A trope is a storytelling element that has been used so many times that it has become a convention.
The term trope is used broadly and can cover aspects of storytelling such as figures of speech (e.g. ‘let’s go kick some ass’), imagery (e.g. a human rising through the air toward a UFO), character (e.g. the jaded cop two weeks from retirement) or plot structure ( e.g. the ‘chosen one’ teenager who saves the world while choosing between two love interests). It is a recognisable plot element, theme, visual or verbal cue that conveys something to the reader.
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
Tropes function as shorthand, conveying a wealth of information to the reader in a few short words or images.
Tropes in writing become a problem when they have been overdone and the writer has brought nothing new to them.
An over-reliance on tropes is considered a sign of poor writing, lazy writing, and a lack of originality.
When using tropes, it is important to use them within intention. That is, to know what they are and how they function within your genre.
You can then either double down on them, leaning into all their tropely glory, confident that they are serving the type of story you want to tell. Or, you can know they are there and intend to up-end them or put a fresh spin on them in some way.
Be warned though, subverting tropes can backfire on you if you don’t manage your readers’ expectations appropriately.
How Do I Use Tropes To Manage A Readers Expectations?
People read to experience a desired set of emotions.
We read because we want to FEEL a certain way.
Plot tropes are a form of shorthand which let us know which feelings to expect when we pick up certain books. For example, a fantasy reader is usually seeking a sense of wonder and heroism, a thriller reader is seeking a feeling of intrigue, tension and suspense, and a romance reader is seeking a feeling of squee. Yes, squee. It’s a real word and everything.
Common plot tropes include but are by no means limited to: the buddy cop story, the underdog story, the rags-to-riches story, the happily-ever-after story, the whodunnit story, the quest story, the romance story and the comedy.
When we select books with these plots we know, for the most part, what to expect from them.
And we’re okay with that. In fact, that’s why we chose them.
People read genre fiction because they want to go on a familiar emotional journey. At the same time, they are expecting the author to make that familiar journey feel fresh and new to them in some way.
No pressure authors
People read genre fiction to experience a familiar set of emotions
The Perils Of Subverting Tropes
If you choose to subvert the tropes in your book you need to foreshadow this on the cover, the back cover blurb and in the first chapters, otherwise, the majority of your readers will feel tricked and betrayed when their happily-ever-after story (in which they were hoping to feel squee) turns into a tense thriller story.
Conversely, your thriller readers will feel disgruntled and let down if your edge-of-your-seat thriller turns into a mushy romance halfway through.
Sure, some of your readers will love the subversion, but they will be the exception and not the rule.
By and large, you will alienate your audience – unless you managed their expectations of the story from the very beginning.
(Spoilers ahead) A great movie example of this is Hancock. It starts out as a fresh take on the superhero trope featuring an alcoholic and down-on-his-luck Will Smith. The story is captivating and interesting until they introduce his superhero ex-girlfriend, Charlize Theron.
From there on the story shifts from superhero movie into a ‘romance of the ages,’ completely losing any tension it had. As a general consensus, the movie alienated both romance movie lovers and superhero movie lovers.
For a literary example, Dan Wells often cites the number one complaint with his ‘I Am Not A Serial Killer’ book, is that he left it too long to introduce the supernatural element in the story. This had the dual effect of:
Not capturing the interest of readers who WANTED that paranormal aspect in a story, and
Alienating readers who thought they were reading a standard crime thriller when suddenly it turned paranormal.
So again, be aware of the tropes in your story and of how you are using them.
What’s The Difference Between A Trope And An Archetype?
The difference between the two is the timelessness and universality of their natures. Tropes are dependent on the time period and the culture they exist in, whereas archetypes are concepts that are universal across all ages of civilisation and cultures.
Within the framework of storytelling, an archetype is a common pattern of behaviour or a representation of a universal truth. For instance – the mentor character has a common pattern of behaviour, while ‘love is the answer’ is considered a common universal ‘truth.’
Due to its persuasive and universal nature, an archetype never becomes stale or dated. Although they can feel one dimensional unless the writer fleshes them out and put their own unique spin on them.
You can have a mentor character archetype, but what makes your mentor character different from every other mentor character out there?
The 12 main archetypes common across all time periods and cultures
What Are Some Of The Most Common Tropes In General Fiction?
There are some catchall tropes that everyone is familiar with:
Idiot plotting – wherein the stories problems could easily be resolved if the two main characters just talked to each other, yet don’t for a variety of flimsy reasons
The dark lord who wants to take over and destroy the whole world/universe
The ‘everyman’ character who rises to the occasion and saves the day/world
The two lead characters getting together at the end of the story,
The bad guy/monster we thought was dead rising again when the main characters back are turned.
What Are Some Common Tropes Found In Genre Fiction?
Action Books & Movies
The chase scene: A frantic pursuit between two parties, either on foot or with vehicles.
The ass-kicking pose: As the team prepares to fight, they all simultaneously adopt the ‘ass-kicking pose’ and pause, looking cool
The just-in-time-object-catch: The hero dives for, and catches an object that absolutely must not strike the floor, just before it hits the ground
Romance Books & Movies
Arranged Marriage: A common technique in historicals to force the hero and heroine to deal with each other.
Anti-Hero: The types vary, but romance novel leads can tend towards bad boys (ready to be reformed) instead of a clean-cut, straitlaced fellow.
Broken Bird: Women love to see the healing power of love. Most have a side of Intimate Healing as well, but usually after the hero is a bit less screwed up.
Speculative Fiction Books & Movies
(Fantasy) The power to create something from nothing: the character makes something out of thin air, or, more accurately, nothing.
(Sci-fi) The lightspeed leapfrog: The brave explorers set out in their spaceship to spread humankind to the stars. You can’t travel faster than light, so they’re going to spend most of the trip on a Sleeper Starship as Human Popsicles, or it’s a Generation Ship and it’ll be their descendants who step out at the other end of the trip.
