Earlier this year I participated in the Codex writers group Summer Flash contest. I decided to do so with the collaboration of some AI writing engines as a trial. You can see the posts about them in my blog here on the site. I’m happy to announce that one of those stories, as described here, has sold to Lightspeed Magazine.
This story is interesting for me. I wanted to write an AI story with the assistance of AI, which struck me as amusing but also meta in all kinds of interesting ways. I also wrote a flash length story (750 words), which is a length I’m not particularly comfortable or good at. Finally, I’ve been so focused on screenwriting that I haven’t written a short story at all in years.
One of the things I wanted to convey in this story is the alien way of thinking one would expect from an AI. It would be foolish, in my opinion, that they would think like us. I wanted to capture that. One of the real key elements of the story is not just the voice of the AI but the way to convey emotion. I was inspired to do this based on the novel draft my daughter is writing, where unique AI emotion is a key element.
Thank you, Mia!