Storytelling with AI (Part II)

Part I explained some examples of the AI tools I use to create stories and accompanying art. It’s a disjointed process, as neither category of these AI tools can do both (yet). For text, you need to use a language model-based chatbot and for images, an art-generator app.

Language model-based chatbots are unique because they can write computer code, movie/video scripts, essays, blog and social media posts – and much more.

As a writer, I immediately saw the benefits of AI in my craft. For example, there was a short story I’d been working on (and then set aside) for years. I just couldn’t come up with an ending. I copied and pasted a summarized version into ChatGPT and asked it to “finish the story.” It did! And I was impressed.

The user interface of every AI generator I’ve used to date is rather underwhelming: A narrow Google-like text box. This suggests that concise prompts are encouraged – but I’ve used as many as 1,500 words for both ChatGPT (mainly for testing purposes). Hoolock limits entries to 1,000 characters, which is about 250 words.

ChatGPT

Hoolock

ChatGPT and Hoolock offer some suggestions to get started if you are new to these AI tools. But I use them a bit differently.

After work (and a cold beverage), I sometimes get an idea for a short story in my head that – without AI – I’d jot down for later consideration. But with AI at my fingertips, would it kill me to spend 30 seconds entering the idea into one of my two new creative tools? No!

This morning I wrote the following introduction to a fictional account of a fishing boat that was being overtaken by a storm:

The small fishing boat bobbed violently as the choppy waves kicked up by the hurricane continued to pummel the ship. Counter to his best efforts to outrun the tempest, the mighty storm was overtaking the two-man craft.

“Secure the nets, Mr. Schmitt!” Capt. Pauly shouted to his first mate. “We’ve no choice but to ride this out to the end!”

I titled it “Capt. Pauly’s Plight.” This is what a plugged into ChatGPT:

If you want to know how this tale ends, visit my blog – ChatGPT picked up where I left off here!

I then used what I had written along with a paragraph or two that ChatGPT contributed and pasted that text into Hoolock. Here’s the art that popped out the other end:

While I donated this piece to support “disaster relief,” I took a screen grab of just the image to use in my blog post. I took the liberty of doing so since I’m the author – but soon, the founders of Hoolock will make it possible to link the image back to their site for purchase considerations. It’s on the roadmap, they told me!