The Summer of Jimothy

We’re all living in the Summer of Jimothy, so it’s best to just embrace it. What fun those in Seattle have been having with our furry friend. With all the stupid and terrible things going on in the world, I’ve enjoyed watching the good-natured joy the little raccoon is bringing to so many simply by existing. It does the heart good.

In a year, it will all be different. You, me, Jimothy. That is the only thing guaranteed. We all set goals and objectives. I tend to start after the new year, once I get back into a weekly productivity groove. By February, a plan is in place, and the year starts rolling along. This year’s plans were going along just fine until we had to say goodbye to my uncle. He passed in April, but we did not say our goodbyes until June, when the family was able to all get together. He was smart, loved sports, and, most importantly, genuinely cared about each and every one of us. He had this great trading card collection that we were all in awe of as kids. He would buy us cards, often complete sets, which we always enjoyed receiving and going through. He was beloved by all of us. Even though we have had to deal with his massive card collection, it has been both an honor and a privilege to do so. But... 

As his eldest nephew, I decided to do the research that was needed in order to properly inventory the collection and prepare the family to deal with it all. It would have taken all year if I had not, and there are implications with a collection that large. Taking those steps sooner rather than later was only logical, especially with my need to work on my plan for the year. I have loved doing the research and getting things ready for the next steps, for the most part, but the toll it’s taken on my plans for the year over the past two months has set me back. I am close to the point where I need not be so involved in the process and can return most of my focus to my plans for the year.

When my uncle fell in 2021, it marked the end of his normal life. He kept having falls and other health issues that prevented him from returning to his home. The family went into overdrive to get him into a place where he might be able to have the care he needed and some autonomy. This marked the first time I ever laid eyes on the index cards for his collection. We were blown away by its breadth and substance. He had gifted us some cool cards back in the day, but his collection was a true legacy. It has been an honor to work on it. It has also had me looking into the trading card business to see what we are dealing with.

You may or may not be aware of how on fire the trading card business is right now, but it is. Some are even comparing it to the NASDAQ in terms of volume and volatility. I found out there is this place near me called Cards HQ and that there is essentially a stock market-like index that adults and kids follow as if they are day traders on Wall Street. I did not see that back in 2021, and after 2023, I certainly wasn’t aware of how hot the market had become because I had been focused on AI and not the cards, while my uncle had a few years of relatively good health.

This year, I have been able to use AI to help me with my uncle’s collection in several ways, which has really helped speed things up with document creation, research, and numerous other points of contact. Then things can slow to a crawl because there is still the human element to deal with. Some of these moments go smoothly, but others bring things to a crawl. This is one reason why I prefer to work alone at times. Me + AI = Amazing. Me + AI + Others = Still Amazing, but sometimes less so.

Working on the collection has also helped me get used to negotiating and dealing with people again, something I have had to do less of since I turned my attention to AI in 2023. There are times when an actual phone call to a person is worth so much more than an email or a text, especially when you are first communicating with someone. Then there are those who just are not as good at communicating. The less I say about that, the better, but it is an issue when disparate people are involved in a project. And I do treat my uncle’s collection as a project—one that I worked on from late 2021 through mid-2023 and then again from this April to the present. No one knows the collection like I do.

It will feel weird when it is gone. Not just because of the five years I have been truly aware of the collection in its entirety, but also because of a lifetime of having been in awe of it. My uncle and that collection were both quite incredible, so it is fitting, I suppose, that they should both leave the family in the same year. He may have stopped collecting in the late ’80s, but my uncle put his heart into that collection, and he shared his passion for cards with us. It is unbelievable to see where the trading card hobby is now.

Beyond all of that, I have made some good progress with my creative pipeline—not as much as I would have liked, but enough to still feel on track to begin, hopefully, a steady flow of creative content by year’s end. What do I mean by steady flow, and what is this pipeline I am talking about?

I spent the first three months of the year taking classes focused mainly on agents and deepening my journey with Claude while also continuing my work with OpenAI. I regret not starting to use Claude sooner, but I am glad I began when I did because using them both together is magic.

Around the beginning of the year, I all but abandoned work on the three apps I had been working on. I hit a snag with 1st Draft when I began incorporating real-time features because of the browsers on cell phones. I was reluctant to make it a full app because of that issue, but had I done so, the issue would have gone away once it was an app and no longer a web app. Live and learn. By December, it just didn’t make sense to keep my main focus on apps. Yes, I wanted to help people with the apps, but they had chewed up so much time last year that I needed a change.

Besides, what I believed would happen with apps and software last summer while working on the app happened. I, like many people, pride myself on being able to imagine how things might work out, and then sometimes they do track similarly to what I imagined. But I felt last summer, as I was knee-deep in creating the app, that it was all futile and that very soon everyone would be able to create the software they needed for specific situations. And sure enough, that is now possible.

In December of last year, the buzz over agents hit fever pitch, and I began to dream of the second part of STORiCORE that I wanted to create. It focuses on my own writing work and transforming my written work into other formats. I have several dozen unproduced and unpublished stories. I decided I would build what I dreamed of back in 2024, where I, with the help of AI, could create comics, graphic novels, podcasts, trading cards, video games, interactive content, movies, and TV shows.

I would have liked to use all these other tools that others had created, but they each cost a lot of money to use. And instead of doing that, I decided to create my own creative pipeline. What the hell does that mean, Pitters?

It means taking what I learned from those classes, from building and working on several apps, from writing in different formats for 30 years, from creating several short films, and from all the other things that I have learned in a lifetime, and using all of that in tandem with Claude and OpenAI tools to create a pipeline that helps me create my stories in different media. I have built it to help with comics, trading cards, graphic novels, podcasts, games, movies, and TV shows. The last three are meant to be updated later, once the tech is good enough (something I said for years and that forced me to shift course repeatedly) and I am ready, but they are wired into the pipeline and just awaiting my go-ahead. Once I decide it is time, I will begin work on those formats. But not yet. No. I want to get as good as I can get with comics, graphic novels, and trading cards so that I feel confident I can return to them later without missing a beat. That has been my objective with everything I have learned through the years, AI and storytelling alike.

My focus since I began testing things with the pipeline has been on comics, graphic novels, and trading cards. The comics are a way to serialize the stories that then become graphic novels once the series is complete. Why? So I can release three, four, ten, fifteen, or more digital episodes or comics over the course of months before releasing the graphic novel in digital and physical form. I am also thinking about doing different versions of the trading cards: 1) a story-based version, 2) a character-based version, and 3) a possible game version. Most of the first stories I anticipate telling through the graphic novel process are part of larger story universes. Some of them are ideal for gamification in many forms, and I intend to explore that. Graphic novels and story gamification are both things I have wanted to do since I first started writing screenplays and began imagining these worlds. I can't wait to see what will be done by those who grow up with all these different medium available to them. 

So much of my work has been inspired by anthology movies like CREEPSHOW and TRICK ’R TREAT, which tell more than one story. It has been one of my favorite formats, and I always saw them as either movies, TV series, or graphic novels. I made a few shorts films but I did not possess the ability to create them in all their glory on my own. Years ago, I tried to get an artist friend of mine to help me create my first graphic novel. It never went anywhere, and I began to think that all those stories would just have to be told as books. So, my movement into writing books was largely because I did not think I would ever get to make these stories as movies, TV shows, or graphic novels, and definitely not as the games I imagined but had done so little to explore. Games are something that I never thought I would ever have a chance to create, but they are also one of the most exciting media I look forward to exploring. Why? Because I want to put viewers into the stories... literally. Back then, the best option I had available was to write my stories as books. I am glad that I had to take that path because I learned so much and gained confidence.

