Return of the wolf behind me

A while back, I wrote the opening paragraphs of a story, and then wasn't sure how to continue it. So I asked my AI friend to help.

Here is the opening, written by me, as previously published…

The wolf begins

I could feel the presence, could feel it there close by, at all times. I could feel it there particularly when I wrote. As if a giant wolf stood behind me as I sat at my desk, bashing away at the Olivetti. More so when I sat there staring at the keys, wondering where to begin or how to continue.

"Does it frighten you?"

"Sometimes, yes, and then others not so. I almost welcome the presence of this beast."

Having started the story, I thought I would use AI to suggest an approach for me to take or leave. So far I have left it but am just returning for another think.

AI continues the story

"Almost?" the woman across the small, cluttered table prompted, her eyebrows arched with curiosity. Rain pattered softly against the window of the dimly lit café, a stark contrast to the tempest Silas had battled just hours before.

I took a slow sip of my tea, the warmth a small comfort against the lingering chill of the storm and the ever-present… thing. "Almost," I echoed. "Because sometimes it feels like encouragement, a weight of expectation that pushes me forward. Like it's waiting to see what I'll conjure, eager for the story to unfold. But then there are times…" I paused, the image of the hulking shadow behind me vivid in my mind, "times when it feels like judgment. As if it's silently criticizing every word, every clumsy sentence, every uninspired thought."

The woman, a writer herself judging by the ink-stained fingers and the knowing look in her eyes, nodded slowly. "The muse as monster," she murmured. "I know it well. Mine tends to manifest as a flock of ravens pecking at my skull when I'm stuck."

"Ravens," I mused. "That sounds… distracting."

"Exceedingly. But I suppose it's the price we pay, isn't it? To wrestle something worthwhile from the void, we invite these… companions." She gestured vaguely with her teacup. "This wolf of yours, does it have a scent?"

I frowned, trying to recall. "Not really a scent. More of a… feeling. A heavy, musky… presence. Like the air thickens when it's near. And its breath… sometimes I think I can feel its hot breath on the back of my neck." A shiver traced its way down my spine despite myself.

"And yet you welcome it?" she pressed.

"In a strange way, yes," I admitted. "Because when it's there, the words seem to flow more easily. The ideas, the connections… they come quicker, sharper. It's as if its very presence demands something of substance. Without it…" I trailed off, picturing the blank page, the inert keys. "Without it, there's just silence. And that, I think, is far more terrifying than any phantom wolf."

The woman smiled, a knowing, slightly melancholic smile. "Perhaps that's the secret then. To learn to live with the beast, to even find a strange sort of comfort in its shadow. To understand that its presence, however unsettling, is also a sign that the magic is still there, waiting to be unleashed."

Outside, the rain began to subside, and a weak sliver of sunlight broke through the clouds. I looked out at the glistening street, a sense of weary peace settling over me. The wolf was still there, I could feel it, a faint pressure behind my shoulders. But somehow, the conversation, the shared understanding, had lessened its menace. Perhaps, I thought, we were learning to coexist, this beast and I, bound together by the silent pact of creation.

End of AI-generated content

If you read both parts together you may notice inconsistencies, which is fine because I would not use the story unedited, even if I wanted to include a big chunk of AI-generated text, which I wouldn’t. The narrative, taken as a loose outline does, however, seem to hang together. I think I might move the MC to a bar or cafe, where he begins a conversation with a stranger about hidden beast-like muses.

Allowing for the inconsistencies, I think the story has a thread of interest which I might explore further. It is not a bad collaboration as a micro fiction. Could this be developed into a full-length novel? I am not sure so thought I would go back to the AI and ask it to generate an outline. Here is what it came back with.

Now, I know a lot of people 'hate' AI and think it unscrupulous to use it. Fact is that we all do, even if we don't realise it, as AI is now integral to many search engines and other software tools. To me, the point is to find some good uses for AI that don't have any adverse effects. You may want to judge the following outline for yourself. My view is that it is a competent outline and worth some consideration. Almost certainly, if I use the outline to write a longer story on my theme of a wolf-like alter ego, muse, or whatever, I will change it. In effect, I will be using the AI to generate some ideas, some suggested structure and development. I could have read about how to structure a novel, but there is no way I am going to do that, nor would I have done before these 'AI' products became available. I use generative AI as an advanced form of search engine or research tool that can compile info and ideas from multiple sources more efficiently than I could.

Here is the outline, unedited and without comment, other than to say that there is no way I would use the suggested title. I am still going with my own working title: Wolf Behind Me. I would also pick and choose some elements, rejecting others, like the idea of acting out a predatory behaviour for the sake of the novel. Such a thing would just be plain daft. What do you think? Could AI assist your own artistic practice?

