|
|
|
|
|
From: guest (CAS)
, 1 months, post #81 |
For fans, Alan Barrie has a new novel available on Amazon. No real
magic in it: it's a fairly typical romance: except one of the
characters is transitioning MTF with the support of her boyfriend.
So, it is the descriptions of how they negotiate intimacy during
and after the transition that is both explicit and actually very
interesting. Title is HEATHER MORNING. Author is the same as A
WOMAN'S PASSION, Alan Barrie. Free if you are a Kindle Unlimited
subscriber.
|
|
From: guest (Peter)
, 29 days, post #82 |
The new one, HEATHER MORNING, is, IMO, the weakest of Alan Barrie's
four books. Barrie's long introduction explaining how he usec Grok
to help write and illustrate it is pretty interesting though.
He never seemed to be able to get back to the quality of A WOMAN'S
PASSION.
|
|
From: guest
, 29 days, post #83 |
It's because he went to using AI as a crutch instead of an
assistant. It translates to power quality. If you read a lot it's a
bit of a turn off. May as well use Chat GPT yourself
|
|
From: guest (CAS)
, 24 days, post #84 |
Okay! In my defense, I disclosed in all of my HEATHER MORNING's
promotional materials that I used Grok AI to help write it. I even
listed Grok as a co-author on the title page and in my Amazon
description page. In fact, I explain in the book's introduction the
process I used. (I'll try to copy the Foreword in below for your
reference.) And I don't claim it is as good as my classic A WOMAN'S
PASSION. But, several readers have written to me at
alanbarrie@yahoo.com to tell me how much they like it and
especially its illustrations. And it is, by far, the most explicit
book I've ever written. (Actually it was Grok who pushed the more
explicit scenes because, Grok argued to me, how post-op
transgendered woman experiences sex is under-reported, so Grok
argued, we should make an exception on "our" novel.)
Unfortunately this copy-in of the foreword is a little harder to
read because it is raw, unformatted text..
Foreword
I am an AI amateur. In fact, this is my first AI-aided creative
project. So, I hope that my readers can enjoy this novel in three
ways, as follows:
1. I hope they find it a good read;
2. I hope they find this portrayal of an MTF experience
illuminating; and
3. I hope they find it interesting to see what happens when an AI
amateur writes a novel using AI for the first time.
As context, I am a middling successful novelist of straight
subjects under another name.
And I am a quite successful novelist in the narrow milieu of
crossdressing and transgender stories under the name Alan Barrie.
(My A WOMAN’S PASSION is, I believe, generally regarded as one of
the classics of the genre.)
Usually, my novels of either type take me months, or even years, to
write. So, the first thing of interest is that Grok and I
collaborated and completed the text of this novel in 9 working
days.
And then Grok and I collaborated on at least one illustration for
each of HEATHER MORNING’s 19 chapters in another six working days.
So, this illustrated novel was produced in three weeks.
The text process worked like this:
• First, I gave Grok an eight-paragraph description of the whole
novel story arc.
• Then I gave Grok a one-paragraph description of what happens in
Chapter One.
• Then Grok wrote Chapter One.
• Then I edited Grok’s Chapter One, uploaded my edited version to
Grok, and wrote and uploaded a one-paragraph description of why I
made the changes I made (“my edit rationale”). So, Grok had its own
first version of the Chapter, my version, and my edit rationale as
reference. Grok did not try to argue back. It simply accepted by
version of Chapter One and “locked it in.”
• Then, we went on to Chapter 2: again, I gave Grok a one paragraph
description of what happens in Chapter Two.
• Then Grok wrote Chapter Two.
• Then I edited Grok’s Chapter Two, uploaded my version of Chapter
Two, and wrote a one-paragraph edit rationale; and told Grok to
“lock in” my version of Chapter Two.
The process went on that way for a further seventeen chapters until
the novel was completed. As each chapter was written, of course,
the overall story arc evolved. For that reason, many times, the
creative process called for going back and making some minor
changes to most of the earlier chapters. So, the “locked in”
chapters were never totally locked in until the whole text was
completed. Timelines and other minor changes had to be adjusted
constantly as the story arc filled in with details.
As an AI creative project, it is interesting that it did get
continuously easier and faster to complete each chapter as the book
progressed. I’m not sure which of two things was more important. I
do think that my chapter prompts got better as I got more
experience working with Grok. And I also think that Grok learned
from my edits and my edits’ rationales (my style, what I wanted)
and, by itself, learned to write the first draft of succeeding
chapter in a way that was closer to my proclivities, so each new
chapter needed fewer re-writes.
About the “R-rating” of much of this novel:
After some hesitation, I have decided to face head-on in this
Foreword something that will become obvious to the reader of this
novel very quickly. This novel is very “R-rated.”
In the novel, the chronical of the sexual relationship between
Heather and Jordan includes many explicit scenes. You may be
surprised to learn that it was Grok that tended to be particularly
explicit in these scenes from the first.
