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How to Use ChatGPT as an Author

May 4, 2023 by valneilbooks

ChatGPT is an amazing AI tool. From idea generation to refining your process, here are five ways I’ve been using it.

Intelligent Searching

Authors research a lot of random stuff, and not all of it is easy to find. I often find myself scrolling through tons of listicles, hoping to find that ONE thing I’m searching for. ChatGPT allows you to narrow it down. For example, I needed an Italian expression from the 1600s. I found many articles, but they’re sorted by categories that weren’t particularly helpful for narrowing things down. So I asked ChatGPT.

Me: I need an Italian expression or idiom on living life to the fullest, or taking risks. I needs to have been around since the 1600s.
ChatGPT: One Italian expression that fits your criteria is "Chi non risica, non rosica," which roughly translates to "He who doesn't take risks, doesn't nibble." This idiom has been around since the 1600s and conveys the idea that taking risks can lead to greater rewards in life.
Me: Do you know how far the phrase can be traced?
ChatGPT: The phrase "Chi non risica, non rosica" has been in use in the Italian language for at least a few centuries, but its exact origins are unclear. It is a common expression in Italian, and it is possible that it has been used in various forms for even longer than the 1600s. However, without further historical documentation, it is difficult to trace its exact origins beyond this timeframe.

You still have to fact check what you find. ChatGPT pulls information from a variety of sources and not all of them will be accurate. For example, when I asked it for Russian dog names it gave me one that was incorrect.

Me: My research is telling me Koda is the shortened form of Dakota, and Native American in origin, not Russian.
ChatGPT:
You are correct, my apologies for the error. Koda is indeed a Native American name meaning "friend" or "companion", and not of Russian origin. Thank you for bringing this to my attention. Here are some alternative Russian dog names you might consider:

While not perfect, it can drastically decrease the amount of time spent Googling stuff. I’ve asked it for the story beats of a coming of age story and it gave me a list. Same when I asked it to explain in basic terms how music can alter emotion. It’s also great for when you can’t remember one stupid word or phrase.

Couldn’t remember the prayer my relatives do.
I love WordHippo but it can’t do this.

Ad Copy

What author enjoys writing ad copy? I haven’t tried ChatGPT for blurb writing, but I’ve been using it for newsletter subject lines. I just dump in my whole newsletter and ask it to generate something.

Writing That One Scene You Hate

Every writer sucks at something. For some it’s dialogue, while for others it might be fight scenes. For me it’s description. Asking ChatGPT to write those scenes for you gives you a basic blueprint which can then be customized into your voice.

Me: Please describe a moonlit meadow.
ChatGPT:
The moonlit meadow stretches out before you, bathed in a soft and silvery light. The grass is tall and sways gently in the cool breeze, casting long shadows that dance across the ground. The moon hangs low in the sky, a glowing orb that illuminates the landscape with a gentle, otherworldly glow.

As you step forward, the blades of grass tickle your ankles, and the sweet scent of wildflowers fills your nose. In the distance, you can hear the sound of a stream, the gentle babbling of water over rocks echoing across the meadow.

The moon casts everything in shades of blue and grey, highlighting the subtle textures of the grass, the bark of trees on the edges of the meadow, and the small wildflowers that dot the landscape. The air is crisp and cool, and a sense of peace and tranquility pervades the scene.

As you stand in the midst of the moonlit meadow, you can't help but feel a sense of wonder and awe at the beauty of the natural world around you.

I’m not one for long descriptions and this is the wrong point of view, so I used all of one line of what it gave me (“soft and silvery light” I think). It was still incredibly helpful and gave me a jumping off point. Another time I asked ChatGPT to describe an image for me. It was a stock photo of a setting like one in my book. The description wasn’t all that good, getting several major elements wrong (it’s a language AI, not a visual one), but it made me realize what parts of the image I wanted to focus on for my story.

I told ChatGPT to describe just those elements, and write a character’s reaction to entering the room. It was all wrong. Wrong point of view, wrong character voice, focusing on the wrong elements. But that was okay! It helped me refine my writing. You can see the progression here, along with what I actually ended up using:

Nailing down the description
Refining description
Seeing how it handles character voice
This sounds NOTHING like Nikolai 😆
What actually ended up in my manuscript.

