the world so we can all learn from them. Brilliant! 

A full movie or TV pilot seems a ways off but I am hopeful that a quality 10-30-second teaser is possible. And if that is possible, then I can do a teaser or longer trailer for other stories. If and when I can do all of that then I will be satisfied with what I have learned. Would I want to use AI to do an entire movie or TV show (animated or life-like) by myself? While I do enjoy creating on my own, I also like the collaborative venture of creating film and television with others. Collaboration has always been key for me, but the way things are moving we may all have to provide an AI video to go with all of our written work just to get read. That's not great but I want to be able to do it should that become the norm. Plus, while I actually enjoyed creating short films the old-fashioned way, I wouldn't mind testing out the storytelling possibilities with AI video. 

It has been a lot of work to try and get my head around AI and how it might augment what I do. I am not a Java or Python guy who grew up coding, so I wanted to better understand AI in general and how it operates even though I may not understand all of the technical stuff. I have focused mainly on machine learning and deep learning, two of the ways that help train Generative AI models to create their outputs. I'll continue to learn more about the inner workings, but for the next few months, it is going to be all about practicing generations and developing a style. 

Once I am confident enough with the images I create, I will move on to animated videos. My goal is to achieve some measure of confidence with images before the end of the year, and video by next summer. I am already confident enough with chatbots to use them to assist in organizing written projects, but I probably need a refresher course because I have been so focused on learning about other AI tools. 

I was reading a recent thread on X where the AI Bros were complaining about their numbers dipping and how some of them were tired of regurgitating the same things. They seemed to stumble upon a larger, more important goal as they worked through their issues. One of them summed it up best by responding: "It's time to solve some problems rather than posting AI tutorial $hit posts". While I am grateful that this army of guys and girls who paid for their blue check marks in order to get clicks and provide me with AI news provided those updates, I get their point. I too am trying to solve some of my own creative problems and adapt by using AI tools to address those problems. It sounds like they need to try and understand their followers' needs to provide them with the information that they need to use AI instead of just overwhelming us with the same info every day. 

I have always wanted to create a Graphic Novel. Once upon a time, I had hoped I might be able to do this with one of my artist friends. We always talked about doing so when we would hang out together. The years passed and I came to accept that the two of us would likely never be able to do a graphic novel together. Maybe with the help of AI, we can revisit that at some point together. For now, I'm eager to do it all on my own.

My experience with making short films, publishing books, or trying to sell my scripts to share them with the masses had a long list of issues. Even short films take a lot of resources and collaboration with others to get made. If only 3% of people finished their books before AI, you can imagine that number will jump significantly over the next few years. I have over two dozen unproduced screenplays lying around collecting dust. At one point or another, I wanted to have all of them produced. Even with the help of AI tools, I will never make all of those stories into movies or TV series, but I can better deliver my vision for those that I really want by creating teasers. Who knows, one day we may all be able to write and, with the assistance of AI, produce feature-length films and TV shows. If not, I may just segue into realizing these stories as Graphic Novels. 

Considering the amount of story material I have at my disposal and what I have seen others do with AI art as far as graphic novels, I can see myself focusing on graphic novels in a big way. Realistically, if I can learn enough by the new year, I have enough written material that could work in the graphic novel format that I could create images for at least a graphic novel a year if that was something I really wanted to do. How people consume stories has changed a lot over the past decade since I started publishing stories. I want to be able to give people the stories I have to tell in a way that they want to take that story in. 

The medium in which we tell our stories needs to be accommodating to those whom we want to reach with our tales. The number of actual book readers is dwindling. If we become even more like the humans in Wall-E then even graphic novels may be too much reading for us. We can't fret too much about that as we need to focus on the now. And in the now AI is best used to create Graphic Novels. AI Video will very soon have its day, maybe even before the end of the year. It's that close in the right hands. 

This is why I decided to adapt and why learning about generative AI was the 1st step I could take. People have been flooding the zone with AI artwork and videos for the past few months. It has been great to see and learn from the progress so many are making. It's been brilliant. 

I avoided shelling out hundreds of dollars to sign up for the best tools to focus on learning (taking all the free AI courses I found to be relevant) for a few months. Instead, this summer I tooled around with Firefly (which was free until this past week), took several courses, soaked up the AI updates on Twitter (X), worked on stories that are in progress, and found some time to work with AI to review older projects and discover how to use AI to assist me with writing new stories. 

