More work to share: Beginning at the End

Photo by Cole Freeman on Unsplash

The latest chapter from my Bedtime Stories for Artificial Intelligences may seem a little odd, as it I have a hunch it is a draft of the very last chapter of the book. It is not really finished yet, and I will revise it over time to reflect the narrative as it emerges earlier in the work, but it is ready to share as a work-in-progress.

It concerns the very earliest, dawn experiences of an emergent artificial intelligence, tracking its experiences on its very first day. It is a little enigmatic and I am not sure what it all means yet, but I am confident this will become clearer as the narrative unfolds during the writing process.

This backwards way of approaching narrative is important to me: my mantra is ‘start anywhere and get on with it’ as a cure for writer’s block. In this case, starting anywhere meant starting at the end of the book.

Who is Corvus, you might ask? This is the name of a character in my Bedtime Stories, also known as the Solitary Bird. More of Corvus later.

This is an excellent time to share my favourite quote of all time, from the tennis player Arthur Ashe. It goes like this:

Start where you are

Use what you have

Do what you can

I love this as it is the most empowering quote I have ever read. It asserts that now is the right time, what you have is enough and what you can do you should. Good enough for me. To write the last chapter, I started where I was, I used what I had and I did what I could. I hope it is enough.