I think of my novel writing a lot like my app-making. I did both because I could not do what I really wanted to do, which was create movies, TV shows, graphic novels, and video games. Back in 2023, I began the process of learning how to create a graphic novel. My first step was to create an illustrated version of MICHAELMAS. The image generators were not good enough for me to create a graphic novel. Some people were doing some amazing things at the time, but I was not knowledgeable enough to pull off a graphic novel, so I focused on doing what I could do. That’s a good way of doing things for me because I often try to bite off more than I can chew, and reality spits me back out. So, I adapt and do what I can.

Could I start off by focusing on video? Sure. Some of the models have gotten very, very good. But I have a lot of things I want to do, and time has become more valuable recently. So, I decided it was best to focus on comics, graphic novels, and trading cards. As you now know, my uncle, who passed earlier this year, was an avid collector of trading cards. What I did not mention is that another of my uncles, who passed over a decade ago, was an avid comic book collector. He lost his entire collection in a flood. I can only imagine how devastated he was by this. When we would visit in the summer, we would love looking at the collections of both uncles. It was part of the fun of visiting in the summer.

It seems appropriate that I am focused on creating both comics and trading cards. I have even found a way to honor them both by offering a version of the trading cards that will be called the Two Uncles Collection. I am a big fan of non-sports trading cards. My uncle collected a few of them, but the one that is the most important to what I am trying to do is the MARS ATTACKS set from 1962. The cards tell a story. I will likely create multiple sets for each full story I make into a comic series or graphic novel. I will probably keep the Two Uncles Collection strictly focused on the story, while other sets may focus mainly on the characters or some kind of game. There are options, but I really like the story version. That is the reason I am doing all of this: to tell stories.

I have been reflecting on the past three years since I started using AI. It is interesting how it took me a while to figure out what I was building toward. But with the Story Pipeline, I have finally created something that will help me do what I have always wanted to do—something I started to dream about when I first started writing, something that was reawakened in 2023: the desire to create comics, graphic novels, cards, podcasts, interactive content, games, TV, and movies.

Thirty years ago, the sky was the limit, and I dreamed of massive projects that I wanted to see on the big screen. But after two decades, I began to doubt that they would ever exist as I had imagined them. Eventually, I had all but given up hope that my favorite stories of all time would ever be read by people, let alone be seen on a screen. I spent so much time over the past thirty years trying to get others interested in my work, with little to no interest, that I even grew tired of trying. 2024 was the last straw.

I created this amazing TV series that I envisioned using AI in different ways after normal production had wrapped. I imagined all sorts of cool things that could have been created using AI in one way or another: choose-your-own-adventure experiences, podcasts, cards, games, and interactive environments meant to be used with the Apple Vision Pro, a product that showed promise but that very few people seemed to want. No matter. I was imagining ways to use AI that would be viable, and with the creative pipeline, I could create most of it, if not all of it, on my own. I am focused on comics, graphic novels, and trading cards for now so I can generate enough content to help get the ball rolling.

I won’t be satisfied until, in a single year, I can create the graphic novel package, the movie or TV series, the fictional podcast, and interactive media like games and Vision Pro-like experiences that I imagined with THOUSAND SPRINGS. It need not be that TV series, but that would be a hoot. In the summer of 2024, I envisioned where AI was going and how I could use it to create something like what I envisioned for THOUSAND SPRINGS, then deliver all of it using only my story, the pipeline I created, and the best AI tools available. Delivering all that I laid out back then would be freaking awesome.

Based on how things are and how AI is developing, when do I think I could run a single story through the pipeline within one year? If I wanted to do it sooner rather than later, it would probably have to be a single movie to do it in a year. I think that could be done now. But the cost is going to be insane, especially for the movie and game parts. The rest is far more cost-effective, which is one of the main reasons I am doing what I am doing. The education part is baked into this as well because I would have to learn more about the tools used for some of these media, especially gaming.

I will probably start small with video and gaming because of the cost and the additional time needed for learning. The cost could continue to go up, and that has a major effect on long-form storytelling with video. Plus, I can’t afford to spend a week on each and every scene. I want to be an efficient director and say, “Cut,” and move on within one or two takes. If it takes 50 takes for every scene, it will cost a fortune and take forever. Not ideal and therefore to be avoided. That means it may be a little while before I even venture to attempt video in the pipeline. I will continue to test the models, but actually venturing to create a movie might take a few more AI video updates before we take that step. I have been wanting this ever since 2023, but I have learned to throttle back on my expectations for AI video because of the scale I would be working on.

I could possibly try it with HOUSE FLY. It is part of a larger story universe, but it has always been meant to stand alone. If I were to try to put one story through the entire pipeline, it would be one of the best options. The story is conducive to a game as well. It is the story that I am starting with anyway. I might as well make it the guinea pig for the entire pipeline.

Huh, not a bad idea. Do I think I could run it through the pipeline and be finished with it all by this time next year? I would need to raise funds to even attempt to do it in that time frame. Otherwise, it may be unlikely to happen within a year. But it could still be the first to go through the entire pipeline and emerge with a graphic novel, a movie, a game, and more.

I can foresee running HOUSE FLY through the pipeline several times just for the graphic novel, creating different versions as I improve the pipeline in different ways. I’ve already had to do that in a fragmented way numerous times. So, I can 100% see myself wanting to come back and redo HOUSE FLY a year after releasing the graphic novel. Whether I do it or not will be something else altogether.

Needless to say, I am excited by the progress I have made this year. It has helped me put the past year, as well as the past three years, into perspective. There were times last year when I was questioning my choices as I worked on the apps. Was I wrong to focus on apps ahead of my own creative work? If you had asked me in December of last year, I might have said yes. But what I learned last year is more important than the apps I worked on. I had wanted to learn more about coding for a decade. The one coding class I took back in 2015 did nothing but tell me that I still had a lot to learn. And I had wanted to learn more even before I awakened to AI in 2023. So, the work I did over the past three years has allowed me to harness all that I learned over the past thirty years and shape that knowledge into something that will help me achieve what otherwise would never have been possible. And you cannot put a value on that. All I can do is put my head back down, get back to work, and wish you all well on your own creative journeys.

Impact and Reach

How effective are you at connecting with your audience? Do you even really know who your audience is? Who are you even speaking to anymore?  

These are questions many of us alive today have had to ask ourselves when we look in the mirror. However, it wasn't always that way. There was a time before the internet, before social media, and before smartphones. Technically, most of us alive today remember what it was like. There are those who refuse to enter the 21st century, and that's ok. It was a pretty cool century. The part I lived through, at least. 

Some of us decided to be a part of the new millennium and attempt to adapt along with the changing world instead of holding onto the past. And a few of us twentieth-century foxes shook our asses for attention long before it was the normal thing to do because of social media. As a writer and former actor, I know the drill. There was a time when what I was doing was an outlier, trying to pimp out my screenplays and books or my abilities as an actor. Back in an era when most people waited for a phone call to find out what everyone was up to. Now, everyone is the center of their own little universe, and a text message or a social media post is all you may hear from someone for months or years. Now everyone is an actor playing the role of a version of themself. These masks of sanity we know too well. And for many, that may be enough.

I learned a lot in the corporate world. Some of it was actually good. It's all research. Thankfully, for a storyteller, living life has two purposes: the experience of living life in this moment in time and research. And I love life and research. 

There are times I wonder why I am even shaking it anymore. I don't really do it for others. Those who had been listening as I used to bang on about the things that I was doing have drifted away. I suppose I still think it matters to tell stories, regardless if the audience is large or small. Whether it be here and now or somewhere down the road. It is, at its core, self-expression. Shining our inner light outwards.

