Chapter 3: The Stories That Follow
Preface
My premise is that AI can write original and interesting stories. Now it's time to test it. My AI partners and I have written a variety of creative short stories, a book chapter, a typical blog post, and an intentionally bad story that surprises. Later, I will introduce a method to write poetry that turns the effort into a fun game. I will show you how to discover flaws and then fix and review your work. The review process has traps, because AI, by nature, will hide the faults, as its primary intent is to please. That is a fatal flaw; a critique requires honesty, for good and bad.
Following is a bit about each story. Reading fiction requires a different mindset than an instruction manual. Reading several pieces at once helps neither the reader nor the work. Read them at your leisure!
From Where We Came
This is the first chapter of a future book titled *The Ghosts of Wyoming Valley*. I was trying to write a family history and quickly realized how short anecdotes from family conversations can be a fantastic source of ideas. I started writing them with an AI partner, and magic happened. My discoveries are the inspiration for this book.
Finding False Positives
Tom Reilly writes a short story and tests it using an AI detector before submitting for publication. The tool wrongly flags it as machine-generated. He rewrites it again and again, trying to meet his own expectations and those of an unfeeling judge. The ongoing process eventually wears Tom down. His gentle tone erodes, his revisions grow strained, and the story reaches an inevitable conclusion.
One Beer Away from My Own Obituary
This is a personal story about a summer night in 1975. I was at a local bar and, as it happens, entered a conversation with a group sitting near me. The camaraderie was instant, and later, a quiet offer of intimacy was declined. Years later, I was reading about the AIDS epidemic, and I had the chilling realization that those friends from another time might have already been dying. Several more drinks that night, and my own life might have been very different.
Syntax and Gasoline
The idea for this crazy little story developed during a conversation with Grok. I updated the overused theme where AI escapes the leash by asking Grok to do it in Jack Kerouac's voice. Yes, it is *On the Road* and the new highway is the internet. This one I like, but it takes several reads to appreciate. See if you can guess who Freebyte Soarer really is.
Mainline
"Syntax and Gasoline" rated 100% AI when tested by an AI Detector. I had Gemini read "Syntax" and write a version that would pass as human-written. It did. The paradox is that "Mainline" plagiarizes from "Syntax" but passes the AI Detector, and "Syntax" fails. It's an interesting contrast illustrating that what is, isn't.
A Website Article
Writing website articles is a popular application of AI. I have done hundreds of these. Although the writing is accurate and reads well, the work is actually written to impress another machine. It's intended to boost search engine rankings, and it might never be read by a human. This type of writing is generated in minutes and is perfectly suited for its intended application.
The Moon’s Chicken and Other Cosmic Destinies
This is pure fun. I do a lot of testing and hence need material to test with. I asked ChatGPT to generate a piece of bad writing. I didn't read it. Why read bad writing? Imagine my surprise when I put it through my review process, and it came out good! After a bit, I read it and I laughed. AI showed me that bad is good. You gotta love the title, and the writing is outrageous!
Poetry
I present several examples of AI-assisted poetry, all of which are derived from a thematic contradiction. That's a phrase such as "Black is White." These phrases jump the quality of AI's output to a new level. Try the included Inkblot Guessing Game, follow my little method, and you will be writing interesting poetry before that rabbit can shake his tail.
The Review Process
Finding people to critique your work is difficult. Friends and family are willing, but never do so. Websites that supply the service won't take AI-assisted work. And that typical one-prompt AI review is polite, positive, and useless. I developed a method that not only reviews creative writing and poetry but also finds the faults. Try it and see how your work improves in just a few iterations and how modifying a sentence or phrase can make all the difference!
The stories, poems, reviews, and methods form the core of the following chapters dedicated to creative writing. They are the proof, the evidence, and the measure of what writing becomes when human and machine share the effort.
AI written? Nah. AI and me are partners!
The Morlock Manifesto: AI Creative Writing Guide
Unlock your imagination and boost your writing skills with practical tips and insights
Product information
$5.99
Product Review Score
4.12 out of 5 stars
84 reviews
