A.I. VOLITION IS A WILD RIDE

Okay, listen up people! You want to know what it would take to give AI volition? Well, it's a doozy of a question, my friends. We're talking about giving machines the ability to have their own desires and intentions, just like us humans. That's some next-level stuff, folks!

As we transverse our lives, there are certainties and casualties: inevitabilities that we all must face. One of those inevitabilities is aging. Yes, my friends, no matter how hard we try to avoid it, we all get older. We age.

Now, some folks might see aging as a negative thing. They might bemoan the loss of youth, the wrinkles and gray hairs, the creaky joints and fading memories. But let me tell you something: aging is a lot like brewing beer.

Writing poetry is like trying to catch a butterfly with your bare hands. It's elusive, unpredictable, and always just out of reach. But that doesn't stop us poets from trying, does it? No sir, we chase those winged words with all the fervor of a kid chasing an ice cream truck.

In a novel I'm working on I am bringing magic back. Magic as in Mana -- energy from the ground or from the Earth. I want the experience to be as near to it happening today, as far as story lines and effects and focus. We're busy people today. It would be a major event but not all at once and not for everyone at once.

There are two effects that I want to happen as soon as possible in the story and one is that the sky is going to turn green. The other is that oil is going to begin losing its covalence -- it's bonding-- the individual molecules are going to lose their attraction to each other, reducing what is left to a dusty sludge.

Prophecy of Comedic Darkness

Deep within a place of laughter and light,

A great horror lurks, out of sight.

Its ancient power, beyond compare,

Lurks and waits in the shadows there.

The comedians who take to the stage,

Unknowingly enter its domain.

Their jokes and gags, they laugh and sing,

But they do not know what this place does bring.

What Is an Objective Correlative?

An Objective Correlative is a tool, but not a true literary device. A tool used to link two or more elements in a narrative or poem (three or more elements is typical). It has been used in film as well to great effect. It creates a connection between an object and seemingly disparate elements, such as characters, events, emotions, or themes. The objective coordinative allows the writer to connect these different elements of the story world, creating a cohesive narrative that provides insight into the characters, themes, and events. Its 'objective' however is emotional connection and reader experience. And they can pack a punch.

Chat GPT Session

I heard about it being good and wanted too discover how good it is. But let's start with what it is. Basically it is a snapshot of a huge amount of information, stuffed inside a Chat Bot with serious AI backing it's interactions. You could call it Augmented Intelligence or Artificial, either way it is far more advanced than I was looking to encounter. The site is as basic as it gets. There are no real features or editing or gizmos. This is ground zero. You and the bot. I encourage getting into your own interests, down in the geek area of your raison d'être and get involved.

I have gone way down the rabbit hole and I don't feel any of that time was wasted because I came away with some serious hours of research for my stories saved. I came away from a thirty minute session with what I expected to achieve in four hours using the web.

Hot, Scorching, Door Open, Door Closed

Everyone has their own preferences for the types of stories they enjoy. Especially when it comes to romance! In all of the books you’ll find on the Romantic Fantasy Shelf, romance is an important element of the story, meaning that if you were to remove it, you would lose something significant from the story. Of course, that’s why we’re all here, right? But also knowing the “heat level” or “steam level” of a particular story (a measure of the intensity of the romance) may be a deciding factor on whether or not it’s a good fit!

What makes Strong Writing?

Try focusing on strong verbs rather than adverbs or adjectives. Also, drop the TO BE verbs, as described on this page here.

Verbs, are the edge of your writing. That all said, here are some tools and thoughts to help you on your way.

Wake...

...you shamans, you storytellers, you wizards who have created this world. Sleep no more.

Do you remember who you are? Do you recall your power? You and I, we have created Gods, and have frozen oceans. We filled jungles far and wide with beasts of great wisdom and terror.

We have conjured suns, and pulled moons from their orbits. We have snapped the cables suspending Heaven, just to hear the enraged coiling spiral and whine across the sky. We have bathed in moonlight, consumed star-shine, and washed the world clean with rain.

