Storytelling Credit: generativeai.pub
Introduction
Storytelling is the oldest human art, and most traditions have been passed down through the medium of stories. When villagers in ancient times wanted to educate the next generation in the ways that ensured the tribes’ survival, the best way to go about it was to tell them heroic stories of young men who fought and brought prosperity to their people. Stories have been passed down orally, and many more have been passed down in written form afterwards. A story is one of the most efficient ways to effectively live the life and appreciate the experiences of another person. Whether a story itself is real or imaginary does not matter that much, as the point of any worthwhile story is linked to the human experience a reader or observer gets to see by going through the story. The best stories transport us into a new reality, a dream of sorts, inside the mind of another human being like ourselves.
Capabilities and Limitations of AI-Services for Storytelling
AI in combination with large language models (LLMs) can write essays, arguments and stories. A machine can communicate words, but those words are just calculations and predictions. Human stories originate from a human intention to communicate a message, idea, belief, or feeling, aimed at another human or group of people. It involves the choice of what to reveal, what to withhold, what wounds to press on, and why those wounds matter. Something a machine may be able to simulate, however the lack of intention in AI generated text is obvious when looking at social media feeds. Mass-produced factory content ends up feeling exactly like what it sounds like. Hence, one can understand the excitement of people wanting to see a world where one can just type a prompt into an AI-service and have it create a realistic story, based on the writer’s intentions and especially tailored by his own experience. That sounds awesome but even in this case, lacking that human connection and the ability to express sympathy and empathy, limits the reach of AI storytelling greatly. Using an AI-service like Grok or ChatGPT, all the knowledge of the world is accessible to the storyteller, but these stories have no actual human experience to pull from other than one’s own experience. This might be one of the biggest limiting factors of stories generated by AI, yet these services help to write excellent short personal stories which can be shared with a friend, for example. In contrast, writing a 400-page long crime novel, as I did about three years ago, provides an example of storytelling beyond any tool available today. Before I address this subject, let us look at one of the tools providing advice for storytelling.
Advice for Storytelling
According to Capturing the Art of Storytelling: Techniques & Tips | Writers.com, there are a number of points that may be considered for good story-telling.
1.Plot: Plot is the skeleton of storytelling. Your reader needs to follow the plot to understand your story.
2.Character: Equally important to the art of storytelling are the characters who populate your work. Every event that takes place in your story is defined by your characters’ thoughts, feelings, and actions.
3.Point-of-View (POV): Defines who is communicating to the reader and from what vantage point. The story’s narrator influences how the story is told and what information the reader has access to. This is a way to make the reader intimate with the story’s events,
4.Setting: At its most basic, setting is where your story takes place. The relationship that your characters have to their setting influences the story’s pace, plot and conflict. Setting also influences dialogue and action.
In short, storytelling is the closest that writers may reach for creating real worlds, characters and events. When a story is told well and meaningfully, the reader is transported into a world of the writer’s own making, a world with its own rules, laws, physics, relationships and ideas. In this world, the writer can twist emotions, make powerful statements, and entertain the reader in fascinating ways.
Writing an Essay and Storytelling: My own Experience
When I write an Essay considerable time is spent on researching mostly scientific publications about the selected topic. Starting with the introduction, followed by the definition of terms, discussing the topic from various points-of-view and a concluding remark – to write an Essay is a very sequential process. Its purpose is to build a bridge between ongoing AI-research and real business requirements and to provide knowledge about future trends. The targeted audience are businesspeople, whose time budget is limited. Hence, an Essay requires about 4 minutes of reading time. To support the reading process, considerable time is spent on ‘streamlining’ the text, with the focus on discussing the key issues. As I have repeatedly discussed human creativity as the key differentiator between humans and AI-machines and considering my own desire to be creative I decided to write a crime novel, more precisely a Politthriller. Hence, about three years ago, to expand my writing to storytelling I wrote ‘Verrat in einer ehemaligen Alpenfestung’.
Writing Essays, I have developed a certain style of writing which I cannot just drop by writing a Politthriller. Crisp sentences, always answering the question as to what I really want to communicate is typical. I rewrite an essay many times before I am sure that I have succeeded in conveying its overall topic. While Politthrillers, due to their wide spectrum of content covered are rather voluminous, ‘Verrat in einer ehemaligen Alpenfestung’, is – in terms of pages written – most likely one the shortest on the market. Visiting large bookstores in Switzerland, I was surprised that overall about one third of all books offered for sale belong to the category of ‘crime-novels’. It was also obvious that the books displayed were dominated by well-known authors who, over time, had created their own brand. Hence entering this market as a newcomer and to be noticed is a challenge.
In Essays I quote AI-researchers explaining the significance of their discovery. In contrast, the dialog between protagonists and antagonists very much defines the action of a Politthriller. Creating this dialogue, bringing the individuals involved to life, is something I had not done before. Describing scenarios that can be observed like watching a movie, was one of the toughest challenges in my learning curve. Building up suspense as the story evolves and keeping the reader engaged, however, is something I very much enjoyed. Yet, to bring this task to a level of self-assigned perfection, required rewriting repeatedly. At some point I had to stop, otherwise I would still be writing.
By defining the overall plot and the related actions, a considerable amount of time was spent in researching the issues addressed. We are confronted daily with scenarios like the Ukraine war, NATO engagement and massive expenditures for new weaponry. Combining this information with new findings in brain-research and discussing the use of venture capital results in a rather complex and ambitious Politthriller which might overwhelm potential readers, especially if their mindset is focused on reading traditional crime-novels.
In addition, some research was required to describe the facilities outside of Switzerland that are part of the Politthriller, places unfamiliar, notably Moscow, Novosibirsk, a French Cruise Missile Base, a UK Weapon Testing facility, and the NSA Headquarter in Washington. With the growing suspense surrounding the final elimination of the key antagonist, the reader is hopefully motivated to remain engaged all the way to the deadly end. Interesting enough the book has not lost its connection to today’s reality and is still being ordered, mostly as E-Book It can be ordered with the following Link:
Verrat in einer ehemaligen Alpenfestung (bod.de)
Before ordering you can tap the ‘Jetzt Probelesen’ button, providing a preview of the book.
My own Conclusion
I will continue writing Essays although I must admit that the issues discussed by the various platforms continue to repeat themselves and it is difficult to find new points-of view. Yet, writing Essays helps to stay in touch with the ongoing advancements in technology. For a few months I have been working on a new Politthriller which I should finish by year’s end. Again Swiss Mountain fortresses are part of the action, however, attack drones as they are used daily in the Ukraine War will set the stage for a new war scenario Switzerland is faced with.