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How to Be a Fiction Writer in the AI Era

September 24, 2025

Virtually all of my fiction writing advice focuses on art: It’s quality writing I care about, not marketing or how to make money with one’s fiction. Nonetheless, my posts still (even if indirectly) also explore marketing repercussions. Today’s topic, revolving around how to be a fiction writer in the AI era, is no exception.

At the same time, however, there is a subtle but important difference.

Whereas in other posts – see, for instance, my post on fantasy fiction – I basically argue that one should write for the art and forget about monetary concerns, when it comes to fiction writing and AI there is a different argument I will be presenting, which boils down to this:

Write well (also) because of marketing considerations.

In other words, in this brave new world where one can “write” a “narrative” (quotation marks necessary) in a matter of an hour or two, publishing an entire series in a single day, it becomes more important than ever to focus on the quality – and above all, the authenticity – of what you write.

writer in ai era. photo of street artist.
Though there is always an “intended audience” element involved in art, true art is not made for anyone but one’s self. The audience is only an accident. This ideological approach is even more important if you’re a fiction writer in the AI era, an era brimming with mediocrity and ignorance.
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Dreams in 16-bit

August 19, 2025

When I make something new, such as a program, a book, or a music album, I often write a blog post about it. Sometimes this might span more than one post – think of The Perfect Gray and its review – but it’s far less often to see two different facets of the same work. Old Memories Murmured in Dreams is a young-love poetry collection I wrote sometime ago. And Dreams in 16-bit is a program I made to add another layer of experiencing this collection.

The text is identical and so is the order of the poems, however, the divisions differ and are accompanied by images stylized as retro computer graphics. Nostalgia and all that, huh?

The artistic focus in on emulating a late 80s/early 90s computer-game conceptual landscape. Note that, apart from the navigation buttons, there is no interactive element in this. Dreams in 16-bit is not an adventure game like Mansion Escape or an interactive experience like The Clock Village. It is only an artistic experience.

Old Memories Murmured in Dreams. Screenshot of the program
Here’s a screenshot of Dreams in 16-bit. A poetry collection with nostalgic tints about one’s youth has to include retro computer graphics, right?
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Terminal Care: a Science Fiction Novel

November 11, 2024

After the short-story collection I talked about recently, A Less Disturbing Form of Reality, this is another old work retrieved from the depth of hell my, shall we say, secondary literary repertoire. Terminal Care is a science fiction novel with elements of a political thriller.

This sentence alone is probably enough to convince you that this is a novel far, far outside my usual literary repertoire. Terminal Care, being science fiction, is much closer to my academic expertise but much father from my literary interests.

Besides aspects of genre, this is one of those works of mine that all share some other similar characteristics:

  • Written a long time ago.
  • Unpublished or published using a pen name.
  • Not quite my cup of tea.

This last part in particular might surprise you. Why the hell did I write it, then? Why do I share it now?

Terminal care, science fiction novel. image of album cover.
In all honesty, I don’t take my genre works too seriously. They do have value, but it’s not literary; it’s entertainment. Terminal Care is a science fiction story, and this can be intriguing, but it’s not high art. The cover is an AI render – just to highlight I don’t take it too seriously.
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