Original Short Fiction: Blocked! Pt 1

What if your word processor could turn your ideas into a guaranteed bestseller? Meet "Buster"

What to do for writers block….

Jim hit ‘search’ and set back. He popped the top on a cold soda and munched two day old corn chips, a bit stale, but they still had a little crunch left.

He thumbed the track pad and scrolled down past the sponsored results and conglomerate article submission ‘click bait’ sites, that would all have the same four tips he’d already written in his blog yesterday.

Damn, it was exactly what he figured, anyone that knew the answer wasn’t giving it up, he clicked into his email account.

“Block” buster, writer’s helper, never suffer from writer’s block
again

Jim looked over his shoulder, it felt like someone must be watching him. He hadn’t visited a single site on the topic. He took another sip of soda and considered, it was probably a hoax, but what did he have to lose.

He looked up over his desk, where he’d hung his contract and a photocopy of his advance, to remind him of what was at stake.

Jim Birdwell is the next big thing in horror,

the New York Times had said about his first book, “Come and Get Me,” he’d been on every major talk show, sold over five million copies and sat across the desk from Stephen Spielberg to discuss the upcoming film his movie was being made into.

So, it wasn’t much surprise when his editor was able to get him a major publishing deal for his second book.

He’d accepted the advance nearly a year ago and now he had two weeks to turn the pile of crap in his computer into a second blockbuster hit, or pay back the one million dollar advance, which was a problem, considering how quickly he’d spent the royalties from the first one.

He opened the message and followed the link to a website that looked like it was last updated during the Clinton administration. Screechy midi rock music poured from his speakers and the screen went black, with glowing purple text.

A dancing animated pencil wiggled its way across the top of the header.

Jim read the description,

“Block Buster is the number one writer’s aide, responsible for more
number one bestsellers than James Patterson. Block Buster is a word processor, ghostwriter, editor and publishing system in one. Based on next gen AI Block Buster can generate whole stories, up to novel length, work with your outlines to create manuscripts, or fill in spaces, find story problems and suggest alternatives. In short, never get stuck again.”

The green ‘download’ button at the bottom glowed brightly. Jim paused, this would probably be a huge waste of time and he’d have even less time to fix his problem. But, then again, what did have to lose. He clicked the button, entered his credit card info and followed the install prompts.

Time for snacks while this thing loaded; Jim went to then kitchen and returned with a bowl of microwave popcorn and another soda. When he sat back down, the program had already loaded, a silver face floated in middle of his screen.

“Hey Jim, welcome back, I’m Buster and I’m reading your manuscript right now to see if I can help you. Looks like you have some workable material here. I should be ready to make some recommendations in about ten minutes,”

The face’s eyes closed and it appeared as if his eyes were scanning something under their digital lens. The face’s expressions changed as he “read”.

Jim sat back and ate popcorn while he waited. Ten minutes later, Buster’s eyes opened and the face smiled.

“The fix is very simple, would you like to look at my notes, or do you trust me to adapt the required changes?”

Jim grinned, he wondered how bad it would be. He knew he had copies of his work saved on several cloud services and he had a hard copy of the completed manuscript up to this point, what could it hurt.

“So, your changes would be reversible?” He asked.

“If you’d like to see my notes, select notes, if you want me to proceed with my recommendations, select the proceed option. If you have further questions, or need other assistance, please type your request in the text box at the bottom of the screen. I can’t hear you Jim, don’t be ridiculous.”

Jim laughed to himself, whoever had put this software together had a sense of humor, he gave them that.

Can I reverse your changes once they’re made? Jim typed, then clicked ‘enter’.

“Yes, of course. You are, after all, the author,” the face said, then very deliberately winked at him.

Jim wasn’t sure how to take that. But, he had enough backups to get back to where he was now if it didn’t work out, so he chose ‘proceed’ and the face was replaced by an animated pencil, scratching across a page from left to right repeatedly. Two minutes later, the pencil was replaced by a neatly typeset page.

CHAPTER ONE, The Problem With Truth, by Jim Birdwell

There was a standard copyright notice and the manuscript of his latest novel followed. He started reading. The more he read, the more he liked it. It was his story, his characters, his words, but he didn’t remember it being this good.

He caught a few changes here and there, but most of the corrections were so subtle, he had to compare it to his printed version to see where they were.

He read straight through, seven hours. When he reached the last page, he finally saw which ending was best, Buster had selected all of the right parts, had even gone into other files, copied and pasted some discarded bits back in.

It was amazing. He’d felt so lost, but here was proof that he had been close! It felt weird to think it, but Jim thought, “I ought to thank someone for this.”

“You’re welcome,” Buster’s face said, filling the screen once again. “I’ve taken the liberty of setting up the manuscript for printing and I’ve also set up a galley to be emailed to your editor. Would you like me to print and email now? Or, do you prefer to do it yourself.”

Continue/Let me handle it The two options popped up at the bottom of the screen. Jim scrolled over the ‘continue’ button and froze. What if he was wrong? What if it was awful, or something got screwed up in the sending?

Well, he’d come this far, why not? He clicked on ‘continue’.

A year had passed since The Trouble With Truth had topped the bestseller list and Jim had finished two more bestselling novels with Buster’s help.

He had written the bulk of the first one and allowed Buster’s algorithm to write the second, based on his detailed outline and character descriptions. And his publisher was begging for another.

Jim sat at the computer and stared at Buster’s silver face. Was it his imagination, or had this thing taken on a decidedly smug expression? He clicked an icon at the bottom of the screen and a list of options popped up.

Upload manuscript for editing/ Write from outline/ Let Buster handle it

He hovered over the ‘Let Busterer Handle it’ option and a small description appeared.

Blocker has learned your writing style and character building techniques well enough to craft a story in your voice. Sit back, relax and hire Buster as your personal ghostwriter.

He took another sip of brandy. He’d been drinking more lately. Every time he sat down to write, he had a sneaking suspicion that someone was going to find out he was cheating. Somehow they would know and everything, the new house, the top of the line computer, his Ferrari, the diamond on his wife’s hand…

He clicked on the option and closed the laptop. He needed another drink. He could write a new one if Buster’s wasn’t good, he told himself.

So, what happens next? Will Jim have another bestseller? Will Buster be able to produce again? Find out tomorrow!

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