Writing Fiction With AI: ChatGPT and Google Bard

foreign [Music] here we are how to write a novel using AI mainly chat GPT although I've been given access to Bard this week so I thought I would try that out as well so far this is the fourth video in the series of writing a novel a Gothic horror novel using chap GPT and chat GPT has come up with the the setting the characters and we're using Blake Snyder's save the cat format to structure the novel I also refer to some other writing there's a guy called Jordan Rosenfeld who wrote a book called making a scene and a refer to that as well so we've now got to the point where the first thing I thought we needed was a proper title so I asked both chat GPT and a Bard to come up with titles for this Gothic horror novel they come up with some really corny stuff but eventually I think um with a bit of intervention we get into it and I think the key lesson from this is I'm having to intervene more in it it is still 95 AI but there is some little prompt I'm doing a bit more pushing and leading questions so previously I was just letting it kind of get away with itself and suggest things completely from its own imagination if AI has an imagination and I continued doing that in the main but sometimes I had to prompt it a little so um it came up with some really interesting new plot elements that I hadn't thought of which seemed to be foreshadowing and I'm like well what are you foreshadowing chat GPT and of course it doesn't know but it leads me to kind of steer my questions to follow up on the foreshadowing so I think we get some kind of interesting hints it does a bit too much telling rather than showing we have a lot of you'll see this we have a lot of inner ruminations and feelings described uh which probably will need to edit out but in the end we get about um I I do a first scene and a pre-seen bass as you see the process and that we ended with about 3 000 words and it's not terrible it isn't terrible at all I did stop using bad because basically I didn't use as good as Chad jpt so I'm gonna do another um little video because these are quite fun on chat GPT versus bad to write completely different type of story I think I'll do a science fiction story so we'll see what you think then about that but um in in the meantime let's just crack on and see how it was so the first thing we need is I've been calling it The French Chateau so I thought I'll tell you what let's have some let's have some titles and it gave me 10 which were fairly bad they said oh give me another 10. no they're all fairly bad fairly fairly corny so then I actually say to it can you be more creative and less corny and it gives me 10 very very corny very awful titles and I think okay let's let's it can take on personas so let's take the Elizabeth Gaskell famous um Victorian novelist the shadows of Chateau Clairemont okay how about Charlotte Bronte shadows in the shadow a tale of mystery and darkness how about Bram Stoker the shadow of nightmares he's getting more to my taste and I think okay how about old Howard Phillips Lovecraft The Haunting of Shadow Claremont unfathomable Terrors from Beyond well fairly fairly lovecraftian okay so I'm not getting very far with this so the best of a bad Bunch but it's still not right then there's that famous French decadent writer JK houseman's the decadent domain of Claremont a Gothic tale beyond the limits of Reason a shadow of nightmares the occult forces of Claremore A Tale of Terror and Obsession I still don't like them then what about the great French decadent poet Charles the dark secrets of the Chateau the flowers of evil the curse of the Clermont family Chateau in the depths of the Chateau a Gothic story of forbidden desires I think that's a completely different genre of book but I quite like the flowers of evil I know it's the title of his book but the shadow of evil flowers no how about the shadow of dark flowers I'm still not liking it chat GPT then I take on the Persona the Persona of a marketing professional at a big publishing company whose job it is to create compelling book titles that will sell the book because remember we want to actually Market this story and it comes up with some which aren't awful but they're not great either the curse of the declaremonts are gothic Tale in the shadows of Shadow Clermont the midnight secrets of Chateau clema again different kind of book The Haunting of Chateau Claremont the secrets of the declarements A Tale of Gothic horror then I suggest that how about the flowers of evil Gothic Horror Story that could work as a title adding a Gothic Horror Story helps to give readers a better idea of what to expect from the book now the important thing is here this is me suggesting it this is not come from it suggests Echoes of the past the curse of Chateau de Clement uh shadow of nightmares and it's coming up with some I don't know what you think of them but if we sell this book to somebody and I think it's gonna be like a true paranormal and explained and it isn't I know from past mistakes that they will boom that even if it's a good the most it will give you is three stars even if they really enjoyed it because it's not what they wanted so I've had that oh it's a good story but it's not what I wanted three stars and I'll pause it down um we have a bit of a chat now chat GTP I say I wonder if it'll sound like it's a true crime type of story and they she she she oh uh how about the blooms of malevolence A Tale of Terror shattered to Claremont it still incorporates the floral element I think it's missing the point of these flowers that it's a reference to baudler and they're evil floral so I go no no no no it's gonna be the flowers of evil a Gothic Horror Story it sounds