TRANSPARENCY & AUTHORSHIP
AI & Creative Process
The stories are human. The tools are modern. This page explains how the two meet.
I believe readers should be able to understand how the books they read are created, including the role of AI-assisted tools in that process.
The Living Crossroads is built from my ideas, characters, worlds, relationships, lore, and long-term narrative decisions. AI is part of my creative workflow, but the responsibility for what becomes part of these books remains mine.
The Creative Foundation
The creative authorship of The Living Crossroads is human.
I create and direct the worlds, characters, relationships, plots, lore, themes, continuity, and overall narrative direction of the series.
The books grow through outlines, story bibles, character records, continuity notes, drafts, revisions, and long-term planning across multiple volumes.
AI tools may participate in different stages of that process, but they do not decide what The Living Crossroads becomes.
How AI Tools Are Used
Writing & Development
I use AI as a collaborative drafting and writing-assistance tool.
I provide the story context, characters, lore, continuity, scene objectives, and creative direction. AI may suggest wording, alternatives, ideas, or draft material.
Those suggestions may be accepted, rejected, combined, rewritten, or substantially changed.
Nothing is published simply because an AI system produced it. I make the final creative and editorial decisions.
Translation
Brazilian Portuguese is my native language, and parts of my creative process may begin in PT-BR.
AI-assisted translation helps me move material between Portuguese and English. I then review and revise the text to preserve characterization, humor, meaning, tone, and narrative intent.
Translation is part of the writing process, not a substitute for it.
Editorial Support
I also use AI tools for tasks such as grammar review, proofreading, continuity checking, brainstorming, structural feedback, comparing revisions, and identifying possible contradictions.
These tools help me examine the manuscript from different angles, but they do not replace editorial judgment.
What Makes It Into a Book
The principle is simple:
AI can suggest. I decide.
I determine what is canon, how characters behave, what events occur, how the world works, which ideas are discarded, which passages are rewritten, and when a scene is finished.
The final question is never:
“Did AI approve this?”
It is:
“Is this the story I want to tell?”
Douglas Lima
A Note on AI Detection
Automated AI-detection services analyze patterns in text rather than directly establishing who authored a work. I have tested material with multiple detectors and seen contradictory results, including passages written entirely by me being classified as AI-generated.
Because of that, detector scores are not an editorial target for The Living Crossroads.
The books are edited for readers, story, character, continuity, clarity, and voice, not to achieve a particular detector score.
Documenting the Journey
I maintain records of the creative process, including notes, outlines, story bibles, character development, lore documentation, manuscript versions, revision history, and editorial decisions.
These materials reflect the evolving history of The Living Crossroads: ideas being developed, changed, rejected, revisited, and carried across multiple books.
They are part of the process behind the finished stories.
A Commitment to Readers
Be transparent about the use of AI-assisted tools.
Never misrepresent how the books are created.
Prioritize the story and the reading experience over AI-detector scores.
Keep human creative judgment at the center of every published work.
Continue adapting the process as writing tools and publishing standards evolve.
However the tools evolve, the responsibility for the story remains mine.
Douglas Lima
Questions about the creative process?
author@thelivingcrossroads.com