A.I. for Writers: Useful Tool or Just a "Tool"

Is A.I. as efficient or effective as it is touted to be? Let's ask the writers!

Have you found it helpful, too much to make it useful, or just a waste of time (potential theft issues aside)? 

Alan J. Porter: I’ve worked on AI platform development in my day job and often write about it and always happy to help educate writers to see beyond the hype.

Brian K Morris: I've used ChatGBT a little and frankly, it reassures me that I'm a better writer than I thought I was. Their text is drier than 077's martinis.

I used an AI to write the back cover copy of my newest novel. I gave it the elements I wanted to see, then told it that the words were going on the back of a paperback. Then I added another element in two subsequent rounds, then gave it a quick edit so it sounded like me.

It helped to unstick my thinking in terms of a complex scenario I'd constructed. It looked at the material in a different way than I did, which was good. Three drafts later, in addition to a final polish by myself, it was ready for prime time. I'd never use it to write my stories, though.

R Alan Siler: I recently wrote a review in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. I've never written a sonnet before, so I used ChatGPT to generate some ideas for me -- some specifically about the thing I was reviewing and some on the more general theme I was going for. None of them were that great (and some of them were structuraly wrong), but it helped me figure out ways to structure my review/sonnet. So what I wrote was 100% me, but the AI was a shortcut to help me get there. I'm sure I would have eventually arrived at approximately the same point regardless, but the AI gave me a map that helped me not wander aimlessly for quite as long.

Jenny Reed: I have not used it and see no reason to. I can write without help, thanks.

However, my housemate, who has always wanted to write stories but believes she is bad at it, has embraced ChatGPT as the way to realize her dreams. It seems to me that she spends way more time explaining what she wants and then tweaking the result to make it nice than she would to just write the thing, but she seems to think she gets a better result than she is capable of without the crutch.

Do note that I said she tweaks it afterwards. And by tweaks, I mean, she extensively edits it. She is apparently capable of editing a start until it's actually decent, but doesn't feel capable of creating from scratch. I guess we all have our mental blocks.

Writing in the Time of Covid (Not to Be Confused with Love in the Time of Cholera)

Living with Covid-19 has changed a lot of things. We can just file that statement under "Things Captain Obvious would say." For writers, it has changed the way we interact with fans, publishers, and other writers. 

Gone are the conventions. Now they're super spreader events we aim to avoid. Gone are the "regular days" without spouses and kids at home when we might normal write. 

For a look at some of the specifics, I turns to three of my fave indie writers, Nancy Hansen, Bill Craig, and Jenny Reed. 

How have the changes that Covid brought to gathering and going places changed your writing routine (if at all)?

Nancy Hansen: Honestly, it really didn't change much for me. I write at home at least 5 days a week as it is anyway. Sometimes more. When I couldn't see the extended family, we kept in touch via cell phone and the camera on my tablet, and I used whatever extra time I had to get in more writing. Since I'm now somewhat disabled, I'm used to being home most of the time, so that doesn't faze me. I blogged a little more consistently. Overall; life went on.

Bill Craig: I jumped to a totally new genre for what will be my first book of 2021. Ravens Hollow is a horror novel set in a pre-covid world.

Jenny Reed: My spouse now works from home, which affects my routine in this fashion:

I USED to have a whole swath of day spouse-free, and while I might get interrupted by dogs, trolls, phone calls, or facebook PMs, these were almost always non-urgent optional things which I could quickly answer and get rid of or even outright ignore if they were inconvenient. (Calls from mom at the most inconvenient times excluded, of course. You cannot ignore your mother, not if you like surviving, anyway.)

NOW, if my spouse wants to take a break, then I must take a break. If my spouse is in the mood for a snack, then I must be. And I better not be in the mood for a snack when my spouse isn't, unless I wish to send a secret signal that it is snack time to my spouse. There is no warning time when my spouse is done working for the day (used to be called the commute, and I'd get a facebook message giving me a countdown... no longer).

On the other hand, there used to be the occasional dog issue that I had to drop everything and deal with right now. This is no longer my problem; my spouse will go deal with it and I can sit tight and ignore it. Unless my spouse is on a conference call, of course... then, it's my problem, but now I have to figure that out first.

Are you seeing or hearing changes from your fan base in terms of buying books or just wanting to communicate more with you after being housebound for weeks or months at a time?

Bill Craig: My routine has not really changed. I still work from 9pm to 11pm. I missed 1 day of writing due to being sick with covid. Being a functional hermit kept me from getting a more severe case.

Jenny Reed: No.

