I recently found out about this helpful tool powered by AI. I know I know AI bad! But not really. Not if we use it the right way. In many cases it can be a helpful tool. And let's be honest it's not going anywhere so we may as well use it to our advantage.
I was job searching and applied for this position with Amazon (fingers crossed) and afterward I was directed to their AI tool, Party Rock. Essentially it's an app creation tool. You start with a prompt of what you'd like the app to do, I went help new African American authors publish on a budget, and it came up with several widgets that were directly related to improving your writing and getting published. I made a few tweaks and in minutes I had a whole webpage dedicated to writing and publishing, no coding required!
In the first section I added the first paragraph of my draft and it gave suggestions on improving it. By editing the prompt of the widget to include providing suggestions, it went from vague to helpful. It broke down the suggestions into bullet points and gave good examples on how to fix things. My story is about a teenage girl who discovers she's a witch and the AI picked up the context and was able to generate specific advice.
Here's a sample.
"5. Clarify ambiguous pronouns:
Example: "She drank the water slowly and only sniffed at the cat food while I finished my fruit and then polished off the last chocolate pudding from a snack pack."
It's unclear whether "she" refers to the cat or someone else. Clarify by using the name or a clearer pronoun.
6. Tighten dialogue attribution:
Example: "Bye guys," said Michelle as she headed for the bus. "Bye!" "Bye 'Chelle!"
Could be: Michelle headed for the bus. "Bye, guys!" "Bye, 'Chelle!" we called after her."
I didn't realize that my sentence in example 5 might be confusing. And I actually like the sentence structure much better in example 6. This of course can't replace a professional editor, but for a short story or to do a preliminary edit this can be a great tool.
There's also a widget that generates artwork which is great for getting inspiration on how I want the book cover (or an image for the chapter) to look. It took some tweaking as well as at first it didn't generate anything. But it seems to be working now. AI 'art' can be a little wacky looking (and I had to generate a twice to get the character the AI provided to be a little more melanated) but I kind of like the trippy look I got as my MC (main character) is having strange dreams.
Another widget gives guidance on formatting. It provided a list of steps and how to's. Here are some of the steps I was given:
"Format the Title Page Center the title and author name on the title page. You can also include other details like publisher name, publication date, etc.
Insert Page Breaks Insert a page break after the title page to start a new page for the body content..."
Finally there's a chat at the bottom where you can aske questions and get suggestions about publishing and marketing. I asked how to get my target audience (YA fantasy readers) interested and how to build a email list. Everyone's always saying build an email list (like I know how!) I copied and emailed that info to myself -another useful thing you can do, copy the advice it gave you to save for later.
It really is a phenomenal starting point. Instead of Googling vague ideas and getting hundreds and hundreds of websites that may or may not have your answer you get clear concise advise which you can then review, research (now fire up Google) and apply to your work. Awesome!
I started just playing around to see what Party Rock could do and it turned out to be a lot. Best part is you can use it for anything! Your small business, your writing career, making more money, you name it. The more specific you get with the prompt the better. I've only just scratched the surface. You can share your app for others, or keep it private. I've made this one public so feel free to check out "Empowering African American Voices" (yes the AI came up with the name too!)
(Always remember to use AI responsibly. Double check it, do your research and use humans to fact check, and do creative work. AI is just a tool to make tedious tasks simple and help get you started, not a replacement for creativity or creatives. I am in no way affiliated with Amazon or Party Rock. I make no commission and am not responsible for how anyone uses the tool.)
Comments