As I mentioned earlier, I’m dusting off my old novel The Keystone. Why now? AI.
Now, I know that might set off alarm bells. AI-generated content is slop—something that grabs your attention and then wastes your time. That’s because AI isn’t creative; it just parrots back what it’s been fed. Using it to write a story is the wrong tool for the wrong job.
But AI does excel at pattern recognition, analysis, and data processing. It can scan a 100,000-word manuscript to highlight:
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Weak modifiers
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Sloppy dialogue tags
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Cumbersome sentences
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Inconsistencies and info dumps
It can also generate useful tools like plot outlines, character profiles, and tension maps—tasks that would take hours to do manually.
The key is using AI to free humans to do what we do best. Test readers can focus on enjoying the story, while every word added or removed is still mine. The voice, the choices, the craft—still human.
Here’s my plan.
The Zero-Budget Launch
Goal
To prepare The Keystone for publication-quality release with a $0 budget — using AI as a diagnostic tool, not a co-author.
The goal is to create a novel that works as an act of love, refined to professional polish through disciplined, human-directed craft.
Phase 1: The “House Style” Pass (Defining My Voice)
Purpose:
Establish a “Voice Profile” that defines my natural rhythm, diction, tone, and humor — my gold standard for all later editing. This ensures that AI feedback doesn’t flatten or genericize the prose.
Action:
I’ll provide 1–2 chapters of my most polished writing (for instance, the Digby fragment).
Prompt:
“Analyze the authorial voice in this sample. Ignore plot. Identify key stylistic and rhetorical features (sentence rhythm, tone, vocabulary, humor, pacing, use of internal monologue, and dialogue style). Create a concise Voice Profile for The Keystone. This will serve as my ‘House Style Guide’ for all later analysis.”
Outcome:
A diagnostic summary that captures my natural cadence, not a prescriptive rulebook.
All later AI passes will use this as a reference but never override it.
Phase 2: The “Technical Polish” Pass (Macro-to-Micro Analysis)
Purpose:
Systematically raise the micro-level craftsmanship of the prose (pacing, rhythm, clarity, and flow) to match the macro-level story that early readers already responded to.
In this stage, AI serves purely as a diagnostic assistant — it marks possible trouble spots, but I decide what and how to fix them.
1. The “Pacing & Payoff” Pass (Story-Level Diagnostic)
Action:
I’ll analyze the novel in 5-chapter chunks.
Prompt:
“Analyze this section for pacing and emotional momentum. Using the ‘Voice Profile,’ identify paragraphs or scenes that slow the flow or undercut tension. Flag potential info-dumps or pacing troughs, but do not suggest rewrites.”
My job:
Decide which slow points are intentional breathing space — and which need tightening.
2. The “Weed-Killer” Pass (Sentence-Level Diagnostic)
Action:
I’ll feed the AI one chapter at a time.
Prompt:
“List possible ‘prose weeds’ in this chapter. Do not rewrite. Just quote the phrase and categorize each under:
• Filter Words (e.g., ‘she saw,’ ‘he felt’)
• Crutch Words (e.g., ‘just,’ ‘really,’ ‘suddenly’)
• Overused Dialogue Tags (e.g., ‘she sighed,’ ‘he chuckled’)
• Passive Constructions (‘was hit by,’ etc.)”
My job:
Review every item, deciding which “weeds” are real problems and which are part of my deliberate style.
3. The “Rhythm & Flow” Pass (Applying the Polish)
Action:
After my own revisions, I’ll run chapters through a rhythm-and-flow check.
Prompt:
“Review this chapter against the ‘Voice Profile.’ Highlight any sentences where rhythm, energy, or clarity deviate from the house style. Suggest minimal edits to restore natural flow — without neutralizing tone or humor.”
My job:
Manually review every suggestion, accepting only those that still sound like me.
4. Optional: The “Second Opinion” Cross-Model Check
Purpose:
Use a secondary AI model for a fresh diagnostic perspective, catching issues the primary one might miss.
Action:
Feed the same section to a different model (e.g., Claude, Gemini, or Perplexity) using the established Voice Profile as reference.
Goal:
Compare the diagnostic overlap.
If both models agree, that’s a clear signal for attention. If they disagree, I trust my own judgment — I’m the arbiter of truth.
Phase 3: The “Final Proof” Pass (Quality Control)
Purpose:
Eliminate all typos, grammatical errors, and formatting issues — the most common “credibility killers” for self-published books.
AI Proofreading:
Prompt:
“Perform a proofreading pass on this full manuscript. Find and list only typos, punctuation, spelling, and grammatical errors. Do not alter style, tone, or phrasing.”
The “Fresh Eyes” Trick:
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Change the medium:
I’ll load the final file on an e-reader or phone app. Seeing it in a new layout makes missed errors jump out. -
Change the sense:
I’ll listen to the text using “Read Aloud” or text-to-speech. If it doesn’t sound like something I’d say, I’ll fix it.
Phase 4: The “Packaging” Pass (Presentation & Discovery)
Purpose:
Build a professional storefront and reading experience that signals quality and sincerity — essential for organic, word-of-mouth growth.
1. “Look Inside” Sample (First 10%)
The first three chapters must be flawless.
They’re my audition for the reader’s trust.
2. Blurb (Back Cover Copy)
Workshopping this with AI — as a sparring partner, not a ghostwriter.
Prompt example:
“Help me craft a blurb for a sci-fi romantic comedy with emotional and thematic stakes like The Awful Truth meets The Expanse. Focus on clarity, tone, and reader hook.”
Then I rewrite it myself for authenticity.
3. Cover Design (Genre Signaling)
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Aspect ratio: 1.6:1 (e.g., 1600x2560 px)
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Must clearly communicate Sci-Fi Romance
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Typography clean and legible even at thumbnail size
If I use AI for the concept, it’s just that — concept art. I’ll refine it manually or with free tools until it looks professional.
4. Back Matter (The Ecosystem Engine)
Include:
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A short Author’s Note to connect personally with readers
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A polite review request (“If you enjoyed this, please leave a review — word-of-mouth is how books like this find readers.”)
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A teaser or link for my next project (Quest for Norumbega) to begin building my author ecosystem
Phase 5: The “Human Factor” (Reality Check)
Purpose:
Validate the manuscript with real readers, not editors.
Recruit:
Test readers who are fans of:
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Classic sci-fi
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Strong female protagonists
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Found family stories
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Screwball romantic comedy
Ask them for:
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Where they stopped reading
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Where pacing dragged
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Where something was confusing
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What they believe the book is about and how it made them feel
Then I’ll feed this data back into a final AI diagnostic:
“Using the reader feedback below, identify which sections of the manuscript may need adjustment to improve clarity, flow, or emotional pacing.”
Final revisions will be entirely by hand, guided by human reaction, not machine prescription.
Phase 6 (Optional): The Professional Touch
If I later hire an editor, the manuscript will already be so clean that their labor (and cost) will be minimal.
They can focus on deep insight, not surface triage.
Core Principles Recap
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AI inspects; I rewrite.
It’s a lab instrument, not a co-author. -
Voice sovereignty.
The “House Style” guide protects tone, humor, and humanity. -
Iterate by insight, not obedience.
Accept AI notes only when they serve the story’s heart. -
Readers are my true north.
The real test isn’t algorithmic polish — it’s emotional connection.
Follow Along
Over the coming months, I’ll be documenting my progress through these phases — the discoveries, the setbacks, and the strange places where machine analysis meets human intuition.
If you’ve ever wondered whether AI can help a writer be more human, not less — I’m about to find out.
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