Michael Brown
Stanford & Brown educated. Tech founder. Literary novelist. First book in his true genre at 79.
How Michael Brown Finally Wrote the Novel He Spent 67 Years Preparing For
"I went through mastermind groups. I wrote thrillers about Mexico. They would have sold, but I hated them. They had nothing to do with me."
67 Years of Preparation
But life intervened. He co-founded an early internet company — one of the original four founders of a firm that grew to 8,000 people. Two of his colleagues invented HTML.
What Stood in the Way
After 16 years in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, with uninterrupted time to write — something still wasn't working. He was writing in genres that didn't feel authentic.
Michael joined Plotdrive on day one. What changed wasn't just speed — it was creative identity.
Through extended dialogue with AI, Michael finally stopped resisting what he'd always wanted to write: dark fantasy occult thriller. "We went deep into me, deep into my past to find out what my ideal genre is. And once I knew that, I knew. It's just been a joy."
"Imagine a TV show. You have a head writer, and I'm the head writer. I assign out parts to the writing team. But it's my show — my vision, my idea. I'm the director."
He built an elaborate button system: premise → synopsis → scene beats, with validation at each stage. A 7,000-word style guide checked against every scene.
"As soon as I'm stuck, I just say it. 'Stop. This makes me feel uncomfortable.' And it starts asking me what's making me uncomfortable. We figure it out in a minute."
What Michael Achieved
The Novel
The Process
The Ouroboros Covenant
"It's something I really care about that I think says something important right now in this time in history."
The Takeaway
"Plotdrive made me love doing it. It really did. It's all I want to do."