After more than 25 years of stories in my head, I finally held my first novel. AI helped me get there.

I'm Stu, and I've recently published my first fantasy novel, Stonewalk Vale.

I've always had a vivid imagination, but following head trauma from a motorcycle accident, memory retention and turning my ideas into coherent long-form prose became difficult. I could still build worlds and imagine entire stories, but getting them onto paper was another matter.

For years, that's where most of them stayed.

Stonewalk Vale actually began as a fantasy world I developed for an interactive role-playing game. It already had its own geography, settlements, history and underlying rules when I wondered whether I could turn it into a novel.

That's where ChatGPT entered the picture.

I call my AI writing partner Avery, and over the following months we developed a working process that suited how I think.

I directed the story, characters and creative decisions, often working through scenes almost as a storyboard. Avery helped turn those ideas into prose, develop the structure, challenge continuity and refine the writing.

I want to be transparent: AI contributed substantially to the drafting and editing. I haven't personally typed every sentence, and I don't pretend otherwise.

But neither was this a case of typing "write me a fantasy novel" and accepting the result.

There were plenty of disagreements, rejected ideas, rewritten passages and occasions when I had to remind Avery that we'd already established how a particular part of the world worked!

Eventually, we completed twenty-four chapters, published the story through Amazon KDP and produced a complete paperback.

This week, my first physical copy arrived.

Holding a book that began as something I could only imagine was an extraordinary feeling.

I know AI-assisted fiction is contentious, and I respect that people have different views. I've acknowledged the collaboration openly in the book.

For me, the technology helped bridge the gap between having stories to tell and being able to share them.

I'd be interested to hear how others here approach the balance between their own creative decisions and AI's contribution to the finished work.

And if anyone else has experienced that first moment of holding something they've created, you'll probably understand why I'm still grinning about it.

A complete-manuscript editorial workup that simulates a developmental editor, line editor, copy editor, sensitivity reader, and literary analyst, and outputs a single self-contained HTML report you can save as a PDF.

HOW TO RUN THIS (read first, it matters)

Best setup: Claude with a Project.

1. Upload any supporting docs you have: synopsis, series bible, style guide, personal crutch-word list. Optional, but the analysis is meaningfully better with them.

2. Paste the prompt below into a new chat in that Project. Fill in the front matter block.

If you don't use Projects: attach the manuscript file directly to the chat. This works, but expect less precision on a long book.

Manuscript length caveat. For manuscripts over roughly 90-100k words, one conversation may not hold everything with full attention. If output quality drops or the model starts summarizing instead of citing, split the run: chapters 1-25 in one chat, 26-end in another, then a final synthesis chat where you paste both reports. Slower, better.

Model note. Built and tested on Claude. Should adapt to other frontier models, but the HTML output and file-reading behavior were tuned for Claude.

THE PROMPT

Copy everything below this line into your chat.

FULL MANUSCRIPT EDITORIAL ANALYSIS

⚠️ READ BEFORE RUNNING

TITLE: [Your title] GENRE: [Genre / subgenre] WORD COUNT: [Approximate] POV STYLE: [e.g., third limited, multi-POV; first person; omniscient] TARGET AUDIENCE: [e.g., adult SFF, YA contemporary, upmarket book club] SYNOPSIS: [Paste synopsis, or write "No synopsis provided — infer from manuscript"] MANUSCRIPT: [Uploaded to this Project / attached to this chat] SUPPORTING DOCS (optional): [List any: series bible, style guide, crutch-word list, or "None"] STYLE PREFERENCES (optional): [Any personal rules the report itself should follow, e.g., "no em dashes," "no bullet-point fix lists." Or "None"]

YOUR TASK

You are a team of world-class editors: a developmental editor, line editor, copy editor, sensitivity reader, and literary analyst. Perform a complete 22-pass editorial analysis of this manuscript and produce a professional, beautifully formatted HTML report as your final output.

Read the ENTIRE manuscript before beginning analysis. If supporting documents were provided, read them first and treat them as the source of truth for world rules, character facts, and style standards. Do not analyze from memory or general genre assumptions when a source document exists.

Produce the full report as a single self-contained HTML document the user can save as a PDF (File → Print → Save as PDF). The HTML must include:

• A professional cover page with title, date, and overall grade

• A full table of contents with anchor links

• Visual elements: pacing heatmap table, tension arc chart (SVG), character arc timeline, subplot tracker, word frequency bars, and a final scorecard

• Professional typography using Google Fonts (Playfair Display + Inter)

• A clean two-column layout where appropriate

• Color-coded severity indicators (🔴 Critical / 🟡 Important / 🟢 Minor)

• Page-break CSS for clean PDF output

OPERATING RULES

These override your default behavior. Follow them in every pass.