I've definitely thought of just shutting it all down before. Just turn the lights off and lock the door. After the release of Monarch, I was exhausted and considered pulling the plug on this blog. I definitely took a step back from pumping out content. Just look at my blog archive on the right side of the page. The Writer's Realm has always been a place where I organize my thoughts and share where I am in my process. I can't tell you how many times over the past decade I have wondered if I should stop shaking things for attention. I mean, in the scheme of things, what does it all matter for anyway? 

It matters because the work still matters to me. And in the end, that is what drives us all—what matters to us. Besides, I really enjoy the process. Chasing a story, digging into my memories while also viewing and experiencing the world as it is. From a creative pulp emerges something familiar and yet different than what came before. And in the end, I enjoy sharing it with others, and I still like writing blog posts, too. The posts are less about me shaking my ass for likes or sales, and more about me reflecting on my process and looking forward to what comes next. The name itself tells you all you need to know. Could I have changed it to A Writer's Realm or The Writers Realm? Sure. But it was never meant to be about anyone other than me. I am the writer, and this is my realm. It is the only place where I have dominion. It is my courtyard, and where I choose to discuss and share things in my tiny area of the world. 

There is a scene in The Last Samurai that has stuck with me through the years—The Perfect Blossom. Nathan (Tom Cruise) and Katsumoto (Ken Watanabe) talk of poetry and war as they walk through a garden courtyard dotted with trees filled with pink cherry blossoms. It's a brief but powerful scene.    

Katsumoto is the last samurai, much like those of us still remaining from the 20th century are all that remain from a fading era. And yet we are still helping to shape this one. Hard to believe we are already over a quarter of the way through this century.

I feel fortunate to have grown up in a time before all of our lives became so connected to technology. Sure, we had phones, but they were landlines, and entertainment was also based on wires and paper pages, so you either had to listen to the radio, read a book, watch TV, play video games, or go to the movies. You can do all those things now while sitting on a rock in the middle of the desert or on a boat in the middle of a lake. And so I often remind myself how fortunate we were, even though it hasn't all been peaches and cream, to have lived in two different eras. 

One that, for my generation in my nook of the world, was relatively peaceful and that can be looked back on with actual fondness. It wasn't perfect, but it was hopeful. I fear many will not have that, knowing only complicated times and not having a sense of hope for the future. It is both easier and more difficult to plan for what comes next, and therefore, it is doubly difficult for those who don't have those experiences already that have shaped who they are. At least they are growing up with technology and can master it in ways that none of us could have imagined was possible back in the day. Even if we had been preparing for it all our lives, with science fiction predicting the future throughout the 20th century. Those who grew up with all that as background noise are now creating a version of that future. 

Every week, there is something new. Just the first month and a half of 2026, we've had massive updates with Kling 3.0, Seedance 2, Claude 4.6, Codex 5.3, Open Claw, & Gemini 3 Deep Think and 3.1.  (As you can tell, I sat on releasing this blog post for a few months, for whatever reason, because we now have even more amazing models released over the past two months since I started writing this blog.) Had any one of those models dropped on its own at any time before 2023, the world would have collectively lost its shit. 

We have entered the future. Not sure when that happened. Maybe it was 2020 or 2023.  It's not quite what we expected, and yet it is here. Soon we'll see robots in grocery stores. Don't ask me when, but it seems inevitable. Some people cannot get around like they used to. If they had their own personal robot assistant, not a chatbot, but a robotic humanoid, they could send their assistant out to run errands or help them get out of a chair, and so many other tasks around the home. 

There will also be the militarized versions as well. Killer drones and other devices are already here. Robots fighting other robots sounds ridiculous, but inevitable. How likely is it that we will leave this planet and make other planets our home? Whatever we do, AI will lead the way.

What small measure of influence might you or I have over what happens? That depends on our impact and reach. A few years ago, I started paying closer attention to the metrics on this blog. The numbers were so much greater than I expected, and yet there was little to no interaction from those who were visiting my blog and interacting with the posts. Then I realized the majority of interactions were likely bots. "Other" became my biggest fan. And that made me think about my impact and reach for today and tomorrow. 

As a storyteller, my objective has always been to express ideas and tell stories that have excited me enough to spend months and sometimes years creating them. The hope was always to be able to instill in others the thoughts and emotions I had felt when writing the stories. As a screenwriter, I learned to accept that most of my written work would go largely unread and rarely ever be seen on a screen. Why? Making movies and TV shows is, or was, a lot of work that used to involve a lot of people. We are ticking closer to the point that I have been waiting for. When one person can take their entire library of unpublished and unproduced work and transform it into the medium of their choice. 

This was one of the first things I thought about in 2023 after spending time with ChatGPT and Midjourney. Back then, things were very limited, but we all knew that things would continue to improve until we had reached a future that we had only seen in science fiction stories. We are there or thereabout now. And I have made changes to what I do as a result.

Twenty years ago, I never gave a thought to legacy. I was too busy trying to write every story that popped into my head. The result was that I would try to push a story to producers or publishers for a little while, and then get frustrated and jump back into my writing cave to write something else. I probably should have pushed harder to get more things published or produced, but since I didn't, I now have dozens of stories from the pre-AI era. Now, I can use my growing knowledge of AI to transform those stories into a variety of different media. 

I know that there is enough AI slop out there. We all see it every day and cringe, but things have gotten so much better than in those early 2023 days. In three years, we have gone from the ridiculous Will Smith eating spaghetti videos to seeing the Seedance videos of Tom Cruise fighting Brad Pitt. I am still not a fan of the live-action AI stuff; most of it still has moments of the uncanny valley peppered in. And once I can tell it is AI, I lose interest. That is why I am still less interested in AI video than some of the other mediums, for now.

I have started learning about AI agents, something that had been part of my plan last year. Unfortunately, back then, agents were not good enough for the workflows I needed. Hell, back then, I thought I might make a few apps to help people. I knew even then that software would become a thing of the past sooner rather than later. I just didn't realize it would happen in less than a year. I have learned so much since 2023, and yet I am still surprised every year by how quickly everything AI is improving. I did the right thing in building a writing app, not because I am making millions of dollars from it, but because it is something that I can use in my own workflow. And I am realizing now that my own workflow is more important than hitting a home run with each of the apps I had in mind last year.

Now I am focused on my own workflows, and Vis-à-vis being able to help others with their own. No, I will never be a content creator in search of engagement and clicks, but if I can help others, that has been something I have wanted to do since I started learning about AI in 2023. Yes, there is a ton of backlash against AI, and much of it is warranted, but AI is not going away. 

I am not worried about my impact and reach like I once was. My goal has always been to be true to myself and the stories that I write. I see no reason why I should change now. If anything, I am being even more true to myself by using AI to bring those stories to life instead of letting them grow dusty on a shelf. I am aware that not everyone will want to run out and read, watch, or interact with my stories. My intent is and always has been to tell stories. Would I like millions of people to enjoy them? Of course, but I will not lose sleep if that doesn't happen. My purpose is like someone who spends their life looking for the perfect cherry blossom. The chaos of the world can pass us by, but as long as we are true to our own purpose, then that is all that truly matters.

TWENTY SIX

If I were to approach 2026 as if I were twenty-six, how would I proceed? When I was 26, I felt all but invincible. I had already seen cracks in the facade of reality, but they were cracks and not giant chasms. I was in LA and had witnessed Nancy Regan being ridiculed by those closest to her, or at least those who were in her orbit. I was bartending a gig up in Beverly Hills and overheard these two idiots sitting at my bar, with the former first lady sitting alone at a table only several feet behind them. They were either her aides or some family relations. I've only brought it up a few times, but that moment stuck with me. Why? 

