AI and Writing - A Series of Looks Inside: Part Two - ChatGPT

Good morning, and happy Friday, good people of the blogosphere! Today, we're taking a light look at creating prompts and how ChatGPT fares on the chapter production scale. To say this was fun is giving it way too much credit. I'm the kind of writer who enjoys pantsing, so creating all this plot is really far outside my wheelhouse. I usually have a beginning and an end, and all the character details, and then I write fast doing mini points along the way. My process can be found in this blog post.

Now that the intro is out of the way, let's dive into creating a prompt and making a chapter. I can already tell you I was less than impressed, but the authors I know that do this spend just as much time creating prompts (it's an art form in and of itself) and editing as I do just writing it myself. BUT! Not everyone can do that, so if you need a little help along the way, you may find something here that will assist you. If not, just read it for fun. :)

Bold is from the AI until we get down to the yummy part. Okay, let's get going! Grab a drink and a blankie, and read on.

I started on Vertex AI to get an idea of how to write a prompt (again, I have no clue how to do this). It gave me what I thought was a stupid one, so I used my writing skills and came up with this:

I’m trying to be as vague as possible here, but it seems like that won't work.
I clicked Generate Prompt a bajillion times and got nothing. Trying something else. Went back to here and tried this:

Here’s what it gave me:
Okay, here's a short outline:
Chapter 1: Elara, a lonely vampire, hunts in the forest. She senses a strange presence.
Chapter 2: A unicorn, Rhys, shifts into human form. He's lost and confused.
Chapter 3: Elara finds Rhys. She's drawn to his innocence, despite her vampire nature.
Chapter 4: Elara takes Rhys to her secluded home. He learns about vampires and her solitary life.
Chapter 5: Rhys reveals his unicorn origins. Elara is shocked but intrigued by his magic.
Chapter 6: A growing attraction sparks between them. A threat from Elara's past emerges.

Interesting. Now we’ll take our little idea and head over to ChatGPT. For this experiment, we’ll use GPT o1. I’ll always start my chats off this way and use the EXACT same prompt/outline:
Me: Hello, (addresses the AI)! I need some help writing a book, and I'm wondering if you can help with that.
Response: Absolutely! I’d be happy to help. Could you share a bit more about what you’re working on? For example:
    Genre: Is it fiction, nonfiction, or a mix of both?
    Topic or theme: What’s the main focus or subject matter?
    Audience: Who are you writing for?
    Stage: Have you started writing already, or are you still in the idea/outlining phase?
The more details you can give, the more specific my suggestions and guidance can be. Feel free to let me know what you have in mind!
(these are excellent questions and I didn't think to include them, so I'll make them up now)
Me: Nice. It's a fiction novel, and the main focus is two supernatural creatures coming together to defeat something I haven't come up with yet. Over the course of the story, the two will fall in love and end up together.
It will be a YA romance fantasy novel.
I have a loose outline I can give you for each chapter. Chapters should be no longer than 3000 words.
Response: Great! I’d love to see your outline. Go ahead and share the details you have for each chapter, and then we can develop them further. Once we have your outline fleshed out, we can start drafting scenes, refining the plot, and shaping your characters’ arcs.

Whenever you’re ready, feel free to share as much or as little of your outline as you’d like!
Me: Awesome. My two main characters are a vampire and a unicorn that can turn into a human. Here’s the outline for the first six chapters, but I only want to do the first chapter for now. *pastes in the loose outline from above*

Also, can I just say how much I hate the character names? Ugh. It’s like every YA novel of all time was examined, and these are the most popular two names. Gross.

Response (this will be long, but I’ll go through and note stuff - my notes will be in italics):
Crafting chapter details

Elara, a solitary vampire, traverses a forest with heightened senses, their sounds and scents filling her awareness. As her path unfolds, a distinct and unfamiliar essence emerges.

*******NOTE: GPT reasoned for 11 seconds before beginning. Insert eye roll. BUT it did expand upon the loose outline. One point for GPT.******

Below is a possible draft of Chapter 1, written in a YA-friendly style and designed to be fewer than 3,000 words. Feel free to adjust, expand, or shorten as needed to match your personal style and overall vision.

