What Happens When You Combine Your Epic Writing Project With AI

The short answer is a helluva a lot more than you would have ever imagined!

Or, maybe if you were more cognizant of AI capabilities, you wouldn't be so surprised. In my case, it was total surprise. 

The Background: 

Readers are aware that I've been working on a fictional writing project for 12 years. As we sit here today, I am working on the 7th book in the series with approximately 2,770 pages having been written. During the course of this project characters have come and gone, they've developed, aged, had families, children have grown and become more prominent characters. We've had technology advances. And I have cycled through 3 primary villains. 

By now, I have so many different characters and potential sub-plots plus I'm at a quandary as to where to find the next big villain. I'm not quite sure where to take the series next. I had the idea of recruiting some family members who I know are creative to do a brainstorm with me.

The Problem:

Nice idea. But how to execute it? No one, no matter how much they'd like to help, is going to read almost 3 thousand pages. I needed to find a way to summarize things in a more digestible fashion. I wondered if I might use an AI tool to assist. 

The Surprise:

I posed the project to AI. It suggested that rather than simply do a summary of the contents that I allow it to do a deeper dive into the nature of the work to determine various themes that might allow determination of the future writing. I said okay. What then transpired was two hours of work where AI, working with just the first book of the series did an analysis and organization that was far beyond anything I would have thought of. 

It was interesting to (in its own words) allow it to be a 'new reader' without any of my knowledge and see what it came up with. I was able to redirect it during the process, not by correcting its analyses, but by indicating that it needed to go deeper into some of the chapters or look further on in the book. (I've found that my AI tool is a bit lazy and likes to 'skim' things and then start making conclusions. However, once I indicate a different trajectory to follow, it changes direction and then changes the analysis.)

Where We are At:

This was what AI told me was what we'd accomplished so far for just the first book.

"Current State of the Errev Project

If I were writing a project status report, it would look something like this:

Completed

✅ Book One Foundation Analysis

✅ World Structure Analysis

✅ Development Model

✅ Legacy Model

✅ Story Engine Analysis

✅ Character Registry (Draft)

✅ Transformation Map (Draft)

✅ Founder Legacy Matrix

✅ Endgame Analysis

✅ Complete Tension Map"

Here is where we are going next.

"Next Recommended Work Session

When we resume, I recommend we start with:

Definitive Book One Character & Relationship Registry

This will create:

• Character database
• Family structures
• Mentorship structures
• Friendship networks
• Political alliances
• Romantic relationships
• Successor relationships"

 There is more but I won't bore you with all that detail.

I am very much looking forward to seeing where this process leads.