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studiomcah
Community for science fiction and fantasy author/artist M.C.A. Hogarth.
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mcahogarth@mcahogarth
February 03, 2022
Future Plans
A while back I posted a link to a survey in the hopes of understanding how to make things more awesome for those of you supporting me on various patronage platforms. Some of the results were surprising, but I think I got a pretty clear picture based on the responses. Here are some of the takeaways:
• Most people are subscribing just to tip me, not for access to locked content.
• Most people are using platform-generated email to read my updates (instead of an app or the platform website).
• Surprisingly, just over half of you don’t read the content unless you remember to.
• 85% of you either don’t care about the community aspect, don’t have time to participate, or can take or leave it (!)
The responses as to preferred platforms yielded some interesting insights. The major ones:
• People like the Locals app/website better than Patreon’s, citing easier-to-use comment sections, more interaction, and better user experience and organization/layout.
• But most people, while reporting a dislike of Patreon, prefer to continue using it over dealing with multiple sites.
The latter was a drumbeat in response after response. ‘I don’t like Patreon, but I’m supporting multiple artists with a single payment a month and it’s just not worth the hassle to move/add another site.’
Patreon has years of inertia behind it, and I don’t think that’s going to change.
I continue to think Locals has potential, and am curious to see what they’re evolving toward, and as inconvenient as it is to have multiple sites to manage (for me, in terms of posting), I like to have diversified revenue streams. When I had all my eggs in the Patreon basket, Patreon going down, kicking me off, or changing its terms and conditions to something untenable was a major worry. Having my patrons split across Patreon and Locals has relieved some of those concerns (and it is nearly half split: 212 people on Locals vs 150 people on Patreon).
But given that the people on Patreon aren’t going to move, I’ve decided to standardize my content (as much as possible) across both platforms. There are some things that will only be on Locals because of the technology, like the livestreams and the better comment sections. But going forward, all free content will be posted to both platforms, and all locked Locals content that can be cross-posted will be available to Patreon patrons paying at least $5 a month (since Locals doesn’t allow me to set a lower membership price). I already have a $5 tier on Patreon, so that makes things easier; I’m debating removing the $1 tier to avoid confusion, but I’m going to wait on that decision to see how things work out first.
This is my intention, but since I have to do it manually I can’t guarantee I’ll catch every post.
The tl;dr version: I am sticking with two major patron platforms, Locals and Patreon. Locked content will be available on both platforms at the $5+ a month level. Content will be cross-posted unless the technology prevents it; Locals has some features Patreon doesn’t.
Here I mention that both Patreon and Locals have yearly as well as month-to-month payment options, so if you want to lump-sum things and get it over with, you can with both sites. And for those of you curious about Locals, here’s a promo code for a free couple of months: https://studiomcah.locals.com/support/promo/FEBCOFFEE
Thanks to all of you for participating in the survey! I really appreciate the window into your interests and pain points. I’m going to use that data to serve you better!
Questions, comments, and suggestions, as always, welcome!
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Cursive Practice Video, to Relax
Or at least, I intend it to be relaxing. Hopefully it delivers.
4:22 minutes
Materials:
- Pen: Moonman Starry Glass dip pen, Mars: https://www.jetpens.com/Moonman-Starry-Sky-Glass-Dip-Pen-Mars/pd/31536
- Paper: Strathmore Writing Series 500, lined: https://www.jetpens.com/Strathmore-500-Series-Writing-Pad-8.5-x-11-Lined-50-Sheets/pd/15322
- Ink: Robert Oster, Rose Gilt Tynte: https://www.jetpens.com/Robert-Oster-Rose-Gilt-Tynte-Fountain-Pen-Ink-Shake-N-Shimmy-50-ml-Bottle/pd/25170
00:04:27
Overview of the First Oil Paint Experiment
In which I talk about the paper, the paint, and the experience of oils versus gouache. Fun stuff, will do more.
Thank you Locals supporters! Your contribution to my art war chest here is what's powering these experiments and videos. For now I'm keeping them public but I may start doing some subscriber-only videos if you all are interested.💖
00:03:35
Alysha Misc
Thanks for your comments yesterday on the business post... all very provocative, in a good way. I'll try to respond to all of them today.
Some Alysha misc now, since I'm gearing up for the results of the Kickstarter!
Petrov is giving away coupon codes for every book in the Alysha series (and has some leftover coupons for Marda and the business book). You can pick those up here (and please do! The books are bought already, someone should use them!) https://twitter.com/PetrovNeutrino/status/1457344535843987461
Our own @JudasComplex sent along a sample of the Faith in the Service audiobook, which I've attached for your delight! I... haven't had a chance to listen to it. Don't ask me about my past week and a half or so. Putting it here will guarantee I get to it.
After hearing the amused comments during the livestream, I went ahead and added all the ship type illustrations I have inked from the 90s to the wiki. Glory in the rampant adorableness of their anthropomorphic stylings! See those ...