(Fairy tales) The impossible task: a favourite in myths and folklore and the world over. The task might be undertaken to win a boon, or a bride, to gain land, to break a Curse
Thriller Books & Movies
The cliff hanger: often thought of as a cheap and lazy way to create a sense of suspense. A Cliff-hanger ends a scene, chapter or book with some (or all) of the main characters in peril of some kind and the audience is made to wait for the outcome.
The conspiracy: The story starts off with either a minor meaningless crime or a high-profile murder. A person related to the criminal blamed or the uncovered victim notices some odd discrepancies in the official story and digs deeper. Before the protagonist(s) realize(s) it, they are caught in a multi-layered plot.
The reveal: A key moment in most plots, when the heroes or the audience discover how the villains have been manipulating everyone. Can also be used to make a cliff-hanger more dramatic.
Mixing The Familiar And The Strange. Making Tropes Your Own
There is a reason that most speculative fiction stories usually consist of 70% the known world and 30% the strange.
If I wrote of an experience that was wholly new in all of human existence, it would be so foreign and incomprehensible to the human mind as to be meaningless.
Without a framework of familiarity to reference, any wholly new thing or experience cannot be thought of, understood, discussed, or shared.
This same principle applies to storytelling. We need tropes to understand the framework of the story. The secret to fresh storytelling lies in taking those familiar tropes and twisting them just enough to make them interesting and unique while keeping them relatable.
Summary
As always when it comes to the craft of writing, the most important thing is to KNOW what the tools are, UNDERSTAND how they impact story and then to use them WITH INTENTION.
Tropes aren’t inherently bad, and there is nothing wrong with writing the most tropetastic story in existence (hello The Witcher), AS LONG AS YOU DO IT INTENTIONALLY, and not by default through lazy or ignorant writing.
So go, know thy tropes, and wield those tropes with devastating intention.
My whole life is dedicated to being a successful, published author. To that end I applied for a writing workshop in America. Here’s what happened.
I was awarded a place at Futurescapes, a prestigious writing workshop in Utah.
YAY!
I was also awarded a scholarship to attend.
EVEN MORE YAY!
The Futurescapes workshop is highly competitive. Places are offered to people whose writing is on the cusp of professional standards or higher, and you must submit an example of your work as part of your application process.
Attending Futurescapes provided me with the rare opportunity to workshop my manuscript (as well as hobnob) with some amazing authors, editors, and agents, such as:
Ted Chiang
Ali Fisher
Matt Bialer
Matthew Kirby
Lucienne Diver
Thao Le
Dan Wells
Ben Grange
DongWon Song
Fran Wilde
Christian McKay Heidicker
to name a few.
Being based in Australia makes attending these types of events a bit of a challenge for me, but I felt the opportunity was too good to pass up. Unfortunately, my autoimmune condition has recently forced me to drop down from full-time work to part-time work even though I need a full-time wage in order to be able to feed the mortgage beast and keep the utility monsters at bay (the cat and dogs are also pretty keen on regular meals).
Nevertheless, I was committed to attending, and after a pep talk from my best friend, she convinced to me to start a GoFundMe campaign.
‘After all,’ she said, ‘You might as try to raise the money. You already can’t afford to go, so you have nothing to lose by trying.’ Made sense to me and so I launched my campaign. And of what a squirmy, uncomfortable process that was. The concept made me feel SQUIRRLEY with embarrassment. SQUIRRLEY I tell you (not to be confused with squirrely). I learnt a lot about myself in a short amount of time. I realised that I might, just might, have some issues around self-worth and self-esteem and asking for help.
I’m the kind of person who, even if I have ten bags of groceries in my arthritic hands I will still try and open the front door by myself even though there’s someone else standing right there. That’s just how I am. Asking for help has always been anathema to me. But now here I was asking for the most embarrassing kind of help – money help. From strangers. I was cringing and dying inside.
And then the donations started coming through.
I was flattered and honoured. Each one made me say out loud to myself, “Oh no – you shouldn’t have” as I covered my mouth with excitement and embarrassment. I was also astounded when a few big-name authors (who shall remain anonymous) donated. They know I exist? I thought with amazement as I saw their donations come in.
The GoFundMe campaign was quite successful and, in the end, raised almost enough to pay for my flight to Utah. It was official. I was going!
Having had previous experience in just how heavily jet-lag can affect you on these trips I left three days early to allow myself enough time to adjust, and it was just as well because I hadn’t factored the altitude of the location. Now I live at literal sea level and walk to the beach most days. But Futurescapes took place in at The Chateaux in Deer Valley – a gorgeous hotel located at 8100 feet or 2400 meters.
Let me tell you, breathing was hard. If you’re asthmatic or have ever had a severe chest infection, it felt similar to that. My lungs were burning. It felt like someone was standing on my chest. Because I couldn’t get enough air I felt like I had anxiety (pounding heart, quick shallow breaths, anxiousness) but it was simply the lack of oxygen. Which, by the way, also made me feel quite loopy and surreal. I’m pretty sure the walls were breathing in and out at one stage.
I slowly adjusted to the altitude and by the time the conference officially started I was feeling almost human, though I did get quite faint every time I got to the top of a staircase.
My feedback to my patient critique group was also given in this manner:
“[deep breathe in] I feel that this [deep breath out] piece could benefit [deep breathe in] from changing the order [deep breath out] of information [deep breath in]”
It’s safe to say that, thanks to the altitude, I was neither the brainiest nor most eloquent during my time at Futurescapes.
The first day opened with our critique group meeting with Thao Le, from Dijkstra Literary Agency to assess our first three thousand words. Half an hour before the meeting I got very anxious, but my fears were allied as soon as I met my group and Thao. Everyone was lovely and supportive and offered fantastic insight into each other’s work. (Yes – that means even more revisions for The Truth About Dragons. But I gained some really valuable insight into deepening the POV in tight third person, so it will definitely be worth it).
Over the next few days, we continued to workshop our manuscript. I got to review my query letter with author Emily R King, who uses the three C’s when constructing a query letter. The format she uses is:
First paragraph – Character:
What does the MC want and why do they want it?
Second paragraph – Conflict:
What is stopping the MC getting what they want?
Third paragraph – Consequence:
What will happen if the MC doesn’t get what they want?