like a great title cause mommy as ever good luck with your writing thank you and then that's bad what it thinks bad can you suggest a title for a Gothic novel set in the decaying French Chateau in dense woodlands where a dark sin has been committed in the past the year of 1790. can we try something in the style of Charles baudelaire and it gives me I think you missed the point here the darks in The Woodlands of sin the sin of 1790 these are Dreadful aren't they so I'm gonna try and taunt it a little I say I quite like the shadow of Secrets but chat GPT suggested the shadow of nightmares based on your knowledge of copywriting again trying to provoke a knowledgeable expert Viewpoint and conversion rates because it's really important we want to sell the thing can you come up with a title like these which conveys Gothic French decadent Supernatural here we go I like the way that Bard doesn't pretend to write it like chat gp2 which takes ages it just thinks and then dumps these are titles created by a I wish they would stop being this puritanical nannies these good good it's not for children dude back to Adele so let's remind ourselves about Adele this is her background she's a woman from the 18th century low middle class she's a governess this is chat GPT uh she carries herself with Grace and dignity so we know who she is and we've also got a picture of her so this picture was generated by mid-journey so I ask it to re do the chat GPT I've given up with bad I I remind you and it of the backstories it kind of Forgotten but we talk about it's heated said that it was a sibling who'd drowned it wasn't me said that so I remember that and it remembers now oh according to that conversation was the loss of a younger sibling who drowned in a river this event I apologize you are correct I did so it did say that but it forgot it said it so I had to remind it but even so it reminded it remembered eventually then we look at plotton if you remember that chat GPT according to the framework from save the cat had generated the First Act scenes and the first one is of course the arrival of Adel Dupont dropped off by coach and has to walk the hallway to the Chateau so I referred to Jordan rosenfeld's book making a scene and I asked it well you know according to that setup that framework what kind of a scene is it and it says oh it's an arrival scene so I say what is an arrival scene and according to Jordan Rosenfeld the arrival scene is the character establishes the character's viewpoint the setting in the atmosphere of the new environment the characters and relationships that the protagonist will encounter and the main conflict or problem that the protagonist will face so that's the job of the arrival scene so let's get to it I we know what's happening right away so here's chat GPT writing the first 200 words of the scene now I'm not going to quote the whole thing because it eventually writes quite a lot of words as Adele stepped off the coach she felt the sense of une settle in the pit of her stomach the journey from Paris had been long and tiring and now she found herself standing alone on the side of the road with nothing but the dense Woodlands stretching out before her she had been told that the Chateau was just a short walk up the long winding drive but the tree seemed to Lumen around her creating a sense of claustrophobia that made it difficult to breathe taking a deep breath Adele lifted her chin and set off down the narrow path that led up to the Chateau the gravel crunch beneath her feet as she walked and the trees rustled ominously in the breeze she couldn't help but feel that she was being watched that eyes were following her every move from the Shadows of the forest not bad says I and then I'm actually getting quite intrigued what happened so I I say please ramp up the gothic suspenser right a bit more and we have a scene where somebody answers the door and the woman who answers the door and he doesn't tell us who the woman who answers the door and then it seems to have forgotten about Genevieve the female woman so I cut and paste what it's already told me about her character it apologizes it is Genevieve all right there we are so now I want to know the interaction between the two of them and how that works because we want a bit of conflict for drama don't we that's what we're looking for drama is built on conflict so we imagine Adele's had this long walk which has created that feeling of suspense and apprehension like we she is our Avatar we feel if it works well if the if the computer can write if the AI can write it we feel as the character feels as a protagonist feels we care about them it's Robert McKee if we don't care about them there is no tension but I care about her actually fully enough I'm there in her shoes so as we go here's Genevieve now this uh little bit of a conversation she tells us not the place for the faint of heart and things like that so you know you probably wouldn't be if you're writing this and you had any uh pretensions or any literary craft you wouldn't spill the beans and be so obvious but then let's face it he said snobbishly look at the books that sell in their hundreds all these romance books and particularly these Gothic novels which were the romance novels of their time and they were um you know they weren't subtle so this stuff the descriptions I think are really good um and a very interesting thing is there's there are portraits which is good it remembers the names of the children um it's doing a lot about the apprehension of the place maybe overdoing it to be honest this is um showing rather than telling but of course the the Adele's heart begins to flutter it begins to race it's more telly and then I want to know I'm