I am in fact empowered by my work with AI this summer. Emboldened to create a new path forward, focused on merging what I have learned into a new style that is not only assisted by AI but also presents the visual aesthetic of what I want to say through my work. This feels like a pivotal moment and I have no intention of letting it slip by. I've seen so many opportunities flitter before my eyes only to vanish. All I want is to tell stories that move me in one way or another and hopefully move others.

So, instead of writing a script that no one will make into a movie or another 400-page novel that few will read, I will aim to reach a 21st-century audience who still wants new stories but doesn't want to read only words on a page.

For the next few months, I will work on creating a visual style for two books: the House Fly graphic novel, and a two-part novel series that I have been sitting on for a while -- it'll make a great illustrated books series. The style may differ for each, not sure yet. 

Some of you may remember that I released part one of House Fly last year as a Kindle Vella. I had every intention of doing the same with part two this year, that was, until I became AI aware in late February. Now, I can actually present House Fly as the graphic novel I had originally wanted it to be.

The first book in the illustrated book series will likely come first, I'll know for sure by the new year. Yes, that means I won't be releasing a book this year, but that was a sacrifice I was willing to make to integrate AI into my process and to focus on developing a consistent style. So, that's what I'll be spending the last few months of the year on, continuing to learn more about AI and developing an AI art style to publish one or more projects next year with illustrations. 

Let me know if you have any questions or want to discuss integrating AI into your own workflow. I'll be busy racing the sun each day until January, but I am always happy to discuss the creative process with like-minded souls. 

Summer of '23

Before the WGA strike and before AI took the world by storm, I had been preparing Four Stories to pitch. Those preparations took too long and I missed the chance to pitch them before the events of Spring 2023 shook the foundations of creativity. Not only did the film and TV industry shut down but the power was turned on at the AI Art factory and changed everything.

My views on the Four Stories have evolved as I have wandered into this AI Carnival of Delights. Some of it has been a distraction but AI shall allow me to diversify as an artist.

Illustrated Novels are not Graphic Novels, but it is a subtle segue for me and for those who might read my future work. The technology is there for me to make as many Graphic Novels as I like at my own speed. However, presenting House Fly as an Illustrated Novel should, because I am an AI Art novice, look better with fewer images. Full stop.

Don't get me wrong, I have every intention of creating at least one Graphic Novel. House Fly is part of that universe so the Illustrated Novel will be the ideal segue. But that story is also one of the Four Stories that I had been hoping to pitch as a mini-series. But a Graphic Novel for one of my old favorites is perfect. That is the first bit of change brought on by the Strike and AI's arrival. It is not the only bit, though.

As of August 2023, I am open to doing an AI Art test run with House Fly and One of the Four Stories. I expect I will learn a lot and have a different view of the way forward once I am done. That's just how it is when you open yourself up to change. Having been a screenwriting grinder where I cranked out dozens of original spec scripts over twenty years, I am poised to embrace the change and use new technology to my advantage. Not only does it take a broom to the cobwebs but AI has the potential to realistically help me deliver my creative vision to everyone.

This is intoxicating. Is it illusory of me to believe that I might be able to learn enough about AI to do all of this myself? Probably. But why not dream BIG? I used to dream even bigger. As we all know, life tends to have its say in how things will actually go no matter how realistic or fanciful our dreams may be.

What all do I imagine that I can do? House Fly as an Illustrated Novel is on the realistic side of things. I will learn about maintaining style and see how it might be possible to extrapolate what I learn into creating a Graphic Novel. Both of these are in the realistic scope and both should be achievable.

However, when I think beyond that the rest of the Four Stories I have been preparing to pitch may also be affected. Another One of those Four Stories has already been written as a novel series as well as a mini-series. I can see it also becoming another Illustrated Novel, but maybe not a Graphic Novel. I don't know. Once I finish my first Graphic Novel, I will have to see how I want to proceed. I may have other AI-assisted interests at that time.