On query letter bio’s DongWon Song said: “No one cares how many kids or pets you have. Don’t put it in there. Put in something that will make you stand out.”
Sage advice 😊
It was great to see familiar Writing Excuses Cruise faces at Futurescapes including Bob Connick, Nick Bright (and of course DongWon Song). Since my arrival on the 9th The Chateaux had gone from empty to filled with writers talking about writing in every lounge chair, nook and cranny you could find. The sounds reminded me of a flock of chattering birds on a wire. And while it was great to indulge in such fervent excitement on the topic of writing, I also took frequent breaks from it, but retreating to my room to decompress for an hour at time.
Once it stopped snowing (and I could also breathe again) I even went for a walk and a swim. To say it was picturesque was an understatement. I mean, look at me doing tough here:
All too soon the Futurescapes workshop was over and it was time to head back to reality. I had gained some valuable insights on the craft, met up with old friends and made some fabulous new ones.
I’m look forward to my next overseas writing conference, and I have my eye set on attending the Nebula’s and New Zealand World Con in 2020. Maybe I’ll see you there!
You Can’t Stop Progress – A Friendly Universe Wants AI Art
“You can’t stop progress!” So shouted a little boy after gaining an autograph from ‘Aussie battler’ Bill Hislop in 1994 hit Australian movie, Muriel’s Wedding. The movie swept on, but I remained, pondering the truth of that statement. And I’ve been pondering it ever since.
We all have areas in our life where we wish we could stop progress. We wish that our skin would stop wrinkling and sagging, that the kids wouldn’t grow up so fast, and that highrises would stop popping up everywhere. Daily I am torn between mourning the loss of what was and acknowledging the inevitability of ‘You can’t stop progress.’
Fearing change is a basic tenant of being human. After all, we spent hundreds of thousands of years trying to survive in a brutal landscape when even the slightest deviation in our environment could be a precursor to death. And yet, ironically, change is the only constant in our lives. The universe is in a perpetual state of flux, progression, and regression. There is no ‘steady state,’ no standing still. Anything not actively evolving or progressing is by default regressing, reducing, eroding. This is also true of our physical health, our cognitive abilities, our relationships, and our careers.
Progress Is The Natural State Of The Universe
I, alongside many other mystics and physicists, believe that it is the natural state of the universe to constantly seek expansion. In fact, it must do so, because any cessation of expansion results in the immediate commencement of regression, and ultimately, self-destruction.
We all seek expansion of life. It is impossible for us not to do so. Every thought we think leads to another thought. Every desire fulfilled leads to yet another desire. And despite what some puritanical schools of thought may have you believe, it is not only moral for you to want to be more and do more, it’s imperative that you do so. The universe, whether you frame it through the lens of physics, or God, is seeking constant expansion through you, and it achieves that by you becoming all that you can be.
“It is the natural and inherent impulse of life to seek to live more; it is the nature of intelligence to enlarge itself, and of consciousness to seek to extend its boundaries and find fuller expression.”
Wallace D Wattles
I Have Skin In The Game
Before I dig in any further, I should mention that I have skin in the game. I am an artist. A writer. It has been my lifelong dream to see my books on shelves in bookstores. A dream that thanks to advances in technology (a glut of self-publishing, and now the advent of AI text bots) becomes more remote with each passing day.
I foresee a time in the (screamingly near) future when AI can write books almost as well, (or let’s be honest here, better) than the average human. And that buying books ‘solely written by a human,’ will have a novelty factor. While AI may never be able to truly duplicate and distill your unique human experience into words, all it needs to do is hit enough tropes, and beats, in the right order to create pulp fiction that will, for the most part, satisfy the masses.
Arguments Against AI Art
I have seen multiple arguments surrounding AI and seeing as I am an artist and have an online following strongly skewed toward artists, most of the arguments I have seen have been against AI. The arguments are predominantly based on the unfair manner in which the subject material was obtained to train the AI (more on this below,) that the AI is just copying and spitting out other artists’ work and styles (with no credit or compensation to the artist,) that current artists are losing jobs and money because of AI, that generating AI art requires zero skill and originality, and that subsequent generations of humans won’t bother to become artists because AI can do it faster and easier.
Let me address the last point first. Humans have been scrawling on cave walls and rocks, bones and bowls, and anything else they could get their hands on for as long as we’ve been walking upright. There is a deep and primal need within us as a species to create art – a need that won’t be going anywhere in thousands upon thousands of years of evolution. So, you can take comfort in that account, humans will be creating art in multiple forms, for as long as there are humans.
Industry Disruptors
“Digital technology is heralding the next phase of disruption to the global economy, with the emergence of new technologies like blockchain, additive manufacturing, big data analytics, the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence. They will not only transform the global economy by constantly redefining consumer expectations and business models, but also engender inclusiveness by providing an avenue through which people can access opportunities and interact with one another.”
As for AI taking money from the mouths of artists, it is true. AI is an industry disruptor, like many that have come before it (think Kodak versus digital cameras and Uber versus taxis), and many that will come after. And as with all industry disruptors it brings with it an adapt-or-become-obsolete decision point, and that point is upon us all right now.
Furthermore, AI is not just an industry disruptor, but a societal one. It’s going to be the biggest disruptor we’ve dealt with as a species to date. AI is not just coming for our painters, photographers, and writers. It’s coming for our doctors, our statisticians, our drivers, our accountants, and so much more.
AI is coming for all of us in one way or another and no amount of hand-wringing is going to put that genie back in the bottle.
“There is an abundance of opportunity for the person who will go with the tide, instead of trying to swim against it.” – Wallace D Wattles
There are some ideas, that once conceived by humanity, are so big that they have momentum of their own simply from being thought of.
They spring into existence and begin to gather speed and mass like a snowball rolling down a hill. These ideas cannot be unthought. They cannot be unexpressed. For good or ill they are now part of our collective consciousness. AI, CRISPR, facial recognition and tracking, G.M.O foods, they all have a life of their own and they’re not going anywhere. They are unfurling along Certain Lines of Creation (be that physical or divine) much like the rest of the universe is.