This may seem time consuming, but keep in mind description is the thing I suck at. It’s also a lot faster than it looks, since I’m mostly skimming what ChatGPT gives me for stuff I can use – often just a few key phrases. The thing that takes the most work is the prompts. Revising them to get what you want also makes you think more about what you’re trying to do, which leads me to…

Brainstorming Buddy

One of the best ways to learn something is by having to explain it to someone else. Programmers use this method to debug code they’ve written – by explaining it to an inanimate object like a rubber duck. It’s called rubber duck debugging.

Professional developer and software engineer sitting at desk and working, he is checking the code and debugging — Seriously.

While it’s great to bounce ideas off other people, sometimes you need someone right now to help you work through a problem. This is the best use I’ve found for ChatGPT. Even if you can’t use the ideas it gives you, the act of refining prompts to get a better response makes you consider why you can’t use its suggestion, which often leads you to the right answer.

For instance, I recently used it to help me getter a better sense of a new character.

Prompt 1: I have an adolescent character who recently lost his mother to cancer. What are some ways that a twelve year old would react to losing a parent?

ChatGPT gave me a list seven different ways a child might react. I chose one.

Prompt 2: Expand on number 3 – relief that the parent is no longer suffering. The child is Christian and relatives have been telling him that his mother is in a better place.

The response was remarkably touching. ChatGPT gave advice on how to help the child, saying “It is important for the child to have open and honest conversations with trusted adults, such as family members, friends, or a counselor, about their feelings and beliefs. They may also find solace in activities that allow them to express their grief, such as writing in a journal, creating artwork, or participating in a support group.”

I can see why so many people are turning to ChatGPT for therapy.

Prompt 3: What if the child’s father is especially withdrawn? The child’s father joins a religious cult shortly after the mother’s death, and does not know how to express his feelings of loss or comfort his child.

If the child's father is withdrawn and has joined a religious cult after the mother's death, this can be an extremely challenging situation for the child. The child may feel like they have lost both parents, as their father may not be able to provide the emotional support and comfort they need during this difficult time.

It's important for the child to know that they are not alone, and that there are other adults in their life who care about them and are available to provide support. This could include other family members, close friends, or a counselor or therapist. These individuals can help the child process their emotions and provide a safe and supportive environment for them to express their grief.

If the father is open to it, it may be helpful for him to attend counseling or therapy as well. This could provide him with the tools and strategies he needs to process his own grief and better support his child. It's also important to encourage open communication between the child and their father, so that the child feels heard and understood, and the father can better understand the child's needs.

Ultimately, it's important to remember that grief is a complex and individual process, and there is no "right" or "wrong" way to grieve. The child and their father may need different strategies and resources to help them cope with their loss, and it's important to be patient and understanding as they navigate this difficult time. — And my dad called ChatGPT rude. 🙄

At this point I had to remind ChatGPT that this is fiction. We authors like to traumatize our characters.

Prompt 4: Remember these are characters in a story. Therapy is not an option, and the extended family and friends are also members of the cult. How might the child react to being in such a hard situation, with no one to turn to?

It talked about the resilience of kids and again listed ways that the child might cope with their grief.

Prompt 5: In the story, the child begins to develop magic. A witch offered to train him, but the child is skeptical of this, having grown up hearing that magic is evil. How long might it take before the child snaps and runs away to join the witch? What might be a catalyst for such a drastic decision?

There was more to this prompt, which I’m not including to avoid spoilers. The response was incredibly kind and helpful. Again, I can see why so many people are using ChatGPT for therapy.

i know you're just an ai but this is incredibly fucking helpful. thank you

ChatGPT
You're welcome! As an AI language model, I'm programmed to provide useful and informative responses. I'm glad I could be of assistance to you. If you have any more questions or if there's anything else I can help you with, feel free to ask!

Getting Past the Blank Page

This is what helped my son. You can’t revise a blank page. Staring at a wall of white and a blinking cursor can be intimidating. Some people just need a springboard to get started.