Speaking of which, moving images (be they animated or lifelike) are looking better and better by the week. I have to seriously consider the fact that I may be able to create animated and lifelike movies within months. That would be the biggest game-changer. I may well be satisfied with Graphic Novels, but I have made short films before and have dreamt of having numerous movies and TV shows available to everyone for a very long time. So, the temptation to learn how to work with AI to create movies and TV shows is very strong.

But, first things first. An Illustrated version of House Fly will take a lot of work and I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. I mean I can imagine doing all Four Stories as both Graphic Novels as well as either Animated or Lifelike Series. But these are all BIG projects and would take a huge amount of time to do this with one let alone all four.

This doesn't even include the new stories I am working on. How I deal with the creation of each of these new tales will be interesting. No longer can I think about writing stories in one of three ways: Novel, Movie Script, or TV Script. Now I have to think about a more fragmented Graphic Novel format or even Short Films. Things have become more fluid as there are more possibilities for me to express myself, which is GREAT, but it also means that I may become less focused on just creating stories.

If I am to venture into animation &/or lifelike AI video generation it will be with a short scene from a pilot episode. Much like with prioritizing an Illustrated Novel over a Graphic Novel, I will need to start small before even thinking I can do a full pilot episode or movie.

The key is to keep learning. If I reach a point where I am satisfied with a certain medium, say creating graphic novels, then I may settle into cranking those out. We'll see. Exciting times!

Three Months w/ AI

I'm at a point in my AI learning journey where I'm questioning what I should be doing next. Over the past three months, I've accomplished things with the help of GPT-4 that I never imagined possible. I've been scouring social media and the internet to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in LLMs, AI Image Generators, AI text-to-speech, AI Animation (possibly even for building a game), and Life-Like Video Generation.

The last part, Video Generation by text, is the big one. Once it becomes as proficient as GPT-4 and Midjourney in their respective areas, we are off to the races.

The idea is that if I can learn as much as possible about all these technologies, I will transform into a supercharged storyteller, capable of bringing all my stories to life in various mediums. I want to learn as much as possible now so that I can comfortably navigate this new paradigm we have entered. I read somewhere that only 18% of all Americans have interacted with AI like GPT-4. That statistic was from a few weeks ago, so I'm sure the number has increased. However, it indicated to me that a wave of engagement is coming SOON.

During the past three months, I've also discovered at least two possible ways in which I might use AI to help others. There's potential for both of these to become sources of income, so I should probably keep them under wraps for now. Neither of these are new ideas, but I have my unique twist on their implementation as apps of my design. It would require me to start a business for each of them, and they could provide me with income that might enable me to fully commit to storytelling.

Once, I desperately desired to earn a significant income from my writing. Nowadays, people talk about the need for validation. Right or wrong, I embarked on a different path a long time ago. I didn't seek adulation or praise; instead, I became a grinder. I would fall in love with a project and work on it as if it were the most valuable asset in the world. Yet, after all the commotion, it's only a story—one of the billions that humans have created since we first learned how to do so.

Storytelling is a form of prediction or recollection, or both. Mimicry is the initial instinct—to emulate what moves you. But once you move past that phase, you can start to think for yourself and, in some cases, beyond yourself.

Over a decade ago, I wrote my first book, "Monarch." It was a labor of love that consumed most of my free time. It put a strain on my relationships as I was perpetually in the zone, always with a thread of thought tied to the story or the entire process of its staggered four-part release.

I learned more during those years than I ever imagined when I started down that road. Now, a decade later, I have AI at my disposal. With AI, the story of "Monarch" and its presentation could have been drastically different. However, I might be better equipped to work with AI now than I was back then. Why?

Even though I'm glad that I now have access to AI, I don't need AI to assist me with writing. For me, AI is a tool, not a crutch. I know things about storytelling and life that many of those who are becoming storytellers in the age of AI might not possess. To create a story from beginning to end on your own is challenging but gratifying.

With AI, I've regained one thing I lost a lot of when I started writing—Time. While you can let AI write entire stories, I've learned to use it to assist me as I develop a new process augmented by AI.

Since March, I've been able to work on twelve stories in a variety of ways. Some are literary works, while others are stories intended for the screen. And I have nine other stories that I plan to start working on by the end of the year. Only one of the twenty-one stories is entirely from this new AI era. The others are either works that have been in progress for some time or ideas that I've been meaning to work on.