On a personal level, I can honestly say that some of these developments terrify me, and I would very much like them to disappear forever. But when I step back and observe things from a Universal Perspective I can see that there is no such thing as objectively Good or Bad, Right or Wrong. There is only progression and adding to All That Is, or regression and ultimately oblivion.
Most Important Decision We Make
“The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or a hostile universe.”
– (Attributed to) Einstein
I’ve spent my life pondering this question – do we live in a friendly universe, a cold and indifferent universe, or a malevolent universe? And if so, what does that mean for our human existence? In fact, the exploration of this question is the basis of my world-building in my fantasy universe, the Lokamaya.
My conclusion? An actively hostile universe will ultimately self-destruct, and while the development of an indifferent universe is possible, it’s not probable. Leaving us with the likelihood that we exist in a friendly universe that actively seeks expansion of All That Is. And humanity is on the leading edge of that expansion, adding to All That Is with our every thought, word, and action.
In a universe where unimaginably vast tracts of it are nothing more than dissipated energy, we find ourselves living in an exhilarating and powerful world of contrast and Potential Energy. There is power we can harness here on Earth, between the fires and ice, between the top of the mountain and bottom, between the deserts and rainforests. Contrast drives the awareness and creation of Desire. The desire to be There instead of Here. Desire to become That instead of This. Desire to have things and make things and be things. For, everything you see that you don’t want also creates within you an equal and opposite desire for what you do want. And that desire is fuel for your life, and for all of creation.
To whit: A friendly universe, seeking to express and know itself more fully through constant expansion, fosters the development of things along Certain Lines Of Creation that add to All That Is. If we accept that statement to be true then we can see that a friendly universe would want AI art.
What Is Art?
Before we can argue for or against AI art we need to define what constitutes art; a definition that turns out to be as ineffable as the subject matter itself.
The dictionary definition of art says that it is “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects.” (Merriam-Webster)
Or, to consult our ever-trusty Wikipedia: “Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talentexpressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas.”
Or perhaps you prefer this definition from Philosophy Now: “But the content that we instill on or in our chosen media is not in itself the art. Art is to be found in how the media is used, the way in which the content is expressed.
If you accept these three definitions of art then images produced via AI prompting immediately fall under the category of art.
But let me be clear here. Despite the hundreds of hours of spent I have spent on Midjourney generating images, I do not call myself an artist simply because I have used it. Every time I share a generated image online I very deliberately say, ‘Here is something I made on Midjourney,” and not ‘Here is something I made.’ I consider it to be a collaborative process. I am working with AI.
AI prompters, drawing on a wide database of images that were formed via the collective human experience, conceive of an idea they wish to bring to fruition, and (often) by repeated tweaking, refining, recombining, rerolling, and occasionally with some research and community input (e.g. reaching out to forums to find the correct keywords) and the use of third-party programs, take something that existed once only in their minds and bring it forth into the world, to share with the public and to add to All That Is.
This artwork tends to inspire the creation of even more art, as people make their own variations and deviations, shaping it into something that resonates with them. And thus, they are unconsciously perpetuating a thread of artistic creation and inspiration that has been occurring since the dawn of time.
There Is Nothing New Under The Sun
As fantasy author Brandon Sanderson has said, “Humans are great recombiners.” We take everything we have experienced and mash it together to make something that can be considered ‘new.’ But true originality is rare. Case in point; try to think of a color you’ve never seen before, or a sound you’ve never heard. Nothing is created in a void. Your ‘O.C’ [original content] stands on the shoulders of all of human experience that preceded it, and to paraphrase Matt Colville, ‘Your art is only as original as your sources are obscure.’
Every book you’ve read is the sum of all the stories the author has read or heard or watched. The writings of Tolkien have spawned a whole fantasy genre, but he in turn was inspired in part by Beowulf, and Norse mythology, often drawing directly from it (such as for the names of the dwarves). Norse mythology was in turn inspired by proto-Norse mythology, a swathe of which was inspired by an unscrupulous 13th-century Icelandic chieftain named Snorri Sturluson. And no doubt Snorri in turn got the ideas for his stories from things and people that preceded him, and the stories he grew up with. It is wild to me to think I am sitting at my desk in 2022 creating fantasy worlds because some dodgy guy named Snorri made some stories up in the 13th century. But that is the nature of creativity. All art is but a continuation, an exclamation point in the narrative of humanity.
How Are AI Images Created?
Most people have no idea of the behind-the-scenes used to generate your image of ‘Jerry Seinfeld in a Santa suit fighting a kangaroo,’ or whatever other whacky concept you may dream up.
This opening explanation is taken from this articleon towardsscience.com.
“For decades now, computer scientists have been using Machine Learning to train computers to understand the world. Computers have filtered through images to learn the differences between particular objects and items. The next progression is to learn to create images.
But how can an AI create images? As you probably guessed, it is a complicated process. To generate images, the machine uses two neural networks. The first neural network is used to create the image based on the text input by the user. The second neural network analyzes the generated image with reference images.
By comparing the photos, it creates a score to determine the accuracy of the generated image. The score is sent back to the original AI system, which can return an altered image for another score. The systems will continue to score likeness until the generated image matches the control image. That final match would then be the generated image that the user sees.”
This continuation of the explanation of how an AI art image is created was taken from this articleon artstechnica.com.
“Image synthesis models (ISMs) like Stable Diffusion learn to generate images by analyzing millions of images scraped from the Internet. These images are valuable for training purposes because they have labels (often called metadata) attached, such as captions and alt text. The link between this metadata and the images lets ISMs learn associations between words (such as artist names) and image styles.
When you type in a prompt like, “a painting of a cat by Leonardo DaVinci,” the ISM references what it knows about every word in that phrase, including images of cats and DaVinci’s paintings, and how the pixels in those images are usually arranged in relationship to each other. Then it composes a result that combines that knowledge into a new image. If a model is trained properly, it will never return an exact copy of an image used to train it, but some images might be similar in style or composition to the source material.”
Where Does The Data Come From To Train The AI?
It’s a truth universally acknowledged, that once you upload something to the internet you have, for all intents and purposes, lost control of it.