Nancy Hansen: I have heard from a few people, mostly wondering about how to get certain books of mine and when new ones in certain popular series would be out in print. Since what I write is great escapist fiction, I can understand the additional interest, but I had to explain that once I turn them over to a publisher, the books are on their timetable and not mine. Still I thanked everyone for their interest, and yes, it did pick up quite a bit as the year went on. There wasn't much new on the Tube, and surfing the social sites was getting depressing. The news certainly was no comfort most days! I don't mind chatting with folks when I have the time. In fact, I belong to a small writer's group where we read to each other virtually once a week, and that gave us all an outlet to be with our 'tribe'. Pretty much business as usual on this end for the most part though.

The Cover Story -- What Makes Book Covers Work?

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a book cover had better be worth about a hundred thousand. So, what makes a book cover effective? Let's find out from several key artists and publishers who work on them. 

 

It's been said a lot that faces sell a cover. In your experience, do faces tend to enable stronger sales, and does it matter how large the faces are on the cover?

Jeff Parker: I like design-y covers most of the time, conceptual stuff like Dave Johnson does. I think the way books are racked together in a big mass with other images, something a bit simpler and bold with images and color choices stands out better and has a chance to be seen.

Frank Fradella: Yes, faces sell a cover. Faces sell everything. I can take two slices of an orange and a whole banana and lay them on a table and what you'll see are two eyes and a mouth — a face. We see faces everywhere; we subconsciously LOOK for faces everywhere. The best cover won't just be a face, but you want that human connection.

Logan Masterson: There's a lot to consider here. Faces are great, especially for romance, paranormal, and character-themed properties, but they aren't the definitive answer. Neither is the inclusion of action definitive. To see what works, check out the original Wolverine limited series #1 cover: Face, beckoning "action," tremendously effective. But also, the Kitty Pryde/Wolverine Wanted cover, more action, more faces, but with less emphasis. The emphasis is on the framing. Personally, I think that illustrated covers trump photo covers every time. I tend to avoid fiction with photo covers.

Aaron Meade: I can only chime in on the action/adventure/superhero genre' from my point of view. That said... Faces are ok on covers depending on how they are used to portray what the story inside is about. It depends on the artists vision and storytelling abilities. I always LOVED the use of a ROLL CALL on superhero team books that bordered the cover itself. That said, you don't want to over use it or any technique.

Jenny Reed: The first rule of thumb is that the cover must be interesting to look at. People must see the cover and start imagining what's inside. While showing people isn't necessarily required (depending on the genre), any people who do show up must be doing something interesting. A face staring into space isn't particularly interesting - unless there's something really strange about the face.

What about action covers? Do they work well for contemporary fiction, or are they best used for adventure novels and comics?

Jenny Reed: Cover art trends change rapidly. What counts as a great cover today, is a lousy cover five years from now (and vice versa). It's hard to keep up. Also, cover art expectations vary widely from genre to genre. For example, romance covers generally want to see something implying romance - a couple kissing, a hot guy in a sexy pose, a girl in a prom dress, or something along those lines. However, a romance cover would not sell a science fiction book, or a sports book, or your typical action comic book.

Frank Fradella: The answer is between the pages. If there's a lot of action inside, then the cover should speak to the audience who likes that in a book.

Aaron Meade: I think the more action you can portray on any cover of any genre' will be better than dull no action covers.

Logan Masterson: As for the general keys, I think there are three.

1. Tone. The cover's got to carry the tone of the book, whether that's bright and brilliant action or deep, dark mystery.
2. Design. Attractive, appropriate fonts that contrast or accent the cover illustration, placed to accent the image and balance the overall effect.
3. Professionalism. The cover needs to be pro. It shouldn't look like something desktop published in 1996. It shouldn't be jammed up with text, or too many logos, or any of that stuff. The elements should be integrated attractively, and the illo itself needs to be high-quality and appropriate. 

What are the most important things to keep in mind when designing a successful book cover or a successful comic book cover?

Ruth de Jauregui: Your type treatment. Scrawny little letters that fade into the cover image are just not as effective as something that the buyer can actually read. Also, look at the size of the cover on Amazon, Barnes and Noble or other website. Can the buyer see it? Can they read the type? Does the cover "read" as a romance, science fiction, fantasy, action story? Consider your audience too. A half naked woman on the front of a YA urban fantasy may look pretty, but it's not appropriate for the audience. Also, last but not least -- actually LOOK at the dang main character. If he/she is described as dark complected with natural hair, don't put a dang blonde on the cover. It's inaccurate and offensive and buyers like me notice these things. I might still buy the book, but I'll talk mess about that cover forever.

Logan Masterson: As a former website designer and illustrator, one picks up the little details that others miss. It's not some unquantifiable mystery -- it's the proper alignment of elements, colors, and content.

Aaron Meade: Most important thing...show in art a synopsis of what the reader is about to read. Show THE most exciting and enticing portion of the interior story. Galvanize the readers eyes so they will gravitate to your book over all the others.