The AI-generated outline

The Olivetti Beast: Novel Outline

Inferred Genre: Psychological Thriller, Literary Fiction, Supernatural Drama

Concept: A struggling novelist finds their writer's block cured by an intense, wolf-like presence they perceive only when they sit at their antique typewriter. The presence demands creative focus and productivity, but its influence slowly starts tearing down the boundaries between the writer's reality and their fiction.

I. Characters

ELIJAH "ELI" CHASE (40s): The Protagonist. A once-promising but now stalled novelist, deeply reliant on ritual (the Olivetti, the specific desk). He is isolated, obsessive, and initially sees the Presence as a muse.

ANNA (40s): Eli's estranged ex-wife or current partner (depending on the length). A pragmatic editor who tries to ground Eli but is slowly pushed away by his growing obsession and paranoia.

DR. HARPER (60s): A psychiatrist or literary scholar Eli consults. He represents the rational, scientific interpretation of the Presence as a manifestation of anxiety or creative pressure.

THE PRESENCE/THE WOLF: A sensed, but unseen, entity. It acts as a hyper-focused muse, pushing Eli to write. It represents the destructive, obsessive nature of genius.

II. Part I: The Manifestation (The Muse)

Goal: Establish the Presence, its rules, and Eli's initial surge of creativity.

The Opening: Eli is blocked, staring at the blank page. The Presence—a cold, heavy weight, like a giant wolf—is first strongly felt. He manages a single, perfect sentence.

The Ritual: Eli realizes the Presence only manifests around the Olivetti typewriter and only when he is about to write or is struggling. He starts scheduling his life around this feeling, welcoming the fear that translates into clarity.

The New Novel: Eli begins a brilliant, visceral new manuscript—a dark psychological tale about a predator tracking its prey. The writing is effortless, almost dictated. He attributes his success to the 'muse'.

Feedback Loop: Eli submits chapters to Anna, who is stunned by the quality but disturbed by the escalating darkness of the content and Eli's withdrawn behavior. She notes that the antagonist in his novel behaves exactly like the "wolf" Eli described to her.

The Test: Eli tries to write on a laptop away from the desk. He feels nothing. Frustrated, he returns to the Olivetti and the Presence, confirming its territorial nature.

III. Part II: The Pact (The Price)

Goal: Show the negative consequences of the Presence and raise the stakes from creative struggle to reality distortion.

The Hunger: The Presence grows stronger, demanding more time and more "real" input. It starts to feel less like a muse and more like a jailer. Eli is physically exhausted but unable to stop writing.

Reality Blurs: Events from Eli's novel begin to subtly leak into his real life. He sees shadows of the fictional antagonist, finds objects mentioned in his draft that he never bought, or overhears dialogue he wrote hours before.

The Demand: The Presence communicates a specific, silent demand: Eli must stay within the thrall of the novel's world. If he breaks his routine or tries to leave the house for too long, he suffers crippling anxiety and creative sterility.

Anna's Intervention: Anna, fearing for his sanity, demands he stop writing and seek help. Eli refuses, defending the Presence, seeing Anna's rational concern as an attempt to destroy his genius. Their relationship fractures.

The Fictional Crime: The predator in Eli's novel is about to commit a terrible crime. Eli realizes, with horror, that to write this section convincingly, the Presence is guiding him to act out similar predatory behaviors, or at least witness them in terrifying proximity to his home.

IV. Part III: The Reveal (The Wolf's Identity)

Goal: Unmask the Presence and force Eli to make a choice between his art and his sanity/life.

The Climax of the Novel: Eli reaches the novel's final act. The Presence is almost fully visible to him now—a hulking, starved shadow. He understands the Presence is not a muse, but a parasite feeding on his fear and creative energy, using his fiction as a channel into the real world.

The Real Threat: Eli discovers the true identity of the Presence is not external, but a manifestation of a terrible, unwritten secret from his past (e.g., a moment of emotional abandonment, a hidden betrayal, or a creative theft) that he has spent years subconsciously blocking. The Presence is his unprocessed guilt or stolen inspiration, given form.

The Showdown: The Presence forces Eli's hand: Finish the novel, enabling the fictional crime to manifest fully, or destroy the work and lose the only "muse" he has left, returning him to eternal writer's block.

The Choice: Eli must choose between creating a perfect, dark masterpiece at the cost of his soul and the safety of others, or destroying the work to reclaim his life.

Resolution: Eli destroys the Olivetti and the unfinished manuscript, severing the connection. He is left utterly alone, back to square one, but now sane. The final scene shows him sitting at a modern desk, staring at a blank screen, the familiar coldness of the Wolf gone, replaced by the silence of genuine, hard-won creativity.

V. Themes

• The High Cost of Art
• Paranoia vs. Inspiration
• The Responsibility of the Creator
• Confronting Internalized Guilt

End of AI-generated text