If you’re still on the fence about using ChatGPT, I highly recommend you give it a try. You’ll be glad you did.

Author Burnout or Autistic Burnout?

November 4, 2021 by valneilbooks

I’ve been in autistic burnout for two years. It took me a while to realize that’s what it was, because author burnout is a thing too. I was struggling to work on my book and figured it must be author burnout. But none of the suggestions for getting out of author burnout worked for me.

Authors get burned out by doing too much work. Indie publishing is hard — we have to wear all the hats associated with a small publishing business, because that’s what we are. There is writing, but there’s also working with cover artists, editing, newsletters, marketing and ad copy. A lot of writers hate all but the writing, but I actually enjoy them as they’re part of my special interest.

Then there is the constant need to produce. It’s all about the backlist — how many books you have in your catalog. More books equals more income, but it takes time to put out that work. Some authors use a rapid release model and push themselves to write a book a month (or more). While some authors can keep up that pace, many can’t and end up slipping into burnout.

When I looked at author burnout recommendations, it was all stuff like refill your creative well (read, travel, watch movies), hire an assistant, offload what you can, and don’t push yourself to write at a pace you can’t sustain.

Yeah, none of that worked for me.

Unlike neurotypicals, autistics get energy from our special interests and get super stressed when we can’t do them. I wasn’t writing too much; I wasn’t writing at all. And it was killing me.

I thought maybe it was just the stress of 2020 and everything that was going on in the world. That certainly fed into it, but I expected things to get better after the election and after the vaccine came out. It didn’t. Even when I stopped homeschooling for the summer, things didn’t get better. If anything it got worse because now I had all this free time and couldn’t do anything with it. I couldn’t focus on my book at all.

I tried again to refill my creative well. I set my book aside without guilt and watched movies and TV shows. After month I still wasn’t feeling better. Another month, same thing.

What the hell was happening to me?

Thing is, while some of my external anxieties around politics and covid were reduced, I still had massive stressors at home. The kids bickered constantly, or else they came in and interrupted me. Interruptions are brutal on autistics, and I was getting them nonstop. My executive function isn’t great, but it’s better than anyone else’s in the household, which means a lot of the small duties fall to me. With everyone home all the time they were piling up. Taking a weekend away did nothing, because all the demands and stressors were there when I came back. Except now they were magnified because I had stuff to catch up on since I’d been gone. It was death by a thousand cuts.

I really didn’t start to see a light at the end of the tunnel until the kids went back to school. Since my husband works from home now he’s been handling the morning shift so I can sleep in. I finally have some semblance of control over my schedule and far fewer interruptions. I’m able to work it again, though it’s still hard to get back into the headspace.

I’m not out of the woods yet and feel like I’m walking on a razor thin edge over a bottomless pit of despair. I make dinner for the kids but I can’t make dinner for myself. I cook a big batch of eggs at the beginning of the week so I don’t have to make breakfast every day. I’ve been leaving the pan in the sink to soak. Normally I’d wash the dish same day, but these days it sits there for a week until I need to use it again. This is something my husband used to do that drove me nuts. Now I’m the one doing it. I see it there and know it needs cleaned but can’t muster the energy to do it.

The kids being back in school comes with its own demands. There’s all the stuff surrounding my son and his IEP which I can’t avoid, but there’s also little crap like spirit days and book fairs and homework. Book fairs are fun — we always do that — but I always skip things like spirit days and I told my youngest I don’t care she does her homework. I’m cutting back where I can and focusing on the things that actually need doing. I’m trying to be easy on myself about this.

I’m working on Dark Mind again. It’s causing an undue amount of stress not to have it finished. Again, we autistics get energy from our special interests. I can’t move forward in the series until this is done, which is why am so stressed about it. I’m hoping to have this current revision done by the end of the year, although that might be a pipe dream. I was planning to hire a sensitivity reader for part of it, but I’ve been revising for two years now and the thought of having to do major revisions again terrifies me. I may be stressing over nothing as I try to do my research, but the worry is there. I don’t know that I can handle any more at this point. I just need it done and off my plate.