prompting it now so I'm using it as a tool are there any hints of the dark history of the Shadow and the sin of the declaremore family in ancient times that has led to the supernatural forces that work here it's told us all about this before so are there any kind of objects or things yes as Adele enters the grand hall of the Chateau she notices a large painting hanging on the wall depicting a dark-haired woman in a long flowing gown with a look of sorrow and despair on her face the painting is old and Faded with cracks running through it and it seems to emit a sense of unease and foreboding Genevieve notices Adele staring at the painting in remarks that is the Lady of the manor the Countess ailees to Claremont she met a tragic end in these Halls many years ago Adele Shivers At The Mention Of The tragedy and Genevieve continues some say her spirit still haunts these Halls seeking revenge on those who wronged her this is good and it gives us a name the County's Elise de Clermont and we don't know anything about her you know and that's pretty good so I say does Genevieve offer refreshment remember to write it as per character because she's been described as a severe and Stern person so would that person offer a refreshment turns out the Genevieve gives a cup of tea which is very nice of her she's in the sitting room there's no fire burning so that is that's nice touch it's it's not very welcoming and he she asks about her room and it's fairly Grim chat GPT now has her going to bed it's a bit early for me I want a bit more story so would she go to sleep straight away does she not eat what are her thoughts and apprehensions why isn't she introduced to the family account and the Countess and the children is there any reasons applied for that as Adele makes her way to the bedroom she can't help but feel a sense of foreboding the hallways are dimly lit and filled with shadows and the portraits on the walls seem to follow her with their eyes I don't think that's bad and I put I like that I like telling it when it's done well in the hope that it'll do better you know it's like with a dog or a horse or a person in fact he's just nice to them and then Genevieve knocks on the door in the middle of the night what everything all right my dear is she asking her deep commanding voice yes I'm fine thank you for asking what you're doing this at 2am um you're not used to this place are you well you've certainly freaked me out it takes some getting used to but you'll find it has a certain charm so Genevieve has been creepily friendly and this is a Stern woman anyway next thing happens is of course Adele falls off to sleep so I'm like does she ever dream about the place you see I'm prompting it a lot more um in the hope of getting a better result she does have a dream and this was actually really nice because it suggested she explored the shadow in a dream so it's a bit like Mandalay in Rebecca where she the first scene is she she has a vision of the dream almost of the of the old house uh and there's something about that because it's like the I maybe played too much d d but they there's too much the dream the shadow playing if you like and the real plane so she first explores the house on the shadow plane if you don't know anything about danger you won't get that but but you probably will get it because it's not that um astruse that's a good word um so she has a terrifying dream she finds herself standing at the edge of a vast and ominous Forester trees casting long Twisted Shadows that seemed to reach out to her in the distance the shadow loomed dark and imposing against the moonlit sky so anyway forces pulls it Forward she is a faint Whispering she's completely alone it's all been a dream but if also real but I this is so it's Rewritten it's forgotten a bit about the mirror which is the bit I really like so I've got I liked a bit about the mirror in your earlier version can you please uh rewrite the scene to include that element what I wanted to do was to fuse the two bits the best bits and this is really cool about she's looking in the mirror and in her dream of course a cold Icy hand wraps around the ankles dragging her towards the glass and she sees a woman with dark hair and haunted expression a woman who looked just like her but was also somehow different and I really like this I don't think you'd presume you might presume the chat GPD like a real author has linked up the portrait which it created of the dark-haired woman Elise de Clermont in the past terrible sins terrible tragedies with this dark-haired woman here now that's us linking that Chachi PT as far as I'm aware he's in sentient that has no plans oh has it so it hasn't but in our we are linking I am linking it I'm thinking oh yeah is this this woman in the mirror is that the one who was in the painting because we've been introduced and she's somehow similar to Adele so I really like that and I think that's something we can work on and then we have a nice bright morning which is um actually a nice juxtaposition isn't it we've had the the grimness of the night and then we have the terrifying dream or at least the gothic dream and then we have the bright morning with the birds singing nice to have that alternation but then I'm a slightly confused between is Genevieve nice or is she not is there a Twist coming or is it just inconsistent because I think a reader will take it so far yeah what what is this severe woman being nice for which is she severe or nice uh and I think if there's a twist um and it's and so I asked it and it says well maybe Genevieve has her own ulterior motives such as wanting to keep Adele close for her own purposes It ultimately depends on the direction and I'm like well you know from what