Novel

Editing Novels Faster – Episode 1: How to Choose your AI Tools

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an artist s illustration of artificial intelligence ai this piece explores the prediction method used in large language models it was created by artist wes cockx as part of the visuali

Introduction

This post is part of Editing Novels Faster, a series documenting an experiment in using AI as an editorial aid rather than a writing tool. The aim is not automated prose generation, but reducing the cognitive drag of large-scale revision, especially the structural and developmental work that becomes difficult once a manuscript outgrows working memory.

This episode is about preparing the tools, and explaining why each is a necessary part of the process. What follows is not an optimal workflow. It is the workflow I actually built, as a novice programmer and tool user, with the explicit intention of learning where it breaks and how it might be improved.

This series documents what I did, not what is ideal. One of its goals is to expose the friction points clearly enough that they can be improved, either by me over time or by others approaching the same problem with deeper technical skill. If this process feels manual in places, that is because it was.

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Starship Troopers in a Strange Land are a Harsh Mistress

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Three novels by Robert A. Heinlein side-by-side: "Starship Troopers", "Stranger in a Strange Land", and "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress"

There may be no single author in science fiction more persistently misread than Robert A. Heinlein. He is a militarist, a mystic, a libertarian firebrand; he writes novels that venerate duty and others that dissolve it, texts that praise hierarchy and others that work to dismantle it. Starship Troopers is cited by conservative politicians for its advocacy of earned citizenship; The Moon is a Harsh Mistress is direct rebellion. In between, Stranger in a Strange Land was adopted by free-love communes as spiritual scripture. The contradiction seems total. How could one author plausibly inhabit all these roles at once—much less within a single decade?

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Introducing My Science Fiction Novel “LANTERN” – a Completed First Draft

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Science Fiction Novel #2 is In the Can!

I’ve completed the first draft of my second science fiction novel, LANTERN.

I started writing it in December 2023, and over the past two years it grew into something larger and more ambitious than anything I’ve attempted before. At roughly 175,000 words, the full story now exists on the page, from its opening premise to its final consequences. The sandbox is full. A few rough castles are standing. Now comes the work of carving and refinement.

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How to Edit Your Manuscript: a Case Study with “Viral Agents”

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This year, I’ve spent most of my writing time editing the manuscript for Viral Agents. In this post today, I’ll walk you through my editing process, making note of the rationale behind each step of the approach. This is still a work in progress, of course, so I will refrain from spoiling anything in the story. Plus, since the novel isn’t actually published yet, I can’t say that this approach has been successful from the perspective of actually producing a work fit and capable for public consumption. But, the process is underway, and I stand by it for now. Let’s get going.

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“Nocturnal Animals”: a Story-within-a-Story of Weakness and Betrayal

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Nocturnal Animals is fashion designer Tom Ford’s second feature film as both writer and director, and once again he has delivered a nuanced film full of emotion, sadness, and intrigue.  Starring Amy Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal, the film is a peculiar mixture of crime thriller and relationship melodrama, married through an inventive “story-within-a-story” structural device:   the main character reads a manuscript of her ex-husband’s novel, and the film’s narrative ping-pongs between the real world and the world of the novel.  As the procedural story unravels in the novel, we learn more about the relationship between these two characters in multiple flashbacks.

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