We are living in the age of artificial intelligence. There is an explosion of new emerging technologies in artificial intelligence that will help to transform almost everything we do. In this blog post, we will tackle a futuristic question: what role will AI play in books?

Books have been around for centuries. However, the use of artificial intelligence had little or no role in the making of books. With the use of AI, books as we know them today have been overhauled to allow for the creation of e-books. Books and e-books now have more in common than first imagined.

The role of artificial intelligence in books has been large for a long time. With the recent advancements in the field of artificial intelligence, the role of artificial intelligence in books is expected to grow in the future.

Human: “So, will AI be able to write entire books?”

No. While Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming more common in our lives, it still cannot match the level of intellect that a human possesses. While we can program AI to write a book, it will lack the emotional depth required to write a compelling story. While it will contain correct information, there will likely be important elements missing.

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The post I wanted to write an article about AI, so I let AI write it for me… appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

Now, I’m the first to say the prince of dialogue, “say” is the most unobtrusive and neutral of all tags, and I am in no way trying to encourage you to chump up your text with every single one of these alternatives, and a sign of good healthy dialogue is when you can actually skip a lot of tags because you have made it clear who is saying what. That said I do believe a little more range is no bad thing, and in those cases where you actually would like to specify exactly how someone uttered something, you can rely on the amazingly vast expressive capability of the English language. Here is my personal and ultimate list of speech verbs. Feel free to scan through it to see how many you already know.

I have provided a brief definition for each speech verb.

Next: speech verbs listed alphabetically. ->

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The post Speech Verbs and Dialogue tags appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

Books and films have their wonderful, intense moments: the long-awaited kiss, the revelation of the hero’s true calling, the power of friendship which overcomes insurmountable difficulties.

But we all know the scene we all secretly wait for, the one that gives us the most satisfaction. No, it isn’t the solution of the mystery.

It’s when the bad guy croaks their last.

Yes, the villain’s final moment is one of the most important ones, and one which must be served properly. Yes. It is not only required for the villain to die. How they die is also very, very important. A badly scripted demise will leave the reader deeply dissatisfied and, in addition, will not do the villain proper justice. Imagine, for example, Darth Vader choking on a chicken bone during lunch break. That would be awful, especially for the Death Star Chef, I suppose. But also for Vader.

A great villain deserves a great, memorable death. Here are some of the most interesting and fulfilling ways famous baddies have gone to take a dirt nap.

• 1 GONE WITH A BANG (or a splat)
  The most satisfying death is the one that leaves a mark. A nice crater for example, or at least a sizeable dent in the sidewalk, like good ol’ Hans in “Die Hard”. The look on his face as he plummets, panic-stricken, to his gruesome and absolutely well-deserved death, is the best part of the whole film.
  The fundamental idea is to make the end of the villain final. They’re dead, loud and clear. Especially, loud.
  Sauron’s annihilation at the end of “The Lord of the Rings” is a perfect example of this spectacular kind of demise.
  On a smaller scale, but still poppin’, we might mention the passing, or rather the zapping away of Bellatrix Lestrange, in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”. The death eater carks it when she is disintegrated by a spell, giving us a nice, enjoyable moment of killer magic as well as revealing how Molly Weasley kicks wizard ass.
  

• 2 BACKFIRED TO HELL
  On par with Gone with a Bang above, we can’t suppress that jolt of joy when the villain’s end, no matter how horrific, is brought about by their own evil and treacherous ways. Karmic Death gifts the reader with memorable wipe-outs of characters who fully and completely get what they deserve, and the punishment they wish to inflict on the hero bounces back and kills them instead. Vincent Crabbe – a minor minion of evil, true, but still a very real threat to Harry Potter’s existence – gets a hefty dose his own fiendfyre magic and, in the end, is the only victim. HA!
  Another cutting-edge example of boomerang justice is the Green Goblin who gets impaled by his own flyer as it returns back to him as a…uh…boomerang.
  My favorite example of Karmic Death? Those Nasty Nazis in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” who spare no villainous act to get a hold on the Ark of the Covenant, only to be turned into Human Marshmallows when they unleash the Wrath of God unto themselves because it is apparently a deadly sin to look at phantom boobs. What’s your favorite Karmic Death?