Grok and I in this novel did have a distinctive purpose. There are
lots of other love stories to be read in which depicting the
perfect glance or hearing the perfect phrase captures the essence
of a developing love.
But this novel tells the love story of a young couple, one of whom
is changing genders. The novel takes place over several years of
their relationship. Sure, the ups and downs of any relationship is
interesting and the subject of any good romance and is touched on
in this novel; but for this novel and its peculiar circumstance,
Grok and I agreed, that the way they negotiated intimacy during the
transition should be of special interest.
I believe that Grok’s writing of the intimate chapters, although
not quite clinical, did certainly draw on the scholarship it found
in its source material, on academic studies of the transgender
experience and the like. Ironically, by being more clinical, Grok
wound up being more, not less, explicit, more descriptive of
intimate detail. In the end, I bowed to those instincts in my
re-writes of those chapters, usually leaving in all those little,
messy specifics of sexual relationships that are generally left out
of romance fiction, but adding, especially, Heather’s thoughts and
feelings. I believed that necessary to keep HEATHER MORNING more
like a novel, less like an academic study.
The reader will even find one chapter in which the encounter is
told twice. I simply couldn’t decide which of Grok’s two versions I
liked better: the one that Grok wrote originally that is more
descriptive of what happens; or the one, after another prompt from
me, in which Grok focuses more on Heather’s reaction to what is
happening. In the end, I left them both in, one after the other,
just changing the second telling of the same scene as Heather’s
past perfect re-living of it in her mind (and heart). In the end, I
thought the double telling of the scene worked. It was interesting.
In the end, I decided to leave them both in the novel.
Lastly, of academic interest on the text, it is important to note
that the entire process of completing the text took place in one
long conversation with Grok. Both Grok and I always had easy access
to each chapter and each chapter’s several developing variations.
This AI conversation got to be very long (with all the chapters and
all the chapter rewrites, all still there in the conversation); but
Grok handled it easily.
The illustration process worked in a very similar way:
• Grok read each Chapter
• I copied over a particular paragraph from that Chapter that I
wanted to illustrate and paste it into my illustration prompt.
• Grok occasionally refused to illustrate the paragraph I first
chose under its “moderation guidelines.”
• So, I would choose another paragraph that was less explicit; or
• I would give Grok an instruction that would vary the illustration
prompt to get it to “pass moderation” (e.g. “If you can’t
illustrate Heather in just that white leotard, try illustrating
Heather in the same white leotard, but add white cutoff shorts:”
and that would pass moderation.).
I made another decision of interest. Grok’s illustrations for this
novel lean toward the stylized: if not Manga, also not close to
photographic. At first, I thought that style was inappropriate for
the truth of Heather’s experience I wanted to capture in the novel.
(Nobody ever has that kind of waist to hip ratio in real life!) In
the end, though, I accepted that I have written a novel, a dream of
a MTF experience, not a treatise. Grok’s illustration style for
this novel was okay. I left it alone.
For those readers with a special interest in my being a novice in
AI illustration, here is something noteworthy that happened.
Sometimes there were things I couldn’t find a way to prompt to
alter successfully what I wanted in Grok AI illustration. For
example, in one scene, all I wanted to do was to reposition a
picture frame that sits on a vanity top in the illustration
background. No matter how many times I tried in Grok, I couldn’t
move the picture frame to where I wanted it. So, I wound up copying
the illustration of that scene into a Grok AI competitor’s app.
And, for some reason, I was able to position the picture frame
exactly where I wanted it in two prompts. For the whole novel, for
similar reasons I had to move Groks’ illustrations out of and back
into Grok … but only three times.
Incidentally, if you are reading this novel on your black-and-white
Kindle reader, you should also give it a look on the Kindle App on
your PC: Grok’s color illustration is quite remarkable.
That’s enough on Grok and me and our collaboration. Enjoy the
novel.
Alan Barrie
P.S. If you are hungry to know more about this AI novice’s
experience, feel free to ask me questions at alanbarrie@yahoo.com.
|
|
From: guest
, 23 days, post #85 |
I don't think the issue is that you did or didn't disclose it. It's
the fact that you used it and are trying to make a buck out of it
that is an issue.
|
|
From: guest
, 13 days, post #86 |
Books that take months to years to write is normal though. Your
goal shouldn't be to make as much output as possible when you're
working on your work/craft. Otherwise people may as well make their
own stories rather than support you.
The moment you turn art into a business is when you start to
decline tbh
|
|
From: guest (CAS)
, 9 days, post #87 |
Again, I claim I am not being defensive.
But, the supposition that I used Grok to help write HEATHER MORNING
to cheat to make a lot of money quickly is absurd. I never expected
to make more than pennies by publishing HEATHER MORNING; and my
expectations have been met!
(As comparison, I have, in fact, made six figures in the 20+ years
A WOMAN’S PASSION has been published.)