Different AI models use different datasets to train upon, including LAION (Large-scale Artificial Intelligence Open Network), ImageNet, and Coco. These datasets were obtained through a process known as web scrapping in which bot crawlers trawl the net gathering publicly available images and their alt text, pairing them together, and then compiling them into a massive database.
It’s true that many AI programs were developed on datasets that were scrapped from the web without the content creators’ knowledge, permission, or compensation. And it’s just as true that it was scrapped legally. At least according to the US Courts, who confirmed that TWICE.
“A US court decision on found that scraping data that is publicly accessible on the internet is not a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or CFAA, which governs what constitutes computer hacking under U.S. law.”
Derivative Works Are Legal
If the fact that publicly available images are allowed to be scraped is a blow to you then you may be further dismayed by this following ruling in which Singaporean photographer Jingna Zhang lost a copyright claim against Jeff Dieschburg, who modified her artwork using AI and went on to win money by entering it into a contest. This smacks of unfairness but highlights the need for rapid advancement and changes in copyright laws around the world, which are woefully inadequate when it comes to keeping up with technology. Ironically, I foresee a time soon when the only way legislation is going to be able to keep up with technology is if AI does the legislating (albeit overseen, and signed off by, humans.)
Legal Versus Consensual
Do I think the relationship between AI and artists should be consensual? Definitely.
Do I think artists should be fairly compensated for their work? Always.
Just because an artist’s content was obtained legally does not mean it was obtained fairly or consensually. But such is the world we find ourselves living in, and I am ever a pragmatist.
Before you get too hung up on the fairness or unfairness of AI development and use, you should ask yourself where in our late-stage capitalist societies are things being done in a scrupulously fair and ethical way? Is it logical to expect utmost transparency and compensation in the AI arena when we can’t get it from our governments, corporations, and policing bodies?
Again, let me be clear, just because other facets of society are riddled with corruption and duress doesn’t mean we should blindly accept it in the AI arena, but I do think people need to manage their expectations accordingly. This does not mean we should take things laying down. But if you want things to change you are going to need to change them on a legislative level.
Changing your profile picture to a ‘No AI’ logo and imploring your online friends to boycott AI is simply the new ‘Thoughts & Prayers.’
If you want real results and real change, you’re going to have to take real action. (Groups, such asSpawn, have arisen in an attempt to develop a consensual relationship between content creators and the AI world. You can learn more about them here.)
In an ideal world, I would like to see artists compensated each time their images are used as part of the dataset, used in the generation of a new image, or each time their name or style is invoked in a prompt. No doubt the compensation would be negligible, akin to the pay Spotify gives its artists. But it would go some way to ameliorating and recompensating artists.
How this could be done from a technical perspective I have no idea, and a governing body would need to be formed to manage and monitor this and to lobby for more protections and rights for artists. Now is the time for these groups to form. If you feel passionate about protecting artists’ rights in an AI world reach out to other groups of similar mind, or start your own in your country and begin lobbying for legislative rights and changes today. Now is the time to set the foundation for the future of AI and art.
If you found your text data AND picture together in the LAION datasetand you are an E.U citizen you can take the following steps:
“If you found your name only on the ALT text data, and the corresponding picture does NOT contain your image, this is not considered personal data under GDPR terms. Your name associated with other identifiable data is. If the URL or the picture has your image, you may request a takedown of the dataset entry on the GDPR page. As per GDPR, we provide a takedown form you can use. Upon form submission, we will investigate the request, and if verifiable, we will remove the entry from all data repositories we control. Such repositories include current data stored on our computers and future releases of the datasets. We cannot act on data that are not under our control, for example, past releases that circulate via torrents.”
Your job as an artist in any industry is to remain relevant. There’s no money in obsoletion. And to remain relevant you need to reframe the way you look at AI. Don’t consider it a hostile takeover, instead, think of it as a symbiotic relationship. That cool robot friend you always wanted to help out with things.
Here are just some of the ways my fellow Midjournians are using AI to bolster their creativity in other areas:
Creating concept art for immersive theatre
Creating assets (images) and compiling them together to make something not found anywhere else on the internet
Generating scenes from novels to help get the staging clear in their minds
Storyboarding novels and movie scripts
Tattoo design
Creating characters for Dungeons and Dragons campaigns
Creating comic books
Conceptualizing interior design ideas
Making character cards for novels
Making tarot cards
Inspiration for architectural design
Overcoming creative blocks (one person broke a 10-year dry spell by using Midjourney)
Storyboarding game development
Creating and printing backdrops for theatre productions
Mood boards, reference images, and textures for traditional and digital paintings
Photobashing (using multiple digital assets like pictures, textures, and 3D models to create realistic-looking artwork)
SlideDeck layouts
Creating tileable textures for 3D models
Creating wallpaper patterns
Inspiration for website layouts
Inspiration for landscaping
Designing fashion collections
Concept development for pastry art
Backgrounds for DJ visuals
Generating user interface elements websites i.e. buttons, tabs
Creating maps
Staging ‘photoshoots’ in the historical past
Producing illustrations for personalized greetings cards
Making cookbooks
Reinventing and then reproducing their own art once more
“I would say the term A.I is a bit deceptive because it sets up computers to be on equal par with people. I see AI to be stronger where we are weak, and weaker where we are strong. It’s not a technology that will replace us, it’s a technology that will empower us.”
These days artists need to be a jack of all trades. Not only must they excel at their chosen medium, they also need to be performers (for social media) and marketing gurus, website developers and SEO experts, bloggers and podcasters, YouTubers and graphic designers, accountants and teachers…the list is endless.
But the truth is, most of us only have affinity and skill with a small cross section of the abilities required to be a successful modern-day artist. I cannot tell you the countless hours I’ve wasted tinkering on my website, or learning about SEO, or how Instagram works or any of the plethora of inane things modern authorship requires. Writing that first draft is the least, the most trifling, aspect of the job.
This is where we need to raise our heads up out of fear mongering and pearl clutching and instead ask ourselves, ‘How can AI help me focus on what is really important with my art?’