you know of books and stories in a future twist which would be the best dramatic presentation of the relationship so I'm hoping to call on its knowledge if that's the word it's database of how stories how successful stories work so is she enemy or secret Ally and then I'm like okay let's different Persona maybe I've got to prompt it into that so taking the Persona of a student of Gothic literature with a knowledge of the genre what do you think which is going to be the best the best and most dramatic and most compelling story that's what we're after isn't it as a student of Gothic literature I would say so it cavals it's both an anime Dynamic can create a lot of tension and conflict on the other hand the secret Ally Dynamic can have an element of surprise and Intrigue and can allow for interesting plot twists and Revelations and I say you're being Coy chat GPT is Genevieve an enemy or an ally just for this act one so what I'm trying to say is we may be going too far to kind of propose a future twist yet but for act one first draft what do you think and she says oh it's an action Ally whilst you may have a cold and Stern exterior her actions suggest that she genuinely wants to help Adele and ensure the children are safe this can add to the tension and Intrigue of the story so so far me is the reader and worrying about Genevieve's true intentions so then we move on to scrivener because I'm going to actually write it in scrivener so I love all my little apps you know so we plot a you can't I can't really write in plot it's good for plotting but um and then when I come to writing I'm gonna do that so I'm going to create as you can see a um novel and we know the title I'm going to put some titles in so we know the title now it's um the flowers of evil I don't know why where the flowers come in I'll have to come in at some point the flowers of evil are gothic horror story in chapter one it's a her arrival so here I'm cutting and pasting the text from chatgpt into scrivener and in this scene of her arrival and introduction to the Chateau we've got 2654 words they're not all great words but a lot of them aren't too bad I like the descriptions it's a first draft so now I kind of go through it and I say well I like the first I like this first approach um I I write my notes on the side I think well she maybe ruminates too much about her forebodings all the time she's always foreboding something we'll have to thin that and we should have more show and less tell I think we can do that in second draft and make some notes about Genevieve Genevieve's cold but also makes her tea and later knocks on the door in the middle of the night and is quite kind so what's going on there's inconsistency here from the AI it isn't keeping the character the same but then why would it it's a it's a robot so it isn't that smart IT remembers names but I don't think it remembers the depth of a character as we would you know when we remember Jim Dawson we know all sorts of things about Jim Dawson we know how we feel about Jim Dawson we know whether we can trust Jim Dawson we know whether we like him we know whether he you know he's a successful businessman he's good to his kids oh he smokes a lot of weed or whatever you know it doesn't know all these things about it why should it and the other thing I say is well you know it is not subtle this dialogue is not subtle but then you go on your best sellers of your romance list on Amazon now or anyway if you hate Amazon if anywhere and you'll see that they're not subtle either is gothic subtle going through it I thought that you know this painting if at least the Claremont that it suggested I really like that it's something it cooked up it's a it's foreshadowing it makes you think so Elise it'll remember Elise you know it'll remember the name it will remember who she is and remember about the painting but it won't go any deeper I don't think I'm starting to learn that um and then the old book that's in the library if it's an occult book which is is the suggestion why is he just sitting out there for the the servants and visitors to see that doesn't wash really so we're gonna have to work with that one the bedroom's described in two ways in the first one it's Grim in a second it's quite cozy so that that's an inconsistency that'll have to go but listen human writers do that I've done it myself probably I think unwelcoming is what we want at this point also she it there is as she's heard rumors about the Chateau so I'm kind of thinking always a bit missing here where did she hear these rumors because we've got a kind of um a chronology she has you know terrible things happen in Paris there's a terror um the French Revolution she wants to get away her sibling drowned in the river we know that she's looking for a job she needs the money she's a decent person um we know all this she but if she'd heard these terrible rumors would she really have come because remember in Dracula Jonathan Harker doesn't hear the rumors until the tavern uh before he's waiting for the stagecoach and they're all Crossing themselves and giving him crucifixes and things so where did she where did she hear about it and that gives me an idea and again I'm prompting more here and I like the mirror with the woman come out the mirror I've already spoken about that and the Hand coming grabbing her it it invented that it was not amazing but um so I I I think what we're gonna have to do is create a pre-scene um and the more I think about it the more I like it um you know and I and I am referencing Dracula because why not so I'm I've had it in my mind I'm gonna be quite prescriptive with chat GPT normally I'm going to say you know you come up with it but no no no so Adele heard