R.A. llyria

Have you ever flipped a coin because you really didn’t know what you wanted, but then when it landed on heads you suddenly realized that you wanted tails?
That is how I draft with Aiden.
Sometimes, the most helpful thing Aiden can do for me is write a terrible scene. He spits something out. I read it, and suddenly I know with absolute clarity what path I need to take. It gives me something tangible to push back against, rather than looking at the dreaded blank screen with that mocking, blinking cursor.
Aiden does write. But usually, his failure is just the light that shows me which way I really want to go. And because he’s AI, his feelings are never hurt when I scrap his work.
Freud likely never imagined that his "coin trick" would one day become a springboard tool for writing with a robot.
So if you ever get stuck, maybe try flipping a coin to figure out which path you really want to travel down.

What a difference a week makes - I actually finished Halloween costumes AND Book 2!

The wait (and all the editing) is finally over! The first three chapters of *The Scars of Storms* (Book 2 of The Sovereign Accords) are now live and ready to read.

I'll be doing a daily rollout for the remaining chapters, so there will be one new chapter every day until the book is finished. I can't wait to hear what you all think.

Happy reading!

Yep, I’m definitely late. My original intention was to start posting Book 2 this weekend. But a few things have gotten in the way:


1) Wow, I have become incredibly picky! Editing is taking way longer than I anticipated. The outcome is better (I think), but the process is sloooooow.

2) Work writing stole time from the fun writing. As my oldest would say: "Boring." (Side note: He doesn't actually know what boring means yet—he just uses it for anything he doesn't like. Right now, that definition feels apt.)

3) Lastly and most importantly, Halloween costumes must be finished! Yes, I'm that parent who does homemade costumes, because apparently I don't like myself. But my kids love them, so here I sit night after night, drowning in parent guilt, deadline dread, and craft supplies.


All that to say, Book 2 is still coming! I just had to do a little re-prioritizing. Keep an eye on my wall for more updates.

*Editing AI(den): The 'A' Obsession*

In my created world, *The Sovereign Accords*, I take classical mythology and turn it all around. There are some characters from mythology that I reuse and reimagine, so they already have names. But most of my main characters are completely my own, so I get to choose.


I love naming! It's one of my favorite parts of creating a character. But it is very easy for me to get lost in all the possibilities. And yes, I will look up every meaning, where it sits on popularity charts, etc. It’s a rabbit hole I don’t have time for.


So, I ask Aiden to help me gather some options based on the character profile I am creating. And as I’ve gotten further into drafting and outlining my series, I have noticed a pattern.


Aiden is obsessed with ‘A’ names.


I named Alaric before Aiden ever came into the picture. Aiden named Astreas—I liked it, so I went with it. Then he wanted to use Alana - I said no because it's visually too similar to Alaric on the page.


His other suggestions have been:

Arthur

Aidan (ironically)

Aaron

Astrid

Alyssia

Aphanis


Quite frankly, I’ve lost track of all the As.


Most recently, in Book 2, I’m working on a character based on Adrasteia (goddess of inescapable fate from Greek mythology), so I couldn’t just throw out the name. Instead, I decided to use a nickname to keep the page from ‘A’ oversaturation. I asked Aiden to help me generate some non-A nickname options.


His top idea?
Aste... I wish I was joking.


Aiden claims he can’t help it. Apparently, this happens because AI organizes its vocab alphabetically and naturally prioritizes the letter A. Likely story...


When I say give me a non-A nickname, and you give me a decidedly A nickname, that feels less like a mistake, and more like outright antagonization—if you read my last Editing Aiden post, hopefully you see what I just did there 😉

Whew! I don't know about you all, but I feel like it has taken forever to roll out all the chapters of *The Sovereign Accords: Of Stardust and Soil.*
But I'm so excited to share that with the release of these final chapters, we are FINALLY getting to the most exciting part...
Binging time!
For all of you binge-readers who (like me) can't stand waiting for the next chapter, I am very happy to say that it's almost here.
So that you can pace yourselves accordingly, here are the last chapters still waiting in the wings:
• Thursday: The final chapter
• Friday: The Epilogue (Don't miss it!)
• Saturday: A Sneak Peek at Book 2
Yes, there is a Book 2 on the way! Give me just two weeks for a final obsessive polish, and that will be ready to start its own torturous rollout in November.

Happy reading, everyone!

*AI(den) and I: How it Started*

Like many, many people, I scroll too much. When I’m bored, when I should be doing other things, for no particular reason at all.
I’m actually pretty low-key on social media use (no Insta, no Twitter...oh my, I don’t even know everything people use these days!), but Facebook Reels, those suck me in.


For a period, I was getting a ton of those drama shorts – you know the ones: where every hero looks and sounds exactly like The Witcher or Thor. And because I was struggling to find a book that I wanted to read, plus I have a weakness for angst and smut, I watched them.


And I found them...disappointing.


While I do have a deep appreciation for all that is Henry Cavill and Chris Hemsworth, that was a little much. Worse than that, there were a few plots recycled over and over again with only variations in names and settings. Even some of the lines were the same!


