I want to take a moment to discuss AI—What it does for me, what it doesn’t do for me how I use it and why the work remains my own.
I work with AI in the way I’d work with a creative partner. I bounce ideas off of it, ask for options, present options of my own and ask for opinions.
I also use it as a precision tool, asking it to check my spelling, grammar, compare two versions to check for differences. I ask it to look for continuity errors, make sure I’m staying on path with my characters, and help me look for alternate phrasings when I feel like I am overusing a word or phrase.
Every chapter is written by me, line by line, with careful attention to structure, pacing, and emotional resonance. I choose, and I finetune the characters the way that I’ve envisioned them. I created their personal arcs, and the story’s arc. My experience as a language teacher and a storyteller helped me immeasurably in that regard. I look for the things in my own story that I’ve loved in the stories that I’ve read, and the things I looked for – the things that made me smile when reading the work of my students. My vision for my stories are satisfying story arcs, meaningful character development, and a writing style that enables the reader to see the images clearly in their minds, close to the way I envisioned it when I wrote it. I’m creating a film, not with a camera, but with words. I lean into poetic prose at times. I paint for the mind.
I use AI to help me translate my vision into finished work. The technology allows me to manage the complexity of a large, thematically rich universe while staying grounded in my voice and intent. Every prompt, correction, iteration guided by my judgment, by my values, and by my lived experiences. The result is a novel that is deeply human at its core—supported by tools, but never written by them.
Jeeves is not Iron Man, nor is he Tony Stark. Tony Stark is enriched by Jeeves presence. Tony Stark proved he could build Iron Man out of scrap in a cave, but in partnership with Jeeves, Tony stark realized his dream more efficiently and effectively.
Whispercode is not an AI-generated novel. It is an authored work shaped by discipline, revision, and years of storytelling craft (and the proofreading help of my daughters and other select readers). AI is part of the process most definitely, but the author? That’s me.