Frank Fradella: Color, contrast, composition. Beautiful women never hurt. Go look at Frazetta and keep looking. It's all there.

Words and Art: Finding the Right Blend in Comic Book Scriptwriting

Okay. This week's roundtable is specifically about comic book scriptwriting. These are questions I hear often at conventions or via email from folks wanting to start writing comics or looking to turn an indie movie or small press novel into a graphic novel. I know my answers, but I thought it would be a lot of fun to find out what other comic book writers had to say.

How do you determine when a panel has too many words of dialog or captions?

Dan Jurgens: When it goes beyond two lines of type on my screen. Seriously, it may sound silly, but there's great validity to it. The other is to read it aloud and realize the page doesn't have the right sense of rhythm because it takes so long to read one panel.

Jim Beard: I'm verbose like nobody's business, so since I've become a writer I now espouse brevity :) I hope to NEVER get to the point that I'm choking a panel. Better to choke a dead horse.

Jenny Reed: When the editor says so :)

Bobby Nash: It’s generally a gut feeling, but based on experience. Although, no matter how many or how few words of dialogue I write per panel I expect the artist(s) to tell me there’s too much. I hear that way too often, even though my scripts contain hardly any dialogue compared to most mainstream comics published today. Go figure.

Ron Fortier: Comics are GRAPHICS, its about the art. So, it's too many words when they hide the art. A major boo-boo.

John Jackson Miller: My general rule, adopted from Dark Horse, is 45 words max. No more than two speakers, no more than three balloons. This varies with panel size. A splash page is likely to have four captions and 60-70 words.

Michael Avon Oeming: If you have to ask yourself that question when you are writing, you probably have already.


Dan Jolley: Reading an overly wordy comic book is just not all that much fun. Huge walls of text surrounded by boxes or word balloons are clunky and look out of place. A super-verbose comic book detracts from both the words and the art.

First off, unless they are very very short, I limit the combined number of captions and word balloons in a panel to four. Four is the maximum, and that's only if I have a page with four or fewer panels on it.

If the page has five panels on it (unless one is much larger than the rest of them), the maximum combined count of word balloons and captions per panel drops to three.

If the page has six or more panels, it drops to two.

And as far as the word count in each caption or word balloon, I've developed a rule of thumb that's served me well (and never caused an editor to complain). I write my scripts in 11-point Times New Roman, and I set up a custom indent so that all of the captions and dialogue bits start at the 2 inch mark. Then I never let them run longer than two lines. (For a more in-depth study of Dan's approach, visit his blog at http://danjolley.blogspot.com/2012/06/how-to-write-way-i-write-part-5.html)

Roland Mann: I don't usually count words, but I think 3 balloons with a couple of sentences each (or less) is about right. More than that and you clutter up the panel -- and ART -- with too much noise. One speaker shouldn't have more than 2 balloons. In the same regard, I'm not a fan of page after page of no text to READ. I think comics are a blended art form and the READER needs stuff to read, too. Use silent panels for effect.

Mike Bullock: That's determined by what's in the panel, art-wise to a great extent, but Roland's reply is a good rule of thumb.

Janet Stone Wade: When you can't make out what's going on in the panel because all the word bubbles are covering it up. I'm actually a fan of the pic doing the talking, like action scenes and expressive faces.

Erik Burnham: When it covers up too much of the art.

Percival Constantine: I'm a letterer as well, and that's really given me a feel for how many words can fit in a given panel. One thing I'd recommend every comic writer (or aspiring writer) do is learn a bit about the lettering process and, if you have the software, practice it for yourself. I think it'll give you a much better idea of how many words you can fit and where they should go.

If possible, I'll also check the dialogue again after the artwork has been completed, to make sure that it can still fit in. To date, I've lettered all the stories I've written myself so I've been able to make these changes without holding up the letterer.
 
What's a good rule of thumb to use when determining the number of panels for a page? Do you "go with your gut" or have a method that helps you?

Dan Jurgens: It's by feel. Do I want a big explosive panel? Were the previous pages leading up to something dramatic? Or do I want to slow time down with a lot of small panels, highlighting isolated action? Depends on the demands of the story and scene.

Jim Beard: The page should have exactly what it needs in terms of panels. I try to never go more than eight or nine, and try to keep it at a comfortable four or so.

Jenny Reed: And on a more serious note, the only rule I use is "try not to use the same number of panels that I used on the previous page" --- Other than that, well, I figure out what I want this page to say, and then figure out how many panels it will take to say it.