Don’t know where I’m going with this, except to say that I’m doing my best and hope to recover soon. Keeping myself afloat as best I can. Getting my special interest fix in ways that don’t stress me out as much — writing newsletters, interacting with fans, and writing

How To: Beta Readers

April 29, 2020 by valneilbooks

What are they?

People who read your polished manuscript (do not send them your shitty first draft) and give you feedback. Ideally they should be readers, NOT other writers, though that can be harder to come by.

How many do you need?

Depends on where you are in your writer journey. If you’re a newbie, you’re going to need more, and likely several different rounds. Make sure you’re using critique partners first to get your errors under control.

Don’t Use People You Know

While it’s tempting to use friends or family, these people are generally not your target audience. They may also be reluctant to give you critical feedback. You want people who read in your genre.

Where to find them:

A call for betas should always include the genre, word count, and a hook/blurb. Use this as an opportunity to work on your ad copy. You want betas? You better have an interesting hook and blurb, especially if they aren’t writers. If you’re using Betareader.io, a mock cover (which you can make free on Canva) will help draw the eye.

If you’re looking in writer groups, it’s easier to find people willing to swap. You read theirs and they’ll read yours.

Always do a test chapter. This is to see if you’re a good fit. Sometimes they’ll never get back to you. Sometimes they’re just not giving you the kind of feedback you need. You don’t need to be sending your entire MS to every rando on the internet who asks. Test chapter first!

Finding betas that will read through the entire manuscript is the hardest part. Most will flake. Accept it. Also take it as a learning experience. If your story isn’t gripping them, especially if everyone quits reading at a certain point, that’s a red flag.

Also look for critique partners. Ideally you would do this prior to betas, but I’ve found that some critique partners, especially those who aren’t good at prose or grammar, are outstanding with emotion and story structure, making them great betas.

Working with Betas

This really depends on your style. If you’re not very good at self-organization, I recommend using a service like BetaReader.io, BetaBooks.co, or StoryOrigin. You absolutely don’t need to use these, but they do help collate all the information you receive.

If you’re working with other writers, Google docs is the way to go. You post your chapters and they comment (this is also how I work with critique partners). This way even if they don’t finish, you’ll see what progress they’ve made until that point. If you’re emailing them Word docs, you may never know where you lost them.

I try to keep my betas separate, because I don’t want one reader’s opinion to influence another’s. This means separate document files for each beta. Is it more work? Hell yes, but that’s how I roll.

If they’re readers, not writers, they may balk at reading a google or word doc. For some, a PDF or ereader file may be preferable, though you probably won’t get in-line comments back.

Asking Beta Reader Questions

You can google a bunch of lists on what specifically to ask betas. Make sure you tailor them to your own needs, and also keep in mind that you’re going to have diminishing returns if you ask too many questions. Keep it concise.

I like to check in with specific questions, like after a pivotal moment or after act 1, 2, or 3 because each of these will have a different feel. If you wait until the very end of the book to ask all your questions, people may not remember how they felt at the end of the first chapter, or the end of act 1.

Your questions at the beginning of the book can focus a lot on how the reader feels about the main character, setting, and if they’re engaged enough to continue. Your questions at the end can focus on whether they felt satisfied with the ending, whether they felt hooked for the sequel (if there is one), and whether anything was left unresolved.

If you’re new, I strongly recommend having multiple rounds of betas. Sometimes the issues in your book are so big that that’s all people will see. Fixing stuff and then asking for new input will allow betas to focus on different things. For instance, in my first round of betas I wanted to know how people felt about my characters. In later drafts, I already knew how they felt, so I dropped the questions relating to character and focused on other issues.