Over the past three months, I've often felt supercharged and giddy. What I've been able to accomplish is astounding. I've been developing a process for working with AI that's tailored to the unique status of each of the twelve stories.

Each of the twelve stories is different. Some are already developed and the majority of the writing is completed. Therefore, I only need to polish them and create pitch packages. I've written a pilot for two TV series and I'm considering whether to use AI to write the entire season for both series or just create detailed treatments for every episode. I couldn't have imagined doing that two years ago.

Introducing stories to AI has been a delight. I lay out the story and AI helps organize reference materials like outlines, treatments, and summaries. From there, it understands essentially what you're trying to accomplish. Yes, it can write a story for you, but it's not the story you're wanting to tell. However, getting the ball rolling in the right direction is a substantial part of the work.

As a plotter/pantser (plantser), I prefer to have the world of my story in my head like a diorama. AI is tremendously helpful with this. Once I have this diorama version of my story in my head, I can tap into every moment along the timeline of the story. 

And it's in these minute details that the real story unfolds. This is where the human element is so crucial. These moments are fluid. A seemingly random moment in a coffee shop can turn into a moment of internal crisis depending on what side of the bed a writer woke up on or what he or she did over the weekend. This is where AI hasn't quite nailed things just yet. It doesn't have "Ah-Ha!" moments where the threads of a life lived up to that moment can be seen in the smile of a stranger.

I'm curious to see how pantsers will extract value from AI. If you're a pantser, I would love to hear how your process has changed since you started using AI.

The one new story that I brought to AI has been an absolute joy to work on with GPT-4. In the past, I would write down an idea when it occurred to me and weeks, months, or even years later I would return to it and see where things led. There simply wasn't enough time to adequately develop every idea. And I have a dozen journals and walking notebooks filled with them that I still have to go through. However, now I can have an idea in the morning and have a comprehensive outline before noon. That feels like having a superpower. Once I have a proper outline, I can race to flesh out the entire story.

I've enjoyed hopping from one project to the next as I learn the different ways AI can assist. While I haven't tried this yet, I can see how I might be able to write a quality first-draft TV pilot—from idea to completion—in less than 24 hours with the help of AI.

The Writers Guild of America is on strike over money and the rise of AI. From what I've observed, there will still be a need for writers in the process going forward. But we all will have to adapt ethically to a process that works across all mediums.

I'm formulating a process for my writing that is repeatable for both scripts and books and aims to anticipate and comply with the ethical guidelines of what I foresee in the future. First, no 100% AI-written scripts will be granted copyright or permitted to be registered by the guild. The proportion of human to AI writing should be at least 60% human. But a script is only a fraction of the written work that goes into a project. There may need to be more flexibility with that other stuff—outlines, timelines, treatments, pitch decks, and bibles. Because that is all supplemental. 

Storyboards are an art form just like the panels in graphic novels. How will storyboarders be affected by AI when a writer can use AI to do the storyboards themselves?

As a novelist, I've always wanted to create a graphic novel. With AI, I'll be able to do that on my own. Three months ago, I wasn't sure I'd be able to do that. Now, I know I can. I'll have to start with something simple as I continue to learn, but by this time next year, I might also be able to do the storyboards for a film or TV show.

My goal is to have the capability to use AI to fill in the gaps of my creative limitations, making me a well-rounded world creator in multiple mediums. After I learn enough to create my first graphic novel using AI, I'll focus on AI Animation to create TV shows and movies.

Live-action AI is progressing, but it's some way off from where I could use AI to create a believable TV show or movie.

And that's without even mentioning what I can do with a podcast. The cloning of voices is one thing, but AI audio is also making significant strides. What a time to be a creator.

We are all pioneers at this point until some regulation is put upon us with the use of AI. So, I want to remain as close to what I was as a writer as possible before AI was introduced. It's just that I'll now have more time to write and dabble in other mediums to tell my stories because I've allowed AI to assist me with the process.

This summer should be productive. Let me know what you're all working on and how you're incorporating this new technology into your process. Or not. There's nothing wrong with old school.

 

Ai and Me (How about a team up?)

Over the past year, Artificial Intelligence has made considerable advances. I did not become aware of how far along these technologies were until late February. And I am locked in now. 

