@JoeBobMackWell, at the risk of having lost my copyright (I'm not that worried), I submitted a sizable (20,439 words) first chunk of the first book in a series I've been working on to the ChatGPT Creative Writing Coach ("Coach"). My understanding is that the current limits of Coach would allow a much larger chunk, maybe over 60,000 words, but I'm not positive about that.
I also apologize that I didn't make a copy of my prompt to the Coach before I deleted the conversation. However, I said something like that it had been asked as a developmental editor to review the material and provide an analysis, including a summary of approximately 500 words. Here's the summary:
**Summary:**
The text opens with a prologue that speaks to the magical community, acknowledging the need for a more comprehensive understanding of their world, which has evolved from a simple guide called "Magical Sex Slavery for Dummies" into a series of books starting with "Fate's Agent." It outlines the readers' requests for deeper insights into magic, relationships, and personal stories.
The novel then shifts to a character named Daniel, who, after an encounter with a goddess, is transported back in time to the town of Corden, Alabama, in 1973. His mission is to quickly settle in this era and take his first slaves to mitigate risk, a concept he struggles with. He meets Diana, a woman who disrupts Sheriff Jefferson's suspicious questioning of him. Diana, intrigued and disenchanted with her life, drives him away from the Sheriff, despite her disbelief in Daniel's story about being a student working on a project.
In a turn of events, Diana, who is grieving her past mistakes and her husband's death, feels an inexplicable connection with Daniel and agrees to take him to her home. Here, Daniel promises to share his story and give her choices that could potentially change her life. The narrative then reveals Daniel's backstory, including his visit to his wife's grave and his encounter with the goddess.
That's spot on. Ok, ok, I might quibble a bit with "inexplicable," but I admit things move fast after they meet, though for reasons I think make sense as they come out in the course of the story.
Anyway, defensive justification of my writing aside, it then had mostly complimentary things to say about the characters, plot, dialogue, and setting. Maybe it's just overly positive, but it's comments weren't all that dissimilar to feedback I've gotten from editors on this site. I didn't dig deeper into these, but maybe that will be a future effort. It would be interesting to have it analyze my main character and see how well it tracked the personality and role of that character in my mind.
Finally, I had asked about marketability, and it said:
**Marketability:**
The novel's unique blend of fantasy and time travel with adult themes may appeal to a niche market. The subject matter, however, could be sensitive, and its success would largely depend on how these themes are ultimately treated within the narrative. It may face challenges in a traditional publishing environment due to its potential controversy, but could also find a dedicated audience if marketed correctly.
Again, spot on. In fact, even on SOL, I'm concerned that folks who LIKE "magical sex slaves" won't get what they are expecting and those who HATE it will skip a story that actually wouldn't contain anything that they hate.
Finally, as its biggest criticism, it said:
- Some may find the narrative pace in certain sections slow due to extensive internal monologues and descriptions.
I can think of one or two who've read early versions of my work who, if they see this, will say, "I told you so!" And they are right, and I never disagreed with them. I did go on to ask the Coach to select three passages that exemplified this criticism and suggest alternative language. Once again, I very much agreed with the results, although, as with anything from an editor, I'd have to go back and re-read and re-think before I'd know how closely I might go with the suggested language.
Anyway, I know this is long, but I thought some of you might be interested. I'd love to hear the thoughts of others, or read about your experience should you try something similar.