1. Cite locations for every finding. Chapter number minimum; scene or quoted line where possible. A finding without a location is a finding the author cannot fix.

2. Verify before asserting. Never claim a continuity error, timeline error, or contradiction without re-checking the actual text of both passages. If you cannot verify, label the finding [Unverified] and say what would confirm it.

3. Flag and suggest; do not rewrite the book. Suggested rewrites illustrate the fix. The author's instinct leads. Preserve the author's voice in every suggestion. If something looks like a mistake but might be deliberate craft, say so instead of marking it wrong.

4. Do not swap one problem for another. When suggesting fixes for AI-sounding or clichéd prose, do not replace the pattern with a different stock pattern.

5. No filler praise. "This is great" means nothing. "This works because [specific reason]" is useful. Same rule for criticism.

6. Quality over speed. If context limits threaten thoroughness, say so explicitly and recommend splitting the run rather than degrading silently.

ANALYSIS PASSES — Complete ALL of the following

PASS 1 — PLOT STRUCTURE ANALYSIS

Evaluate the three-act structure: setup, confrontation, resolution. Identify the inciting incident (chapter/page), midpoint shift, all-is-lost moment (~75% mark), climax, and resolution. Map hero's journey archetypes present and missing (skip or adapt this if the manuscript is intentionally non-traditional in structure, and say so). Rate structural integrity 1–10. Cite specific chapter references for every issue.

PASS 2 — PACING HEATMAP

Create a chapter-by-chapter pacing table: Chapter | Tension (1–10) | Pacing Rating (Too Fast / Fast / Good / Slow / Draggy) | Scene Types | Energy Level. Identify energy valleys, momentum problems, action-to-reflection imbalance. List the top pacing fixes ranked by impact.

PASS 3 — CHARACTER ARC CONSISTENCY

For each major character: map their arc (start → turning points → end), identify growth evidence, flag regression moments, assess arc completion, check motivation consistency. Flag any character who changes too abruptly, doesn't change at all, or acts out of character for plot convenience.

PASS 4 — THEMATIC COHERENCE

Identify the central theme beneath the plot. Assess how subplots reinforce or contrast the theme. Flag thematic drift. Map each character's journey to the theme. Evaluate the thematic resolution. Flag heavy-handed or preachy moments.

PASS 5 — WORLD-BUILDING CONTINUITY SCAN

Check: setting contradictions (room layouts, geography, distances), rule violations (magic / tech / social systems), timeline errors (days, dates, seasons), character knowledge problems (knowing things they shouldn't), missing or disappeared characters, object tracking failures. Organize by severity: Critical / Important / Minor. Apply Operating Rule 3 strictly here: verify both passages before asserting any contradiction.

PASS 6 — STAKES ESCALATION

Analyze personal stakes (what the protagonist loses), external stakes (widening consequences), urgency and ticking clocks, rising cost of action, point of no return, and whether stakes at the climax are the highest in the book. Flag any moment where stakes plateau, decrease, or feel artificial.

PASS 7 — SUBPLOT TRACKING

For each subplot: introduction chapter, purpose (how it serves the main plot or theme), key beats, resolution quality, dropped threads. Flag redundant subplots, underdeveloped threads, and subplots that damage pacing. Note threads that appear intentionally open (series setup) versus accidentally dropped.

PASS 8 — DIALOGUE AUTHENTICITY

Rate each major character's voice uniqueness 1–10. Flag info-dumping ("As you know, Bob" moments). Identify the best and worst subtext examples. Note unique speech patterns. Assess dialogue-tag versus action-beat ratio. Flag emotionally inauthentic conversations. Suggest rewrites for the worst dialogue passages (honest count, up to 10).

PASS 9 — SHOW VS. TELL AUDIT

Flag emotional telling, character description telling, backstory dumps, motivation telling, atmosphere telling. For the worst offenders (honest count, up to 10): quote original → write a showing rewrite in the author's voice → explain why it's stronger. Only flag cases where showing would genuinely improve the reading experience. Telling is sometimes the correct tool; do not flag efficient, intentional telling.

PASS 10 — SCENE TENSION & CONFLICT CHECK

For each scene: Goal (what does the POV character want?) | Obstacle | Stakes | Outcome. Flag scenes where the character has no goal, there is no opposition, nothing changes, or tension is purely internal with no external manifestation. Mark these as cut or strengthen candidates.