Evaluating the Feedback

If one person says something, it may just be their opinion. If three people say it, you need to take a serious look.
Look for places where people stopped reading or slowed down. They may have gotten busy, but they may have gotten bored. My earlier drafts of my first book lost a lot of people in the middle. Turns out my throughline sucked.
Does this person read your genre? (Ideally, yes. If not, take their advice with a grain of salt.)
If you get praise, screenshot that shit and save it somewhere in a file for when you need a pick-me-up.
It is NOT the job of betas to offer suggestions on how to fix something. That’s your job.
It’s not the job of betas to hunt for typos (though some will). This is what critique partners, editors, and proofreaders are for.
If a beta doesn’t give much feedback, feel free not to use them again, especially if you’re doing a swap. Quality feedback matters. If someone does nothing but sing your praises, they’re a shitty beta. You want someone who can point out the good and the bad. The object is to improve your work, not get validation.

Selling Your Villain Protagonist

January 22, 2020 by Val Neil

When I first wrote my book, I began with a flash forward that set up my main character as a calculating cult leader who manipulated his followers into sacrificing themselves for a cause. It did a great job of establishing my character and my critique partners loved it. Unfortunately, fantasy alpha readers didn’t. It took place too far in the future for them to care, and the tone (dark and brooding) was vastly different from the rest of the book.

I cut the flash forward, but I was left with a chapter 1 that was never designed to introduce Nikolai with the same level of depth. Lacking the flash forward, alpha readers of my chapter 1 consistently had questions about Nikolai’s character. Why was he like this? What was his tragic back story? And why did he care so much about learning black magic? All valid questions (Except the last one. You really have to ask why a young guy wants to make things explode? Quite frankly, I am astounded how many people ask this. It’s like asking why young men like Call of Duty or Halo.), but not something I could address so early in the book. If I had a traditional protagonist, someone more empathetic, readers would probably be willing to wait a few chapters for those answers. But I don’t have a traditional protagonist.

I have a psychopath.

I attempted to correct the characterization issue by writing a new introduction that hung a flag on it. I started with a paragraph that was the core philosophy of my character, and spent the next page and a half trying to connect that one paragraph to my inciting incident. I ended up with something very similar to the introduction to one of my favorite books, The Princess Bride (at least the “story” part of the book). It opens with a series of comical vignettes that have little to do with the story, but do an excellent job establishing tone and setting expectations. This book is going to be funny, it screams.

My opening was much the same, with a very in-your-face vignette of Nikolai’s activities when he first arrived in Haven. The way I saw it, this segment had one job—announce loud and clear to the reader that this book unapologetically starred a villainous protagonist—and for that it was very effective. The new intro got a lot of gasps and laughs over Nikolai’s over-the-top behavior, and readers stopped asking me why he was the way he was.

The new intro also won me a few super fans, people in my beta reader pool who tore through the book in a matter of days and were super pumped to read the next. These readers loved the introduction, describing it as unique, funny, and refreshingly to the point. I know exactly what they mean, because I dig that kind of opening too.

If you know anything about storytelling, you’ll know at this point things take a turn.

I began shopping around for editors, which includes sending a sample of your first chapter. One editor mentioned my intro might have too much narrative and suggested I break it up a bit with dialogue. Two others said it had too much exposition that, while “essential,” should be weaved into the story elsewhere. Most of my exposition was irrelevant to the story, existing for the sole purpose of building character in that intro, so their suggestions that I move it elsewhere weren’t particularly helpful. At that point, it should just be cut.

One of the things I’ve heard in writing is that “If one person says something, that’s their opinion. If three people say it, you should take it under advisement.” While not all the editors brought up these issues, at least three did, and editors know a hell of a lot more than the average critique partner. Still, I wanted to see what readers thought. I did the logical thing and posted in several Facebook groups asking for beta readers for chapter one. I included three questions:

Does the chapter pull you along from start to finish?
Did you find it infodumpy?
Should it start where it is, or begin at the inciting incident (the letter)?

Eighteen people responded and nine followed through. I tracked them on a spreadsheet because that’s how I roll. As you can see below, the majority were less than impressed and found it a bit too infodumpy (though there’s another superfan on the end there).

Disappointed, I rewrote the intro, making it much shorter and more traditional. It had none of the humor or tone setting of the previous version. I sent it to my editor, and she said it was much better.