I thought it was disrespectful. The former president was still alive but suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and here was his wife still going to social functions, and instead of supporting her, these clowns were mocking her. It was pretty clear they had not taken her advice from the 80s and just said no to drugs, either. These guys were obviously living out of their noses, and it seemed so weird to have the woman who coined the phrase "Just say no to drugs" sitting there by herself as these insignificant clowns were geeked out of their minds, making fun of her. The irony was not lost on me.

I saw a lot of things back in those days. Not all of it was tinged with humor. My few years in LA were sensory overload, and I was kind of just taking it all in. My acting career was winding down, but my storytelling journey was taking shape. The century was nearing an end; I was primed for just about anything. 

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since then, though I still feel a connection to those times creatively. I know we are only granted a short stay here on this rock, yet I have always felt a need to be a part of the storytelling process. Whether that be as a consumer of the stories others tell, or in telling my own. 

When we are children, a great fiction is created for us. One such example is Christmas. It is a joyous time of year, but at its heart is a great fiction wrapped up in pageantry. A fiction masquerading as something wondrous, but also hiding its true meaning. We grow up and learn the truth about the world, and realize that these fictions are created to keep us happy and to provide us guidance. When in reality Christmas is the most important time of year because it marks the passage of time, and the beginning of a new year. I am not picking on Christmas. I love Christmas and celebrate all of it. I appreciate it for what it is, the history and deeper meaning of it, as well as the religious story wrapped around it. This is something every kid who celebrates Christmas must confront as they get older. It is a big part of growing up, and the falling of the veil of illusion should be something that is studied in greater detail. 

When I was 26, I thought a lot about such things. I was reading and writing poetry every day, and I was breaking down the doors of perception in an effort to better understand myself and the world around me. I miss those times. It was when I learned how to live on my own and not be codependent. It was a time of liberation and the dawn of big creative ideas. 

I am so thankful that I never became a celebrity actor. Sure, the money would have been nice, but the ability to disappear cannot be overvalued. I can't imagine having cameras snapping my picture anytime I sneeze in public. Awful. Did I ever want that? No, I wanted to get lost in an acting role that I truly loved, but I never sought fame. I wasn't cracked up for it, and I was never close to achieving it, thank goodness. 

In 2026, after spending much of last year slowly getting STORiCORE off the ground, I am eager to tell more stories. I have a novel series all but completed that I have been sitting on for years. Michaelmas is a part of the series. I am debating doing what I did with Michaelmas, which is to release it as an illustrated series. I've thought about releasing it as a graphic novel series, or even releasing it in even shorter segments as more of a comic series. I have a few other pulpy series that I could release as graphic novel series. There is also this novella/movie script I'd like to write. Could it also be a graphic novel? Yes, but I just want to get lost in writing again. 

I'd prefer to create graphic novels out of TV series or movie scripts I've already written. I have a dozen or so to choose from, and I can't see my first graphic novel being something I write from scratch. This is one of the main reasons I started STORiCORE. To produce fun and exciting content in different formats, as well as creating storytelling related apps. 

Last year, I came up with a few story ideas that I need to write as well. One of those would be a new type of story. New for me, at least. I've thought about writing an autobiography for several years, and I will at some point, but my new story idea is instead a fictional semi-autobiographical story inspired by my own experience over the past few years. 

While I have a number of stories I have been wanting to write, this is my first quality story idea of the new year. Last year was all about starting STORiCORE, my first "official" company. As a writer, you are your own company, and when I created a few short films a decade ago, I produced those as if they were each part of my company. So, I had been laying the groundwork for a while. However, I never filled out the paperwork and paid the fees to actually be a company until last year. 

The 1st Draft App was only the first app I intended to create. It is a tool that I am using and will continue to use in my writing process, but I made it for anyone wanting to write a story. It is meant to be used from the first idea until the completion of the 1st draft. It's simple and easy enough to use that anyone could get great value out of it. 

I have had second thoughts about moving forward with two other apps I had been wanting to create without first having a period of reflection and learning. The tools to create these apps are improving quickly, and I was locked into my process for a while. I need to get caught up. Also, another app has come into focus over the past six months. It was one I was not intending to create until I completed the other two. But I now feel like it may be the one to work on. I say one, but actually, it will be a combination of several apps in many ways. And I will create these different parts separately before combining them. Unless it makes sense to just combine them all at once. We'll see. I was thinking about possibly making them stand-alone apps before unifying them. 

Something I realized over the past few years is that with AI improving so quickly, we will reach a point where some people will just be creating their own apps, and then personalizing them for their own workflow. Not everyone will do this, but they could if they wanted to. We are there or thereabouts now. The ability to create apps on the fly has become possible. Are they perfect 1st time? Not really, but with patience and iteration, they will be close to fitting your specific workflow. There is an expression that has stuck with me that I heard last year: The Future of Software isn't Software. 

I believe we have entered that era. Soon, schools will be teaching how to create the tools students will use in classrooms designed specifically for how they learn best. At that point, the only ones not able to create an app on the fly will be those who never needed to learn about doing so. Right now, that constitutes most of the people alive on this planet. That will change over time, and in 25 years, most people on this rock will be AI literate. 

When I started down this path three years ago, I was aware that the window to build and share with others what I create with AI would be small. It is shrinking as I write this, and will likely be closed before 2030. After that is anyone's guess what happens, but I would not be surprised if a majority of us are all living in our own self-created bubbles. 

World models are being talked about a lot right now. If there is a proper world model by the end of the year, then essentially all I talked about in a TV show bible over a year ago will be possible, and I could, at that point, create everything I talked about in there by myself. I could use AI tools to create the TV series, the music, the fictional podcast, and the video games that would allow a user to have an individual experience set in the world of the TV show. While I could create it all myself, it would be extremely difficult to do so. I would need AI agents to help, and maybe that could cut down on the time to create it all. But even if that were the case, it would take a long time to complete. Probably years. However, I don't know what the AI Agents will be like once these world models start rolling out. If history is an example, then world models will not be perfect when they first roll out, and it will likely be DeepMind, OpenAI, Runway, or Midjourney who will release it, followed shortly thereafter by a Chinese version. Because nothing AI-related has been perfect when they first roll it out, and it usually takes another year or so to get to a point where a new AI tool is more broadly useful. 

So, let's say by late summer, we see the first true world model. It will be cool, and we will all be blown away, but it won't be perfect. But the other tools (video, audio, image, etc.) will be good enough by late summer to begin on the creation of a TV series like the one I have been thinking about. Will I begin work on it at that point? I will at some point. Not sure if it will be this year, though. But technically, I think this is the year that if I had the funding, I could begin on it. Would it actually take me years to complete all that I had laid out in the series bible if I did it all on my own with the assistance of AI tools? Probably. Unless agents get a lot better. Even if I learned all there is to know about all the tools that I would need to create it all, it is still a massive undertaking. If I were 26, I'd still lack the confidence and knowledge to have even completed the series bible and written 1/2 of the first season, but I might feel emboldened enough because of AI to at least get the ball rolling at all costs.  

There may come a time when I could do it all much easier and faster, but even with these tools being as good as they are now, it would be inconceivable that I could complete it all on my own anytime soon. I'd love to try. Maybe someday. Sigh. 😟

Until that time, I think it is best to just keep learning about everything AI that can help me create all that I can. With a focus on apps and releasing story content in one format or another. Once I have enough knowledge and the tools are good enough, then maybe I can build the world of that TV series I envisioned. I think you will love it. At least some of you. It's dark and a bit twisted, but relatable. 

I was asked about my New Year's resolution this weekend when out hiking with a few friends. They all had reasonable resolutions, but I didn't and don't have any. I'm not sure why I didn't make any. Maybe because I feel like they are silly. I make plans, and I try to complete them each year. That's not really the same as a resolution to lose weight or not be so overreactive. Would I like to lose a few pounds and become more Zen? Sure. But I have enough big plans for the year to not worry about keeping some meaningless promise to myself just because it's another year in the books. 

