How I Used Generative AI Tools For My Short Story, With A Demon’s Eye

The seed for Joanna Penn's short story, 'With A Demon's Eye,' was planted over several years, drawing inspiration from personal experiences like laser eye surgery and the powerful memoir 'It’s What I Do' by combat photographer Lynsey Addario. A lifelong fascination with demons and supernatural themes, evident in her previous works, also played a significant role. This blend of personal reflection, compelling non-fiction, and a recurring thematic interest provided a rich foundation for the narrative, setting the stage for the integration of AI tools to flesh out the story's details and atmosphere.

Following the initial draft and AI-assisted expansions, a rigorous editing process was essential. Penn employed a multi-stage editing approach, starting with a handwritten first edit to ensure the story retained her authentic voice and packed a punch, especially crucial for short fiction. After incorporating these edits back into Scrivener, she utilized ProWritingAid, an AI-powered editing tool, to polish the manuscript. ProWritingAid's capabilities in improving text and its plagiarism checker provided an additional layer of refinement before the manuscript was sent to her human editor, Kristen Tate, who also values AI tools in the creative workflow.

The visual aspect of the book cover was brought to life using generative AI art tools. Penn utilized Midjourney to create a series of images, experimenting with prompts that combined elements of war photography, demons, and explosions. Prompts like 'a female war photographer taking pictures of demons of war' and 'a female war photographer portrait with her camera against a backdrop of explosions and demonic figures' yielded compelling results. To enhance the composition for a book cover, DALL-E was employed to extend the background, adding more fire and smoke. The final images were then passed to her book cover designer for title and font integration.

'With A Demon's Eye' was published through Penn's store, CreativePennBooks.com, in ebook and audiobook formats, with pre-orders available on other platforms. The article concludes by inviting readers to consider how they might use AI tools to enhance their own creative processes or book marketing efforts. Penn's experience suggests that AI is not a threat to authorship but a valuable augmentation, capable of streamlining tasks, sparking new ideas, and enriching the final product, provided it is used thoughtfully and ethically.