I posed a question in the SOL Forums the other day – “How would you feel about an 'Author Commentary' in the story comments?”
The essence of my questions was to see if readers would be interested in my posting my thoughts in the reader comments section of “A Healing Love,” chapter by chapter, as it is posted.
The general feeling was that, while it is a nice idea that could give readers insight into what the author was thinking as they wrote the book, the reader comments probably are not the best place for it due to their design.
So I devised another plan – a separate “book”, posted alongside the main story as a “companion piece.” I really like this idea, so I’m going to give it a try.
If it doesn’t work, I can simply have it deleted without any harm done.
Now, having completed “A Healing Love”, I really need to give myself a break from creating. As much as I want to crack on and finish Paul’s story, I’m all out of creative juice at the moment.
So my next project is to revise and refine the previous Paul Robertson books, starting with ‘A Good Man.’ I’m going to do this in the same way I completed the edit for AHL by utilising the AI tools available. I’ll input each chapter into the tool, request feedback on what needs to be revised and refined, then amend it and return it to the tool for further advice until it appears polished and ready.
It worked well with “A Healing Love,” so I don’t see why it would be any different with ‘A Good Man.’ Mind you, AHL was already a far more polished and ‘mature’ piece of work. The fourteen-year gap between their productions has made a significant difference to my writing.
I’ve already completed the prologue and chapters 1-5, and they have been posted here at SOL. Once I’ve finished the entire piece, I’ll publish a revision of the ebook as well. I don’t intend to alter the plot or the characterisation, just refine and polish the prose, perhaps add some additional dialogue, that sort of thing.
As I complete the revision of each chapter, I also feed it into a separate chat to obtain some “analysis” of the book. It is this analysis, along with my own commentary as an author, that I am now posting here as “A Good Man: Author Commentary & AI Analysis.”
I’m slightly catching up, as I’ve only posted up to chapter three of the analysis so far. I have to use the site’s text tagging to achieve the format I want, and it’s a PITA to use, so it’s taking me longer.
But I’m getting there.
I’d be very interested to see if you find this exercise engaging. It’s interesting to me and also useful, which is why I’m doing it. However, it would be intriguing to know if any readers take anything from it. If the two individuals who have already rated it a score of “1” are anything to go by, then probably not. But, honestly, I’m not posting this one for the scores; I’m sharing it because it’s an engaging exercise for me, and I’m enjoying it.