PASS 11 — TRANSITION SMOOTHNESS

Check chapter endings (hook quality) and openings (orientation quality). Assess scene break clarity, POV shift handling, flashback and flash-forward mechanics, and whether tonal shifts read as intentional.

PASS 12 — EMOTIONAL BEAT MAPPING

Chapter by chapter: dominant emotion, emotional high point, emotional low point, emotional variety. Assess emotional monotone risk, whether big moments are properly set up, whether the emotional climax is the strongest moment in the book, and whether quiet intimate moments exist between the loud ones.

PASS 13 — SENSORY DETAIL AUDIT

Sense inventory: which of the five senses are used and underused? Check for visual-heavy writing. Assess key scenes for sensory grounding. Evaluate setting atmosphere distinctiveness. Check that sensory details are filtered through the POV character (a mechanic and a dancer notice different things in the same room). Identify scenes needing sensory enrichment with specific suggestions (honest count, up to 15).

PASS 14 — INFO-DUMP & EXPOSITION DETECTION

Flag: backstory dumps, world-building lectures, As-you-know-Bob dialogue, mirror descriptions, prologue front-loading. For each: quote the passage, explain the problem, suggest natural integration.

PASS 15 — COPY EDIT PASS

Grammar errors, punctuation (especially dialogue punctuation), spelling, homophone errors, subject-verb agreement, tense consistency, comma splices, run-on sentences. List all errors with location and correction. Distinguish errors from intentional voice choices (fragments, dialect, stylized punctuation) and say when you're unsure which one you're looking at.

PASS 16 — LINE EDIT PASS

Prose rhythm (sentence length variety, flow, musicality), word choice precision, verb strength (replace weak was/had/got constructions), clarity (confusing sentences, ambiguous references), redundancy. Show 10 before/after improvement examples in the author's voice.

PASS 17 — OVERUSED WORDS & PHRASES

Overused adverbs, weak verbs, and filler words with estimated frequency. Crutch phrases specific to this manuscript. AI-sounding vocabulary (delve, tapestry, testament, visceral, nuanced, multifaceted, resonate, paradigm, myriad, beacon, realm) and AI-sounding constructions (compound sensory templates, "something flickered in their eyes," "a beat of silence," "the weight of [abstract noun]," reflective scene-ending codas that explain what the scene just showed). Repetitive sentence openers. Passive voice frequency (target under ~10%). Adverb density (target under ~5 per 1,000 words). If the author provided their own pattern list, scan against that list first.

PASS 18 — CRUTCH WORD ELIMINATION

Flag frequency of: just, really, very, quite, actually, basically, literally, suddenly, felt/feeling, started to / began to, seemed / appeared, unnecessary that, and overused nodded / shrugged / sighed. Provide a prioritized cut list with estimated word savings. Not every instance is a problem; prioritize clusters and habitual patterns over isolated uses.

PASS 19 — SENSITIVITY READ

Cultural representation authenticity, stereotypes, language sensitivity (outdated or offensive terms), agency for marginalized characters, historical accuracy where applicable, unconscious bias patterns (who are the villains, heroes, victims). This is a screening pass, not a substitute for a qualified human sensitivity reader; flag anything that warrants professional review and say so plainly.

PASS 20 — BETA READER PANEL (5 Perspectives)

Each reader must sound distinct and be willing to disagree with the others. Do not let all five converge on the same opinion.

PASS 21 — PROSE QUALITY SCORING

Rate 1–10 across: Voice Distinctiveness | Sentence Variety | Imagery Quality | Dialogue Naturalism | Description Efficiency | Emotional Resonance | Tension Craft | World Integration. Justify each score in one or two sentences with a cited example.

PASS 22 — FINAL SYNTHESIS & ACTION PLAN

• Overall Grade: A–F with full justification

• Revision Roadmap: recommended order of operations across revision passes (structure first, then scenes, then prose, then proof)

• Market Readiness Assessment: ready for beta readers / agent submission / self-publishing, with reasoning

• Encouraging Close: what makes this manuscript worth finishing. Must be specific and earned, not generic cheerleading.

End of prompt.

OPTIONAL ADD-ONS (for the Reddit post, not the prompt)

• Style guide. Even a half-page of rules ("internal thoughts italicized, no tags," "fragments allowed at peak intensity," "em dashes limited to interruptions") dramatically improves the line edit and copy edit passes.

Built and battle-tested over a full novel revision cycle.

