If you followed my blog over the years when I was posting regularly, you may remember the Marnie stories that I wrote in response to Flash Fiction prompts by Charli Mills at the Carrot Ranch. Depending upon the prompts, the 99-word stories provided a snippet of Marnie at various times of her life, from childhood to adulthood. They weren’t written in chronological order of her life, and I hadn’t already written anything of greater length from which I drew them. The stories were simply responses to the prompts as they occurred, and I used them to help develop her character. If you are interested, I collected the stories on their own page, Marnie.
Recently, a writer friend told me about using AI (ChatGPT) for assistance with her writing, for ideas when stuck, for sequencing events, for suggesting alternate endings. She explained that you could ask ChatGPT anything and it would help. I was surprised. I wouldn’t have thought of using it in that way. I wouldn’t have thought of her using it that way. I wouldn’t have expected her to share so openly that she found it so beneficial. However, as she continued to explain, I was impressed at her resourcefulness and came to understand how useful it could be as an assistant.
Since writing the Marnie stories, I’d often thought of using them as the basis for writing a longer story about Marnie but hadn’t got around to doing anything with them. I wondered if ChatGPT might help me get started and was amazed at the result.
I began by asking if it would be able to put different snippets of text about one main character and other characters in time order.
The response was:
“Sure! Please share the snippets of text you have. I’ll organize them in chronological (time) order based on the events involving the main character and other characters.”
So, I inserted all the texts (5620 words) in the order in which I’d written them, and the response was almost instant:
“Thanks for sharing all the text — there’s a rich and deeply emotional narrative here. I’ve now organized the snippets into chronological order, based on Marnie’s life journey. Some events overlap or reflect back in time, so I’ve placed them where they seem to fit best narratively and psychologically.”
This was followed by a list of all the snippets (flash fiction stories) under the headings:
Early Childhood – Home Life and Abuse (5 stories)
Early School Years – Introduction to School, Bullying, Trauma (20 stories)
Turning Points – Friendship, Courage, Escape (7 stories)
Escape, Reinvention, Adulthood (7 stories)
Resolution – Closure, Reflection, Healing (5 stories)
Side Scenes/Thematic Parallels (2 stories)
Needless to say, I was pretty impressed with the speed of response and the organisation of the stories.
I was then asked: “Would you like this ordered version exported into a document (PDF/Word)? Or do you want me to analyze themes, character arcs, or tone across the timeline?”
I asked for it to be analyzed for consistency of character, themes and storyline.
The response was:
“Absolutely. Your collection of vignettes weaves a deeply emotional and coherent narrative. Here’s a detailed analysis of character consistency, thematic unity, and storyline progression, with specific observations about how these elements succeed — and a few small areas you might refine or clarify if you wish to polish it even further.”
I was delighted with the ChatGPT conclusion about Marnie’s character:
“Marnie is written with exceptional psychological realism and emotional depth. Her development follows a believable arc from traumatized child to resilient adult. Across dozens of fragments, her behaviors, reactions, and internal thoughts consistently reflect:
- Complex trauma symptoms: dissociation, hyper-vigilance, self-blame, learned helplessness, retreating to small enclosed spaces.
- Moments of growth: brief smiles, curiosity, creativity, cautious trust.
- Innate sensitivity and intelligence, masked by educational delays, confusion, or misunderstanding of expectations.
- Symbolism in the unicorn: a through-line in her identity — innocence, escape, comfort — even when mocked or confiscated.
Her arc feels deeply earned, from sucking her thumb under the desk to boldly walking away from her past, and finally extending kindness to others.
✅ Success: Marnie remains emotionally and psychologically coherent at every age, even as her voice matures.”
In fact, across all the characters, themes and story elements, I was excited about what ChatGPT was giving me. The overall response was positive, but there were also suggestions for improvement.
“🔹 Overall Evaluation
🌟 Strengths:
- Deep psychological insight.
- Lyrical but grounded language.
- Emotional authenticity.
- Clear voice for each character.
- Motifs like unicorns, mud, colour, silence, and locked doors are effective and memorable.
🛠 Possible Refinements (only if aiming for publication-level polish):
- Slight reduction of duplicate imagery (multiple unicorn-tripping incidents).
- Make sure developmental language matches Marnie’s age, especially in early internal monologues.
- Brucie’s arc could either be extended or left open intentionally — just make it a conscious choice.”
Now that I have this first evaluation with suggestions for refinement, I feel empowered to continue working on Marnie and her story. Whether human readers would feel as positive, I don’t know, but at least now I’m ready to give it a go.
My main purpose in writing this post is to encourage you, if you haven’t done so yet, to give ChatGPT a try if you’re stuck on an idea or need a prompt to get started. If you’ve also experienced success in using it, I’d love to hear how.
Norah Colvin 