I went back and watched Time Bandits a few days after it became clear that the AI vs manmade debate was also about to kick off. Why watch that film? A) I love Time Bandits and B) HandMade Films produced the movie. The name of that company and the look of Time Bandits are symbiotic, they go together like white on rice. 

There are many angles on how AI will affect all forms of art. My particular angle is as a writer and world creator. While I can envision and put into words fictional worlds that would not exist without me, I cannot for the life of me draw much more than a stick figure. So, for me, to be able to relay story information and visual reference material as examples to create something new is super exciting.

The fact that AI can also create text is disheartening. When I saw a news segment on the advancement of AI and the jobs it may take, Screenwriter was fourth on the list. My heart sank. I visited my buddy Scott, who is a painter and graphic artist. He is worried about it from his side as well. We have worked on projects together before, but something we had always talked about doing but never had the time to do was creating a Graphic Novel together.

Having only become aware of the extent of these AI advancements, it seems that a Graphic Novel or at least a novel or novella with several AI created, but Aaron and Scott guided, images that enhance the experience could be worth further investigation. 

Ultimately, early AI will fall short in some way if I try and aim higher. Higher being animated or life-like characters in a show or movie created around my writing. Animation on command would be amazing and give me another new way to tell my tales and also allow me to bypass all the barriers between script and viewer. 

I am not sure I am on board with the life-like work AI can create using deepfake technology. That is a recipe for disaster beyond the realm of art. The world is not all sunshine and flowers after all. Maybe we should save that technology for if there is ever a time when there is no more sunshine and flowers and we'd like to imagine ourselves frolicking amongst them. Good luck! 

I'd like to expand what I am able to create on my own. Adding visuals to my words would be like magic. People will be coming at this technology from so many different angles. Me with my words. Scott with his creative vision. Then there are the content creators for social media who have already begun making stuff. What about the movie and TV directors and the producers, how are they going to affect the landscape? What about actors? And all the crew?

The best directors should continue to dominate the creative landscape. The rest of us will just keep trying to do our best to make our own way.  I can't see myself stopping writing just because AI can create cookie-cutter scripts. That has never been my style anyway. Trying to make the next CSI has never been a goal of mine. But if I could get AI to help me plot a second season of a series based on my own work then that is something else altogether. I look forward to the time AI can work together with me in a productive way. 

Hopefully, AI won't then take over the world and enslave us. But if I can work with it before that happens then at least there would be that. 

Jamuary

 

"The human imagination may be the most elastic thing in the universe, stretching to encompass the millions of dreams that in centuries of relentless struggle built modern civilization, to entertain the endless doubts that hamper every human enterprise, and to conceive the vast menagerie of boogeymen that trouble every human heart." -Dean Koontz

Been an interesting month. My hope was that things would be more chill in the world in 2023 than over the past few years. By evidence of the past month that seems unlikely. Trying to get 8 billion people to chill the fuck out was never likely to happen. So we keep spinning, flinging self-serving nonsense for no particular reason.

My own reason is as a servant to the story machine in my head. I'll keep putting it on a page until the well runs dry or I go kaput. Surely there has to be a reason why we have access to these fictional worlds and feel compelled to share them. Sanity is probably the main reason. The fact that we are all so in love with stories is also compelling. 

The amount of stories that we have weaved around the globe is fascinating to me. From the Odyssey to The Last of Us. We are hard-wired to seek out stories to guide us through this life. To learn, yes. But life is different than it was 10 years ago, let alone 10,000 years ago.

Scientific and Technological advancements have given us the ability to live longer and to communicate with every last soul on this planet in an instant. And while the stories of survival are still hardwired into us, it is the mundane nuance of normal life that so many can relate to. 

Having come from a family of teachers, it is my belief that stories are meant to help others in one way or another. I'm not sure it is always top of mind during the process for me, but there are lessons to be learned from the stories that I write. My main motivation is to write something that I would want to read in a book or watch on a screen. Example: A time travel story I have been working on is motivated by the loss of a loved one and trying to fix the past to save them. At the heart of the chaos is a complicated love story. The moral of the story is about dealing with loss.

The work is the point of it all. To share what I have learned along the way through this winding river called life is the reward. To add my stories to the ever-growing tapestry we drape over the planet to try and help us all be better versions of ourselves and hopefully be good servants of our shared home.