Founder Friday with Kristina Stanley of Fictionary
Ontario-based Fictionary is an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based editing software designed to help writers and editors simplify the story editing process and make it faster and easier by applying universal storytelling structures to every scene. Co-founded by Kristina and Mathew Stanley, Fictionary's creative editing software allows users to evaluate and revise their manuscripts to tell powerful stories readers will naturally connect with.
We caught up with Kristina to hear what’s new for Fictionary, what’s coming up next, insights into what’s happening in the industry, and advice she would give to her past self and up-and-coming women founders.
What’s New
Like nearly every industry, Generative AI (Gen AI) is unleashing new opportunities and potential. For Fictionary, it has opened up the market to streamline the process for people writing books. Perfectly primed to integrate it into their software, they are incredibly proud to have come out with their first Gen AI feature at the end of 2023.
Their philosophy regarding Gen AI is aimed at helping authors retain their creativity and artistry. Fictionary doesn't actually touch the manuscript; instead, Gen AI is used to help authors analyze their manuscript.
That first feature is around scene naming, which is important when editing as it provides an outline of the novel and shows what each scene is about. Typically a long and onerous process, Gen AI can do it in an efficient 20 seconds or so.
Outside of the AI buzz (but equally as exciting!), Kristina and the team have brought on new employees thanks to funding. Building their core team, they have welcomed a CMO who came from ProWritingAid and is bringing her industry expertise and connections to Fictionary, a development manager, a business development manager, growth product manager, and a community manager.
And on that note around community: their brand new community went from zero last summer to 2,500+ members today.
With that strong team, the team has gone off beta for their Fictionary Live! feature. Disrupting the editing industry, Fictionary Live! is guided editing courses. Think: like the concept of Peloton, but the Peloton riders are writers. Instead of having a group of people on a bike with a leader telling you to ride harder, it's a group of writers where an editor shows you how to edit, and you're editing your manuscript live.
They currently have five instructors and five courses going, running year-round. Fictionary Live! is part of the StoryTeller premium product and built into the subscription fee.
What’s Next
With controversy around Gen AI and artists, Fictionary is in a unique position where they can help writers get books out faster, but most importantly, it's still their book.
The team has edited books written entirely by Gen AI, and they still have all the same issues a traditional book written by a human has. It doesn't matter how you write it, it still needs editing—you can't get away from it.
Because Fictionary looks at what's already on the page and builds on it, there are no copyright issues. As mentioned, Fictionary doesn’t touch the text, but rather, helps writers tell a better story. Above all else, without a good story, you really don't have a good book.
Looking further ahead, Kristina and the team intend to grow even more. With hopes that all the pieces coming together will lead to overall growth, they plan to bring on more talent to continue building Fictionary bigger and better.
What’s Going On in the Industry
AI has encouraged many people to write books, which is a win in Kristina’s eyes since it has opened up the market for people who have thought writing was too hard or have wanted some help doing it.
Recall the mention of Gen AI and copyrighting—this and the lawsuits around stolen manuscripts are what the Fictionary team is watching closely in the industry. How are writers being protected? How can AI be used in an ethical way?
When self-published books first came out, there was backlash against them because many books weren’t quite polished enough, which led to the assumption that a writer had to go through a traditional publisher for it to be a good book. Eventually, things shifted, and self-publishing has become a more accepted avenue.
Most important throughout this shift, though, is the realization that it still requires as much work with editing, copyediting, and proofreading before a book becomes one people want to buy.
And so, Kristina sees the same thing happening as Gen AI becomes more popular. There will likely be lower quality books published until writers figure out that even if they use Gen AI to help them, they still have to go through the proper editing processes to publish a good book.
Writers should look at AI as a partner to help write their book. Writing should be their own story and their book, with AI being used in an ethical way to enhance what they are doing, not replace.
Ultimately, Fictionary was started to help writers, and Kristina and the team want to ensure they continue to make decisions that do exactly that—help writers.
Advice to Your Past Self & Other Women Founders
“If you’re founding something, be passionate about it because it’s really hard work that you spend a lot of time thinking about, working on, and talking about,” Kristina says. “It's such a huge part of your life, so pick something you love.”
Although there's plenty you won't know when getting started, that's to be expected because you have to go through the process and learn along the way.
But it’s not a journey you’ll need to take alone. Lean on your network, community, and the ecosystem, and you’ll find trusted advisors and mentors that can help you fill in the gaps of what you don’t know, be it legal decisions, patenting or trademarking, or other technical areas.
Go through accelerator programs if you can. For Fictionary, this opened the door to forging new contacts and support in navigating unfamiliar ground, such as the funding process.
As you start meeting more people and figure out the industry, you’ll learn who you want to partner with as investors. This is critical because you’ll be spending a lot of time with them, and it's important that you have the same view and outlook on where you want your company to go.
Kristina and the team chose investors that understood what Fictionary wanted to do, the direction they wanted to go in, and they could be brutally honest so there were no surprises on either end.
When choosing an investor early on, it's tempting to say yes because you want the money. But if you can choose investors who see what you want to do with your company and are aligned with that, it's wonderful working with them afterward because they'll be working with you to help your company thrive.
They not only help you get to where you want to go but also where they think you should go. Success happens when you're all pulling in the same direction.
The51 is proud to partner with the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) in telling founder stories to accelerate the representation of women within Canada’s innovation economy.