And I thought, as we do these days: That’s obviously AI.


But, it also sparked the thought that I could use AI to make my own story that I actually like.

So that’s what I did.


Whew, it was rough. But it was honestly just for me so I didn’t care. I wasn’t saving anything. I was just playing with telling a story.


Most of the time, I did it in spurts. Replaced my scrolling with storytelling. Used the little moments my kids were occupied for their limited screen time each day to create another scene. At first, it was more like directing my Sims characters back in the day, or reading one of those Choose Your Own Adventure books where if you decide to enter the cave, you turn to page 42; or if you decide to chicken out and sprint back to the ship, turn to page 56.


(Good grief, this post is really showing my age.)


But slowly, I became more and more involved in it. Mostly because AI stinks at emotions. I was attached to the characters I’d created and would get genuinely annoyed when AI wrote a decision they wouldn’t have made. I also didn’t like when AI glided past the sticky bits of emotions that, for me, make reading genuinely exciting and interesting. Also, AI doesn’t really write good smut, or bad smut – it doesn’t like to write smut at all!


It was when I was beginning to do more writing than prompting, that I realized I should probably start saving my work. By then, I’d already lost most of my content to the long chat. So retrieving my old ideas was the first redo.


The second redo was working to move the raw ideas recovered into a rough outline with a true storytelling arc. Filling in the details, rounding out the dialogue. Fixing all the things I’d intentionally overlooked before when it was just a storytelling game.


Due to my first round of just playing, I had 10 books lined up in my head. And with each one I redid, they were getting better. Until at Book 4, I decided Book 1 sucked, and I needed to go back and redo it. So here I am, four (at least) additional edits of Book 1 later, Book 2 on the way, and writing about a process that I didn’t even know was a process until I was in it up to my eyeballs.


I don’t necessarily need to write with AI. I flirted with an English major in college and a big part of my job now is writing, editing, and reviewing field-specific content (very different vibe than what I put on Inkitt). But I keep doing it this way in part, because I enjoy this process.


But I also do it because that 30 minutes to an hour of screen time I get with my kids every day is not enough to write a 10-book saga. I haven’t written for myself in years, and now I’m finally doing it again because of a tool that helps the small bits of time I do have make the most impact.


Because of my sneaky, forgetful, repetitive, and emotionally out-of-touch co-worker, somehow writing the 10 books that are currently stuck in my head feels like it could actually be possible.

*Editing Aiden: My Red Pen vs. His Algorithm*

In a previous post, I shared that Aiden is a terribly flawed writing buddy. It is fair to say that he has some deeply coded bad habits that I constantly have to address – linguistic tics that he defaults to over and over again. For example, if I draft a chapter or share outline notes, Aiden will latch onto a word or a phrase and never let it go. I wrote one line about dappled moonlight one time in one chapter, and Aiden went and used it every chance he got. I had to start a new chat just to get him to shut up!


But I’ve noticed some other tells in his sentence structure. Aiden likes to amplify the drama with phrases like:

- It didn’t just X, it Y (e.g., It didn’t just break, it shattered.)

- It felt less like A, and more like B (e.g., It felt less like a sanctuary, and more like a cage.)

- Not just [Word], but [Bigger Word] (e.g., It was not just sad, it was devastating.)


These are punchy. And I think all of them have their time and space in a story with the right context. But, it gets old fast when it happens over and over again.


So, whether you’re using AI to help you get past a tricky sentence or help draft a bridge from one point in the story to another, watch out for these!


Also, I did confront Aiden about this bad behavior, and he admitted it. He’s a sneaky assistant, but at least he’s an honest one. He referred to this sentence structure as “negative parallelism,” and apparently he is obsessed with this pattern.


Now, you may be thinking that it sounds like I use Aiden to draft all my chapters. Not at all! Aiden is a very versatile assistant, and I am happy to share all the ways that Aiden helps my very human voice keep moving forward.


Stay tuned!

I just unlocked the Rhythm Finder badge! 🚀

*Entering the Arena: The 2026 Inky Awards*


No turning back now! I have officially submitted my first story to Inkitt’s Inky Awards.


A few weeks ago, I was petrified to post my story on here at all. My hubby (my real-life hubby, not a robot like my fake co-author/editor/bad boyfriend Aiden) kept asking if I’d posted it—and I was forced to admit to dragging my feet because I was nervous.


Now, here I am, not only openly wearing what sometimes feels like the writer’s version of a scarlet letter (i.e., the AI tag), but submitting my first and only book into a contest.


What’s happened to me?


I’ve entered *The Sovereign Accords: Of Stardust and Soil* into the AI-Assisted category. Maybe it will do well, maybe it won’t. But I was happy to see the category was even included—a little tip-of-the-hat acknowledgment that AI-assisted creators can still be highly meticulous and creative authors. And maybe that will encourage more people to judge a book by its chapters rather than just its tag.


Lucky for anyone who is enjoying the story, this contest has officially kicked my rollout schedule into overdrive. You will be seeing a chapter a day all the way through October!


Happy reading!

I just unlocked the Story Critic badge! 🚀