---

## Chapter 1

Elara stilled beneath the canopy of towering pines, her heightened senses tingling. The thick forest was home to many creatures—deer, foxes, even the occasional elk. But tonight, she hunted something different. The quiet hum in the back of her mind told her prey was near, though it wasn’t any ordinary animal. This was something… else. 

Now, this isn't my writing style at all. I probably would've dropped something like this:

Death. Scents of blood and pine filled the air, and Elara lifted her face to catch the scent like the predator she'd been turned into several hundred years ago. Her ears pulled back, listening for the faintest rustle of a leaf or twig snap. Forest creatures stilled, making the air silent but for one sound. It was coming from her left, and she recognized the rattle of last breaths.

Which means I set the scene without naming a bunch of things that didn't matter and allowed the reader to insert some imagination. Moving on...

Moonlight threaded through the swaying branches, illuminating Elara’s porcelain-pale face. Her long black hair hung loose around her shoulders, blending into the shifting shadows. She took slow, measured breaths, out of habit more than necessity. Vampires didn’t need to breathe, at least not like humans. But old habits clung to her like the memory of sunlight.

Who says vampires automatically can't go out in the sun? Also, what's with the dropping of commas? This sentence: Vampires didn't need to breathe, at least, not like humans, but old habits clung to her like the memory of sunlight. Not the way I would've constructed it because there are too many asides for a novel.

She stepped forward, boots crunching softly in a thin layer of pine needles. Her eyes glimmered with preternatural awareness, scanning the darkness. She was used to the hush of the forest at night—it was usually comforting. But tonight, the silence felt charged.

**Keep moving,** she told herself. **It’s just a hunt, no different from any other.** 

By the way, the ** means italics and ### means bold. They don't copy over.

But deep down, she knew this night was different.

### A Lonely Existence <----- WHAT THE FRESH HELL IS THIS?!?!

Elara had learned to move quietly, to keep her presence unnoticed. A lone vampire traveling from region to region without a coven had to rely on stealth. She’d chosen this remote forest for a simple reason: no people, no prying eyes. The last thing she wanted was to hurt a human. She never drank from them unless absolutely necessary. Animal blood left her weaker, but it still kept her alive, as alive as a vampire could be.

Never said she didn't have a coven OR only drank from animals...

A pang of guilt stung her chest as she recalled her early days of transformation, when she couldn’t control the hunger. She squeezed her eyes shut at the memory of the first—and last—time she’d drained a human. That life, the bright red warmth on her lips, haunted her. It had forced her to live alone, far from temptation.

**Loneliness is better than regret,** she reminded herself. A mantra she’d repeated a thousand times.

And so, she made her home in the outskirts of this dense woodland, gathering enough sustenance from wild creatures, never staying long enough to be discovered.

### The Scent of Prey

Elara crouched behind a cluster of ferns, inhaling deeply. The crisp night air carried a medley of scents: damp earth, crushed pine needles, and distant water from a creek. But there was something else, faint but unmistakable.

**Blood?**

Her senses sharpened at the possibility. The metallic tang was subtle, as if carried on a stray wind. She rose to her feet and followed the scent, each step driven by a hunger she tried to ignore. Her heart—still and silent in her chest—almost seemed to thud with anticipation.

She slipped past a thicket and found a small clearing. The moonlight fell on a wounded doe, its flank gashed by what looked like a predator’s claws. It panted in shallow bursts, eyes wide with fear. Elara hesitated, compassion warring with her instincts. Animal blood was part of her routine, but the creature’s pain made her heart twist.

Still, her thirst had grown; she’d put off feeding for too long again, hoping to avoid it. **It’s this or risk losing control.**

She moved closer. The doe shuddered, and Elara knelt beside it, wishing she had another choice. She murmured an apology before sinking her fangs into its neck. The warm rush of blood soothed her burning throat. She drank carefully, mindful not to prolong the animal’s pain. Within moments, it went still, its suffering ended.

Elara pulled back, chest tight with guilt. Another innocent life taken. She placed a trembling hand on the doe’s side, silently thanking it for sustaining her. It was a ritual she’d created to ease her conscience, though the sadness never fully left.

### An Unexpected Aura

Just as she stood to leave, a ripple of energy coursed through the clearing. The hair on the back of her neck rose, and the gentle night breeze turned still. A strange awareness pulsed in the air, as if the forest itself was holding its breath.