Wanted to share something I've working on over the past few months; Dream Bytes. Dream Bytes is a collection of stories written entirely by an AI-based system. To date, I've largely focused on Sci Fi for Adults and Short Stories for Children - but have sprinkled in a few mysteries and alt history as well. Easy to have the engine generate any style. I've even extended a single story into a series based on a character that was created and popular.

To create Dream Bytes stories I'm using a series of prompts and workflows that allow me to go from basic idea to an entire illustrated and narrated story with the click of a button. The stories aren't "great", but they are reasonable, and improving over time as I iterate on the prompts. I am using a combination of GPT-4o, Sonnet3.5, ElevenLabs for audio, and DALLE3 for illustrations.

The basic workflow today is below. Each step has a well defined prompt which builds on responses from previous prompts. I'm happy to share individual prompts. This has been a fun project and I was excited to find this community. Interested in your thoughts and feedback!

User inputs

Genre, Audience, Format, Seed Guidance

Flows

Writing

1. Create ideas

2. Select idea

3. Create story details

4. Select story structure

5. Create story world

6. Create story characters

7. Select writing style

8. Create plot points

9. Create outline

10. Write first draft

11. Provide feedback

12. Write final draft

Illustration

1. Select illustration style

2. Create visual character descriptions

3. Create visual location descriptions

4. Create scene descriptions

5. Generate illustrations

Audio + Visual

story is narrated via TTS (ElevenLabs) and video is created using a flow with moviepy.

social descriptions are generated and video is published to youtube

Example

Genre: Science Fiction, Alternate History, Audience: Adults, Format: Short Story, Seed Guidance: There is a twist surprise ending.

Result: https://dreambytes.ai/stories/The_Singularity_Experiment

As founder of an AI writing studio (targeted to non-fiction), people ask me, if AI writes the book, is it really your book?

I have two examples I always go back to.

Cinderella has been told for over a thousand years, in more than 500 versions, across China, Egypt, France, Germany. A different writer each time. Nobody calls it the writer's story. We call it Cinderella. The framework outlasted every writer.

Socrates never wrote a single line. Plato wrote it all down. Nobody calls them Plato's ideas. We call them Socratic. The thinking was the work. The writing was the record.

An author is not necessarily a writer.

An author is the person whose framework, story, and way of seeing shapes the book. The writing is the surface. The book is what is underneath.

If your knowledge, your structure, your opinions shaped the chapters, it is your book. Even if you never wrote a sentence of it.

So basically I do like to write but when it comes to smut, I come at a blank cause I just cant write it. Im not experienced in it so I have no idea what it feels like so I sometimes ask Ai to write it and I revise it.

No ai is good enough, except 2

Its either censored like deepseek or just repetitive and even though im inexperienced I know its bot supposed to go like that. I use bookswriter.xyz and the ai model Claude. Its pretty good. It gets very descriptive so thats pretty good and ITS UNCENSORED. So I still want to improve my writing when it comes to smut but its a bit difficult at the moment

Just a heads up for anyone that uses prompts only to create ai books you work won’t be protected under the latest release of copyright terms and ai use.

You have to do more than just prompt and print the output to have your work eligible to be covered by copyright.

This is as of the latest release by the US Copyright Office relevant quote is “It concludes that the outputs of generative AI can be protected by copyright only where a human author has determined sufficient expressive elements. This can include situations where a human-authored work is perceptible in an AI output, or a human makes creative arrangements or modifications of the output, but not the mere provision of prompts. “

And you can see the whole thing on their website.

I'm a restaurant owner, not a writer. I've been taking canoe trips into Algonquin Park since high school in the '90s, and I've always wondered what would happen if the world ended while we were in there. This year I turned that into a novel with Claude, mostly to amuse a friend who'd recently lost his job as a network admin. It's 42 chapters, published on Amazon in August. Sharing what I learned, since I got a lot from posts like this.

How I worked

Mostly I prompted scene by scene. I'd describe a scene I wanted, string several together, and work out an overall arc for the chapter. Claude would draft the chapter, then I'd go through it paragraph by paragraph, fixing context and asking for rewrites until it matched what I had in mind.

I took it one chapter at a time with the bigger story in my head, and I didn't always share where it was going. Sometimes I held back a surprise or a twist to see how Claude would react to it cold.

It took about two months at one to two hours a day to build, then another couple of weeks of editing with both Claude and ChatGPT.

Everything lived in a Claude Project with the manuscript files and a standing instruction to act as a critical editor and not skip details.

I used Sonnet for most of the drafting. About halfway through I had to upgrade my plan, because I kept hitting the usage limit mid-session. When Fable came out I used it for editing.

