Ask the Author: Colin Darney
Answered Questions (13)
Colin Darney
Hi, Geetha. 😊
That's a loaded question because there are so many strong opinions, but I'll answer it as honestly and completely as I can, from the perspective I think you’re most curious about: writing. The use of AI in writing is also talked about very frequently among authors in a plethora of author groups. If you want to get a wide variety of opinions, I’d suggest finding any author group on Facebook and bring the subject up. The sometimes unanticipated and heated responses may surprise you.
Anyway, here we go. 😉
In short, I think authors who have AI write for them and then market the AI’s work as their own are crap. If you’re going to be an author, produce your own work. If you’re going to market an AI’s work, just simply say so. However, I see nothing in-and-of-itself wrong with an AI produced story, because to deny that stories produced by AI’s are coming is to deny reality itself. Basically, it sucks, but all I can do is compete with what’s coming.
However, to use AI to help research and complete a story, I see absolutely no problem with.
For instance, I use an AI as an emergency thesaurus – when I can describe what I want the word to say but can’t think of the actual word. In instances like those, I can describe what I’m thinking to the AI and it can list a bunch of possible words based on probability. This allows me to get back to writing the story quicker, without having to break away from my creative process to spend sometimes hours paging through a thesaurus.
I also use AI as a research tool. For instance, I recently had to have insights into dark-ages and spanish-inquisition era thinking. Unless I wanted to take weeks off to research history, which most likely would end needing to consult an expert, again interrupting the story-telling process, answering the questions I had wouldn’t be possible. As an AI has access to a plethora of tidbits of esoteric knowledge that I simply don’t have, it’s much easier for me to ask it those things and then verify what it answers by asking it to cite sources.
These are only two examples of how I have used AI to help me tell a story. I do not and will not ever allow an AI to help me actually write what I market to the reader; that’s my bailiwick and not a machine’s. My creative process is my own. The words I use are my own. But I feel I am using the AI as it’s intended: as a tool, and nothing more.
Hope this answers your question, and if you want to hear other opinions than my own I again point you towards the various author groups on Facebook.
Colin
That's a loaded question because there are so many strong opinions, but I'll answer it as honestly and completely as I can, from the perspective I think you’re most curious about: writing. The use of AI in writing is also talked about very frequently among authors in a plethora of author groups. If you want to get a wide variety of opinions, I’d suggest finding any author group on Facebook and bring the subject up. The sometimes unanticipated and heated responses may surprise you.
Anyway, here we go. 😉
In short, I think authors who have AI write for them and then market the AI’s work as their own are crap. If you’re going to be an author, produce your own work. If you’re going to market an AI’s work, just simply say so. However, I see nothing in-and-of-itself wrong with an AI produced story, because to deny that stories produced by AI’s are coming is to deny reality itself. Basically, it sucks, but all I can do is compete with what’s coming.
However, to use AI to help research and complete a story, I see absolutely no problem with.
For instance, I use an AI as an emergency thesaurus – when I can describe what I want the word to say but can’t think of the actual word. In instances like those, I can describe what I’m thinking to the AI and it can list a bunch of possible words based on probability. This allows me to get back to writing the story quicker, without having to break away from my creative process to spend sometimes hours paging through a thesaurus.
I also use AI as a research tool. For instance, I recently had to have insights into dark-ages and spanish-inquisition era thinking. Unless I wanted to take weeks off to research history, which most likely would end needing to consult an expert, again interrupting the story-telling process, answering the questions I had wouldn’t be possible. As an AI has access to a plethora of tidbits of esoteric knowledge that I simply don’t have, it’s much easier for me to ask it those things and then verify what it answers by asking it to cite sources.
These are only two examples of how I have used AI to help me tell a story. I do not and will not ever allow an AI to help me actually write what I market to the reader; that’s my bailiwick and not a machine’s. My creative process is my own. The words I use are my own. But I feel I am using the AI as it’s intended: as a tool, and nothing more.
Hope this answers your question, and if you want to hear other opinions than my own I again point you towards the various author groups on Facebook.
Colin
Colin Darney
Hi, Abby! Thanks for the question. :)
Your answer is pretty much zero. I specifically keep the spice level to 'sweet'; like something any reader would consider PG. I do talk about relationships, as the core characters are involved in a forced-to-be estranged relationship where they find each other and get back together again, but still, it's nothing that kids in school these days typically hear. However, nothing I write even comes close to erotica, and most would consider it only a few steps beyond Disney.
However, that is only in regards to sex and nudity. My books do become a bit more graphic when it comes to fantasy combat. No one is gargling blood here, or anything like that, but because of the more adult nature of combat, I would say those scenes are more PG-13. This isn't because of the description of combat itself, but rather because one of my characters is a late teen, and I specifically use my veteran and trauma nurse experience to get into his head after dealing with combat.
Hope this answers your questions! And feel free to reach out if you want to know anything else.
