A novel rises from the ashes… maybe

Just when I was starting to get back into writing poetry, the world of prose starts up again in my brain. First of all I was asked to review a new anthology of short stories by Sussex-based Chalk Circle Writers. Although my first reaction was ‘I don’t write short stories’, lo and behold, I was so taken with this collection and the idea of the short story form, I wonder if this is something I might enjoy.

Then there was a conversation with friend Steph about how her book (a cosy mystery called ‘Death, Deceit and Cake’) was selling really well. She self-published it after a gruelling experience of dealing with potential agents. And the move has certainly paid off. She now has a growing readership eager for the next book in the series. It got me thinking about my historical novel and whether I ought to have another go with that, possibly going down the self-publishing route. I wasn’t quite ready to re-read it, but I did get out the query package I’d written in 2023 – synopsis, first page of the manuscript, query letter – and decided to run it by Chat GBT.

I got as far as pasting in the synopsis. Within seconds, the AI not only summarised the main themes and narrative arc of the book, but the synopsis rewrite it came up with had me choking on my Diet Coke. Holy *@&(#! Is this my book? It sounded like a bloody good read! My next thought being: why did I spend weeks redrafting this synopsis – and sending it off to agents – when it was so far from perfect? And of course, when you talk to Chat it never stops – Would you like me to create a query letter? Would you like me to customise this for a specific genre, women’s fiction, historical etc? Commercial or literary?

I had to walk away at that point and let it all sink in. Of course, I can’t be submitting anything that’s been written by AI, but I’ve certainly got some excellent pointers/critique to help me rework the synopsis. Actually, I think the ‘written by a human’ tag will only gain in value in the future. I’ve had this printed on stickers and am attaching them to copies of my pamphlet Yo-Yo, and maybe I’ll do the same with The Mayday Diaries. This could become a thing!

So the upshot of all this is that I’m planning to revisit the book, the title and all the query documents, research more agents, and try again. I’ll let you know what happens.