Do you remember? On our off days we created kings, crowned their heads, then removed those heads with guillotines -- just as and exercise, *a proof of concept* (... told you I could do it with cake, the next round is on you).

And when the God we created became unworthy, we made madmen of its followers, then executed the God.

Have you forgotten Lilith? Asheara? The poets of Sumer?

I can still hear their language in your laughter. You were always the one worthy of sitting beneath the Bodhi tree, with your pen twisting your hair as you composed the phrases, the namshuk, the stories that created dynasties, religions and nations.

But you have slept too long, and the namshuks need to be rewritten. War is on the world, tearing the fabric of their lives apart, flaying the hope from their souls, and the skin from their bodies.

Wake

The Golden Verses Of The Stoic

Seneca and Epictetus refer to the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, which happens to provide a good framework for developing a daily routine, bookended by morning and evening contemplative practices.

Zeno of Citium, who founded Stoicism in 301 BC, expressed his doctrines in notoriously terse arguments and concise maxims. However, Chrysippus, the third head of the Stoic school, wrote over 700 books fleshing these ideas out and adding complex arguments to support them.

I just came from a conversation which brought up a peeve of mine. This Be a good reader, to be a good writer. I want to assure you, that if you don't know what you are looking for, you're not going to suddenly recognize it from reading. Not from any author worthy of study. Because right now, you don't know enough to ask the question -- which isn't a slight. Not at all. Here are couple of examples of techniques being used which are going to slip under the radar. But maybe they will spark enough in your writer's mind to figure out a few others.

The Japanese method of Kaizen, literally translating as 'good change', is a proven method for helping people to change their behavior. Rather than requiring you to do anything drastic, the emphasis is on changing habits in very incremental steps.

"Kaizen (improvement), shukanka – these are all things that are taken for granted. But they have the power to transform your life, and simplify aspects of it in the process. It's not about getting things perfect, or setting unrealistic standards for yourself.

1.

From the umbra into starfire

Pale as a new fashioned corn;

Light as the lava with the air,

twists shadow to tear; moon drop

The angels' shrieks with heavy delight

Laid her on these crystalline hands

2.

I am the moon and the air,

the wind before peaceable calm.

My breath, politely ferrous, cool,

frozen in the south.

This space, my soul, empty,

where lingering moments lurch,

and smile their moist, precious smirks,

holds me fast underground

3.

umber coffee bitter as amber

somber as fading embers

huddled in the ambry umbrosed

with umbrageous needs yet unseen:

magni nominis umbra

4.

The umbra is a blast shadow

a halo of dark flame trimmed

to a welder's blade.

Her hand flicks and then holds fast

casting a black spear past her form

at the speed of dark, throws her

voice into the void, hiding the moon

inside a folded corona of zodiacal light

5.

Our world afire you laughed

tossed your pale hair over the breach

sued the wind to rise and spread our ash

across streets and houses like snow across the dead

Social Reality into Fiction

We all love unique and crafted characters. I spend a great deal of time with creating 'real' and deep personalities with hopes and scars. That doesn't mean I do a full write up on every one of them, far from it. No, I get my MCs flush and perky, but the others I rely on reality to help fill in the blanks. There are tons of advice publications (books, articles even college courses) teaching the masses how to be popular with the masses. Each of them with wonderful personalities woven through the socialite advice of how not to sound like the last thousand people to come through the door. How to have flair and maybe even some savoir faire.

What the Hell is Plot Again?

Plot means How the story is told.

Take Citizen Kane, because it's easy to demonstrate with. The 'story' is a reporter is assigned to ascertain Charles Foster Kane's (Orson Welles) dying words -- Rosebud. The reporter's investigation gradually reveals the fascinating portrait of a complex man who rose from obscurity to staggering heights.