Bobby Nash: It’s a pacing issue. I know what needs to happen on the page and where the page has to end for either a scene change or a page turn reveal. When I have the opportunity to know the artist before scripting, I ask if he or she what their preference is for number of panels. I can’t promise that I’ll make every page 4 panels, which is usually the answer I receive, but on average, I write anywhere from 4 to 6 panels per page. Rarely do I write more, but sometimes less.

Ron Fortier: Five to six tops. Again, its about the art. 

John Jackson Miller: Fewer panels is always better, though you must stick to the rule of one action depicted per panel. My average has been creeping down over the years. My goal is three cinematic page-width panels per page, but my average is closer to five, which seems to work as it allows for one cinematic panel and then two-on-two. If you're above six, you're giving the artist a postage stamp.

Michael Avon Oeming: It all depends on pacing. Pace your story or your story will pace you by forcing you into a writing corner.

Dan Jolley: A lot of it depends on the artist. Some artists I've worked with got their noses out of joint, so to speak, if I wrote more than four panels. Others don't think it's even worth it to draw the page unless you have five or more panels. That's why I've always tried to talk to the artist first, if I could, before I wrote the script.

Roland Mann: A five-panel page is a good base from which to start, I think (once upon a time, industry standard was six). From there, it depends on what you're trying to do story-wise (story is king, always!)...if you want it to move faster, then lots of smaller panels, less dialogue.

Mike Bullock: Depends on what's going on in the scene(s) that the panels encompass. If it's talking heads or something like that, you can do more, if it's big action then you want less. It's also dictated to some extent by the artist. Some artists want a lot of panels, some only like a few.

Erik Burnham: Some artists can make a ridiculous amount of panels work just fine (see David Aja on Hawkeye #2.) Usually, I make it no more than five panels as a rule of thumb. I'd love to see a 6 or 9 panel grid (and I certainly don't hesitate to do more panels when I'm drawing the story myself) but the vast majority of artists seem to like five and under panels per page best, so that's become my go-to number.

Percival Constantine:  As a general rule of thumb, I average about 4-5 panels per page, but I'll add or subtract depending on the scene. If it's something with a lot of close-ups, I can manage a few more, or if there is a lot that needs to be shown in big splashes, I'll scale down the number of panels.

How do you determine when to throw the rules out the window and do something that might be "nonstandard" for the average comic book?

Dan Jurgens: One should discard the rules only after he masters them first. Which rarely happens.

Jim Beard: Again, when the situation demands it -- but if you have something "game-changing" in the middle of an otherwise standard overall layout, you run the risk of it not only looking weird, but also pretentious.

Bobby Nash: There are rules? [laughs] I employ whatever method or layout works best for the project at hand.

Ron Fortier: Break the mold and get verbose... that's called prose writing. It's not a comic. Nuff said.

John Jackson Miller: Throwing the rules out is permissible but there needs to be a very good reason for doing it, and you need good communication with your artist. Explain it wrong, and you've got a jumble.
  
Michael Avon Oeming: Once you have mastered the rules and feel like they have become old territory, like you are making choices simply on those rules- then shake it up. And always, always keep on producing. Writing, drawing, plotting, sketching, doodling, brainstorming something creative every day!

Roland Mann: That's a gut/instinct thing, I think. But you've got to know and understand the rules and know why you're breaking them in order to do it effectively.

Mike Bullock: When that's what the story calls for. Listen to the muse...

Erik Burnham: Knowing the artist I'm working with and what they're capable of helps. Otherwise I go with my gut and ask for things when the story calls for them.

Percival Constantine:  That's an interesting question. I guess it depends on the story I'm writing. To date, I haven't been in a situation where I've felt something like this was warranted, so I'm not sure if I'm very equipped to answer it. If it would benefit the story to do something non-standard, then by all means go ahead and do it. Knowing the rules is important, but one of main reasons for understanding the rules is so you're better equipped to break them.

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Who's Who:
Jim Beard (Ghostbusters Con-Volution, Star Wars Tales, Hawkman Secret Files)
Mike Bullock (Lions, Tigers, and Bears, The Phantom)
Erik Burnham (Ghostbusters, TMNT Splinter, A-Team)
Percival Constantine (Femforce, Kagemono, All-Star Pulp Comics)
Ron Fortier (The Green Hornet, Popeye, Street Fighter)
Dan Jurgens (Superman, Booster Gold, Teen Titans, Captain America)
Roland Mann (Cat and Mouse, Ex-Mutants, Switchblade)
John Jackson Miller (Star Wars Knight Errant, Iron Man, Mass Effect)
Bobby Nash (I Am Googal, Fuzzy Bunnies from Hell, Domino Lady vs. The Mummy)
Michael Avon Oeming (The Victories, Powers, Thor, Red Sonja)
Jenny Reed (Around the World in 80 Days, Charles Darwin)
Janet Stone Wade (Jetta: Tales of the Toshigawa)