Colin
Your answer is pretty much zero. I specifically keep the spice level to 'sweet'; like something any reader would consider PG. I do talk about relationships, as the core characters are involved in a forced-to-be estranged relationship where they find each other and get back together again, but still, it's nothing that kids in school these days typically hear. However, nothing I write even comes close to erotica, and most would consider it only a few steps beyond Disney.
However, that is only in regards to sex and nudity. My books do become a bit more graphic when it comes to fantasy combat. No one is gargling blood here, or anything like that, but because of the more adult nature of combat, I would say those scenes are more PG-13. This isn't because of the description of combat itself, but rather because one of my characters is a late teen, and I specifically use my veteran and trauma nurse experience to get into his head after dealing with combat.
Hope this answers your questions! And feel free to reach out if you want to know anything else.
Colin
Colin Darney
Hi Robert, Harper's Creek is currently in what I guess you'd call 'post-production' and should be out this summer. My 'I refuse to have it go any longer past this date' is September 1st, but I'm aiming for a month or two earlier.
Colin Darney
Hi Gina, thanks for asking. :) Right now, I'm a few chapters away from finishing writing out the first draft. I'm thinking maybe 2-3 more chapters, but I'm never really quite sure. Once that's done, then I delve into revisions and editing, which historically have taken me a couple of months. (I do everything myself) I sent my idea for the next cover with a tentative target date of May 1st, which also is variable because of life's interference, so the book definitely can't be released until then. So, ending the long-winded explanation, I'm aiming for a May-June-July 2023 release date because of everything that still needs done. Hang in there! I'm working on it :) and I appreciate your interest. It's things like that, that keep me going. Far'e'na!
Colin Darney
The story. To be able to sit back and say: "Wow. I did this." is just profound. I've laughed and cried, been angry with and for my characters; and every other emotion in between. To put your work out there, and then have other people compliment you on it??? That what you wrote was able to keep them entertained for however long it took them to read it??? Oh my, is that just amazing. I'm blessed that I could do that for people, and it's changed my life.
Colin Darney
I'd love to know that myself. I have told people the honest truth that I 'vomited out' book 1. (please excuse the vulgar description there) I never had any aspirations to become an author. Read books? Sure. Write them? Oh, heck no. Resthaven, in its original 120,000-word form, came out of nowhere over the process of 6 weeks where I would sit and type, collapse for a couple of hours, then wake up and type some more. It was physically and emotionally exhausting, and something I've never experienced before. Book 2 is very similar, as I fall into an almost fugue state where I can see the scene in my mind and I'm desperately trying to type as fast as I can to capture it. What happens just 'flows' from one image to the next like episodes for a TV show, or scenes in a movie. I may have a loose idea of where I want the story to go, but I certainly don't plot out chapter by chapter what takes place. I'm told this makes me a 'pantser', being someone who writes 'flying by the seat of their pants', but I don't pay much attention to the label. I just write what comes to mind.
Colin Darney
Book 2. Right now as I type this I have about 120,000 words completed and the final chapters are in my head waiting to come out.
Colin Darney
I still consider myself an aspiring writer, so let me share one aspiring writer's point of view with another: Write YOUR story. It's YOURS. It's not anyone else's, you don't have to follow anyone's advice, it's YOURS. And people who love to cite and state 'the rules', heh. I bought the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) after having many, many, many in-depth conversations with multiple editors regarding conflicting advice. The bottom line is there are no rules; only guidelines. Even the CMOS says that every single guideline is secondary to readability. Strive for readability. One of the best things I ever heard was an editor/moderator on a very well-trafficked site who said "editing is an art form, not a science."
Colin Darney
I've been very lucky to not experience writer's block as I've heard other writers describe it. My experience is knowing what I want to happen, but not being able to start writing that particular section. Normally, I just sit down in front of the computer and start typing away, knowing full well that what I'm typing is junk. Then after time goes by, whatever is in me that tells the story kicks in, and then BAM, suddenly I'm 'writing' again.
Colin Darney
I sat down at the dinner table. The family was talking about religion and politics.
Colin Darney
Any fictional world!?! How could you possibly limit yourself to only one? It would have to be somewhere with elves and magic, two of my favorite things. Beyond that? There are too many to choose from!
Colin Darney
I laughed when I read this question as I am very nostalgic, and return to old friends quite a bit. I'll probably reread some of my favorite series like The Dragon Rince and Ruins of Ambria from Melanie Rawn, The Coldfire Trilogy from C.S. Friedman, The Foreigner series by C.J. Cherryh, as well as the obligatory descent into The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, and then The Wheel of Time. I also enjoy 'newer' reads, especially The World by Jason Cheek, Daggers & Steele by Alex Berg, Honor Harrington by David Weber, Ascend Online by Luke Chmilenko, The Demon Accords by John Conroe, The Dresden Files, Kim Harrison, and many, many more.
Colin Darney
Hmmmm. I'd say the biggest mystery from my life was already encompassed into the plot of my book. The lives and experiences of Tommy's family are very personal to me. Though they are not an exact replica or statement about my life, nor am I Tommy by any stretch of the imagination, they are an amalgamation of experiences I've had that I pulled from.
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