Intellogo’s Author Tools gives author Patti Larsen new editing ammunition for launch of book, Eve
Akin to an objective peek down a creative rabbit hole, an addictive, powerful tool with layers and depths of understanding that shocked me with the simplicity and yet enormously complex ideology that changed how I think about the way I write at a fundamental level. — Patti Larsen
Author Tools is a web-based tool powered by artificial intelligence that helps authors delve into the structure of writing. Author Patti Larsen’s experience with Author Tools was not only insightful for her but for us at Intellogo as well. By passing her draft and final manuscript into the software, Larsen had a very thorough and fast analysis of the various literary elements and concepts that were important to the success of her new book release, Eve. The tool not only affirmed her own style of writing, but was a great communication tool for both her and her content editor.
Background
Patti Larsen is an award winning Canadian Young Adult fiction writer. Passionate and prolific, she has just published her 71st book titled, Eve. She has a degree in journalism, a background in English, history, and screen writing, and offers courses on story writing and outlining. Patti’s strengths lie not only in her mad writing process but also in her tireless work in self promotion.
I have a system, one I teach, called Get Your Book Done. I use a very specific method I’m constantly tweaking, allowing me to get in clear touch with my creative side.
The Challenge — Finding a Subjective Perspective
Patti was looking for insights in finalizing the editing for her recently launched book, Eve, the first in a new series.
Patti has been working with content editor Annetta Ribken for years and over many books, a relationship they both find mutually satisfying. Having the chance to test her own thoughts and feelings, an utterly unbiased look at her work, through the power of Intellogo seemed a fascinating opportunity. This decision support tool gave her a purely neutral perspective to bring into discussions with Annetta.
Patti heard about our product through an article covering Intellogo, our cognitive learning system that understands very complex literary concepts, and was one of the first authors to use Author Tools.
What is Author Tools?
Author Tools is a decision support tool that maps out graphically, chapter by chapter, story elements. The Tools display Insights or concepts that can be compared against each other: how simple and complex plots work together, how character and plot driven aspects play out, levels of emotion represented in the content or main characters, how present women are in a central role are, is the plot Nature versus Person, multiple genres, etc. Not only does Author Tools identify Insights present but how they interact and how much of a role they play in the development of the story. Each book is represented by a graph, called Book Profiles, and multiple books can be evaluated simultaneously.
There is little limit to the Insights the Author Tools can analyze. The A.I.-driven system is trained by a team of literary professionals that teach Intellogo to understand how vocabulary, emotion, content and situation all blend together to give us the concepts present in all books.
How it works
The process takes very little time to get started. Patti sent us her first draft and final manuscript which we imported into the system. We analyzed the first draft and final manuscript against a number of story elements Patti knew to be critical to the success of her book. We benchmarked works by other authors to see where her writing style differed and where was there similarity.
Writing a series presents a unique set of challenges:
* Maintaining consistency in storytelling facts and character traits;
* Crafting strong consistent character development to create reader attachment;
* Building strong conflict, climax and resolution in each book, while keeping the reader hooked to read the next book.
Patti wanted to focus on these issues including some additional questions:
1. How much Emotion, especially Fear, was present, because the protagonist, Eve, a teenager girl, would have many challenges to face.
2. Was there enough variance in the flow of the story to give the reader a break from the strong emotions?
3. Was the “Women in a central role” present enough when Eve was front and center and was this low enough when other male characters were introduced?
4. Was the book moving at a fast enough clip to maintain the intensity for a face-paced page turner, while at the same time being high in “Character-driven plot”?
Below are the Insights used in the review of Eve.
The Results
The Book Profile results are immediately displayed. All this content would take many days to analyze, let alone read.
This is very complex stuff, but is cleanly laid out in the graphs.
Using the Author Tools was perfect timing to provide the next level in understanding concepts. It’s neutral positioning and long time subjectivity, was a great discussion and tweaking tool for the final editing process. Patti and Annetta discussed the differences displayed by the graph, and with final draft adjustments confirmed there was enough balance in all areas of concern.
“I can see Intellogo being a valuable tool for both editor and writer,” shares Annetta, “sparking dialogue about the issues of a manuscript and the best way to fix them. It has been fascinating to see what might be hard to articulate to a writer and verification of what a content editor might see in an author’s work displayed on a graph.”
It is always about balance pressure of emotion and the need to move the story forward. Where am I falling down? Where do I need to add emotion or need to move the story forward? Where do I need to give my readers time to breath?
Patti understood the value of Intellogo’s Insights. Simply focusing on changing vocabulary, an author can miss what Intellogo’s Book Profiles, helped her grasp. They not only deal with vocabulary but also emotion, situation, and context.
The review of a number of her books in the system allowed her to also affirm her own brand or style of writing. This trademark style she leverages in her marketing and sales strategies. “I have a style of writing that is my brand. When I write I want to make sure I keep that in mind. I can very quickly I can see if I’m off the mark.”
Surprise Results
Surprisingly, Intellogo Insights are always co-mingling throughout a book. This idea that many concepts are present at any given time allowed Patti to see storytelling in a more multi-dimensional fashion.
Concepts never change just how you go about telling it. Understanding these concepts will only help to improve storytelling.
Reflections
For Intellogo, it became clear that the most important aspects of Author Tools was being able to decipher the graphs themselves, and how manuscript changes impacted the outcome of the book and vice a versa. We realized that supplementary consultations and an extensive Insight catalogue would help authors and content editors better handle the analysis. And finally, creating an aggregate curve that best describes a body of collected works from a genre would help give more context for Book Profile analysis.
Faced with so much criticism and praise, getting a subjective perspective is invaluable.
