Previously, I've made all of my Friday Fiction posts about writing, when I've posted excerpts from some of my fiction. Starting today, however, my Friday Fiction posts will also be about the process of writing: my thought processes, my ideas, and the tools that I use to help with the story.
We'll see how it goes.
For the past couple of weeks, I've been reading my manuscript for Dark Water more than I've been writing. It's my first crime novel and I want to make sure it's a good one, and so I want to make sure that I have covered even the smallest of details.
And, I'm almost reluctant to say, I've been relying on AI to make sure that I don't forget anything.
Before I even wrote the Prologue, which sets up the overall arc under which the story follows, I created a spreadsheet that outlined the story, from the discovery of a body until the killer is found. And then, after getting this bare-boned story outlined, I started filling the spreadsheet with 'meat' (yes, I'm going to use this metaphor again), giving background information and adding layers to the characters and plot.
I'm finding that, unlike any other novel I've written before (hey, did you know that this is the seventh book I've written? I'll share that story another time), a crime story is incredibly complex. Even my spy stories that I had written, decades ago, weren't this complicated. (And maybe, that's why I never tried to have them published.)
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| Calloway & Hayes, by ChatGPT. |
I have a victim. I have suspects. I have red herrings. And I have two detectives who I'm not only trying to flesh out, with background stories and depth, but I'm also trying to have them solve the murder from a perspective where they going in, knowing little, while I try to not give too much away because I know everything.
At least I know almost everything. Every so often, I encounter a new arc in the story that I hadn't initially thought about, and I have to follow it.
The other week, I realized that I wasn't keeping track of all of the evidence, and so I had to create another spreadsheet to track it, with columns that tell me whether that evidence is actually useful for the case or it's irrelevant.
It's tough.
So, I've been writing less and reading more, checking what I've written and listing the evidence. I have a feeling that I'll have read this story dozens of times before it's done.
Because I have no background in law or in police procedures, I've been doing a lot of research. Google has been fine for a lot of fact finding, but because my story is fictitious, I need to know if it stands up to what I glean from facts of law and what might make for good reading.
And for that, I've turned to AI.
What I've started doing is giving ChatGPT breakdowns of the story, typing summaries of the plot, and asking it if it makes sense. I know that the AI programming is meant to give praise, and it's pretty good at stroking my ego. But it also does tell me if what I've written is realistic, from a legal standpoint and from a hypothetical one.
For example (and, hopefully, without giving anything away), I've provided the AI a scenario that the detectives are playing out, trying to piece together the final moments before the murder against an alibi, and coming up with a couple of plausible explanations. I then ask ChatGPT if the suppositions are realistic.
Sometimes, it says no. Legally, the scenario wouldn't hold up and I'm given parts of the Canadian Criminal Code to prove it (and yes, I'll independently confirm that section of the code through a Google search).
Because ChatGPT knows I'm writing fiction, it sometimes says no, from a legal point of view, but says for dramatic effect, in fiction, there's a way to make it believable. However, most of the time it comes up with rule-bending ideas that just don't fit with the story that I'm telling—and make no mistake, this is my story, not ChatGPT's story.
When the AI confirms that my ideas are realistic, it does provide information about what the detectives need to do to follow that line of inquiry. And it's that kind of information that I put into my spreadsheet.
Lest I forget.
Yes, Dark Water is my work of fiction. I'm the only writer. But ChatGPT is almost like an editor that reminds me to include information that will make my story more believable and interesting to a reader, and I'm glad that I have this tool to use.
Of course, like any tool, it only makes my job easier. I can focus on the storytelling and it will keep me on course for the overall arc.
And when I'm done, I will use a real person to do the important editing of the whole story. AI should help us do a job and should never do the whole job for a person.
A friend, who also writes murder mysteries, told me that I should befriend a cop to hash out the story and get factual information, and I just might do that. But for now, I'll let ChatGPT do that. I may be a novice police-procedural writer but I've been writing fiction for more than 40 years.
I'll trust my instinct. Wish me luck.
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