The 80/20 Rule
“You are hugely more productive at some things than at others but dilute the effectiveness of this by doing too many things where your comparative skill is nowhere near as great.” – The 80/20 Principle: by Richard Koch
The 80/20 principal postulates that 80% of your results in life come from 20% of your efforts. For instance, at work, 20% of what you do typically provides 80% of your results. The other 80% of your time is typically spent on low-yield activities that don’t generate a reciprocal amount of value factoring time and energy they took – for example, answering emails, managing your inbox, and attending meetings.
In life 20% of the people you hang out with probably bring you 80% of your enjoyment, while the other 80%…you see where I’m going with this 😉
Here are some other examples of the 80/20 principle in effect:
You wear 20% of your clothes 80% of the time
20% of criminals commit 80% of crimes
20% of drivers cause 80% of all traffic accidents
20% of all companies produce 80% of all pollution
20% of your clients generate you 80% your sales
20% of the holdings in a portfolio are typically responsible for 80% of the portfolio’s
When it comes to your artistic career you will be insanely more skilled at some aspects than others, therefore it pays for you to work to your strengths and outsource everything else as soon as it is feasible for you. This is where harnessing AI can free you up to focus on that 20% of uniqueness and skill that only you can bring to the equation.
The Most People That Have Ever Existed
Even without the advent of A.I, the world’s population is expected to reach 8.6 billion in 2030 and going forward it is estimated that 90% of the human population, aged 6 years and older, will be online by 2030. Let me say that again – 90% of the 8.6 BILLION people on earth will be online in the next SEVEN YEARS.
Most artists and content creators I know already struggle with visibility – and that’s before we get hit with the next wave of population growth and AI content. Harnessing AI is going to be the only way you can keep from getting swapped in already overcrowded marketplaces in the coming weeks and years.
The Artisanal Artist
Voice, authenticity, and genuine connection are already your best and most powerful marketing tools in cutting through the white noise of competition, and that’s only become more important as A.I enables even more people to become content creators.
The need to double down on your humanity in your artisitic career is highlighted in this quote from the fabulous book, ‘The Marketing Rebellion,’ by Mark Schaefer:
“Brands are built through an accumulation of human impressions…At its core business is about emotion and relationships. We buy from those we know, like, and trust.” Consumers are looking for people to believe in and support. They want to buy into your authenticity and vision.
Where To From Here?
Like everything in life, your attitude will decide your reality.
The tsunami is already here and it’s time to sink or swim. If you ever wished you had lived in the heady gold rush days when life with rife with possibility then take comfort. We are living in the Wild West of technology and there is great opportunity for those that will look for it. It’s time to get in on the ground floor. Ten years from now there will be artists lamenting whatever opportunities they feel they have missed out on if they had just embraced the change now.
Think of AI as your workhorse. Think of it as your 80 percenter. Something that can take the tedium and slog out of your creative process to let you focus on that 20% that is uniquely you. The 20% that makes you stand out from the crowd.
And if, despite reading all this, you are still living in terror of the singularity then fear not. Take solace in the fact that at our utmost end we’ll all be consumed by stars. Every person and every dream. All the serial killers and all the rainbows. All the AI programs and all the cups of coffee on sunny mornings. Eventually, everything will be gone as the universe ends this cycle of expansion and implodes in on itself to start once again. So, make your art now, and enjoy the process.
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A brilliant, shiny idea. It’s masterpiece in the making, you’re sure of it. You can already see it being bought by Netflix if Disney doesn’t beat them to it.
You can’t wait until the kids are in bed so you can finally start writing it all down.
But as you get more and more words on the page, the doubt begins to creep in. You begin to struggle with the setting, or with the plot. Maybe it slowly dawns on you that you don’t understand your characters internal motivations as well as you thought.
Or perhaps you were so overflowing with the zeal of creation that you could barely keep up with the jumble of ideas and words pouring from your fingers. As you type feverishly away you begin to wonder if the story makes sense to anyone but you.
You want feedback on what you have so far, but this is dangerous territory.
Your story is in its infancy. It has barely begun to draw breath. Even the slightest criticism could crush it irrevocably. What do you do? Do you continue on, ploughing through the words while plagued with self-doubt?
Or do you risk showing it to someone, knowing your vision could be destroyed before it ever gets off the ground?
If you find yourself in this situation then what you need is a first reader.
First Readers
A first reader is someone you trust and someone who will act as a cheerleader for you.
A first reader will be positive and support your efforts no matter what. And while your first reader should be supportive, they should also give you useful feedback on your unpolished story. What did and didn’t work for them about the plot? What characters did they love or dislike and why? In Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ he mentions that his wife, Tabitha, is his first reader and he can feel secure in the knowledge that she’ll be supportive of his efforts, but also let him know where his story is going astray.
It’s important you trust your first reader and that you know they have your best interests at heart. Your first reader should be able to be honest with you without crushing the life from your story.
It can be hard to find a first reader that strikes right balance between honesty and cheerleader. While it may make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside to have someone tell you that every word you wrote is brilliance, it is not very helpful.
ALL first drafts have room for improvement, no matter who wrote them.
If your first reader showers you with nothing but praise you would do well to look further afield for someone who can give you more objective feedback.
If you don’t have a first reader that you trust, then I would suggest not showing the work to anyone until it is completed. It is all too easy have your creative vision derailed by a savage or thoughtless comment.
Vision Writers, Brisbane
Alpha Readers
Alpha readers, in my opinion, tend to be writers. Often, they are your writing group and they do not critique your novel as a whole but on a chapter by chapter (or word-count by word-count) basis. The type of feedback they provide is very much dependent on the individuals and the nature of the writing group.
Writing groups are peculiar creatures, each one having its own quirks and agenda’s.
Hopefully you have found a positive and supportive writing group – be it face-to-face or online. If not, it is well worth your time to do so. Don’t be afraid to try out different groups until you find the one that feels right for you. Not all writing groups are going to suit all people.
In general writing groups should focus on structural level elements of your piece, such as plot, consistent character motivation, believable dialogue, and avoiding rookie writing mistakes such as all telling rather than showing, ‘As You Know, Bob’ dialogue and so on. But each writing group will have a hobby horse or two that they like to harp on about, as will individuals within the group. Don’t be surprised if different members of your writing group nit-pick different things, like commas or use of prose despite your manuscript being at the structural stage of development.