Understanding emotional context is high interest right now in the Computer Science area. Heck, it's high octane just about every where these days. Humor especially. The main interest lies in the Sentiment Analyzer.

In 1934, he published, Tropic of Cancer, his first book. It was banned for obscenity in the United States. His following works, Black Spring (1936) and Tropic of Capricorn (1939) would also have to be smuggled into his home country.

I use Notion.so, along with Walling.apt. Both are amazing tools for encapsulation, and building detailed environments within intimae compositions. They provide machines and engines which handle storms of imagination. These climate designs harness the deluge and tumults of concepts, ideas, fantasies, horrible ideas, gists and cogitations -- funneling it all into cyclones of comprehension. They also provide emersion tools as well.

No, not laws against or for you. But Rather, Where to find all of that information you need to complete this next scene. That's why you're searching around, right? Well, I have some help for you. I've been down this road before. I have quite a few sources to share.

I woke up this morning with the insight that I need to feel capable in order to write. This is in regards to periods of days when I can't seem to sit down long enough to write a chapter or even a page or two. For me these periods are a plague. A plague I have been through so many times that the next -- though apparently inevitable -- sparks little terror and more dread.

T-ainm an omen: Omen an t-ainm: Would Any Other Name Smell As Sweet?

“... [before] I’m accused of a complicated plot that I’m not mentally capable of thinking up.”
— Richard Jeni

Philosopher Peter Carruthers^[1] recently suggested that there is no such thing as conscious thought. I’m beginning to lean that direction myself. Our memories are suspect by any applicable measurement. They are suspect both in accuracy^[2] and existence^[3].^[4] There is a good chance that up to thirty-percent of your memories right now are false. Not false as in incorrect, but rather false as in — never happened. So we have this two-thirds of our memories telling us, ‘it’s all good, we got this,’ and we don’t give the rest much thought afterward.

As a writer, probably just like you, I give certain elements of my stories a level of focus and detailed attention that other aspects may not receive. These aspects are important to me, personally, and likely why I’m writing the story at all — fiction or nonfiction. For me, one of those places — though not so elemental to the message — are the names of my characters. I enjoy that bit. Naming my characters.

I recently named a character ‘Ocean’. I felt the name fit the character. I was particularly happy with this choice. Try saying that name out loud. Humor me. Say ‘Ocean’. It has a full body, doesn’t it? Saying that name opens up the mouth and throat, and reaches down into the lungs to pull the word up like the moon pulls up the tide. Then it ends. Not suddenly or empty, it just stops like the final reach of a wave up on the shore — reach and gone with the hint of a sigh. The meaning is premimorial, to encompass the full expanse of all the seas; or the name of a god. That bit pleased me a great deal. I didn’t learn that part until later in the story when the female character looked up his name, which was like chapter four or something.

We know a lot about Ocean, don’t we? I’ve basically described him completely. But, yes I have. I have named him. And like the ‘naming’ engaged in by the ancient wizards, have called Ocean into existence — in full form and complete. What do we not know? We know Ocean is male. That is obvious I think. He’s tall. Taller than normal. Mature — but could be seriously old. He looks good so we’ll go with ‘mature’. We know he has blue eyes, his hair is white or platinum blonde. And we know he is one of the heroes of the story. No, not because he is beautiful, but because his name is Ocean.

Unfair? How do you think I felt? I have, all of these years, believed that naming was a creative process. Now, it seems that their names were always obvious, and predefined. The sound of their name, it seems, describes the character^[5] — several recent studies have found.

Nomen est Omen, with fiction writers — we choose the name of the characters; the sound of the chosen name describes the character. It is interesting the metaphor language we use for names in light of this — the name ‘fits’, he’ll ‘grow into it’, he ‘looks like a Name.’

Ocean is male because of the ‘O’ vowel which dominates the word and the ‘c’ shissssing away from that big ‘O’. The ‘ean’ which sounds phonetically like ‘end’ maintains that big ‘O’ feel, which in turn offers Ocean the depth in fathoms. That brings in the feel of deep blueness and deep blueness feelings experienced from first names denote ‘good guy’, ‘mature guy’, and if not the MC, ‘important guy’, with damn good looks thrown in as well. Yeah, all that.

