The Shift
The Shift is a free-to-read fantasy action-adventure story set in a world where the impossible suddenly becomes ordinary.
A new chapter is published every Friday.
Site-map
Home – This page. You can always return here if you get lost.
The Shift – The main story of the world of the Shift.
About – Some information about myself.
Connect – Find The Shift elsewhere, join the community, or follow the project for updates.
Zack’s Journal – Updates, news, and other things written by me.
AI & Transparency
The Shift is my story. The characters, world, plot, themes, and final creative decisions are mine. I do use generative AI as a tool during the creative process. I use it for things such as brainstorming, discussing ideas, checking whether something makes sense, language assistance, editing, research guidance, and occasionally helping me untangle whatever ridiculous worldbuilding problem I have managed to create for myself.
The original version of The Shift is written by me in Hungarian. I then translate the chapters myself, and use AI tools to check for typos, awkward phrasing, and American English writing conventions. The goal is not to have AI write the story for me, but to help me bring the story I wrote into another language while preserving its characters, meaning, humor, and my own voice as closely as possible. AI is a means for me to learn these skills, so that eventually I may be able to leave some of these tools behind.
AI is also used in the development of this website and its technical systems.
AI-generated images will not be used as artwork for The Shift or this website. The artwork on this website will either be made by me or commissioned from artists.
I draw a line between using AI to help me check spelling, phrasing, translation, or other parts of my own work, and asking it to generate the finished creative work for me. That distinction matters to me, and it is one I intend to keep.
I don’t believe that using a tool removes my responsibility for what I publish. If something appears here under my name, I made the decision to put it here. The mistakes are mine. The weird ideas are definitely mine too.
Planned features
Tales – Short stories and separate serialized stories set in the world of the Shift. They expand the world, but you do not need to read them to understand the main story.
Supplementary – Documents, articles, interviews, and other material from the world of the Shift, written as though they were created in-universe.
The Shift RPG – A tabletop role-playing game system set in the world of The Shift, which I originally began developing so that I could design action scenes based on consistent rules and avoid “deus ex machina” solutions. Since then, however, it has gradually evolved into a standalone role-playing game in its own right.