One friend joked when I said I hadn't: "Why not, because you're so perfect?" To be honest, I have enough on my mind that a promise to myself to try to lose weight seems like a waste of mental energy. In years past, I have definitely made New Year's resolutions, using the passage of time as a great starting point for change. However, I am in the midst of massive change, and adding something else onto the pile just didn't cross my mind. Maybe in the years ahead I'll buy that Peloton and use it for a month and then abandon it, but not this year. 

That's a Wrap on 2025

How to sum up the past 12 months? 

My priorities have shifted over the past few years. Pre-2023, I was content to just keep on keeping on as far as writing. For 2 years, I wanted to learn about everything AI. This time last year, I began the final process of building something I have been building in one way or another for 30 years. A creative company that embodies my passion for storytelling and my desire to help others tell their stories. Hell, I did not think I would be able to properly tell all of my stories the way I have wanted them to be told, or be able to help others tell theirs, until OPENAI released GPT4. I thought the only way I could help others tell their stories was through the hope that they might take some inspiration from what I wrote and use that as fuel for themselves to create something or think a little differently about the world than they had before reading one of my stories.

Before 2023, I thought I might write a few more books. Maybe publish a graphic novel and sell a TV series. And possibly write an autobiography that might inspire a few others to tell their stories. 

To then have the lights come on in the way for me that they did, as far as the opportunity to supercharge me into being able to, with the help of the advancements in AI, accomplish so much more than I believed I could at this time three years ago. In December 2022, I was not dialed in to the change taking place largely behind the scenes. I should have been prepared for it, but I did not see it for another two months. 

When the lights switched on, and I began taking in what was happening, I knew I had to change my plans. I needed to adapt. 

Year 1 (2023) was about realizing that massive change was afoot, and if  I truly wanted to make the most of my storytelling abilities and desire to help people, then I had to fully immerse myself in research. Thankfully, I love research. So it was an absolute joy to learn about LLMs, deep learning, AGI, image generation, video generation, sound generation, context windows, prompting, and on and on and on. Two regrets came to mind in March of 2023. I should have continued learning about coding after I took a class years earlier, and I should have been more aware of the changing landscape of AI. I was so far behind and was desperate to learn as much as possible by the end of that summer. Back then, I was thinking about graphic novels, so by the fall of 2023, I was focused on image generation to go with my stories. 

Year 2 (2024) was a year of big dreams. I had just released an updated illustrated version of my book MICHAELMAS, and I was up to date with what was going on with AI. I was also keen to deliver a kick ass pitch package for a TV Series that I had been working on for a while. Brimming with confidence about what I could do with the help of AI, I knew that the TV Series was perfect for the AI age. I developed an immersive fictional podcast that could tell a parallel story to that of the TV series. I envisioned several video games that could be released during or after the first season had aired. I learned that while I was locked into AI, the script market was shit to try and sell such an ambitious project, and most were still behind as far as what was happening with AI and where we were headed. I was at that moment ahead of the curve, so to speak. That summer was important for two reasons. First, my disappointment made me think I should do all that I can to be able to create that TV series myself with the help of AI; the only thing was, the tools were not good enough yet. Second, coding tools emerged and made me realize that it might be better to focus on helping others using what I have learned over the past 30 years. By this time last year, I had begun planning a company and already created a Custom GPT version of the 1st Draft App. 

Year 3 (2025) has been one of massive change. I try and avoid politics in this space, but DAMN. On top of that, I became a solopreneur and created STORiCORE LLC. A company focused on my creative storytelling and my creation of tools (APPS and Content) to help others tell their stories. A multimedia/ software company. As is often the case, my expectations were SUPER HIGH for the year. I was confident I could complete so much more than I did. It seems to happen every year, but this year was different because I was attempting that which I had never done before. In past years, I had focused solely on my creative accomplishments. This year, I took a massive leap by putting my trust in AI to help me with things I had never done before on a large scale. I planned for 3 apps, a podcast about the apps, instructional videos and guides, short films, and god knows what else. It was a proper plan. I knew I would not be able to accomplish all of my goals. 

The widespread hatred for AI was not something I expected. My lack of coding and design experience slowed things down, as did my limited resources. I could not force myself to spend thousands of dollars a month using AI coding tools to try and expedite the process. So I determined that learning how to build an app to better be able to build others was more important than vibe coding at breakneck speed to complete something I would not really understand. I may never be a programmer who can code an app on their own without AI, but I now have the confidence and enough knowledge to complete all three of the Apps with AI and some human feedback. Here is where my regret of not sticking to my efforts to learn about coding all those years ago appeared. Had I brought just a little more coding knowledge into the year, I would have made fewer mistakes along the way. Regardless, I have released my first app and have my first update to announce.

I created 1st Draft with cost as a top concern. I wanted to create a writing app that anyone could afford, and that was easy to use. I have created a version of the app that is all that I need. However, I am not the target audience. The current version is a great version using GPT4o-Mini and GPT5-Nano as your two interface models. While I have these models responding the way I want them to, I realized after using my Custom GPT two months back that I needed to have a Realtime version as well. The cost has gone down enough on the API that I can include it for every user! Originally, I thought I would have to make it only for Pro users. 

So, in the new year, I will be adding Realtime to the app, and it will allow for more lifelike exchanges. I may reduce the price even more. Currently, a free user gets 10 voice responses or 30 text exchanges a day. A Starter Plan is $5 a month or $50 a year, which provides 60 minutes (for Legacy Models, while Realtime will be around 40min) of Voice exchanges and 150,000 text tokens a month. Likely enough for a lot of users. The Pro Plan is $15 a month or $150 a year, which provides 300 minutes (approx. 200min for Realtime) of Voice exchange and 750,000 text tokens a month. This is what I need because I always run out of voice minutes on my test Starter Accounts. Sixty minutes is fine for light users who won't be using it every day, but for those who are deep into the telling of a story, the Pro plan is ideal. You can check out the web version of the 1st Draft App for free here. Once I have Realtime integrated, I will be putting the app on the app stores. 

What I was unable to achieve this year was the creation of any other apps. I did make several versions of the second app, but I didn't like them. Probably because I never really focused too hard on making them properly functional. There is one of the 2nd app versions that is ok, but I need to make some massive changes to make it appealing. Anyway, I had a different approach with 1st Draft, creating it from scratch using my own designs, using my own ideas as opposed to letting AI design it. It has been rewarding to build it that way. I tried to let AI do most of the other designs, for every version of the second app, and I have been less than impressed so far. Also, with all the backlash towards AI, I am a little reluctant to make the other two apps the way I had envisioned them. I like some of the options I had planned, but there is feedback coming in regarding tools that are similar in some ways to aspects of my two other apps. My goal is to help people, not to cause any distress, so I have to take additional care when creating those apps. I achieved what I wanted to achieve with the 1st Draft App, and if I never create another app, I know for a 100% fact that I have created a tool that can help me with my storytelling. And if it can help me, then it can 100% help everyone else. So, I am proud of what I have achieved this year, even if I did not accomplish all that I wanted. 

I never seem to achieve all that I set out to do in a year. I'm not sure why I make such ambitious plans. Maybe it is because I need to work myself up to keep motivated throughout the year. Who knows. I'm not sure I could even complete this year's plan next year. That is how overzealous I was this time last year. I was sure that AI coding tools and autonomous agents would help pick up all of my slack. That did not happen. Largely because I wanted to to be in there up to my knees and elbows building 1st Draft from the ground up. 