The Jaguar's Heart 7: We Are Not a Monolith
A little comedy today, at least in the link. Transcript follows.
Hi, all. Welcome to this episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.
A while back I was introduced to a comedy sketch about Cuban coffee by a Mexican comedian, Gabriel Iglesias. ( The sketch begins with him greeting all his fellow Latinos and then backing up to say ‘but we’re all different, aren’t we’ which is a segue into a demonstration of how different Hispanics speak Spanish.
It is hilarious. First, because I am a Spanish speaker and a linguistics hobbyist, and his portrayal of various accents resonated with my experiences in trying to make sense of them myself… Not always easy, since from culture to culture, slang and accent are often totally different (and sometimes grammar! Spaniards use a grammatical construct that has died out in many other Spanish-speaking countries, the plural “you.”)
I also loved it because the Cuban coffee part is real. I grew up with Cubans. I know how we are....
The Jaguar's Heart 6: Hatespeech
One of the most common things I hear (and say) right now is "the asymmetry is the story." Here's one about how none of us are innocent of the sins we hate in others.
Hi, all. Welcome to this week’s episode of The Jaguar’s Heart.
It’s been weeks since the Baen’s Bar incident and I’m still thinking about it... because the longer I do, the more I feel, overwhelmingly, that it’s obvious that the problem is deeper than “this forum was saying stuff that offended us.” We have to back up to the glaring fact that people on opposite sides no longer consider each other human. Nothing I say will matter because the people disagreeing with me don’t think I’m human. They have denied my humanity; they have not bothered to listen to my beliefs, or have fake-listened to them in that way that people do when they’re so ready to prove you wrong that they’re only using your speech to provide talking points for their own ideas.
We have forgotten how to listen.
Increasingly, we have also ...
Gamedev Diary: Tools
Let’s go back deep in time, remembering that I got to see the era of personal computers begin. I ask you to picture an artist-writer-storyteller, a girl who mostly drew unicorns and pretty aliens, and then also put her in front of an Apple IIe facing a command line and hearing ‘You can do anything you want.’
What did I want? I didn’t know. But we had a computer class in school (which was very avant garde at the time!) and that was how I learned about the BASIC programming language, and ended up creating my first very simple programs… the kind of beginner tasks that cause a computer to echo back ‘hello world’. From there, I went straight to “I want to make a choose-your-own-adventure game,” which I did, and based it on Star Trek. You were commanding a starship, you ran into trouble, you had to decide what to do, and then eventually your ship blew up. (All choices led to the ship blowing up. I thought that was funny. No one who played the game liked this storytelling choice; I thought they needed to ...
Back in Time Tuesday: The Art-Lover
Let's see. This one is 35 years old! I must have been doodling instead of taking notes in school...!
I picked this one out today for a few reasons:
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I remember being really proud of it at the time - people are hard to draw!
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I remember working on it for a while... if I concentrate, I can still smell a classroom, and feel my hand putting down the dots with the pen, and sense the stillness in the room. I can even, I think, remember which way I was facing in the classroom. Wild!
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It definitely hits one of my early interests, which is intricate clothing, without trying to hew too closely to any received wisdom on historical fashion... I just liked bodices, and ribbons, and off the shoulder dresses, and weird braid cuffs that also include ribbons? Whatever. Teen Me was gonna do what she was gonna do
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It also hits a lot of my visual hallmarks: the figure is askew on the page intentionally (yes, this is the actual orientation of the figure on the page), and the hair is... ignoring that skew to...
Gamedev Diary: Picking an Idea
Of course, once you decide “I want to make something,” you should probably have some idea of what you want to make. Since I talk myself into tasks by telling myself I’m not doing them, it would be easy to wander all over, building things that never become something cohesive. How do you corral yourself into having a coherent direction, then?
I do this by playing it like a thought exercise. “I’m not making a game, nosirree. But if I were to make a game… this is what I’d shoot for.”
You’ll note that this gives me the freedom to dream as big as I want… to imagine the fabulously successful me who’s doing exactly what she wants. That gets around another of my weaknesses, which is to limit myself too much; “I could do this, but these are all the reasons I can’t” is an exercise needed by people who err on the side of reckless confidence. I tend to err on the side of doomful pragmatism with a side of ‘easily crushed’, so again, understanding how I work, I need to compensate in a way that sounds insane to ...
The Jaguar Reads an AI-Written Book
Over the weekend, I read a book that I’m 95% sure was AI-written. I’ve listened to people talk about how it’s done: you brainstorm characters and a plot with AI, prompt it for an outline, adjust the outline, prompt it to create character and setting guides… attach all that to your project, then tell it to write the first chapter. You adjust the chapter, add it to the project, then tell it to write the second, etc, until you get to the end. Then you tidy the whole thing and publish. The "rapid release" people either love this (because you can release a book in a day or two and do it again immediately) or hate it (because they can't keep up with people using this strategy with unaugmented human brains). But it's clearly a thing that's happening, and few people who do it are admitting it.