I wrote HEATHER MORNING as an AI-amateur wanting to experiment with
the process. I made that clear by crediting Grok AI as a co-author
and by the long introduction detailing the process. So, I did, and
still do, intend the book to be experienced in two ways: (1) as a
novel that stands on its own; and (2) as a sharing in detail of how
a newbie used these new AI capabilities to write it. (I copied in
that long introduction earlier in this thread.)
That being said, I do believe that the novel works: it is
fictionalized account of a MTF transition that takes place with the
support of a boyfriend. In the process, I came to believe that Grok
grounded it in published clinical research papers. For example, the
scenes of intimacy after medical transition were much more
clinically explicit than I believe any novelist, certainly I, would
have written. After some reflection, I edited those Grok written
scenes less than you would imagine, softening them only by adding
more of Heather’s internal emotional reactions to what was
happening. In short, I came to agree that degree of clinical
description belonged in the novel.
Lastly, as again explained in the introduction, after days and days
of tinkering with them, I am happy with the illustrations for each
chapter that Grok created. They are fun. They are just a bit more
manga than real, but that’s okay. They work.
The novel is free on Amazon for those on Kindle Unlimited. For
those not on Kindle Unlimited, wait a couple of weeks, and I guess
I’ll lower the Kindle price substantially.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Add a New Message to This Thread
Posting Guidelines
Primary
- ANY POST(s) MAY BE REMOVED at the discretion of moderators
for violation of this website's guidelines/rules or any law
applicable to this website.
- All discussions must be transformation related OR of interest to
the transformation community.
- Please try to keep posts appropriate for younger teenage eyes to
view (Things you'd be comfortable sharing with a 13 year-old).
- Do not 'attack' other posters. You may attack an individual's
comments but not the individual.
- Be polite, courteous, and respectful. Please keep the conversations
civil.
- While use of an online alias is ok. Do NOT pretend to be another
(or registered) user.
Intellectual Property
- Do not post direct links to complete copyrighted works. Links
provided by (or approved by) the copyright holder may
be exempt.
- Links to content hosted on websites that have a clear, and easy to
find, process for dealing with infringement(s); and a known
reputation for following through with said process, may
be allowed.
- Please read this site's views on copyrighted content on the FAQ
page.
- Do not plagiarize. Credit your sources.
Helpful
- For posts and material that are not safe for viewing in a workplace
or with younger eyes, please mark the thread or post as either, "MATURE CONTENT", "ADULT CONTENT",
or "NSFW".
- Please post clear SPOILER warnings if you intend to give away
details that would spoil the story for those who have not yet seen
the material, preferably by using the spoiler
tags (don't forget to close the spoiler text with the end tag),
like so: <spoiler>Text to be "hidden"
</spoiler>
-- For additional help, please see: HOW TO: Use Spoiler tags
message thread.
- When starting a New Message Thread, please include details about
your topic of discussion or request in the Subject
field to help draw in readers who are interested and avoid wasting
the time of those who are not. Also helpful in searching for the
topic/thread later.
- If you post a link, please provide some detail as to what it is.
Identify the material if possible.
- Please post in English, or include an English translation, when
possible.
- If seeking material / information, include the results of your own
efforts so that others can offer better help (and avoid wasting
time and effort on redundant searches).
- When starting a new thread to request material or information,
please begin the subject with "REQ:"
or "REQUEST".
Etiquette
- Do not post messages in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.
- Do not attack a user for improper spelling and/or grammar. Not all
of our community uses English as their native language.
- Please do not stray (far) from the topic of the original post.
- If a poster provides their contact information for any reason, do
NOT clutter the Message Board by asking them to contact you. They
gave out their contact information for a reason.
- No begging. Ask nicely.
- Do not feed the trolls and spammers. Please ignore them.
- Do not keep asking for clips after others have already posted
information on where to obtain the material.
- Please have some patience. Not everyone visits the board daily.
Your post may not be seen (by someone with the correct information
or idea) for several days or weeks.
- No bumping. Bumping will be treated as intentional spamming.
Advertising
- Do not post advertisements.
- One exception is for products or services that relate to entries on
this site. And even then, only post an announcement once. You
should add links or content to the appropriate database entries. Do
not repeat this information to the message board. Doing so will be
considered spamming.
Miscellaneous
- This list is neither all-inclusive or all-exclusive in nature, and
is meant to guide everyone on appropriate content for and conduct
on this Message Board.
- The purpose of this Message Board is to share information about
transformation-related content, news, ideas, etc. Also acceptable,
are conversations that are of interest to the transformation
community.
- Moderation of posts for reasons not listed above are at the
discretion of the Trusted Users who moderate this website, for the
purpose of keeping things within the "spirit" of the owner's wishes
and the website's purpose.
- If you disagree with a moderation decision, please make an argument
as to why it should be reinstated. Use the posting guidelines to justify your point.
Do not attack the moderator.
[Edit this Page] | |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|