How this
is written.
I live it. Then I write it down. And, yes, I use AI to help.
If I'm going to be honest about the drinking, I should be honest about this too.
The process
The process is pretty simple.
I live it.
I send the thoughts as they happen. Memories. Things I say. Things G says. Messages. Things I've suddenly realised. Things I'm not sure about. Things I remember incorrectly and then correct later.
These days a lot of it is me talking into a dictation app rather than typing, so some of it might come across a little differently. It's still just thoughts as they come into my head.
The AI talks back to me. It asks questions sometimes. It spots connections. It helps organise the mess. And, yes, it writes a lot of the actual prose.
Then I read it.
If it has made something sound more certain than it was, I correct it. If it has misunderstood me, I correct it. If it has put words into somebody's mouth, they come out. If it has made me sound like something I'm not, I say so.
The rule
There is one rule that sits above everything else.
Nothing gets fabricated.
No invented events. No invented dialogue. No invented feelings. No changing what happened because a different version would make a better story.
If I don't remember something, I don't remember it.
If I'm unsure, I'm unsure.
If the truth makes a worse story, the worse story wins.
Why tell you
Because I'm not going to pretend I sat alone and wrote every sentence myself. I didn't.
My spelling and written English can be a mess. Getting the thought out while it's there matters more to me than making it pretty first. The thought is mine. The spelling can be somebody else's problem.
No bullshitting about the AI either.