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. 

🍂 First Day of Fall 🍂

Happy Autumnal Equinox. The time of pumpkin spice and of changing colors. Whenever it arrives, I always declare it as my favorite season. That is, until Spring arrives and says Hello. Then I flush and declare my love for the emergence of nature from her slumber.   

I have to announce a moment of synchronicity. I released the book Michaelmas years ago, and this will be the first time I have talked about the novella in relation to the day celebrating the archangel Michael casting Satan out of heaven since its release. By pure coincidence, I was thinking about Michaelmas, the book, because a few years back, I added several AI-generated images that I generated with Dall-e 3 and re-released the book. It was my first project where I merged AI with a story that I had previously written. That project marked my entry into a new era, so I often drift back to it when thinking about AI. Then I realized that the day I had planned to release the 1st Draft App just so happens to be the day Michaelmas is celebrated. What are the odds?

Anyway, I think it is a great way to draw parallels and also give people a unique chance to celebrate the day. Michaelmas is often thought of in relation to the end of the harvest season, a quarter day. The novella is part of a larger novel series I wrote years ago and never released. Michaelmas is at the heart of the novel series. It is a flashback story told to characters in the middle of the novel series. I felt it was a strong enough story that it could stand on its own. So, instead of focusing on completing the novel series, I focused on the novella. I'll release the novel series at some point. For the moment, I am focused on building AI infrastructure for a media company that will build some cool tools for others to use, but I will also focus more time on creating my own content once I complete the full release of the 1st Draft App.   

Those who were watching the AI space last year knew this would be the year of the (rise of the) agent. So, the idea of everyone creating AI agents that are hired for "x" amount of time is something that seems more and more likely on a large scale. In fact, some are already creating a workforce of specialized AI agents to carry out tasks and deliver value.

To personalize things a little bit, this actually jives with a plan I created for myself at the beginning of the year. 

When I made the aforementioned plan, the idea was and still is to create and release three Apps. For the first App, I wanted to build it in such a way that I would learn something meaningful in the process that would help me create the other two better and faster than the first App. I also wanted the application to help me with my own writing process. The 1st Draft App is based on a Custom GPT I made last year. Yes, those things we were all making in 2024. It did almost all that I needed. LLMs are very good at assisting you with your writing. And in that regard, I was not trying to remake the wheel with the 1st Draft App. My objective was to learn about App creation while creating something personalized to how I like to write. It's been an evolution. 

I am a notebook-in-the-pocket kind of guy whose whole life can change on a walk if a great idea comes to mind. They say ideas are a dime a dozen, and I have notebooks of ideas that I never turned into stories that prove that to be true. Phone voice recorders became my walking notebook a few years ago, in large part because my awful handwriting is made worse when trying to walk and write at the same time. However, with an App like 1st Draft, you can talk about your idea to an assistant and flesh it out to see if it is worth writing or not. And if you have a story that you really want to tell, the assistant will help you write that story. 

I realized in 2023 that I could do so much more writing-related work with an intelligent tool like ChatGPT-4, even though it was not designed specifically to help me with my writing projects. But then it dawned on me: I could use my decades of writing experience and desire to learn about AI to help others do the same, by creating a tool that's designed to help you with your writing projects. That way, even if only a handful of people actually use the App, it's still perfect for me. And since I created it, I have the code and the experience from having built it. With a lot of help from AI, of course.

Last week, it dawned on me after watching a podcast or reading a tweet: the future economy will be filled with AI Agents. Yes, but not the kind I was thinking of earlier this year. When I set out, I was thinking of agents as something that would work for me on projects I am working on. While that is true, I can now see how I may have just taken the first step in creating my own AI agent. Will I be selling an agent to people at some point? I would have said no in March because I wouldn't have understood what that meant, but now it seems possible and definitely worth further research.

The 1st Draft App is not an autonomous Agent. It is an AI wrapper trained to help you write your stories. I did not imbue it with all of my creative experience so that it could go off on its own to create you a series of books or build you a video game. Agents that could be hired to do work had not been on my radar until two weeks ago. But, the more I think about it, the more likely it seems that specialized AI agents are being built to create massive amounts of value, where people are hiring agents to do things instead of us.

LLMs behave the way they are trained. If we then train them to offer services to others beyond the individual app-like usage, then you are potentially serving a massive swath of people. An agent created based on an app you built. An agent for doing your taxes, for organizing your business, or for how food is grown and harvested. So, instead of going to work for someone, you toil in creating an agent that is based on your area of expertise, and your agent is the one who is hired. And you manage the agent(s) you created. It's a new take on the old Hollywood line, "Have your agent call my agent."  