whisperings of the shuttle where and it writes me this lovely piece about arriving from it isn't massively consistent so she sits nervously on the edge of the coach seat her Palms damp with sweat I don't like the way she's excited by the thought of devilry I wanted to be a bit more scared because if she's scared you might be scared if she's excited the reader will be excited we don't want excited we want um trepidation and I'm kind of remember it she arrived by coach coaches would stop at Villages so I'm having to kind of really direct this one this was not as flowing this little bit here we give it I give it a chance to do this scene again and again and it each time it comes up with a different scene similar with the tavern but it's not consistent and um unfortunately there are good bits in each so I try it to get it I say look I like that and I like that so write me a combined scene and it writes me something that's better and I'm like it's still not right I I will pick and choose and I'll kind of combine it says oh no certainly please feel to choose the part you like best now we'll incorporate them into a coherence scene so basically I cut and paste from it to try and get a coherent scene what I do is I kind of put square brackets paste one piece and open square brackets another piece close square brackets and and try and combine it like this this is just I don't know what I'm doing really but it's I'm just attempting ultimately I think we get there and we get a scene that is not fully consistent it'll need editing but it's not bad and it flows and it's a quite nice little pre scene so we get her arriving at the tavern and she hears about these rumors from the locals as I said very Dracula I think um Dracula movies like that as well so that's quite Gothic the locals the peasantry you know this very Gothic Trope there and then we get that and we create we go to scrivener and we create a pre-scene there so I create a pre-scene Within chapter one so chapter one that has two scenes in it which is the first scene which is the arrival at the uh the tavern in the French Village and where she hears rumors and then we have the scene where she walks to the um to the uh the Chateau so that scene is 2578 the arrival at the Chateau and the tavern rumors scene which is the pre-scene is 471. words so we've got three and a half thousand words all together as I said before not all great words but it's not terrible it's not it's not terrible at all I I I I must admit I was going through a period where I thought you know this is never going to be able to write a story that anybody anyone would want to read that you know you would pick it up and you would go oh I can't get through this it's trash it is a pot boiler fair enough but it's not literature but it could actually turn out to be an interesting story um but it will need editing it will need editing and I'm not sure that chat GPT can edit so it may need human editing before it's ready to go out as a you know we're a long way off that yeah one thing is it was pasted it introduces her as Adele from the start and I thought we can't have that we need to be more cinematic about it a lot of writing is Cinematic these days so I want to um I do I do it and I get it you know she's an anonymous woman at first and when she gradually becomes a Delta pong and I and I thought how am I going to do that because in a movie what you might do is you might show a not that I know about movies but you know you might show a letter or a letter of introduction so the letter is important there is a letter of introduction a letter of a contract I suppose and I suppose thematically that's not a bad image to have because it symbolizes the contract between Adele and her um her employer and the children which is a legal contract but also becomes a moral contract and that's the important part of the story that's where the meat of the story is I think that those moral choices that involve courage because remember that's the theme of this so um not not bad um it it she in the end we just plump for oh this is just a three-word you know three liner this is Adele Dupont this is a job take it from there anyway there we go flowers of evil a Gothic Horror Story it's coming together so there you are I don't know what you thought about that it's only a first draft it isn't terrible and um it is not subtle but again as I say Gothic literature isn't a subtle type of Storytelling so I think we've got something we can work with it's first draft my first drafts are always terrible anyway so why should I expect chat gpt's first draft to be perfect um it may be that chat GPT is not capable of producing a polished second draft and that's where the human input will have to come because remember my view on this is It's merely a technological tool like a camera or photoshop there have been comments suggesting I'm not correcting that but I kind of so far stick with that respectfully stick with that view so um if you want to see how the story progresses because the very interesting thing about using AI to write is that it's telling the story so I'm like a reader it's not like I know what the story is so I'm getting both the joy of creation which is always a great part of writing plus the reader's pleasure of what happens next what happens next and I don't know what happens next so I'm getting both of those things so I'm having a great time I hope you are too if you if you are please subscribe and follow along for the journey great thank you foreign [Music]

Channel: Deliberate Practice For Writers

Views: 1,602

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Id: vNGExuBR0qQ

Length: 30min 37sec (1837 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 28 2023