Reasons I thought this book was AI:
Every chapter ends with a weird wrap-up style: “Main Character had accomplished XY and Z. Tomorrow, he’d have to tackle AB and C. But for today: job well done.” And I do mean every chapter. At first I thought ‘maybe the author’s serializing this and needs to remind readers about what just happened” but when it’s doing overviews of what happens in the chapter at the end, it’s weird.
All the places give you a “movie set” feeling of being wooden facades. Like… ‘there’s a baker. He makes bread.’ Nothing else. Only bread is mentioned. Not even the kind of bread. There’s a weird lack of specificity to everything. The baker always has a ‘basket of bread’. Or occasionally, a basket of pastries. (No word on what kind.) Likewise, there is a blacksmith. We know he can make hammers, because the apprentice made one. But that’s it. No idea what else the blacksmith does for the town.
Then there’s suddenly spates of specificity. “I have these exotic spices that sound like a list generated for game inventory.” These specific things are never mentioned again.
The technobabble sounds like stuff Claude gives me as placeholders. “Mana structure efficiency at 45%. Suboptimal but holding.”
Similarly there are some odd verbal tics that repeat throughout the text, and they are suspiciously clever ones, like analogies that rely on an abstract and a concrete noun: “It tasted of cinnamon and regret.” “The tavern smelled of old ale and worry.” Even the title uses this phrasing. Authors can have verbal tics, of course, but I associate a lot of these with AI.
The supporting characters do the exact same things, as if they’re programmed NPCs. Celebrating an achievement? ‘We go to this exact same tavern, every time.’ Checking up on the main character? “You need food and rest.” (I can’t count the number of times this character suggested everyone have food and rest, in exactly those words. No variation.)
This one is hard to describe, but the characters have believable backstories that suggest depth, but these backstories do not inform how they interact with other characters. The nemesis becomes the protagonist’s friend based on a single interaction, and this backstory, while mentioned in subsequent chapters, causes no friction, for instance. It’s as if every character was created in isolation and the author can’t figure out how to make them combine.
Could this all be the work of an inexperienced author? Sure. But that tells me that we have trained AI to work off story templates that inexperienced authors also rely on. If you have decades of “write to market” advice that treat books as widgets with “story beats” and “character arcs” that can be abstracted into formulas, you shouldn’t be surprised when books start to sound alike. They already were, prior to AI, it’s just that AI makes creating them faster.
Did people like the AI-generated book? Well, it has over a hundred reviews and a 4.5 star average rating, and even on Goodreads, it's doing well, so the answer is: “Yes, it’s good enough.” Did the author confess to AI-writing it? No. Maybe he didn’t! But my guess is that he did.
Do I care about this? Not really. I didn’t enjoy reading it because it gave me the same feeling social media scrolling does, that I’ve eaten empty calorie food that’s programming my brain to repeat basic and uncreative patterns. But humans have always riffed off bad things to make better things and I can totally see someone using AI to generate a draft like this, and then completely overhauling it into something enjoyable.
I don’t write like this because I’m weird. I am constitutionally incapable of the ‘write to market’ formulaic approach (which is why I’m not on a yacht sailing to my property on the Riviera). Even my attempts at romance and litrpg novels veer off into directions that make them too odd (yes, I managed to make both these genres unprofitable). But I’m one of those capital-A artists that indies like to sneer at, and I’m happy that way. I can’t even do that right: I’m an Arteeste who doesn’t care if you’re using AI!
My audience was always going to be the weirdos who want to learn my conlangs and vanish into alien cultures so completely they leave no traces. That's you all! You're awesome.
But yeah, AI-written books. You might have already read one and not realized it. The name of this one, if you want to check it out, is below, and yes I paywalled it because I don't want to bother with drama.
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Friday Update: Me, My Robot Army, and Long Career Thoughts
Red Honey has wrapped up! I’m not sure what I’m going to serialize next, but I figured I’d take a breather for the rest of the year since there’s so little of it left. We’ll continue to have Back-in-Time Tuesdays every week, but Fridays will be a hodgepodge of whatever’s on my mind. And what’s on my mind today is the Jokka game, which my Discord crowd has convinced me to just call JOKKA! (I think with exclamation point. With exclamation point, right, you all?)
I think I last seriously wrote about this around my birthday so it’s been almost two months. A lot happens in two months when you’re directing AI to code for you.
The foremost thing I’ve learned is that I am perfectly positioned to take advantage of AI for coding, because I have these things going for me:
I used to write technical documentation for software
I can do project management
I can draw
I can write and have written many novels' worth of material for background
I have done some light coding work
I like gaming and have played many games mindfully, noting what I hate and what I enjoy
But the number one thing that makes this easy for me is:
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