Chronicles of Stormhaven 1
Growing up I was without doubt a ‘bookish child’ finding refuge from loneliness (and homework) in the pages of historical fiction, fantasy, sci-fi and comic books. I lived in a multitude of worlds, dimensions and times among which were Camelot, Narnia, Conan’s Hyperborea, Barsoom, Dune and of course Galadriel’s Lothlorien and Frodo’s Shire on Middle Earth.
Perhaps one day I will revisit and these continents of imagination and write a traveller’s guide but right now I have finally embarked seriously on constructing my own world. I have made several attempts in the past but always got bored before getting very far however, recently, I been working quite consistently on my own ‘Chronicles of Stormhaven’ and sharing, perhaps prematurely, my ‘work in progress’. A number of tools have inspired my imagination and persistence including AI which I use to illustrate the graphic novel, interactive fiction, game that will constitute the Stormhaven universe.
While some deplore the use of AI for my illustrations I embrace it as a creative tool that will never replace any truly skilled artist but that supports the creativity of the less skilled and inspires the not yet so skilled. I don’t use AI to write the story (that would be neither fun nor would it allow me to say what I wish to say) but the images sometimes suggest particular directions and there is a sense of creative collaboration between a writer and an artist who only sometimes gets what writer is getting at and sometimes insists on their own visions.
Apart from AI (Dall.E and Playground.ai) I use a plethora of tools including the excellent Comic Life for most of the design work in the graphic novel sections and lately an Interactive Fiction platform called Twine 1.4.2.
This project is a journey of learning for me, not only in terms of developing my writing skills and skill using various software tools but also in terms of reflecting on ‘life, the universe and everything’, and it is my hope that as this develops others will join me in sharing and contributing to this learning.
Gavin Sealey