Elara whipped around, scanning the tree line. The shadows seemed unchanged, but she could sense something—a presence unlike any she had felt before. It was vibrant, emanating a warmth that starkly contrasted with her undead coldness.

**Another vampire?** she wondered. No, this didn’t feel like one of her kind; there was no scent of bloodlust, no suffocating aura of death. This presence was bright, more akin to life than the darkness she was used to.

A thousand questions shot through her mind, but she forced herself to stay calm. She was no stranger to unique beings—werewolves, witches, creatures that haunted the edges of mortal understanding—but this presence was different. It beckoned her somehow.

She swallowed, wiped her lips clean of any lingering blood, and took a cautious step forward. **What are you?** her thoughts sang in the silence.

### Compelled by Curiosity

Usually, Elara would slip back into the shadows after feeding. She avoided confrontation and kept interactions minimal. But tonight, curiosity tugged at her like an invisible chain.

She ventured deeper into the forest, following that warm, pulsing aura. Quiet as a wisp, she skirted gnarled roots and ducked under low-hanging branches. The canopy grew denser, blotting out moonlight, but her vision remained sharp. The path led her to a crooked birch, its trunk scarred by lightning. She paused, pressing a hand against the rough bark.

The presence flared again, tingling beneath her fingertips. It felt closer now, impossibly bright. Her pulse—if she could call it that—raced, and she rubbed her arms in a futile attempt to ward off a sudden chill.

Her instincts screamed for caution. **Anything that radiates this kind of energy could be dangerous.** And yet, she couldn’t bring herself to retreat. Something about it was… comforting. Inviting, almost.

The night continued in its hush, save for the rustle of leaves overhead. As she edged around the tree, her eyes locked onto a footprint in the soil—bare, human-shaped, and fresh. She knelt, tracing its edges with her fingertip. **Someone is out here,** she thought. **But who walks barefoot in this forest at night?**

Rising, she scanned the ground. There were more prints, each moving steadily in one direction, as though the person knew exactly where they were heading. She trailed them, stepping carefully in the footprints to stay silent.

### A Flicker of Light

A faint glow shimmered through the trees, halting her mid-step. At first, she thought it was a trick of the moonlight, but it danced—like a wisp of silver flame, darting from trunk to trunk. Elara’s sharp eyes followed the flicker, adrenaline spiking. Could this be a witch’s spell? A wandering spirit?

She crept closer, half expecting a spectral figure or even a group of forest nymphs—she’d heard enough stories of supernatural creatures drawn to moonlit groves. But the glimmer vanished as swiftly as it had appeared.

The trees thinned, revealing another small clearing. In the center rose an ancient oak, its thick branches twisting toward the sky. A broken stone circle lay scattered around its roots, remnants of some lost structure. Elara approached warily, sensing that the presence had led her here.

But the clearing was empty. Only the whisper of wind in the grass kept her company.

She sighed, shoulders slumping. Perhaps the aura had been nothing more than a fleeting magic or a trick of her imagination. She eyed the footprints again, but they seemed to stop at the edge of the clearing.

A primal part of her warned her to leave—daylight would come eventually, and she’d have to seek shelter. Still, she lingered, scanning the ground for any clue. A tuft of silver hair snagged on a broken stone drew her eye. She reached out to pick it up.

It felt soft, like strands of silk, shimmering in the moonlight. She turned it over in her hand, confusion knotting her brow. A faint energy radiated from the hair, matching the presence she’d been tracking.

She slid the strand into the pocket of her cloak. **I’ll figure this out later,** she told herself, heart fluttering with an uncharacteristic sense of excitement.

### A Lingering Unease

Elara stood there for a moment, soaking in the night, trying to calm the swirling questions in her mind. That strange warmth still buzzed in the atmosphere, calling to her. Part of her wanted to stay, to uncover the mystery, but her practical side urged her to go back before sunrise—or before something else found her.

With one final look at the clearing, she turned and made her way back through the forest. Each step felt heavier, as though the ground clung to her feet, wanting to drag her into something unknown. She glanced over her shoulder once, half-hoping to see a figure in the moonlight. But the clearing remained silent.

As she slipped past the pines, the distant hoot of an owl reminded her she wasn’t entirely alone. She smiled wryly to herself. She’d never been afraid of the forest. It was people—human or otherwise—who had the power to terrify her. And this presence? She couldn’t decide if it scared her or intrigued her beyond reason.