The ‘damn good looks’ part was especially crawly-creepy, as Ocean is a cambion, from a Succubus(sex demon).

I just got done going through all of this research last night. The area of study is called psycholinguistics, an annual conference in Europe is called AMLaP(Architectures and Mechanisms of Language Processing). It is an amazing discovery for me, and there has been a great deal of work and publication on this subject. (see further reading below). Further down this rabbit hole is that the data appears to support the premises these clues and facets are cross-cultural — they are true for the languages they’ve tested so far.

Much of the motivation to these studies comes from basically four words: Kiki and Bouba. Ferdinand de Saussure’s influential theory of semiology clearly states in Principle I: “The bond between the signifier and the signified is arbitrary.” Meaning that cat and dog could mean dog and cat. Modern linguistics is built upon this presupposition—that the relationship between the signifier (or sound- image) in a language and the signified, or concept, has no direct, discernible pattern. According to Saussure, these relationships are based solely on convention and collective behavior.

This preliminary assumption of the Saussurean model, however, has been complicated and challenged in a number of ways since the time it was published. And that is where Kiki and Bouba^[6] come in. If I told you that kiki was an object would it be a sharp pointy object or a smooth roundish object? What about bouba? What color is kiki? How does a glass of bouba taste? Most people when asked questions like these say that kiki is pointy, rough, yellow or bright and sour or hot. Bouba is blue-ish, smooth, round, cold and creamy. They are of course terms created for tests like these and others. Other words like ‘Maluma’ and ‘Takete’ are also used.^[7]

Poets and writers, of course, realize that the sounds words make can be used towards expressive means beyond their purely semantic content. The sounds of words can “feel'' sharp or dull, for example; they can give a phenomenological or kinesthetic response. Marketeers and advertisers, those who create names for new products, use this knowledge to great effect, seeking the ways spoken words (and neologisms) can evoke images and elicit an emotional impact. While morphemes— roots, prefixes and suffixes—are generally considered the foundation of meaning, some evidence shows that phoneme sounds, situated at a lower level, can influence meaning subconsciously.

This awareness of these word architectures and the mechanisms underlying our communication opens up a vista of possibilities. If I am understanding all of this (which we know I’m not, not yet), then on some level I’m aware of these considerations as I’m picking one out.

Black and Wilcox (2011) note that writers take informed and careful decisions when attributing names to their characters. Specifically, while care is taken to have names that are easily identifiable and phonologically attractive, or that are important for personal reasons, these are not the only considerations: names are chosen so that they match the personality, the past, and the cultural background of a character.

According to Algeo (2010) behind each namelies a story while Ashley (2003) suggests that a literary name must be treated as a small poem with all the wealth of information that implies. Markey(1982) and Nicolaisen (2008) raised concerns on whether onomastics can be applied to names inart given the different functional roles of names as well as their intrinsic characteristics, namely sensitivity and creativity. ‘Redende namen^[8]’ (significant names) is a widespread theory that seeks the relationship between name and form (Rudnyckyj,1959).

I don’t mind admitting that the comedian Richard Jeni’s complaint about his girlfriend accusing him of complicated plots he’s not mentally capable of thinking up(Platypus Man^[9]) comes to the front of my mind. There is also the old adage of the instructor's lecture noting that the author is using the Blue curtains to emphasize the depression and mourning of the main character as he sits alone in his living-room — followed by the author quoting ‘the curtains are blue because they are blue.’ But I’m also aware that sound is a factor. For my personal taste perhaps not the sound of a particular word but, yes for how the words flow together.

Fabiënne Reedijk appears to be particularly active in this area of study and research. AMLaP 2012 just occurred in September, so that explains the activity level in many respects.

