@G_G Oh :> This makes me so happy. I always feel like my writing oscillates wildly from too perfunctory to the purplest of prose. I’m so glad to see that you appreciate it :’) Thank you!
Re:update: I really take your silence as support, and I hope you won’t mind. I have pushed myself so hard these past three months, november being insane in terms of progress, and even while it didn’t get me quite past the finish line, I can taste it. I can feel it. I’m so close. There is so much in this update that I feel like the wait will be worth it, or so I hope, even though I know that my failed deadlines and promiscuous hopes can be a bit frustrating.
It’s a learning curve for me too, not only working in choicescript and everything that diverging narratives imply, but with this scope of a story. There is so much to keep track of that it gets overwhelming, enough so that I have to take a few days off writing sometimes just to piece together the information myself. And then rewrite, because I came up with a better way to present a certain clue. Sigh. Sometimes I ask myself why I decided this was a good idea. I have outlined and outlined again, but once you get into the nitty gritty of it, of actually making it work in dialogue and subtext and theme… It can be really daunting and intimidating to stick to it.
I have to say that the urge to share this massive update with you in one piece is keeping me from sharing it partially, as it’s one of my greatest motivators. Forgive me 
But!
I come bearing a very peculiar sneak peek. I have been following a very interesting discussion on the forum about AI. And I wanted to share something that I AI-generated in the story! I struggled with this part for quite some time, enough of a time that I’m really reluctant to share the initial content of the paragraphs that I had set. They’re awful. Not sure if these are better… But for the first draft of the full story, they will have to do.
I was recommended this AI, and it is really something. I used Jeff Vandermeer as my seed (the winding text in the tower, if you are familiar with the Southern Reach trilogy) and then tweaked it with certain words to mention, and then with some of my own rewrites. It spat out some of the worst writing I had ever seen, and I loved it. I think that’s only because I was using AI’s greatest strength to work for me: to write what looked and felt like the ramblings of mad men. It worked out great.
See for yourself!
Eh! It’s quite something, isn’t it.
If you didn’t catch it, It’s the content of the letters from the wayward runners.
AI was a great tool, being there when I twisted myself into knots, trying to write even half of the mess of words that it churned out in seconds. I really don’t know how I feel about AI as a whole, but using it in this instance was a blessing, lmao.
I guess all there is left to see is if Skynet will ever be as proficient as, say, Brando Sando with churning out actual, coherent stories. I very much doubt it.
That’s about it… Thanks for sticking through this with me. I appreciate it. Back to writing! 