The great thing about the diverse focus of writing group members is that they help flag problematical aspects of your novel that might otherwise not have occurred to you, such as the way a fire spreads in a closed room, or the real colour of a river in a certain climate. Each little piece of feedback is another ragged edge you can file off your story; so be thankful for it even if its not immediately relevant to your structural edit.
At the alpha reader stage you’re looking to smooth anything out that will be jarring to your beta readers.
You want to avoid throwing your beta readers out of the story wherever possible so that they can focus on their reader experience.
Beta Readers
Beta readers are your test audience.
They are a group of people who read your novel as a whole and provide feedback on what did and didn’t work for them. They are often not writers themselves and that is fine because what you are looking for at this level of feedback is a reader’s response to your story, not a writer’s response.
Beta readers don’t need to be concerned with grammar and punctuation, what you want them to focus on is what worked for them and what didn’t? What did they love? What did they hate? Where were they bored or confused?
Where Do You Find Beta Readers?
Beta readers can either be volunteers or paid. Most writers try to source willing victims readers amongst friends, family and followers on social media. I would suggest that you get ten to twenty people to beta read your novel. Any less than that is too small a sample size to give you meaningful feedback.
You can do two rounds of beta reading if you like, having ten people read the first version, then making the necessary edits before having the second ten people read your manuscript.
Skimp on beta reading at your own peril.
It can be hard to find quality beta readers and emotionally painful to wade through their feedback. It can also feel overwhelming to go through your novel and implement the required changes. But if you don’t get this feedback from beta readers you will soon be getting it via poor reviews and lack of sales if you self-publish and from agents if you go the traditional publishing route.
When seeking beta readers, it helps to keep in mind that most people, no matter how well intentioned, will leave reading your manuscript until the last possible moment. If you give them four weeks to read it they won’t start until the third week. If you give them six weeks to read it they most likely wont start till the fifth week. It is simply human nature. Similarly, you can expect 30 – 50% of volunteers not to complete the assignment for one reason or another. Life gets busy and being a beta reader is hard work.
Therefore, you should treat your reliable beta readers like the amazing golden people they are. Never take them for granted and always be gracious in your response to them, regardless of it you agree with their feedback on not.
On that note at the end of the day only you can know the correct vision for your story. You don’t need to implement all changes your beta readers suggest, nor should you. What you are looking for is a general consensus. If two thirds of readers felt the pacing was uneven, then its quite likely that the pacing of your story is uneven. If eight out of ten people love your main character but two find him whiny and annoying then feel free to ignore that those two opinions.
How Long Does It Take To Beta Read A Novel?
You can grant your beta readers any amount of time you like to read your novel. Though I’d say two weeks is too short a time for people to read and critique a novel, and six weeks is too long. As mentioned above, most people will leave it till the last minute anyways, so the longer you give them, the longer they will leave it for.
What Type Of Feedback Should I Ask For?
You can ask your beta readers to focus on any aspect of your story that you like, though as mentioned earlier beta reading tends to focus on the readers response to the story structure. Some of your beta readers may do little more than note things like: ‘LOL’ and ‘I thought his coat was red?’ while others (like myself) won’t be able to help but line edit as they go. Both forms of feedback are fine. They all add to giving you an overview of your novel.
I provide simple instructions to my beta readers ask them to flag the following areas (credit for the system belongs to Mary Robinette Kowal):
A – Awesome: Let me know anything you think is awesome so it doesn’t end up on the cutting room floor
B – Boring: let me know where your attention wandered.
C – Confusing: Let me know anywhere you felt confused and why
D – Didn’t Believe: let me know anything you didn’t buy into and why
E – Expectation: Let me know where you think the story is going next.
What If The General Consensus Is My Novel Sucks?
Ouch. That’s going to hurt.
Getting beta feedback can be tough at the best of times. If you have ten people beta read for you and your novel is 300 pages long that’s 3000 pages of people nit-picking at your work that you have to wade through. Even if people predominately liked the story the weight of all the feedback can start getting to you, but you just have to soldier through it. And maybe bolster your spirits with a glass of wine, or a hot chocolate.
Trust me, if you don’t have tough skin at the beginning of the process you certainly will by the end. Either that or you will have been swallowed by a pit of despair and vowed never to write again.
As mentioned earlier, if two thirds of people flag an element as problematic you’re going to want to look into it, whether you end up implementing changes or not. If most people didn’t finish your novel, or only finished under duress because they felt obligated as your friend/family member/partner there’s a problem there. Online readers are not going to be as forgiving and your book will end up on their DNF (did not finish) pile. You may also end up on the receiving end of a scathing review.
Put simply – if people consistently don’t finish your novel, there’s a problem with your writing.
It could be the story structure; it could be the prose or any number of things. Go back to the feedback you received from your writing group and beta readers and see what you could take on to improve your story.
If the response to the story is overwhelmingly poor the novel may be a ‘trunker’. Put it away in a box under the bed or in a folder on the computer and start a new story. No words are ever truly wasted. They all add to your skill and experience. Take the lessons you learnt on this novel and apply them to your next project. Now you can get busy making a higher level of mistakes and receiving a whole new level of nit-picking.
Regardless of whether you’re a plotter or a pantser, using scene cards can help you stay on track as you work through your first draft, as well as help to ensure that less of your writing ends up on the cutting room floor. When you write without a plan, your risk of wastage is twofold. One, in wasting a writing session on ‘pointless’ prose. And two, in wasting another writing session editing that ‘pointless’ prose out. This is where scene cards can help you, even if you want to pants the whole novel from, ‘Once upon a time,’ to ‘The End.’
But before we can get started, we need to understand what constitutes a scene.
“A scene is a unit of story that takes place at a specific location and time. If one of these changes, you have a new scene.”
Any time your story moves to a new location or jumps forwards (or backwards) in time you have started a new scene. New scenes in novels are typically denoted using a ‘section break.’ Section breaks create separation between two passages of prose, thereby giving the reader a heads-up that the next passage of prose has changed time, location or POV (point of view.) This helps prevent readers from feeling disorientated as they move through the story.
