High Tides: How Clara and Valerie Went From Wattpad to AI Video

High Tides has spent years building the story of Clara and Valerie on the page, but the WLW romance is now beginning a new chapter on screen.

Created by writer Fernanda through Neuralafterglow, the ongoing Wattpad novel has reached around 73,000 reads, 2,400 votes and 198 published parts, while the visual world surrounding its characters has helped attract more than 46,000 followers on Instagram.

Now Clara and Valerie have made the move into a longer AI video format with the first High Tides episode released on YouTube. SoapLandTV has also spoken exclusively with Fernanda about the characters, the readers who have become invested in them and how a story that began as a novel gradually developed into a much wider creative world.

What is High Tides?

At its heart, High Tides is an ongoing WLW romance centred on Clara and Valerie. The story has developed across almost 200 Wattpad instalments, giving Fernanda space to build not only their relationship but the histories, difficulties and everyday experiences that have shaped both women.

Valerie is a surfer and tattoo artist whose connection to the ocean is deeply woven into the identity of High Tides. Clara is a former military personal trainer, and over the course of the story readers have watched her face major changes in her life, including a heart condition that challenges a woman who had always associated much of her identity with strength, independence and being able to look after herself.

Their relationship is not built purely around dramatic romantic moments. Some of the most important parts of High Tides are much smaller, from making coffee and teasing each other to recognising when the other person needs silence, reassurance or simply someone to stay beside them.

That quieter approach to romance has become an important part of why readers connect with Clara and Valerie. In SoapLandTV’s exclusive interview, Fernanda explains that the ordinary moments between them are not simply gaps between the major events in their lives, but an essential part of the relationship she has spent so long developing.

From Wattpad to more than 46,000 followers

High Tides began as a written story, and Fernanda has remained clear that the novel continues to sit at the centre of the project. What she could not have predicted was how far the world surrounding that story would eventually expand.

Neuralafterglow now has more than 46,000 Instagram followers, where images and short videos have allowed readers to see Clara and Valerie outside the confines of individual chapters. Some capture emotional or romantic scenes, while others show the pair in much more ordinary moments, creating the sense that their lives continue even when readers are between chapters.

The audience has grown into a community of its own. Fernanda told SoapLandTV that she now recognises names, personalities, profile pictures and running jokes among the people who regularly interact with High Tides, with readers from different countries also beginning conversations and forming connections with each other.

That involvement does not mean readers determine where the story goes. Fernanda listens to interpretations and enjoys creating playful material around Clara and Valerie, but the characters and the direction of their story remain rooted in the world she originally created.

Clara and Valerie are fictional characters, not actresses

The increasingly realistic visual material surrounding High Tides has occasionally led people to assume Clara and Valerie are performers from an existing television series. Fernanda has previously clarified that they are original fictional characters and that the visual scenes shared through Neuralafterglow are created interpretations of the characters and moments from her story.

That distinction becomes even more important as High Tides moves further into video. The project is not taking an existing live action programme and applying AI to it, but giving visual form to characters who existed first within Fernanda’s writing.

Fernanda has also explained to SoapLandTV that the visuals do not determine who Clara and Valerie become. Their personalities, histories and relationship already exist within the story, and material that does not feel true to those characters is rejected rather than being allowed to change them.

High Tides arrives on YouTube

That visual experimentation has now developed into something more substantial. High Tides Episode 1/3 was released on YouTube on 20 August, taking viewers back towards the beginning of Clara and Valerie’s story through a video based on Invisible Currents.

The first upload passed 2,600 views shortly after release, while the new Neuralafterglow YouTube channel had already gained more than 250 subscribers. For an audience that has previously encountered much of the visual side of High Tides through shorter social posts, the episode offers a different opportunity to spend longer inside the world of the novel.

The novel remains at the centre

The arrival of AI video does not mean Fernanda is trying to replace the written version of High Tides. Instead, the visual material gives existing readers another way of spending time with Clara and Valerie while potentially giving people who have never opened the Wattpad story a reason to become curious about them.

That difference is central to the way Fernanda talks about the project. As she told SoapLandTV:

“The visuals let you see them. The words let you know them.”

It is a simple description of a project that has expanded considerably from where it began. High Tides is still the story of Clara and Valerie on the page, but it now exists alongside an audience of tens of thousands, a growing visual identity and its first step into longer AI video storytelling.

For people encountering the pair for the first time, that may be the best place to begin. Watch a moment between Clara and Valerie, notice that there appears to be far more history behind it, and then discover the story that created them.

High Tides can be read on Neuralafterglow’s Wattpad, while the first video episode can be watched on the Neuralafterglow YouTube channel. You can also follow Neuralafterglow on Instagram for more from Clara and Valerie.

SoapLandTV will also be publishing our exclusive interview with Fernanda, while you can find more emerging projects and AI storytelling in our AI & Entertainment section. All images used with permission.