### Back to the Shadows

Navigating back to her hidden haven, Elara practiced her usual caution: she took a winding path, backtracked a few times to cover her scent, and finally reached the small, dilapidated cabin she called home. Nestled between thick firs, it looked like an abandoned woodsman’s shack, uninviting to any casual traveler. To Elara, it was a sanctuary.

She shut the rickety door behind her, leaning against it with a quiet exhale. The interior was sparse: a single cot, a small table, a few chairs she’d scavenged from a nearby ghost town. Moonlight from a single window provided just enough illumination for her to see by—though her vampire senses had no trouble in the dark.

Slipping off her cloak, she hung it on a nail by the door. Her thoughts lingered on the shimmering strand of hair she’d found. She pulled it from her pocket, holding it up to the thin moonbeam. It looked almost silver, but it glimmered with a faint rainbow sheen if she tilted it just right.

Her curiosity flared again. **What kind of creature leaves hair like this?** She had encountered werewolves, whose fur could be thick and coarse, but never shimmering silver. Some fae had iridescent hair, but she’d never known them to roam in these woods. And what about that human footprint? So many questions—and no answers.

Despite the steady hum of curiosity, exhaustion from the hunt pressed in. The doe’s blood would sustain her for a while, but it also made her feel weary. She set the hair on the table, where it caught the moonlight like a sliver of ice.

In the silence, she could almost imagine a soft voice drifting through the trees, calling her name. She shook her head to clear the thought—**just a trick of the mind,** she reasoned.

Stepping to the cot, she lay down, arms folded beneath her head. Vampires didn’t need sleep like humans did, but resting helped pass the long, empty hours until dusk. As she closed her eyes, she couldn’t shake the feeling that everything in her life was about to shift. The loneliness she’d worn like armor felt different now, lighter and somehow more fragile.

**Tomorrow night**, she promised herself, **I’ll go back and search for more clues.**

She didn’t yet realize how entwined her fate would become with that mysterious presence in the forest. Nor did she know that soon, she would meet the being who possessed that silver hair—someone lost and just as alone as she was.

For now, she succumbed to the quiet. Outside, the forest remained watchful, illuminated by the silver moon. And somewhere, not far away, a warm, glowing magic flickered in the darkness, waiting.

---

### Author’s Note and Next Steps

- **Tone & Style**: This draft sets a slightly moody, introspective tone for Elara. If you prefer something lighter or more fast-paced, we can adjust the prose accordingly.  
- **Chapter Hook**: The chapter ends on a note of mystery—Elara finds a silver strand of hair and senses an unusual presence. This naturally leads into the next chapter, where we introduce Rhys’s perspective.  
- **Word Count**: The chapter is under 2,000 words, fitting within your 3,000-word limit.  
- **Further Development**: In subsequent edits, you might want to deepen Elara’s internal conflict, add more sensory details, or foreshadow the looming threat.  

Feel free to revise or let me know if you’d like any changes. When you’re ready, we can move on to Chapter 2, or refine Chapter 1 further until you’re happy with it. Enjoy writing!

*******************************BREAK BACK TO ME*******************************

I mean, it's not the worst I've ever read, but why the desire to insert all the bold subheadings is beyond me. What novel does that?

As you can see, it gives a basic idea of where the story might go, but we're moving awfully quickly through the narrative, and there are a ton of descriptors in there I'd, personally, remove. It would take me as long to do rewrites/edits on this as it would to write it myself, in my voice. My voice is nice. I adore the tone I have. My readers love it.

Now, could I train it to write like me by feeding it tons of my writing? Sure, kind of. It would probably help, but I'd prefer to spend that time writing. If you're a new writer, I could see how it would be a good assistant, but there again, you need to find your own voice and use it.

I know this post was LONG, and I appreciate you hanging with me this long. Again, we're only testing what each of these gives when you're new to all this. No deep dives here. I forgot to mention it above, but a lot of these things limit your usage to so many outputs/words before you have to buy more, and if the AI is lacking in its ability, that could end up costing you a lot of money. 

You all know me! I love free. :) The cheaper it is with better function, the more I like it. ha!

Well, that's all for today, folks!

Until next time, WRITE ON!

Jo