Section breaks can be denoted in several ways; either with extra line spaces or by using symbols, lines and flourishes.
What Purpose Does A Scene Serve?
Ideally, a scene should:
Reveal new information – either about the characters, the plot and/or the world-building
Advance the plot – that is, move the story forward to its next logical step
Increase the conflict – XYZ just happened, so now things have gotten worse for the characters
Increase the stakes – thanks to this new scene the character/s now have even more to lose personally
If you have a scene in your novel that does only one of the above, you have two options; either remove it or make it work harder by making.
If you have a scene in your novel that can be cut without the story falling apart, then that scene can, and should, be cut from your story. This is what they mean by ‘kill your darlings.’
Scenes and Sequels
Not every scene you write needs to do all four of these things at once. Stories tend to have a natural ebb and flow of tension and pace, with some scenes increasing the speed of action, and tension, and other scenes relieving the tension and slowing the pace. These two different types of scenes are called a ‘scene’ and a ‘sequel.’
A scene scene is a unit of story that introduces a goal, conflict, or disaster (thereby upping the tension and stakes).
A sequel scene is a unit of story composed of a reaction, reflection and/or decision making.
Scenes tend to be action-packed with a lot happening. Sequels tend to be slower, as characters reflect on what has occurred so far, and makes decisions about what they will do next. A great piece of advice I heard from Lauren Clarke was to rate each scene for tension on a scale from one to ten (once your draft is complete).
For any scene that you rated as under five for tension, ask yourself:
‘Is this an intentionally slow scene? Or is it a stagnant scene that is not doing enough heavy lifting?’
If the scene is stagnant you know what to do. Either make it work harder for you, or cut it from the story.
Using Scene Cards To Plot Your Character-Driven Novel
This year I read Lisa Cron’s ‘Story Genius,’ and fell in love with her philosophy for writing character-driven novels. According to Lisa, characters come into the start of your story carrying a life-long set of beliefs that may or may not be accurate. These beliefs are what the character uses to understand the world around them, to interpret what is happening, and to decide what they will do next. Once you have unearthed your character’s set of beliefs and misbeliefs, there will be only one or two logical options for what they do next after each scene. Using scene cards based on Lisa’s book can help you clarify what that is.
I have created a free scene card template here that you can download and use. I have also created a less pretty Word Version that you can access for free here.
I have found the use of these scene cards helps me get clear on what the purpose of each scene is before I write it, and what I want to achieve by the end of the scene. I use the Word template and free write my way into the scene, using stream of consciousness as I ‘tell’ myself the scene’s purpose. The result is not pretty or ‘clever’ and doesn’t need to be. It just needs to help you get clear on what you are writing next, and why. Before I write a scene, I ask myself the following questions:
What is the main plot point of the scene? What role will this scene play in the external cause-and-effect trajectory of your novel?
Why is this scene necessary?
What is the scene’s main job?
What do you see in your mind’s eye when you imagine this scene?
What do you want the reader to feel in this scene?
Questions To Ask Yourself Before Writing A Scene
Why Is This Scene Necessary?
What integral role does this scene play in your character discovering new things about themselves and their world?
In what way does this scene advance the plot?
Why would the whole story fall apart if this scene wasn’t in it?
What Is This Scenes Main Job?
What does this scene do to advance the character arc?
What does this scene do for the reader?
What role with this scene play in the external cause-and-effect trajectory of events (aka the plot.)
What role will this play in the character’s inner journey (aka the ‘story.’)
What Do You See In Your Mind’s Eye When You Envision This Scene?
When you imagine this scene, what do you see?
When you imagine this scene, what do you hear?
When you imagine this scene, what do you smell?
When you imagine this scene, what textures do you (your characters) feel?
When you imagine this scene, what emotions do your characters experience?
What Do You Want Your Readers To FEEL In This Scene?
By the end of this scene, I want my readers to come away feeling….
By the end of this scene, I want my readers to come away thinking…
By the end of this scene, I want my readers to come away believing…
Using Scene Cards To Map A Character’s Inner Journeys.
When all is said and done, stories are not about the plot*. They are not about the events that happen, no matter how amazing they are. They are not about world-building, no matter how fresh and unique the setting.
Stories are about what people believe and how these beliefs do, or do not, change over the course of the novel.
If the character has a set of beliefs that are challenged by events over the course of the novel, and by the end of the story the character has changed and grown in some way, then you have written a ‘comedy’ (in the traditional sense of the word.)
If the character has a set of beliefs that are challenged by events over the course of the novel, and by the end of the story the character has refused to, or has been incapable of, change, then the character falls victim to their own fatal flaws, and you have written a tragedy.
Either way it’s the way a character changes or fails to change that a story is really about.
*the exception being thrillers, which are usually all about plot and little else.
By using the scene card templates I linked to above you can track both your novels plot (the series of cause-and-effect events that happen) and story (the character’s inner journey.) By being familiar with your character’s story you can avoid the pitfall of finding your characters standing in a tavern one evening, with no idea of what you should have them do next.
Even if you are a 100% pantser, completing a scene card before writing each scene should make it clear to you what your character would inevitably feel compelled to do, both in the current scene and the one that follows it. By using these scene card templates you can also avoid the pitfall of ‘idiot plotting.’ That is, having your characters do something unrealistic, or out of character for them, merely to achieve some predetermined plot point.
Conclusion
When writing a novel, you need to track two things – the external cause-and-effect trajectory of events (the plot) and the inner journey your character undergoes (the story). The use of the scene cards linked above can help you get clear on the purpose of your scene BEFORE you write it, thereby saving you time and heartache from writing prose that will later be edited out of the novel. Using scene cards can help to ensure that your scenes are doing enough lifting by making sure that they do at least more than one of the following: advancing the plot, developing the character, increasing the tension, and raising the stakes.
Okay – that’s it! Please let me know if you found these scene cards of help, or if there is anything else you think they could benefit from. Have you used scene cards before? Were they like these scene cards, or something different?