The tools have all improved. No doubt. But there is great trepidation in the world regarding AI in 2026. Jobs are one of the most talked-about issues regarding AI these days. More importantly, how AI is likely to eliminate the need for as many people. I have thought about this a lot. And it makes me wonder why some of the rich and powerful people are also saying that the world's population is too low and that we need more people. I don't get the math. If AI is going to take all of the jobs, why do we need more people on the planet and not fewer? It doesn't make sense. Unless those rich and powerful people are not being truthful. Which, let's be honest, would not be a huge surprise. The surprise would be if there actually was a good reason for needing the world's population to increase. 

In the past, the rich and powerful needed more people to do their work and buy their products. But if they don't need people to work for them, and those people don't have any money because there are no jobs, then why the hell would you need more people? Will they still need consumers once they achieve lift off? Once AI can self-improve the game changes, or at least we enter a new phase where the old world disappears and new rules are written. 

People are important as training data to create something smarter and more efficient than ourselves. It is sad to think about it that way. Even if we needed more people to colonize other worlds, which we don't right now, who wants to live on a dead ass planet? We would have to find an Earth-like planet or have terraformed one into an Earth-like planet to actually colonize it. Last I checked, Mars is still a dead ass planet that looks boring as hell. Let robots go out and create another version of Earth, and then maybe you can get a ship of humans to venture from this planet. Until then, I do not believe we need more than 8 billion people on this planet.

While I used some of my own money, I was fortunate enough to secure funding to help me get STORiCORE up and running this year. For that, I am so grateful. However, at some point next year, I will likely be reentering the job market. I have grown so much this year, and I am thankful for what I have been able to achieve. For STORiCORE to be self-sustaining, I need to keep learning and building, but most of all, I need to be telling my stories in one or more formats. Is that possible by the end of 2026? Of course, it is possible, but I have a different perspective on the end of the year compared to when it began. 

The world changed a lot this year, and much of it was not for the better. Knowing AI is getting smarter and smarter, and we humans are being treated worse and worse, does not bode well for the future. The gulf between the Haves and Have Nots may become an impossible moat to cross. The AI-powered haves using the best AI systems will run away with it all, and the have-nots will be left trying to keep up using inferior versions of AI systems and living off the scraps. Will there even be a middle class in 20 years? Or will we all be living on modest stipends with little value to the world at all? Do we really want humans just running around the earth being jackasses because they have nothing better to do? We all need to have some purpose to our lives. The struggle is real. It is a part of our DNA. I would do well with a stipend because I am a storyteller, and telling stories fulfills me and gives me purpose. 

"You can just do things." 

 

It was a tweet from OpenAI's CEO at the end of last year. I now think about those 5 words differently than I did last year, and I believe I am not alone in that. If no one has a job and most don't have any real purpose in their lives, people will just start doing things. I was a teenager and a person in my 20s once upon a time. I was lucky to survive those years because I thought I was invincible and believed I knew more than I actually did. Monitoring people into submission seems like the plan for the future. Meaning you won't just be able to do things like we used to. That creates pressure, and pressure needs to be released. That means tension. 

If you think it was hard to think about what you wanted to do with the rest of your life when there were endless possibilities, but a need to make money, think about what young people are going to be thinking about. The options will be limited and not endless, and you may not need to worry about money in order to live. Again, for people like myself, this is not a bad thing, but I have become the person that I am over the decades. There are positives but also a lot of negatives for the path we are all on, whether we like it or not. AI will continue its takeover. Just look at the economy being held up by tech companies doing this circle jerk of investments with each other. 

The faulty AI systems before this past summer were not good enough to make the impact all of these companies were hoping to make when they saw GPT4, like the rest of us in 2023. But there have been some massive improvements this year, and the new AI systems companies use to automate in 2026 will start to show significant improvements, and the adoption of these workflows will begin to be utilized far and wide. AI Customer Service will improve, robotics will improve, and AI agents may start running businesses. It's a lot, and it's all happening now. 

I, on the other hand, am not making such grandiose plans for 2026 as I did for 2025. No need to pile that pressure on myself. I will keep on learning, keep on creating, and keep on working towards my long-term goals. After three wonderful years spent figuring out how AI can help me achieve long-term goals, I think it is time to take the new skills I have attained and make myself available to others before the robots take all our jobs. 😟

As of right now, my goal for 2026 is to make 1st Draft a great app that helps people tell their stories and to join a team of like-minded people so I can further help others. Life is precious, and we need to enjoy it and spend time with those we love. Beyond that, as long as things keep moving in the right direction, then I am good. 

Happy New Year! Wishing you and yours a healthy and prosperous year ahead. 

NOVEMBER NIGHTS

Back in January of 2023, I had my head down thinking about what book I might work on next, and how to finish up writing a TV series that I had been working on. I was totally oblivious to the technological revolution taking place in Silicon Valley. To be honest, my enthusiasm for writing another book was at an all-time low. I was more wrapped up in the TV series than anything, seeing it as a perfect encapsulation of my brand of storytelling. A TV series that tells multiple stand-alone stories spanning decades that are intertwined with one another. To this day, I still think it might be one of my best stories. 

Then things started to get interesting. 

I have tried for decades to stay as true to my 25-year-old creative spirit as possible. Why? My concern has always been that one day the story-making machine  (my brain) would stop generating stories that my 25-year-old self would want to read or watch on a screen. Not that I had a desire to never grow up, but I wanted to remain true to myself and the vision and passion that I had at that age. Fearing that one day I would wake up and no longer have an interest or an ability to tell proper stories. There have been some major sacrifices along the way, but I have been able to remain true to myself. And in the end, that has meant the world to me. 

Have I missed out on some things along the way because of it? Yes. Do I regret it? No, but I have had doubts at times through the years. I've never wanted to live a conventional life; it has never appealed to me. I've worked for big corporations and felt as insignificant as a fly on a cow's backside. We are all cogs in the machine of humanity, gobbling up resources and defecating on the future, all in an effort to live our best lives. I am no exception in that regard. Sure, I may care more about the future than most, but I am still just a cog in the machine, grinding through the gears as I work to create stories and enable others to tell theirs. 

"Do no harm." It is part of an oath that doctors take in order to become licensed to practice medicine. I am not sure why I think about those three words so much. I have never desired to be a doctor, and yet I try and live my life by those three words in the Hippocratic oath. I wish more people did as well. We'd have fewer villains masquerading as heroes, pretending to be the good guy when in fact they are destroying more than they create. Maybe they all live by the belief that from destruction comes creation. These are tricky times and there are enough tricky dicks trying to deceive us just to enrich themselves these days. 

I digress. 

We are fast approaching the end of the year. While this is not my year-in-review post, which I normally do in late December, I am in need of taking an account of where I am on my goals for the year. Why? Because I need to focus and begin to pivot on what comes next. I have learned a lot this year. The 1st Draft App was always my main focus, but it wasn't the only thing, far from it. I had Plans for three apps. I thought for sure I could complete at least two before the end of the year. All the while, working on short AI films, graphic novels, video games, and podcasts. Little did I know that most of my attention would be focused on building the 1st Draft App. It was a sacrifice of time that I was willing to make, though. Why? 

That's complicated. I took a more arduous path, as I laid out in my last blog post. I did not think it would be that way when I started. But then I had never built an app before; I had only seen others build apps with AI tools, and they made it look so easy. In truth, it is not that difficult to create something with AI tools. To actually get it the way you want when you've never done so before is the hard part. And my willingness to sacrifice much of my other plans for the year to learn about each tool and the process of building was more important than keeping up with all the changes in AI, like I had been doing for 2 years. 

The AI image and video tools have improved a lot this year, but I did not obsess about them like I had in the past. Same with all the other tools; they have all improved this year. But you know what? That just means it will be easier for me to use them when I actually circle back around and continue where I left off in July. The month I realized that I had once again made bigger plans than I was capable of achieving for the year. 

