I’ve been writing for a couple of years.

156 articles.

ZERO fiction.

Although still a beginner, I developed a reasonably comfortable relationship with writing. I’ve learned to organize an argument, explain an idea, cut unnecessary paragraphs, and occasionally even write a sentence that didn’t make me cringe the next morning.

Good.

But still…

ZERO fiction.

It was time to do something about it, so I did what any sensible person would do.

I bought a book about storytelling.

And then I wrote a book about a dog.

From zero to one

The book I bought was The Anatomy of Story, by John Truby. Sorry, Peter Thiel.

If writing a fictional story has been crossing your mind, don’t pen a word before reading Truby’s work.

No kidding.

Premise. Theme. Character. Weakness. Need. Desire. Opponent. Conflict. Moral choices. Revelation. Transformation.

Do you know all these concepts? I didn’t.

And what about scenes and dialogues?

Man…

Yes, I had finally discovered that knowing how to write and knowing how to tell a story are two very, very different things.

I had gone from ZERO fiction to ONE.

And I was not turning back.

Meet Rocky, the cop dog

I didn’t want my first attempt to be a 300-page novel.

That seemed unnecessarily cruel, so I decided to start with something simpler: a children’s story.

A story about a dog.

The protagonist would be Rocky, a lovable mutt living a comfortable life in a place called Los Dogs. Rocky has a nice home, a family, friends, food, TV, walks in the park… In other words, he has absolutely nothing to complain about.

And yet something bothers him. He feels that something is missing.

Then, one day, he sees a movie about a heroic police dog. And suddenly he knows what he wants. He wants to become a police dog. Just like when David Goggins watched the Navy SEALs on TV and decided to become one.

Nice.

I already had a protagonist with a genuine desire.

Now what? Well, according to Truby, I needed opposition.

Enter Don.

Don is a Doberman who has hated Rocky since they were puppies. And, conveniently, Rocky has an old fear of water because Don once threw him into a swimming pool and nearly drowned him.

Excellent.

But wait, why does Don hate Rocky? Just because I want? Or does he have a genuine motive? Truth is, the more credible the villain is, the better for the story. Compare Kung Fu Panda 1 and 4 to see what I mean.

In my story, Don lives in a sort of haunted house and receives no love from his master. Rocky? He has a cozy home and a loving family. So, yes, Don envies Rocky.

Sorry for the spoiler.

Back to my experiment, was I enjoying it? You bet.

Was it easy? Not at all.

I was struggling with all those new concepts, man.

And the annoying part was that I didn’t even know what I was doing wrong.

Then I asked for help.

ChatGPT to the rescue

Thank God we have ChatGPT these days.

Otherwise, who would I talk to about my first fictional experiment? Who would I argue with about my book’s premise? Who would help me with the dialogue?

To be clear: I didn’t want ChatGPT to write the book for me. I wanted it to write the book with me.

Things like “Hey, this scene starts kinda abruptly? What if Rocky does this and that first?”

Dude, I can’t recommend this enough.

AI can be a hell of a sparring partner.

Use it.

I had learned enough to make a terrible decision

After successfully writing a story about Rocky becoming a hero, I naturally concluded that I was ready to write a novel.

Because apparently I have no instinct for self-preservation. Lol.

That’s when I started Racing Blood.

In Racing Blood, the story revolves around a boy, Hector, living in a futuristic city where car races are dominated by robots. Hector discovers that his great-grandfather was the last human champion and sets out to bring humans back to racing.

I had more characters to deal with. More relationships. More competing motivations. More information hidden from some characters but known by others. More ambiguity. More scenes. And, yes, more dialogue.

Damn, man, what was I thinking?

Fortunately, I was not alone.

ChatGPT to the rescue, again

We worked a lot together, my AI friend and I.

Although Racing Blood was orders of magnitude more complicated than Rocky’s story, the essence — the anatomy of the story — remained the same.

Truby’s method was always in our heads — mine and ChatGPT’s.

“Hey, remember the premise.” “Is the inciting event credible enough?” “What would be a good moment for this revelation?”

We had a tried-and-tested framework, and we were using and abusing it.

In the end, Racing Blood came out as a pretty decent story. And, more importantly, in a fraction of the time it would have taken me alone.

Seriously, as a father who works full-time, I think it would take years.

But it took weeks.

Weeks, man, weeks.

And, lemme tell ya, I enjoyed every step of the way.

Wanna have some serious fun?

Then, read Truby’s work.

Once you’re done, exercise the principles in a small experiment, like a children’s story. Once you grasp the method, go wild.

Create your characters. Give them reasons. Make them make difficult choices. Create scenes that reveal character, and scenes that increase tension. Generate conflict. Breed a great villain.

Don’t be too proud to ask for help. Hire an AI assistant.

And, most importantly, have fun.

I Taught Myself to Write Fiction With a Dog was originally published in SYNERGY on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.