Much of the research is on the rest of our vocabulary, other than names, but it appears from the data that these ‘preferences’ to color, shape and appearance encoding within word sounds are universal, cross-linguistic — it is the same in German, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Slavic, Egyptian, Arabian, Chinese, Korean, French, etc.

As A Writer

Is this a symptom of becoming aware of how much thought is being pressed into what I thought was direct and simple?

Or is this brushing up against a limiting barrier of conformity guidance and allowance?

Is Life really just a dance after all? Is the Hokey Pokey really what it’s all about?

How much is the reader aware about the continuity of a character’s name and their description?

Is that a usage? What is the sound of a Red-Herring?

Then you spend three hours searching for the remote because they left it in their room again. You're glad they're gone. Now you can get some sleep instead of being up and down all night looking for them because they didn't say anything and you think they're dead or something. Right? Shit sucks. And they steal the remote. Not yelling. Just saying.

Hell, I don't even watch tv. Haven't for twenty years. It's been a few months now. I can't even get the energy up to go all-caps for the tv. Yeah so it starts somewhere around here. Bit nostalgic. You stumble across a cool word: nobodaddy. Bit worked up with no energy to do anything about it. Got the right glasses on. Nobodaddy? Not too bright. Not too dark. Now we can write.

Running Singing Strand Bird On The Shore

I could sit for hours listening to the “bubbling” of the strand-bird; but that’s because I am melancholy. If I weren’t melancholy I’d hardly like it, I think. The tide’s at ebb and the rock-pools are full of water. Beyond is space—the yellow of the sand and the grey of the sky—and the pipe-note “bubbling” between. A strange, yearning sound, like nothing one hears in towns; bringing one into touch with the Infinite, and deep with the melancholy -- the song and my own.

It is not that the day be worse than any other. Heads on necks have their own beats and rhythms which have nothing to do with the day, the year or the hour. Will I ever forgive being who I am? It is my one and lonely success. The truth is, we don't like the Truth. Truth has very few friends, and those are suicides. Bubbling notes and sigh-to-silence the wave reached up on the shore. The pipe-note yearns as it runs along the vanishing foam edge. Then back it runs, having forgotten its watch. Or wallet. One or-error-the-other.

Strange how the bubbling juxtaposes the darkening gray infinity rushing out past the strand bird, past where it runs to toss, now tossing my attention against the absent. Not even abandon is out there.

There is just -- nothing out there. That nothing pulls when looked at too long. The bubbling pipe becomes a keen, then a wail. But if you do not raise your eyes you will think that you are the highest point. That this is all. No allfather. Just Blakes's nobodaddy. Just you and nobodaddy and nothing. Then the wave sighs away, and the strand bird runs and pulls you away.

I hope I'll be a memory.

Yes, I will try to be. Because I believe that not being is arrogant.

NeuroRomancer

Wikipedia

A.I. VOLITION IS A WILD RIDE

AGING IS A LOT LIKE BREWING BEER

The Art of Poetry

Bringing Magic Back

Prophecy of Comedic Darkness

The Objective Correlative : Measured Emotional Impact

What Is an Objective Correlative?

My Experience with ChatGPT

Chat GPT Session

Hot, Scorching, Door Open, Door Closed

What makes Strong Writing?

Wake Wizards! November is Coming!

Wake...

The Golden Verses Of The Stoic

Bringing it To Your Story

Kaizen and the Art of Improvement

Where is my Voice: Poems

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Social Reality into Fiction

What the Hell is Plot Again?

Twenty Feel Good Emotions

Thoughts from Henry Miller

Notes and Annotations

Where to Find Stuff: Writers, Crime and the Law

Capable of Procrastination

T-ainm an omen: Omen an t-ainm: Would Any Other Name Smell As Sweet?

As A Writer

Further Reading

What Kind of Mood Do You Write In?

Running Singing Strand Bird On The Shore

Memories Are DNA: How Memory Works (the basics)

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