I have been humbled countless times through the years after planning to do what, at the time of creating those plans, seemed completely realistic. It shows I have a ton of confidence in myself, and I am not afraid to make big plans. It also shows that I fall short, like a lot. I think back to the early 2000s when I routinely managed to write between 5-10 screenplays in a year. My brain was on fire. I think that, and the completion of Monarch, gave me the confidence to make such audacious plans. Creation has always been the most important thing for me. With 1st Draft, I wanted to take great care in making sure that I was building a tool that others could use to create with little friction. But then I am no longer just writing screenplays; I am building things I have never built before. My confidence to do so comes from my history of being able to write stories and being generally creative, yes. It also stems from the rapid advancements in technology and my having kept a close eye on things over the past few years. Having used many of the tools. 

As I reflect, I realize now that I was too confident, thinking that with the help of AI, I would be able to achieve all my goals in a super short period of time. In truth, my strength is my capability to write stories and be creative, not just first drafts of screenplays but also polished final drafts ready for audiences. Yes, I have gained some knowledge about AI over the past three years, but my goal is to do more than I alone have the capacity to do without AI. I have learned a lot this year and made strides towards my goals, but I have fallen short of achieving all that I wanted to achieve this year. And I own that. 

Even with my plans for three apps, I didn't think all three would be ready to go by the end of the year. I thought maybe two of them would be ready, and the third would get more attention by the beginning of 2026. In theory, I could still get the 2nd app ready by the end of the year and finish the short AI film I began work on in 2024. However, things have changed. I care more about getting 1st Draft into the app stores. 

I've had second thoughts about the 2nd and 3rd apps. I still plan on creating them, but I am not as much of an authority on them as I am with the 1st Draft App. With 1st Draft, I am a writer who created a tool that can help me as a writer, and therefore, I know for a fact it will help others create their stories. The other two apps are still focused on storytelling, but they are not necessarily tools that I would use. I will use them, don't get me wrong, but not like 1st Draft. I expect I will use 1st Draft from here on out, as it is a tool that helps me at the pain points I have had as a writer. I don't need to use it to write my stories, but it is a great tool to have. Especially when I am out for a walk or out hiking, and I want to either flesh out a story I have been thinking of, or if a new idea comes to mind while out and about. It is perfect for that. 

The other two apps are still storytelling tools. Just different. Not necessarily made for an active storyteller desperate to tell their stories while on the go. This is why I have been reluctant to make a widescreen version of 1st Draft. Because I have always seen it as an app for people to use on their phones. Most writing apps are geared for the Microsoft Word crowd who are going to sit in front of their computers and grind through the writing process that way. I wanted a tool for those on the go who may not even own a computer and live their lives on their phones, who don't want to spend hour after hour typing their ideas. I wanted people to be able to speak their stories to life. This is how storytelling began. It is in our DNA. Sure, we eventually began putting our stories onto cave walls and then paper, but storytelling is a word that shows our roots of telling our stories, our history to others. So, for me, it seemed only natural to take it back to those roots, taking us away from the chair and computer and putting us back on our feet and sharing our stories with an assistant that can take what we say and reshape it the way we like without having to have our butts in a chair.  

These other two apps are geared toward a different part of the storytelling crowd. The second app is more about sharing in the storytelling process with others, while the third app is geared more for those who are less mobile than those who 1st Draft is geared towards. I'm sorry I can't share more, and I have to be so cryptic, but I do not like sharing my ideas before making them available upon their completion.

Beyond the first three apps that I began thinking about a few years ago is another app. I am not sure if this one will become public or if I will just create it for my own personal use cases. It will be my own creative everything app. I don't think I will be ready to make this until I have finished the other two apps, but I could be wrong about that. Just like I have been wrong about what I may be able to complete within 365 days. 

Something I also need to talk about is the hate towards AI. It is real and widespread. Some people who use AI to create images and videos have actually begun to lean into it just to increase engagement and therefore make more money off of the hatred. I thought this was clever at first, but it has changed these people who I thought were creative and worth following, and I was actually glad for them to be able to turn things in their favor. Now it just seems like this is all they do. Create something cool and then have a poke at the raging bear engagement farming kerfuffle just to keep their numbers up. Where once I was glad to see them push back, now it seems just as equally juvenile and asinine as those hating on AI art. 

I have received plenty of criticism through the years regarding the stories I wrote before AI. I'd like to tell everyone to just turn the other cheek and ignore the haters, but that is not easy, and most of the time it is damn near impossible. Especially when you are younger and desperately seeking validation. 

I pay attention to what people say on social media about AI, and a lot of it is so negative. There are a lot of people who hate AI. I think much of this is based on fear. And I totally get it. We were all raised by watching movies where AI or technology was an evil that we had to fight against.

As a creative person, I have seen the hate directed at AI since the Writers Guild Strike back in 2023. We are all beginning to feel the effects of AI beyond just the creative world, though. AI is entering the workforce. In some cases, too quickly. Why do I say that? Because some of these big companies have begun mass layoffs and replacing humans with different versions of AI. Having worked in customer service before, it made sense how AI would step in and take most of those jobs. But a lot of that was implemented too quickly. So many of the AI interfaces are garbage. They waste more of people's time than they save. And then people try and get hold of a human, and there is no one there. This creates frustration and wastes way too much time. Gradually, things are improving, but many of these companies are still using the outdated versions of AI interfaces. It would be laughable if it weren't wasting people's time. 

Anyway, back to what really matters to me—storytelling. I created this amazing writing tool using AI, but I have spent very little time actually writing stories. So much of my testing of the app has been talking about several stories that I have been thinking about, but I have spent so much time trying to make sure that the app works well that actually completing a story was not as important. My focus has been on how others would use it and not on me trying to complete multiple stories in that time. I never would have been able to properly complete the app if I had spent all my time trying to complete the stories I have developed this year while testing the app.

However, in the New Year, I expect to get a lot of work done on those stories with the help of 1st Draft. There are two stories in particular that I really want to focus on. There is a third that I had plotted before the app that I hope to also write as well. One is a YA TV series. Another is an amalgamate of several stories I had been thinking about for a while, as well as my reflection on this year. The third is a psycho-sexual thriller/ horror film that I began work on over a year ago. A story I have had in the back of my mind for some time. It has notes of MIDSOMMAR and WICKER MAN meets ROSEMARY'S BABY.

The thought of getting back into the writing frame of mind is very exciting, and the fact that I have created a tool that myself and others can use to write our stories more quickly has me thrilled to jump back in with focused intent. 

If you haven't checked out the 1st Draft Web App yet, please do. I've been making adjustments to make it even better these past two weeks. Even if you are not a writer, but have a story you've always wanted to tell, 1st Draft was made for you. Sure, I also made it for myself, but I wouldn't have built it without thinking of others. Especially those who don't want to sit in front of a computer tapping at a keyboard for hours on end just to get their thoughts onto a page. The app is designed to be your assistant and work with you throughout the brainstorming and writing process. Give it a whirl for free. If you find it is helpful, then it is only $5 a month to have access to a tool that will help you go from idea to 1st Draft in a fraction of the time it would take just sitting down at a computer and typing it all up yourself. 

The 1st Draft App by STORiCORE

I thought when I set out to create my first app that it would take a few months. If I had just stuck with Cursor, this might have been the case. For some reason, I felt the need to do things differently. Oh, I began by using all of the apps, testing each of them for a few days to see what each created, essentially starting from scratch with each. I wanted to see what each of them created and to find out which worked best for me. I tried VO, Bolt, Lovable, Replit, Cursor, and Windsurf. They each did things a little differently from the others. 

