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."
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.
