Creating a Monster with ChatGPT
Write a Novel with me using ChatGPT — Part 8!
Now that we have a setting with historical and geographical component, let’s focus on the main villain of our story: the Monster in the House, in our case, the malevolent spirit haunting.
This is the moment I’ve been waiting for and I’m oh, so excited to work on it! I’m a writer, not a visual artist, so I’m happy so leave the frustrating image generation behind and go back to focusing on what matters most to me: the writing of a novel assisted by ChatGPT.
What Makes a Good Monster
A good monster needs a dark, wounded soul to be effective. It needs a reason to be so evil, preferably a reason that goes right back to our protagonist’s very existence. The idea of a malevolent spirit is not an original one, even less a vengeful ghost such as the one I have in mind, but as a romance writer, I can assure you that tropes are not an author’s enemy.
If one knows how to twist it and make it interesting, that is!
In fact — and this is a sidenote — tropes are your best friends when it comes to marketing. Tropes are what people know and like. Tropes are like ordering a carbonara at a nice Italian restaurant: you know exactly what you want, but you still expect the chef to surprise you with his take on the dish. Ok. I’m writing this at 7am and now I’m craving pasta…
Crafting the Monster
Back to the our monster, which is a malevolent spirit, more specifically a ghost, hell bent on revenge against those who cause its demise, all the way to their descendants. These are just broad strokes here, but I’ll prompt ChatGPt to see if it can flesh it out for me in a pleasing way. As you can see, I gave the bot precise instructions, as I did not want it to wander too far from my vision.
See how I weaved my own ideas and decisions with what the bot suggested from previous articles? This is the part that I enjoy and one I plan on introducing in my future novels. It’s fun and quick, giving me options far quicker than what my poor human brain can come up with. I’ve also used ChatGPT to do some historical research in the background on textile mill workers in the early 1900s and verified those facts against other sources. So far, the results were quite good and straight to the point. I can see the usefulness of this in any project, from my spicy romances to other works of fiction and non-fiction alike.
BUT, for now, let’s see and analyse what AI came up with when it comes to our malevolent spirit, now the ghost of a young mill worker.
Not as precise as I would have liked, as she lacks a real backstory that will need to be fleshed out. She is a villain in our story in the present day as her vengeful spirit terrorizes and kills, but like all great villains, she needs a reason to be so evil. After all, even the villains are the heroes of their own stories.
Again, I had the most frustrating time working with DALL.E to recreate a historical portrait of Anya. I can honestly say I am beginning to loath DALL.E and wish I started this experiment with Midjourney, which I much prefer to use. I’ll stick through with it, though, but it was a time suck and didn’t yield the results I want.
Here is what I take from it to move forward:
Anya Kozlova is a 19 year sold immigrant girl working at the textile mill in Seabrook Mill. She comes from what was then the Russian Empire, and speaks English with a heavy accent and came to America by herself after becoming an orphan. Included is a portrait for her, as she would appear in a photography taken in 1913.
Okay… so this isn’t exactly what I had in mind! I’m not super impressed with what ChatGPT came up with, so I’ll have to refine it. It’s fine, but the bot didn’t really create anything I didn’t already give it.
Sooo, what should I do. I’ll do what writers do and flesh out this shell of a death.
The Origins of Evil
Anya was murdered by a group of three boys from town when a jealous Elizabeth lured her to the mill at night under false pretense. Elizabeth had no idea the boys intended to assault Anya, but she was jealous and hated the immigrant girl who was prettier than her. Elizabeth was also in love with one the boys and wanted to gain his affection. She was 16 at the time, which is an age we can all agree is not the best for judgement and yet, we can still blame her and hate her for what she did.
And yes, I will keep the part where Elizabeth stands a silent and terrified witness to a brutal and fatal attack on Anya, giving Anya a good reason to lash out at Elizabeth’s descendants in the future, i.e. at Emily.
How does the monster attack?
Now, that is a lot to unravel and not much I actually like here.
I am keeping the part where Anya lashed out at the descendants from her attackers. The abandonned mill is a place residents of the town avoid at all costs, albeit mostly unconsciously. Only a few people alive remember the tragedy of Anya’s death and know of Elizabeth’s implication. One of those will be Jim Davis (see previous articles for supporting characters).
The only idea I actually like from what the bot gave me is the use of mirrors. Since Anya was a great beauty in life and jealousy was the seed that made Elizabeth lead her to her death in the mill, using mirrors as a vessel to travel and take her revenge on those who wronged her seems a good direction.
Again: this is not something ChatGPT gave me per say. The bot gave me the inspiration for it and it’s something I might not have thought of my myself, or with a much longer time involved. What the bot gave me was a vague and generalized haunting, something the felt like a collage montage or a number of haunting stories. It wasn’t specific enough to build a successful story on.
Conclusion
Here I have my monster: the vengeful spirit of Anya Kozlova, a 19 years old immigrant girl from Russia who was assault and murdered by 3 rich boys in the textile mill where she worked. She was betrayed by a jealous girl, Elizabeth Granding, and lured to the mill at night. Elizabeth’s involment in Anya’s death, her silent witness to her suffering and murder and her continued silence after the murder are all contributing factors to the present days’ haunting.
Anya’s haunting of all those who caused her demise as well as their descendants is a key point that will push Emily, my protagonist, to keep on her mission to stop the haunting. It makes her unable to escape and just leave and ties her to the theme of reconciling historical wrongs as well.
I now have a fully fleshed out monster for my horror novel, one that is evil enough and motivated enough to keep readers flipping the page.
Next: going back to the outline and beginning this nightmarish novel!
