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Writing is hard. There is nothing easy about it. If you are anything like me, you may have had a slightly skewed view of writers and the writing they do.
I think in small degree it's due to how Hollywood portrays things. Yes we see in movies someone working hard. If its about sports, we see a montage of people working out in a gym, or running in a 30 second clip, we see someone overcome the odds inside of 2 minutes instead of the time it actually took.
When we see things like that, it lends a bias towards the subject. It would be one thing if this was something we saw once, and that was it, no repeats, subject closed. But when we see things like this over and over again, in movie after movie, I believe we become nearly numb to what is actually involved.
That dear reader is where I find myself when it comes to writing. There are quite a number of films out there that portray writing. Many are actually excellent films. But I fear that I have allowed myself to be biased when it comes to that. Here on CivitAi, to put out a musing, really is not that difficult. We put down some thoughts, boom, complete. We get some likes, maybe some buzz, a thumbs up or a heart, and that is it.
But to genuinely write a story, or even a decent comic, that has a decent plot, is not an easy task, even when using AI to assist you. While AI may make it easier in some ways, it also makes it much harder in other ways. I have tried writing now both with and without AI. I am sure saying that will get some hate, I know that there are those who hate AI (probably not many on this site as its all about using AI, Lol 🤪), and we have those who are considered purists for writing, but I do not believe using AI to help you write is wrong.
Consider such simple tools (well nowadays it's considered simple) as Microsoft word, or grammarly. We use those tools to spell check things, to check our grammar, or in some cases our deliberate non-conforming use of grammar to check what we write. In a very simple manner, tools such as that are an elementary or rudimentary form of AI.
I have had floating around in my head, some ideas for various stories for a number of years. I know I am no John Grisham, I am no Tolkien, or anyone else of that manner, and certainly not that caliber of writers. But, even being self aware of my writing limitations, I still struck out on a journey to put down "ink to paper" and get my story written out. Well in this case click-ity clack of the keys on my laptop.
I started a story here on Civitai called "The Last Vow".
What I thought would be something short, maybe a 2 or 3 chapters has grown beyond what I had anticipated. What I found is that in order to tell a good story, or even a semi-moderately good story, things change, things and characters end up developing in an almost spontaneous manner.
As I would check for things like continuity, or how a character may or many not say something, how they interact with others, or even the type of relationship they might have with another character, and how all of that might influence a decision, I have ended up with something much greater in length than anticipated.
Complicating the matter is the writing style. Here, this musing which I am writing is layed out in a paragraph style. What I have found is that for the reader here on this site, using the dark site background that causes this to be white font, and usually small font, it becomes less enjoyable to actually read anything of length, and this is coming from a self proclaimed veracious reader. So trying to figure out how to write this in a style that will be enjoyable to read here on this site, still captivate the reader, but also not overwhelm people, well this has not been an easy task. I do believe I have found a way, and I hope you enjoy it.
I have just finished my ninth chapter, and am at just about 108 pages, and nearly 12,000 words. I still have at least 3 or 4 more chapters before I feel this will be complete. This also does not include the imagery that I would like to accompany it. This will not be a comic. This will not be a picture book, where every few words we have an image, rather a story that has the occasional image to help the reader visualize something about the story, or a character in the story.
The current plan is to release a new chapter about once a week until it is complete. Usually on a Wednesday. Most likely for me in the late evening those days. I will not promise and say that is a guarantee, rather approximately what I hope to be able to stick to.
So what is the story about?
Without giving the entire story away, it's about a Character named Elara. She lives in a land called Ashmere. She will be faced with what may be the most difficult choice she will ever make. What you may find is that some of those around her may also have to make some difficult decisions before the story is over.
This is not a modern day story. Rather more of a fantasy novel style.
I do hope that my story intrigues you, and that you read, like (thumbs up and hearts are always appreciated, as are the sad faces and laughing ones), and if you like it enough, maybe even reward the story with some yellow buzz.
You can find chapter 1 here: https://civitai.red/articles/31489/the-last-vow-chapter-1
Each chapter as released will most likely have the same cover image, but state that this is chapter 1, or 5 or, whatever chapter it is. So be mindful that as you are pursuing the story section of this site, that what you are looking at might be the latest chapter instead of something you just read.
Why do it that way, if this is all one story about a specific character? Well it seemed logical in my mind.
Anyways, I truly hope you love the story.
Kind Regards,
Render.