• SLOW AND PAINFUL
  The moment comes, from time to time, when you just come across that villain who is just so despicable that – to put it simply – death’s too good for them. You end up cheering at each strangled gurgle as Joffrey Baratheon kicks the oxygen habit. After all the pain and suffering he’s caused to the characters we love, a Gone with a Bang death just doesn’t cut it. Voldemort is one of the first examples that comes to mind. He pesters Harry and goes on killing his friends for seven bloody books. When Harry finally decides to make the unmentionable bastard pay, he takes the long route and starts hacking at his soul.
  Piece by piece.
  And finally, Harry uses his adversary’s own wand, as if to say “I’m a better wizard too, dumbass”, before dealing the death-blow which shreds Voldemort into oblivion. Flake by painful flake.

• THE REDEEMED VILLAIN
  There are cases in which the reader might get sick and tired of all the vengeance, and piling death onto death in a senseless game of Murder Tetris. An equally satisfying end to the villain is the unexpected redemption. Or even the discovery that the villain isn’t a villain after all, like the odious Snape, who turns out he’d been on Harry’s team all along.
  Another redeemed villain is Boromir, who doubtfully joins the Fellowship with the intention of using the One Ring to defend Gondor and ends up being corrupted by the power of the Dark Lord. His final moment of repentance and ultimate sacrifice reminds us that sometimes evil is just the result of misguided good intent, and that the corruption of evil is not invincible.
  Perhaps the most complete redemption is Darth Vader’s who, still not gratified after dropping one of the most memorable plot twists in cinematic history, tosses the emperor out like yesterday’s news. Then he dies, because, seriously, screw that guy.

• TOO DUMB TO LIVE
  This last group is dedicated to those villains who have such a basic lack of rational thinking that even Karma doesn’t want to have anything to do with them. We feel instant relief when their evil, malevolent intentions are thwarted by their own innate idiocy which shoves their villainous asses right at the edge of extinction, where they inevitably go on and do the worst possible thing, and die a stupid, but much deserved, death. Programmer Nedry from “Jurassic Park”, for instance, turns his petty resentment towards his boss into a major disaster, and then, in his dishonest attempt to sell embryos to the competition, has a very educational moment where he discovers that the apparently harmless Dilophosaurus has eye-burning spit and lots of friends with a voracious appetite. Stupid villains are my faves. They’re the ones who are not killed by their own evil plan but rather the lack thereof. The aliens from “Signs” are so astoundingly dull the one planet they decide to invade is 71% covered in water which is for them, deadly. Karma, presumably, is watching from the sidelines, eating popcorn.

Know of any other fun ways in which famous villains pegged out and started pushing up daisies? Let me know!

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The post How to Murder your Villains with Style appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

Bad guys these days always seem to share the same DNA: Troubled past, point to prove, fallen hero with twisted principles, good guy going through a bad day, or simply sick bastard looking for revenge. You’ve seen them all and they all do the same dance and make the same mistakes. Of course they need to reveal their plot and complex background, otherwise how would we know how deeply torn and dark their souls were, just before the hero took advantage of their backstory moment to kick their asses straight to hell?

True. Heath Ledger’s Joker was off the record. The character’s unpredictability and ever-changing made-up tale of how he got that scarred smile was thrilling.
For the first twenty minutes, at least.
Then you realize he’s the good guy going through a really bad day, trying to prove the point that everybody goes all killy if you find their breaking point, and he’s still wasting time talking shit to his victims, so cliché all over again.
True, a damn good instance of the cliché, but a cliché nonetheless.

The problem is, we need bad guys, don’t we? Without the antagonist our hero would not accomplish much. It is entirely possible to write a story with no antagonist, but it usually doesn’t end well for the hero. Either the hero falls and turns to evil and then all the forces of good become his enemy and ultimate doom, or the protagonist must face some unknown force of nature, in which case there may be other, multiple (dumb) antagonists who make the hero’s plight even more difficult (read: less boring).
We need villains, but we can’t afford to have them win, so they always have that design flaw don’t they?
The hero is flawed too, of course, but somehow their flaw does not get in their way or, unexpectedly (every single time) turns into their greatest strength.

The villain’s flaw… What if he had none? Could we handle a bad guy who simply goes on with his own evil to-do list, and just doesn’t have time to explain shit to anyone?

Our hero: “There you are Mr. Villain! I will stop your plan, whatever it is. My friends will be here in a mo-“

Mr. Villain: *shoots hero, stuffs him with explosives.*

Hero’s friends, a moment later: “Oh no! Hero is down! You bastard!” *they rush to hero’s body* “Why did you do this?”

Mr. Villain: *toggles detonator* “A’ight. Back to work.”