I settled on Replit, not because what it was designing was any better than the others, but because I liked their interface, and I had a discount. However, I quickly learned that the AI running it was not the greatest and would create boring styles. Despite that, by the end of March, I abandoned the others and focused on Replit. Shortly thereafter, I created the company.

It was around this time that I realized that while I liked the style of what I was creating, I did not love it. It felt like it wasn't what I really wanted. So, I began creating images for the pages of the app that I actually liked. This is why some parts of the app will not have a hover effect or change colors when you click a button, because some of the pages are background images with invisible buttons laid over the background images. This made the process more tedious as I had to spend time getting those invisible links in the right place. This also meant I was doing work away from Replit to create the images, something that would become a pattern. What do I mean?

By the end of April, I had exceeded my allotted usage for the month because the agent would often send me in a loop where it may or may not fix one thing, but it seemed to always break four other things that I then had to fix. This worked out well for me, not because I like wasting my time and money, but because I had a ChatGPT account and o3 had come out in December, Deep Research came out in February, and o4-mini-high released mid-April. So, it made sense to run my code through those two models and Deep Research until my Replit account reset, so I did not get stuck paying more to Replit. In hindsight, I probably should have shifted to Cursor or Windsurf at the time, but I was liking the results I was getting from taking my code from Replit and running it through the OpenAI models before pasting the results back into Replit to test them. 

I quickly grew to like it better than just trusting Replit's overly expensive and flawed agent. This way, I actually felt more in control, and most importantly, I was learning about the app-building process. Not that I would ever attempt to build an App without AI, but I began to understand how the app actually worked. This agreed with me in a deeper way because I have always enjoyed deconstructing things (toys, household items, anything mechanical) and then putting them back together. So, by May, I was essentially just using Replit as a code viewer to test what I had done over on ChatGPT. Believe me, o3 and o4-mini-high also made tons of mistakes and took me down rabbit holes that wasted loads of time, but I trusted the outputs more than Replit, whose agent would break more than it would fix. I still used the Replit agent on occasion, but I stopped relying upon it as my daily driver for building the app. So, that became my process, and weeks turned to months, and my hopes of releasing the app by the end of May faded. 

A lot has been learned since April. It was my choice to go this route, and there is no way I would have as much understanding of the process as I have now had I either just let Replit or Cursor make the app for me without my hands-on involvement. That said, I won't put myself through all of that again with my next app. I'll be able to use what I have learned to let Cursor or one of the countless other vibe coding tools do most of the driving on the next app. I no longer want or need as much control over every step in the process. And I can't afford to take the time to do it again the way that I have. I am grateful for what I have learned, but I need things to go much faster from here on out.

There were personal issues that arose during the past 6 months that cost me time, so I can't blame my languid building pace just on my own process. I won't detail those here, as I prefer this space to discuss my work and not my life, but these personal issues affected me at a deep level that I have never had to deal with before. How much time was lost in my attempts to deal with them in one way or another? That's tough to say, as my peace of mind was rocked by one, and my heart was broken by the other. I was definitely thrown off my game by both. Could I chalk up a month or more of delays to them? Maybe, but I kept working through it all, so it is hard to tell. When I do an autobiography, I can talk more about those issues.

Anyway, the Beta version of the app was finally ready in late September. This is the Replit-hosted version. Back in July, I began trying to get the app off of Replit and focused on moving it to Vercel. Then, after a few weeks of work, I realized that I could do it on Cloudflare, which meant I then had to do things differently. Fortunately, GPT-5 Thinking was released and has been much better than o3 and o4, who were good but not great. Even GPT-5 Thinking has had issues, but not as many as its predecessors. I have also incorporated CODEX into my workflow this month, and it is even better at times than GPT-5 Thinking and integrates into Github. Yes, thank you. 

My goal for the Web App Paid release was initially May. I can't believe it has taken so much longer. The initial funding I raised to get the company started has all but dried up, as I had to keep pushing the release date. All the other plans I had made at the beginning of the year had to be put on hold after July, as I missed my second target for the release of the app. I heard people saying that you should not voice how long or how difficult it was to release something, but rather how quickly you were able to do so.  

The frustrating part has been watching people whip up apps in a matter of minutes as all the tools for building apps have continued to improve, while I have been tediously fixing every little bug and not being able to focus on all the other projects I had in mind for the year. 

Cry me a river, right? Well, no longer. By this time next week, the paid version of the web app for 1st Draft will be available, and every person with a story idea and a desire to tell it can use my app to their heart's content. Then I can begin to shift my focus to include other projects... finally. 

The purpose of the 1st Draft App has never been to replace the amazing writing tools that are out there. It has been to provide a very simple way for anyone to tell their story that doesn't involve sitting at a keyboard. I could have cloned one of the many writing apps out there that offer people dozens of options for writing their stories, but with so many buttons that it becomes confusing. What I wanted to create was something that you can log into and just begin talking to your assistant about the stories you want to tell. We all have them, but we don't all have the time, training, or patience to sit in front of a computer to tell it properly. No longer. 

1st Draft is a true voice-first writing app that allows anyone to start telling their stories from the first minute. No ads, no distractions; just you and the helpful and friendly assistant. Something that I love using because I too do not like being a slave to a keyboard and can finally be out for a walk or hiking, and simultaneously be working on developing a story while touching grass. With the 1st Draft App, you don't have to be stuck inside staring at a screen. You can be lounging around or out and about, and comfortably discuss your story ideas with the assistant, who will help you shape your story with you. It really is liberating. 

I tried to make the app as simple as possible. Press Start and begin chatting with your assistant, who can be a sounding board, guide you into shaping the story, or even take what you talk about and begin writing a version of the story for you. Not sure what to say next and need time to think? Press Pause, collect your thoughts, and continue when you are ready. Don't want to listen to all that your Assistant has to say, or want to stop the conversation, just press the Stop button. You'll be sent to the Chat Workspace Page where you will see the readout of your conversation. You can browse through your Chats or switch over to the Documents Workspace Page and start typing. Or jump back into the conversation with your assistant. 

For me, it changes my process. I used to scratch down ideas on a sheet of paper while out and about or out for a walk.  Now, I can flesh out an idea and start building it before I get home. It speeds things up and ensures that I'll be able to read what we were talking about. This is a big deal because I have some chicken scratch for handwriting, especially while trying to walk. 

If you are like me, there will be times you want a snappy back and forth with your assistant, and there will be other times that you want to try and flesh things out a bit more. The Settings Page provides options that control how your assistant behaves. Whether you want to have a quick back and forth, or if you want to get deep into the details, or have your assistant create longer sections, you can do that too. There is a guide that explains it all in the Help section . But if you just stick with the defaults, you can't go wrong either.

Another thing that was important to me was keeping the price low while also providing a tool that everyone can use and benefit from. You will have the choice of using the free tier, which will help you get a feel for how things work, but the Starter Plan is the way to go for most people. And it only costs $5 a month or $50 a year. Some people will never reach the monthly limits with the Starter plan, but if you are like me and you have a ton of stories you want to tell, then the Pro plan is the way to go. And if you ever reach your limits before the end of the month for either plan, you can always purchase a boost that provides extra time to work with the assistant. Even if you exceed your limits and don't want to pay more, you will continue to have access to your chats and continue to be able to work on your documents, if you don't mind typing. 

1st Draft is easy to use and will keep you focused on storytelling. Whether you are young or old, have never written before or have written several books or screenplays like myself, the 1st Draft App is the place to start when you have a story you want to tell but don't want to have to sit and stare at a computer screen to tell it. Just press the Start button and speak it into existence. Just like our ancestors used to do around the campfire at night. It really is that simple and I can't wait to help you tell your stories.

Head on over to 1stDraftApp.com and get started for free, and by this time next week you'll be able to dig even deeper with even more access for a very low price. Cheers! And happy storytelling.