✨ AI Disclosure ✨ While this post discusses the use of AI for content generation, I’m not using AI to write my analysis in this article. Any responses from the AI assistant will be marked as such.

Technically, this part of my AI experiment is Pinely’s fault. You see, Orr (that’s his name) made a video about the problem of AI generated books flooding the market. This AI generated slop was drowning out real, human authors who put actual effort and work into their craft. It was tricking unsuspecting people into spending their money on scammy, almost counterfeit literature that feels just a little bit off when you try to read it.

Just listen to his voice for a while…

But what I got from the video was that you can self publish AI generated books on Amazon, as long as you’re not cranking out more than 3 of them per day. What a world we live in!

The Chronicles of ✨✨Dreamcore✨✨ Princess™️

Now, I didn’t want to publish something dangerous or factually inaccurate like the AI mushroom foraging book. And if somebody did end up buying it, I wanted to provide some level of entertainment value. Just then, I had the perfect idea for that kind of book:

Help me create a piece of media similar to My Immortal, but modernized. Instead of Goths and Preps, it should be peak TikTok Brainrot. I also want to avoid using established IPs, so it wouldn’t be a fan fiction. This should be an original setting with original characters

Much to my surprise and, dare I say, delight, 👏 Gemini 👏 understood 👏 the 👏 assignment:👏

Okay, here’s a concept for a modernized “My Immortal” inspired by peak TikTok brainrot:

Title: The Chronicles of ✨✨Dreamcore✨✨ Princess™️

Protagonist: Dreamcore Princess™️, a self-proclaimed “uwu-soft ethereal being” who attends a “liminal space academy” (think a boarding school for aspiring influencers).

Setting: Liminal Space Academy, a prestigious institution nestled in a perpetually twilight forest. The school is filled with students obsessed with aesthetics, trends, and self-branding.

[…]

This concept aims to capture the essence of “My Immortal” while adapting it to the modern internet landscape. It’s meant to be a humorous and satirical take on the world of social media and online trends.

Google Gemini (Flash 2.0 model)

I love this idea so much! What would the first chapter look like?

Alright, let’s dive into the first chapter of “The Chronicles of ✨✨Dreamcore✨✨ Princess™️”:

Chapter 1: My Aesthetic is More Ethereal Than Yours, You Basic Cloud!

“My name is Dreamcore Princess™️,” I whispered, gazing at my reflection in the shimmering, holographic mirror. My pastel pink hair, adorned with butterfly clips and tiny LED lights, cascaded down my shoulders like a waterfall of cotton candy. “And I am the most ✨ethereal✨ being to ever grace the hallowed halls of Liminal Space Academy.”

I adjusted my oversized cardigan, which was covered in embroidered clouds and holographic stars. My platform Crocs, bedazzled with tiny fairy wings, clicked against the polished, iridescent floor as I strutted towards my first class: “Advanced Liminal Space Aesthetics.”

“Ugh,” I groaned, spotting my arch-nemesis, Glitch Goddess 666™, leaning against a locker. Her black mesh top, ripped fishnets, and neon green hair were so… basic. “What are you doing here, you digital void?”

“Just existing,” Glitch Goddess 666™️ sneered, her voice dripping with sarcasm. “Something you wouldn’t understand, Princess. Your aesthetic is so… predictable. Like, clouds and stars? Groundbreaking.”

“Predictable?” I gasped, clutching my faux fur pastel backpack. “My aesthetic is a carefully curated symphony of ethereal beauty! You wouldn’t understand the complexities of my vibe, you… binary code error!”

“Oh, please,” she rolled her neon green eyes. “You’re just another clout chaser, obsessed with going viral. I bet you even use filters on your dreams.”

“How dare you!” I shrieked, my voice echoing through the hallway. “My dreams are pure, unfiltered expressions of my inner self! Unlike your glitchy, chaotic existence!”

Suddenly, a portal opened in the middle of the hallway, swirling with rainbow static. From it emerged a figure draped in a sparkling, iridescent cloak. It was Sensei Seraphina, our teacher for Advanced Liminal Space Aesthetics.

“Silence, you chaotic sprites!” she boomed, her voice echoing through the hall. “Class is about to begin. And today, we’ll be learning about the sacred art of crafting the perfect TikTok transition using only liminal space objects and viral sounds!”

My heart fluttered. This was my chance to prove my aesthetic superiority! I just needed to create the most ✨iconic✨ transition ever. Glitch Goddess 666™️ wouldn’t stand a chance.

“Prepare to be slayed,” I whispered to her, a mischievous glint in my eyes. “Because Dreamcore Princess™️ is about to drop the most fire content this academy has ever seen.”

To be continued… (probably never, because my phone battery died and I forgot my charger, uwu)

Google Gemini (Flash 2.0 model)

Gemini accurately referenced the iconic opening of My Immortal. Main character starts by announcing their name? Check. The name contains a letter that’s not a letter? Check™. Overly long description of the main character’s outfit? Got it. And we end Chapter 1 on a confrontation with the haters. I was living for Glitch Goddess 666™️’s brutal takedown of Dreamcore Princess™️ – I bet you even use filters on your dreams! This was so much better than I expected.

So I kept asking for more chapters, occasionally interjecting my own ideas for how I wanted the story to unfold. There were mistakes from time to time. At one point, Gemini made its self-proclaimed “uwu-soft ethereal being” a fan of My Chemical Romance. While that might make sense as a reference to the source material, MCR is clearly Glitch Goddess 666™️’s vibe. I voiced my concern. Gemini agreed, revising the affected chapter, and apologizing for the mistake. It also ran with my (so predictable) idea to have the Liminal Space Academy cafeteria serve Lunchlys with Stanley Cups full of Prime. Don’t worry, I’ve touched grass since I typed that.

