AI, book and my ego

I am hooked on to ChatGPT and have been asking it to edit my stories. Besides all the glowing positive reviews - about which I don't want to talk about, it has given me some constructive feedback as well, something that I had also figured out. Primarily being:

1. Characterization and character development - My characters need depth. I need to describe them physically and talk about their mental/emotional state as well. Plus, lot of them are shown to go through a change, which often seems abrupt. Need to clearly showcase how the change of heart / growth of character took place.

2. Stories seem rushed - The stories need to have a certain pace, letting the readers get a feel of the passing of time. The tone and context have to be defined, and ease the reader into it.

3. Too many themes - It will be better to focus on a central theme rather than focusing on too many of them. While I agree with this point, I also disagree with it to some extent. Yes I definitely need to have a focused approach, but I will touch upon other themes too, especially the related themes. Would cut the abstract themes although.

4. Creating visual and sensory appeal - Instead of being straight forward with the description, it is essential to evoke imagination in the minds of the readers by making them imagine the scene through visual description, along with other sensory descriptions such as smell, feel, taste etc. 

5. Using dialogues - To give pace to the stories and to provide more depths to the characters, dialogues are important.

I have been also revisiting the short stories of Murakami, Guy De Maupassant and my favourite Oscar Wilde, and found that their short story books usually contain around 10-12 stories, some even just 8-9. These stories are fairly long in length and the books around 220-250 pages long. Point is, I had been stressing unnecessarily to write 15 stories. Instead let me write 10 good stories, fleshing them out really well, incorporating all the above points and I guess I can have a good book out there. Already 7 stories are out and I have outline for 3 more, so let me finish them and then will do rigorous edits for each of these stories and flesh them out really well.

There is a reason behind this new-found passion. While killing the time at a book store waiting for a client, I made an off-hand comment absentmindedly to ex (who doesn't know that I am writing a book) today as I figured out I was taking a wrong approach to my book while I picked up Murakami's short stories, "I guess I should write 8-10 good stories rather than attempting too many." Pat came the reply, "But you are not Murakami. You need to write more, but I can hardly see any book in my sight right now. In fact, I am thinking of writing a book myself using ChatGPT. Will get it to edit and rewrite my thoughts!"

If ex publishes this book before I do, I will leave everything and go to the Himalayas. And I have no intention of doing this whatsoever. Plus, if Ashneer Grover can write, I might as well write too. Though, I am enjoying "Doglapan", and he is definitely better than Chetan Bhagat. Guess, he had better sense to hire a decent enough editor to edit / ghost write for him, while he encashed his popularity. Smartass Delhiite!

So, while I know I am not Murakami or any Kami for that matter, to the least, I want to write some good stories and get them published under my given name - Asha Dey - and create a niche for myself.

PS: For the records, I don't like Murakami 😎