Once I completed the first app, the idea was always to turn to agents for help in building the second and third apps, as well as other parts of the company. The more I thought about STORiCORE and what I wanted it to become, the more I realized that this was not really a new company. Nope. It is a repackaging of myself as a creator. Having gone from actor to writer to director to author and now to an AI-assisted APP developer. I can't wait to see how others adapt along with AI as well. 

My goal with the apps is to help others on their own storytelling path. That wouldn't be possible without having learned a few things as a storyteller over the past 30 years. Not to mention how obsessed I became with AI in 2023, learning all I could about how it can help me create not only various ways in which I could tell my stories, but also how I could help others. That meant starting a business whose core purpose is my own creative endeavors. To take my writing experience and my growing interest in AI as a key part of my new enhanced workflow, as a way to help others. All of these apps I am creating, I intend to use myself, especially 1st Draft. I have already been wearing out the servers, not only as I have built and tested the app while sitting at my computer or sitting in my car, but I have also used it a lot when out walking and hiking.  

In seven days, you can try out the 1st Draft App for free. I am releasing it as a beta web app with a limited number of users. So, know that space will be limited. 

So, not only are we making the app available for free, with limits, of course, but I am also going to make my novella, Michaelmas, available for free as well. 

It's been a lot of fun building the app, and I have a list of updates that I will roll out once we start taking on subscribers. One idea I've been kicking around is that those who try out the app during beta will have an opportunity to sign up for an all-apps pass to all three apps once they are released, and a deeply discounted rate out of appreciation. 

My objective is to keep the cost of 1st Draft low. I see it as a basic tool that all people who want to write their stories can benefit from using. For those who have a story they have been wanting to tell but don't know how to go about it, and those who wouldn't have the time to write it otherwise. I put myself in this category. Gathering all my thoughts in one place and discussing them with a smart and helpful AI assistant is something I would have loved a few decades ago. 

We are a species that has been passing on tales since we have had the ability to do so. These tales shaped lives, shaped civilization. And now we have the chance for everyone to tell their stories. I love that. That very idea made me think beyond all the amazing stories that I could tell with such a tool. It made me realize I might be able to help others tell their stories. And by others, I mean everyone. I have tried to make it just that, a tool to help anyone tell their stories. Simple but effective. While the updates I have planned will make the whole experience even better. 

This is not a tool designed specifically for writers to help them finish their story. It is a tool to help those who have a tale to tell get started with telling their story. My objective was to deliver an App that could help me do what I like to do with my Custom GPT, and that is to talk to the AI about a story I have in mind, flesh it out, generate new ideas while going back and forth, and then create something together. While I like to take what is given and make it my own, some will want to have a first draft of an idea they have been sitting on for years. And I wanted it to be as simple as possible, so as to avoid confusion and frustration. 

The only part that may be confusing is the settings. By default, the App will be set to respond quickly in an agentic way. Latency is an issue with AI models, the speed from when a user finishes speaking to when the user hears the assistant's response, in the case of the App. Because that was top of mind, the default setting may cause the App to clip what it is saying, requiring the user to ask it to continue. It may also cause the assistant to cut off the user if there is a significant enough pause in what the user is saying. However, the user can choose to have longer responses from the assistant and more time for you to talk as well. With the ability to also choose from two AI models. 

I wanted people to have some options; I didn't want to make things too narrow. This also follows my own way of using the App. My old custom GPT would cut me off if I paused, and I wanted to be able to control that more. So, not only did I build the settings to modulate how the conversation flows, but I also included a pause button that allows you to collect your thoughts before continuing where you left off. I often use this when I don't want to listen to the assistant and want to continue talking. 

Once I have processed the feedback from the beta period, my goal is to create a video and a guide to help make things easy to understand. That has been a goal with the App. Make it simple and then iterate with updates that improve the experience. I started work on several features before realizing that for the initial release, I had to make it a simple yet helpful tool, without too many bells and whistles.

The default settings are great to start off with as you casually discuss your project with the assistant. Then, I like to add more creativity by turning off the Agentic toggle and cranking up the responses (conversational and AI token output) sliders. This way, we can start discussing more details and brainstorm without being cut off. The outputs are then longer, and you can have the AI whip up a scene or outline based on your conversation. 

The ability to transcribe and type in text is key as well. Sometimes you may not be able to talk to the assistant, or maybe you just need to add more context. Whether it is having a back-and-forth exchange or pasting a large chunk of text. Maybe it is the content from a previous chat, or something I like to do, which is to paste scenes or actual scripts. The other day, I pasted an entire script for a fictional podcast into the context window. We worked on another podcast based on that first one. By entering content this way, you can have the assistant review your content or even use the content to create something new.

I am sticking with basic copying and pasting right now because I have a feature that I plan to release in the new year that will help all writers who want to take their written work more seriously. It is one of the first features I thought of, but it will take some collaboration to pull it off. 