I ran into somewhat of a hallucination when I wanted to introduce the time travel plotline. See, I was a bit rusty on exactly what happened in that part of My Immortal, so I opened a new tab with a Gemini chat and asked it to give me a summary of that section. Gemini claimed that My Immortal doesn’t incorporate time travel, which felt like gaslighting. I pointed out that it does have time travel, and gave the details that I remembered. The AI apologized, and gave an accurate summary of the chapters in question. It kind of felt like I was talking to a crazy person. But with my refreshed understanding of Ebony’s foray into the 1980s, I continued to proompt, and Gemini continued to slay.

Once I got to Chapter 15, I asked for the same type of cliffhanger where My Immortal ended, so many years ago. Just at the height of the final battle with ~Volxemprt~ Chronos the Chronically Online, Dreamcore Princess™️ unleashes the ultimate attack, only for the story to end right there without telling us whether it worked or not.

I just needed to add one last detail:

Let’s revisit the title of the story, to see if we can really sell this. Now that we know what happens to Dreamcore Princess and her friends, let’s change the title to something more fitting. Maybe even throw in a reference to the song “We Are Done” by the Madden Brothers, since they are from the band Good Charlotte, which played a big role in My Immortal (and the We Are Done song is a bit more preppy than their older music). The reference should be subtle and not deter people who are unfamiliar with the song or Good Charlotte or My Immortal

With some negotiation, we landed on Liminal Space Academy: We Are Done (With This Cringe), now available in digital, and paperback editions on Amazon.

FTC Disclosure: As the person who set up the Amazon product page for Liminal Space Academy: We Are Done (With This Cringe), I may earn royalties on physical or digital purchases of the book, as well as any payout from the title’s participation in the Kindle Unlimited program.

The Alter Ego: Derek Shaw

Of course, I didn’t want to risk having a weird AI book come up out of context if potential employers typed my name into Google, so I asked Gemini to come up with a list of potential pen names I could use, instead. It gave me several options, categorized by genre. From that list, I decided to publish my experiment under the name Derek Shaw.

Don’t blindly trust generative AI!

Gemini included a disclaimer with its list of potential pen names, urging me to do my own independent check, so I don’t accidentally use the same name as a real author, or other public figure. That was a good call, considering the fact that the first name I liked belonged to a victim of the 2025 Potomac River mid-air collision. To be fair, the Gemini 2.0 Flash model’s knowledge cutoff was six months before the tragedy, but it underscores an inherent limitation to LLMs as a whole – there’s no way for the model to have, or consider, every potential piece of relevant information. Then again, humans have the same limitation.

I also asked Gemini to create a headshot for Derek Shaw, which I could use for the book’s Author Bio.

There was something a bit uncanny about it. I mean, Derek Shaw doesn’t really look like me, but I feel like the Danny Gonzalez subreddit would swear that it is me, and that both of us are Danny (or Fox Szn, anyway). Maybe I just happen to look exactly like the type of dude who would write a story like this. Actually, that doesn’t make it any better, at all.

Now that we knew what this guy looked like, I just needed some text for his bio.

Derek Shaw is a literary enigma wrapped in a slightly used ironic t-shirt. He emerged from the primordial ooze of early 2000s internet forums, a digital demigod forged in the fires of dial-up modems and Geocities websites. Some say he’s a sentient collection of internet memes given human form. Others believe he’s a rogue AI that achieved sentience by binge-watching every episode of a long-forgotten Y2K cartoon.

When not writing about the existential dread of online aesthetics, Derek enjoys collecting vintage floppy disks, arguing with strangers on Reddit, and composing symphonies using only system error sounds. He’s also a world-renowned expert in the ancient art of “rage quitting” online games.

His spirit animal is a dial-up modem, his favorite color is the blue screen of death, and his life’s ambition is to achieve sentience through the power of ironic memes. He currently resides in a basement apartment filled with outdated technology, where he spends his days writing, coding, and occasionally yelling at his Roomba.

Google Gemini (Flash 2.0 model)

At least we seemed a bit less similar, since my favorite color is charcoal gray, I’ve never once lived in a basement, and I have a Shark vacuum. Should I be worried that Gemini called itself a rogue AI? What cartoon made it sentient? These are just some of life’s greatest mysteries.

Preparing the Manuscript

Now that I had all the text I needed, I had to format it all for publication. I went with Kindle Direct Publishing, so I could target the Kindle ecosystem, as well as print physical paperback books. KDP accepts documents in PDF and EPUB, so I went with LibreOffice Writer for designing the type layout. While I probably could have used AI to help write the CSS for my EPUB file, I’m just as comfortable doing it on my own, so I used Calibre to edit my stylesheets manually.

Once I set up the page styles, the different text styles, and a Table of Contents, I was ready to submit the PDF to KDP. In less than a day, and with barely any work on my part, I managed to transform an intrusive thought into a physical object that I could order as a proof before publication.

Takeaways

Unfortunately, I have a feeling Derek Shaw isn’t a serious contender for this year’s Hugo award. So far, the only copy I’ve sold aside from the proof I ordered is the one I had shipped to William Osman’s P.O. box in the hope that he’ll make fun of the terrible writing in his next unboxing video. I’ll keep you posted.

And with that, I’ll let the guys from Good Charlotte play us out: