Introducing "Lights in the Old Fort: The Graphic Novelization", my debut novel and the product of my passion for storytelling and experimentation with cutting-edge technology. I believe I have developed a cutting-edge new writing process that pushes the boundaries of creative self-expression, and I am excited to share it with you!

Lights in the Old Fort is the first and most complete work of fiction produced through the innovative use of GPT-3, OpenAI's state-of-the-art language model.

Set in the 1920s Eastern Seaboard, the novel tells the story of two young detective brothers, Anthonio and Dathaniel, and their hapless friend Wally, as they uncover a web of mysteries surrounding election fraud, stolen diamonds, and nautical intrigue within an abandoned 18th-century fort, Fort Bowden, overlooking Jetty Bay...

Drawing inspiration from classic young adult detective stories such as The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, Lights in the Old Fort combines nostalgia with the latest advancements in AI technology.

The novel is based the script Lights in the Old Fort: A Symphonic Mystery Adventure, a radio drama podcast series that I wrote and produced with my brother in 2018. I used GPT-3 to generate entire passages of text from the podcast script and then spent months curating, editing, and shaping it into a seamless blend of human and machine writing.

The finished product is a rich and detailed story, a fictional world that is uncannily similar to the one my brother and I had imagined, and I am now reaching out to you to bring this project to the next stage: a beautiful physical book that you can hold in your hands.

Not only am I excited to share this novel with the world, but I also hope to use this project as a stepping stone to share my unique writing technique with other writers and creators. I believe that AI has the potential to be a valuable tool for writers, and I'm excited to share the techniques I've developed with the world. I hope to inspire others to think of AI as an instrument, like a synthesizer, that can be used to create unique and incredible imaginative works.

The Process

This process was guided by the podcast script, with the AI model taking the dialogue and descriptions from the script and expanding upon them to create rich and detailed scenes and characters. The result is a one-of-a-kind novel that combines the best of both worlds: the creativity and imagination of human writing with the boundless possibilities of AI technology.

This not only allowed for a more efficient and streamlined writing process, but also added a layer of authenticity and consistency to the novel. The podcast served as a foundation for the novel, providing a clear direction for the story and characters, while the AI model added depth and nuance to bring the world of Jetty Bay to life.

Script:

ANTHONIO: … Hey hold up a minute, guys…. Dathaniel, look at the grass-- It’s been flattened down like a car drove up here...

DATHANIEL: You think those guys we read about in the note came up here last night? I don’t think these tracks were here yesterday…

ANTHONIO: Hmmm - it looks like there must be a road that goes off deeper into the hills….we must not have seen it yesterday ‘cause it’s so overgrown!

DATHANIEL: That’s strange, I wonder where it would lead to - There’s nothing north of here except miles of forest until the Canadian border!

AI Novelizer:

“Hey hold up a minute, guys! Dathaniel, look at the grass; It’s been flattened down like a car drove up here!” he says, pointing to several long swathes of crushed vegetation.

Dathaniel kneels beside his brother and closely examines where Anthonio points. He brushes aside some tall blades with one hand while holding them steady with his other palm. The tracks are quite clear; they seem fresh as well… They had not been there yesterday for sure.

Anthonio rises again and looks around more carefully this time. He scans the clearing beyond what was visible from the bluff. A faint trail is barely discernible through dense undergrowth along an adjacent ridge which extends much deeper into forested hillside beyond Fort Bowden

“It looks like there must be a road that goes off deeper into the hills," observes Anthonio, "We must not have seen it yesterday 'cause it's so overgrown!" "That's strange," remarks Dathaniel, "I wonder where it would lead to? There's nothing north of here except miles of forest until the Canadian border!"

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But this project isn't just about the book. It's about also about demonstrating how the creative process can be expanded using the power of AI collaboration, giving writers of all levels the tools to unleash their creativity in a way never before possible.