Not many modern stories could afford a real villain. We seem to like our flawed, broken heroes so much we’d rather dumb down their enemies than have a protagonist we, lowly humans, cannot relate to. Although that is entirely understandable, it is really a sign of our times. We are currently experiencing a period of astoundingly low self-esteem. To the point that we need to believe that we can overcome any bad guy even though our caped savior has PTSD, an alcohol problem and crippling daddy issues.

At the end of the day I believe we need to educate our readers to look up to a better, more capable hero, or at least one who can rely on strong partners (and possibly a shitload of luck) and put them against a seriously reallistic villain. I’m not saying it hasn’t been done. I’m saying I can’t come up with a decent example right now. But I can blame my crippling writer’s block.

Don’t forget to check out my other articles on writing as well as the many other goodies here on ilahey.com. Oh and please consider subscribing. it took me ages to set up the damn newsletter system.

Views: 684

The post Evil Characters (and how to breed them) appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

So you’re an indie author, right?

Well congrats, pat on the shoulder and get in line with the others. Good luck for your whatever fiction/nonfiction. Sell loads. Right?

Hell no. A thousand times no. That’s not how this works.

You are an author. Stop. Yes, you are, look at me. You have a story, you are telling it or, bless your creative soul, you have actually managed it to put it all down in words. With decent grammar and spelling too.
Well, congratulations, that already puts you on a higher plane. Editing? Publishing? Making money and quitting your crapjob? That commercial shit is of no consequence at all. Trust me and keep reading.

You are an author, creator of worlds. You make people. You give them life and their lives influence other people. Their stories improve lives.
What’s that look on your face? No. I’m not crazy, though I may be a bit drunk, but let us not be distracted by that. What we need to focus on is the effort I am putting in here to get you to focus on one, essential point. It is not a simple concept so I will break it down for you:

ONE: You are narrative

I’m not talking about your book, silly. I’m talking about you. Your essence, what makes you you, is an amazing little part of your brain called “The Interpreter” (I reserve the rights to write a whole trilogy based on that title) whose job is to gather all your most relevant thoughts and turn them into a story. A story about you. That’s what you are. You are you telling yourself your story. Think about it, this is the part of your story when you realize, as you read this, that you’re telling yourself about your realization.
You can make your own story, just own your narrative.

One rule. You can’t lie to yourself.

TWO: You need that ego to be BIG

I’m telling you this because you have to realize you are allowed to feel good about it. More than that. You need to be absolutely convinced that you are the best damned author in the universe. Because this magic comes at a price, and the price is that you cannot allow yourself to doubt one second, or your creation will suffer. You are the best. boast about it.

But not in my presence or I shall be compelled to challenge you to a duel, to the death.

THREE: People will hate what you write

It’s inevitable. You can’t meet everyone’s tastes, so negative reviews will be unavoidable. They do not diminish you nor your work. Focus on the fans, and forget the others. To tell you the truth, you shouldn’t even judge those who disliked your book just because it wasn’t suitable for them.

Except for Andrew, who gave me three stars, Die in a fire Andrew.

FOUR: You have serious responsibility

Don’t take your work lightly. It is never “Just a story”. As I said, narrative is at the core of reality. You influence your readers’ perception of the world. Motorola invented clamshell phones because one of the engineers was a Star Trek fan.

FIVE: Nobody else will tell that story

If you have an awesome book lodged between your ears, and for some reason you keep it to yourself, it will be lost forever. No use ‘giving’ the idea to someone else. They will not tell it the same way. It is your duty.

In conclusion:

One of the main reasons for writer’s block is not believing you are up to the task. Authors box themselves into a corner of insecurity thinking they will never match the awesome greatness of the great names. You become your own greatest obstacle. You tell yourself the story of your failure.

Stop that nonsense.

You write. You sway the hearts and minds of people. Whatever you write there is a public waiting for your words. Lead them. Inspire them.

As I did with you.

Awesomeness.

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The post Of Authors and their Egos appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

Being an author is not just about writing books. I mean, it should be, and you should dedicate as much time as you can to the wonderful art of worldforging. In the real world, though, an author must also connect with the reading public.

If you think about it, one of the fathers of the novel himself, Daniel Defoe, relied heavily on his readers before writing the next episode of Robinson Crusoe. (It was published in instalments on a newspaper, and Defoe connected with his readers regularly).

“I already do that!” I hear you say, “I have over [insert impressive number here] followers on Twitter, Facebook and-“
“Of course you do,” I reply, cutting you short because I don’t like hearing other people’s voices in my head. “But who controls those platforms?”

Silence.