They say that if you’re ever caught in indecision, you can flip a coin to find out how you really feel. If the result you get makes you feel relieved, then that’s what you should go with. If the result makes you feel disappointed, then you know to pick the other one. Either way, you know

The rewrite ate at me constantly. I could see why it was technically better, but I didn’t like it. My fans didn’t like it. I tried to figure out a way to combine the two and came up with nothing. I made a list of the pros and cons of the original opening.

Pros:

Voice
Character
Humor

Cons:

Too long
Too much exposition
Needed better transition

The third con in particular caught my eye. Looking back at my beta reader responses, several people called it choppy and disjointed. I knew the transition between the intro and the inciting incident was bad. Could that be fixed?

Then I got a late response from one of the readers. Did I still want input? I sent her the new, gutted version my editor had liked, and got the questions once again.

Right back where I started. The second of these was in response to a line that had previously gotten laughs with many readers. Without the intro, the joke hadn’t landed. It was frustrating as hell. It had been so long (over a year) since my alpha readers, that I’d forgotten this was the why I’d done the villainous intro sequence in the first place.

Out of curiosity, I tossed her the old version to see what she thought.

BAM. She immediately sees the necessity of that opening paragraph, the one that gives Nikolai’s core philosophy in life. She laughed three times with the old introduction, and suddenly she was praising my characterization. She went from calling Nikolai “nasty” to complaining that he didn’t go far enough and kill a guy.

To her credit, the she pointed out some issues with my intros that could be addressed. I banged out the third version that solved the problems and sent it back to my readers. The response was lackluster. Basically, “better than version 2, but still not as good as version 1.” I wasn’t sold on version 3 either. It had characterization, but lacked humor and tone.

I went back to my villainous intro, gutted all extraneous exposition, added dialogue to break up the narrative a bit, and fixed the transition (I hope). Then I sent it to a trusted reader and he recommended even more places where it could be tightened.

So here I am, back with my unabashedly villainous introduction. It won’t appeal to as many readers, but it should appeal to the right readers.

The End of NaNoWriMo

November 29, 2019 by Val Neil

NaNo is coming to a close soon. I normally have a pretty regular schedule for my writing. This month is been go go go the whole time. On the one hand, I’m up to chapter 26, but I’ve been neglecting this blog and my critique partners. I can’t wait to take a bit of a break.

I recently bought Dragon Naturally Speaking and that has helped me get words out faster. That said, I’m now working with chapters that were originally written for book 1, so most of what I’m doing is editing/rewriting to fit the new timeline. Dictation isn’t quite as good for that. It’s much better for just a rough draft getting the story out. I’m using it to write this right now, allowing me to look away from my screen and focus on my fidget. It’s pretty cool, and I’ll have to make a blog post about it when I have more time.

I just wanted to get something up right now. So I thought I’d give you a sneak peek of my chapter titles for book 2. Some of these are placeholders and some of them might change.

working chapter titles

If you’re still working on NaNo and you’re not close to hitting the 50K, remember that it’s about building daily writing habits. Whatever you’ve written this month, that’s more than you had when you started. Keep plugging away. I hope to have my first draft of book 2 finished by the end of December. That means I will have written book 2 in two and half months. Book one, because I had no idea what the fuck I was doing, took seven months.

My Drafting Process

November 11, 2019 by Val Neil

There are a few different ways I write scenes. The method here is when inspiration strikes, not when I’m specifically sitting down to craft a scene.

Crafting

When I’m inspiration writing, I tend to start with straight dialogue. Some people struggle with dialogue, but for me, the character interactions are what make the scene. I have a movie playing in my head of the characters talking, so I just write that down.

If I’m super busy, sometimes I’ll dictate to my notepad on my phone and email it to myself. This means I’ll have snippets of dialogue, often with no quotation marks or indications of who is speaking (though from the voices, it’s usually very clear), let alone setting. The scene building is generally done later, unless I’m writing in order and starting a scene “from scratch.”

Below will be some excerpts from book 2 that I’m working on. Please be advised that they contain major spoilers from book 1, and minor spoilers for book 2.

SPOILERS AHEAD!

[Read more…] about My Drafting Process