Confessional

My use of AI for words

When I first started writing this book, I used two double spaces after each period. I was floored when I found out that that wasn’t a thing anymore. To be honest, after my first draft of about 800 pages, I had to go back into each chapter and find a way to un-double-space my paragraphs. It was a torturous session. After that, I got Grammarly. It’s been incredibly helpful to me as I write. Whether it’s punctuation, awkward sentences, or even rephrasing a paragraph, it has been a solid tool.

However, nothing in this world should ever replace a good human. Sarah Chorn helped me not only with figuring out how to write a story, but also with giving it emotion and sticking with the plot. I had so much backstory and filler that I was so amped to write, and it all got pushed aside. If I’m successful, I’ll release these filler stories, which give extra depth to the characters.

But after Sarah worked with me, with incredible patience, I was still far from ready. I needed to figure out so much more about writing, and that’s where Claude came in. They helped me understand dialogue tags. They helped me further my understanding of head-hopping. They helped me rewrite sections that were ok, but needed tightening.

During the first edit of my book, they helped me think about how to end the first book, and after giving it some thought, I rewrote it again anyway. Yes, Claude helped A LOT. But Claude is a tool. A smart one, but a useful one.

I wouldn’t possibly even know about publishing without asking Claude.

So yes, I have fueled the AI machine. I am both thankful and regretful for it, but this book wouldn’t be here without it. I still wrote all 800 pages back in 2024, but AI helped me to improve it. Sarah helped to guide it into a better narrative. And AI helped me figure out how to publish it.

My use of AI for images

Back when I was young and naive (early 2025), I started talking to a wonderful local artist, Nicole Lemire, from New Hampshire, about doing art for the cover of my book. I had some ideas and she and I started working with sketches. Well, that was before I went through so many more edits of my book and before I spent a lot of money on line and developmental editing.

I still wanted Art to be a component of my book, so I thought I’d try doing the art myself. I was an artist 30 years ago, but never good enough to be great. I tried for months with sketches, Photoshop, and tutorials, and it was all kind of subpar. By then, we were on a super-tight budget at home, and I couldn’t afford art help, so I did a dirty thing and explored Midjourney, an AI art creator.

It was incredibly frustrating at first. It barely listened to me, and I had a hard time getting 30% of what was in my head onto the screen through prompts and massive swearing. But as I went back and forth through my iterations, I eventually figured out how to coax it to work for me. The results are the images of the characters and towns.

I am proficient in Photoshop. I have a background in graphic design and animation. My covers are created by me using the images I generated. The positioning, fonts, etc.,, are guided by my hand. I put together the covers for my book and am proud of the results.

All the maps are done by me in Inkarnate. At one point, I made the whole island of Ra, but instead opted to redo parts to make it feel more realistic. I painstakingly inserted every tree in the journey until I figured out that I could just create a whole bunch with a few different options pressed. DOH?!

So this is the sin I have to live with. I denied an artist their art on my cover so I could cover costs and make ends meet. However, if the first book sells well, Nicole is on my payroll. I would gladly ask her to create characters and work I can be proud of that support an artist who breathes air and doesn’t just consume electricity.