If you have communicated with an AI via voice-to-voice, it will not seem new. To those who have never spoken to an AI before, I think you will find the experience both pleasant and productive. 

Whenever you are ready to start writing, you can switch over and start a document in the App. This is a nuts-and-bolts writing space without any bells or whistles. 1st Draft's most important tools are the voice-to-voice assistant and the text-to-text exchange, where you work directly with the assistant. I find it difficult to truly write on a phone, even though a few generations have grown up doing it. Since this App is meant mainly for users to be on their phone chatting with the AI assistant about their story, the idea of having an elaborate writing editing tool right off the bat doesn't make sense. A 1st Draft is about getting it out of you and onto the page. 

For me, the 1st Draft is the most enjoyable part of the writing process. They are usually terribly flawed upon review and in need of an overhaul. But so are most adventures. Very few adventures go as expected or as planned. Some things will work while others will be thrown into the bin. I often take portions of a 1st Draft that won't work with what I am currently working on and use them as parts of another story. During the 1st Draft, your imagination should be doing cartwheels. 

My process with the App has been to chat with the App, flesh out ideas, copy those ideas to a document, do some writing and editing, and then save the document so I can then work on it on my computer. Because I personally can't do any real writing on my phone. This is a main reason why we are doing the Web App first. That way, a user can access the App on their phone and on their computer. 

At home, I have a microphone and love using the voice and transcribe to text features on my computer. I like pasting stories I am working on into the text window and discussing the stories in voice mode. Since it is a Web App, I like to open windows side by side. One with the Voice or Chat Page and the other with the Document Page. Asking questions, getting feedback, pasting chunks into the document, editing it, and so on. Again, for someone like me, this is ideal. Not only can the App help me brainstorm, edit, and write, but it does so in a way that feels natural. You don't have to be an expert with AI or with writing, but just having a general understanding of the App can open up what you can do with your story ideas. 

The 1st Draft App is built to be simple to use so that anyone with a desire to tell a story and a minimal understanding of technology can get great value out of using it. I hope you'll sign up once I make it available on the 29th. As an acknowledgement of the coincidence that the release date is the same day as the holiday shared with the title of my book, Michaelmas, I will be giving away copies of the book. 

That's right. Not only am I giving you the chance to use the 1st Draft writing App for Free, but I am also making the eBook version of Michaelmas available for free because the release date just happens to fall on the holiday. I believe they call that a win-win situation. 

Happy Fall Y'all! 

Goals for 2024

This Thursday is a big day for me – the illustrated version of "Michaelmas" is hitting the shelves. It's been a wild ten months, diving deep into the world of AI and AI Art. I've been watching, amazed, as folks churn out these incredible AI images online. I've even posted a few of my own creations over the past ten months. It's kind of crazy, how so many of those creators are getting paid by X/Twitter for their posts, thanks to their Blue Check status. 

Me? I've thought about it a good bit. I'm still plugging away on the platform, despite all the drama there the past year plus. Sure, I've thought about shelling out for that Blue Check. Maybe then my tweets wouldn't feel like they're getting lost in the void. But there's this nagging part of me that's not quite on board with some of the stuff Elon Musk says – some of it really doesn't sit right with me. Yet, if I started boycotting every product whose CEO I disagree with, I'd probably have to go live in the woods.

In the meantime, I'm pivoting to a few other projects that have been on the back burner. I've been so caught up in the constant stream of new AI info that my writing has taken a bit of a backseat. But no more. This year, I'm diving back in.

Here's what's on my plate for 2024:

A Graphic Novel – or at least, a series of digital comic episodes that'll add up to one. I've played around with enough AI art tools that I believe I can pull this off. Fingers crossed because this is something I have always wanted to do. 

Pitching a pre-AI TV series – kind of a last hurrah before I start implementing AI as an assistant in the majority of my storytelling work.

Keeping up with AI Video tech – so I'm ready to jump in once it's good enough for TV or movie material. There are some pretty amazing shorts out there, but we're not quite at full-length quality yet. I anticipate that by the summer we may be able to get up to 10-20 seconds of stable video that most people will not know is AI and it will change everything about entertainment. 

Getting back to the writing grind – I've got a bunch of AI-assisted script ideas that have been marinating over the past year, and it's time to get them on paper.

Continuing my AI education – the more I know, the better I'll be at weaving it into my work and maybe even running my own show someday.

It's a lot, but hey, who knows what this year will bring? I'm setting my sights high – higher than ever before. Maybe it's time to bite the bullet and get that Blue Check after all. If I do, it'll be because I'm ready to hit the ground running, monetizing my work from day one.

Here's to a year of big tech, big politics, and even bigger goals. Let's see what we can make happen, shall we?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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