An author website allows you to build and sustain a reader base on your terms. Furthermore, any money you spend on promotion, puts your name in front, and not Facebook or Twitter.

That said, I knew I couldn’t go out and build my website presence all alone. I mean yeah I can play around with WordPress settings and I even managed to set up a pretty neat site on the free WordPress plan.

But I knew I had to get my own domain and blog platform. Why? Well I don’t want to advertise for WordPress either, that’s why.

Choosing the best hosting and domain solution was the first issue, and this is where social media sites shine. Author groups on Facebook are the best place to get advice, some groups are designed for that. I went to Pen Warriors, which is a group that has a special focus on helping authors with the tech infrastructure and dos and don’ts of self promotion.

The hosting service recommended to me was BlueHost. But it was not just a name pulled out of a bag. I explained what I needed and Pen Warriors went in, checked the plans that were offered and what was included. Double checked for hidden costs before giving me the thumbs up and offering extra help even after I’d signed up. I love the solution. Same WordPress interface but it’s hosted within my own site, so no ads. That means I still was able to set myself up and get to blogging right away, with a little help from my friends, who also provided invaluable feedback for the overall look and feel.

To any other fellow author taking this step. Use Facebook for what it does best: connect with amazing people and find support for your project, so that you can focus on what you do best.

Drinking coffee, taking glamour shots of your pet, hoarding books.

Also writing.

To know more, head over to the Pen Warriors website and tell them you read my article.

Please check my other posts at ilahey.com and feel free to comment or share. Thank you for reading.

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The post To Blog or not to Blog. appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

What is writing to you? Is it a form of therapy, a necessity, a productive hobby or your main source of income? The way we write can, sometimes, be defined by the answer to that question.

The hobby writer has a life, a family and a job. Writing’s fun. Selling your book is a nice surprise and the extra money can be a nice bonus for, say, a night out or a new collar for Jerome, the fictitious labrador.

The professional writer has a life and a job as well. Both of them revolve around writing. Selling books is what you do and the money, good money, feeds you, your family and Jerome. It also fuels the constant investment in advertising, especially online, without which the books would quickly lose ranks and visibility, drowned by the millions of indie competitors out there.

The therapy writer’s a mess. Writing may or may not be something you enjoy doing. You do it because it either keeps you sane, it shuts the voices up or, simply, is the one thing that gives you a nice buzz. Money’s nice, yeah, rankings and all that, but what you really care about is getting the story out of your head before it explodes, killing the evil characters and making all the other characters happy so they stop arguing with you about who else you should have killed. Also that damn fictitious dog keeps barking so now Jerome’s a cat.

With me so far? Good. What happens then when the writing stops? When the unmentionable, unthinkable, abominable beast with a blank screen face and Facebook thumbs for hands: Writer’s Block, Bane of all Writers, Devourer of Sequels and inexorably immune to all those “you should be writing” memes, hits?

The hobby writer doesn’t give a damn, does he? Happy soul. He’ll take up golfing or gardening. Jerome will get cheaper kitty snacks and, now that he’s a cat, no need to buy those shit baggies too. Hobby writer has it all.

Professional writer is in a bit of a squeeze. New books need to turn out or sales will slowly start to decline and then, below a certain threshold, marketing expenses will not be sustainable. The professional writer is smart though: old books can be presented again in shiny new covers, maybe a boxed set with a new foreword. Oblivion can be forestalled long enough to snap back out of the momentary phase. Because it is momentary, just a phase. Inspiration will come. You got this.

Therapy writer’s basically screwed. Writer’s block doesn’t shut the characters up. It pisses them off. Imagine watching a film where the actors suddenly run out of script and start staring at you from the screen instead. And you can’t turn it off because it’s a cinema and now the audience is grumbling too.

Also, Jerome wants out.

So the therapy writer has to deal with an angry mob of imaginary characters picketing outside the imaginary cinema, together with the imaginary readers, (and if you have real readers who start emailing you because they’re waiting for your next book, you’re really up the creek), and a growing sense of guilt and utter uselessness which makes it even harder to snap out of the block.

You convince yourself you’re a fraud. You can’t write, and even if you do, nobody reads your shit anyway.

Luckily there is a way out, a therapy. And therapy writers feel right at home with that. We just sit in front of the keyboard and tap out whatever’s on our minds. No planning, no editing.

Write about what you had for breakfast, about the stunning attractive person you exchanged glances with on the bus on the way from work.

Write about writing.

Blog about it. You’ll feel better, because you can.

It works.

Meow.

Views: 2172

The post Writing about writing appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.