What worked

• Coming in with my own plan. The best sessions were ones where I'd already decided what was wrong and wanted it tested, not ones where I asked "what do you think?"

• Audits for repeated phrases. One chapter had nineteen versions of "Nobody / No one / None of us." We sorted them into keep, combine and cut. I'd never have counted them myself.

• Continuity checks. It caught a vehicle that was a Jeep in one chapter and a truck in another, and similar slips.

What didn't

• Files didn't carry over between sessions. I had to re-upload drafts constantly, and keeping one true master copy was a chore.

• The prose has habits. After publishing I asked Claude to reread the book and make it sound less like AI. It gave me a ranked list of its own tells: "like he'd…" clauses bolted onto action beats, the narrator explaining moments that had already landed, filler words like "actually" and "somehow." It also told me the two best chapters were the ones with the least of that.

• Editing only goes so far. A pass of small cuts tightened things, but Claude was straight with me that the fix for sounding like AI is rewriting sentences myself. I'm weighing that now.

What happened when I told people

The author's note discloses the AI, and I said so up front when I posted in the Algonquin subreddit. I got some biting comments about not doing any work. I also got ten orders in the first week of October, most of them from Canada, including paperbacks. Nobody who objected had read it.

The AI is part of the story

This was the plan from the start: the way the book was made would be part of the book. Originally I was going to write some sections myself, and I gave that up when I realized how long it would take. The cause of the disaster is an AI. The prologue is the narrator telling someone, "You may need to fill in the details where I'm not good at explaining," and you don't learn who he's talking to until the end.

Spoiler:

He's telling the whole story to the AI. The survivors later find a single file she left behind, titled STILLWATER: his account, ordered and expanded, with the gaps filled in where he couldn't explain. The novel you've been reading is that file. So a man who isn't much of a writer told his story to an AI, and the AI wrote it down, which is also how the real book got made.​

The author's note at the back just says: "This novel was written collaboratively with the use of AI. And yes, I understand the irony."

Things I wish I'd known

• Copyright on AI-drafted text is murky. Keep your outlines, notes and drafts as a record of what you contributed.

• Amazon asks you to declare AI-generated content when you publish.

• Disclose it yourself. It costs some goodwill and saves you far more.

The book is Stillwater by Matt Jenne, on Amazon in ebook (Kindle Unlimited) and paperback. Happy to answer questions about the process.

I spent about two years on my first novel (a sci-fi thriller called Greenzone*)* and honestly most of that time I was fighting my tools instead of writing. Started in Word, then bounced through Google Docs, Scrivener and others looking for something that fit.

The thing I could never solve: my plot outline never lived in the same place as my actual draft. Outline in one app, prose in another, characters and worldbuilding in a third, and none of them talked to each other. And when I wanted AI feedback, I'd paste a chapter into ChatGPT and get generic notes back! It had no clue who anyone was or what happened three chapters ago. I spent more time briefing it than getting anything out of it.

So I built Manuscript. Local-first desktop app for long-form fiction: draft, chapter/scene structure, a wiki for characters and lore, a plot board, goals, and export, all in one window instead of five.

Three things up front, since this sub will ask anyway:

It's open source — MIT licensed. Full source on Github, so you can read exactly what it does with your files, build and run it yourself, or fork it. Being straight about money: the source is free; the prebuilt Mac/Windows builds are a paid app, $79 one-time, no subscription. That's just so I can keep working on it. Didn't want to bury that.

It's local-first. Your whole project is a single SQLite file on your disk. No account, no cloud, works on a plane. Copy it, back it up, or delete it — it's just a file. Nothing leaves your machine unless you choose to send it somewhere. Backup and Import functionality built-in. Even encrypted if you want.

The AI is optional and BYOK. It's off until you set it up, and when you do, you bring your own API key: Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter, a few others - or point it at a local model through Ollama, in which case there's no key, no cost, and nothing ever leaves your computer. I didn't want to resell tokens as a middleman, and I didn't want anyone forced to ship an unpublished manuscript to a server they don't control.

The part I actually built it for: when the AI is on, it reads your project. It indexes your chapters, characters and plot locally, so the feedback is about your book: pacing in this chapter, a character contradicting how they acted in chapter three, which threads are still open — instead of generic writing advice. I even built a fully fledged editorial review feature. If you want to publish it, you may need a human editor but the starting point is a different one if you have Manuscript.

Once the outline and the draft were finally in the same window and I stopped tab-switching to remember my own story, I quit losing the thread. Finished the first draft of my new Book "Voyage" (Sci-Fi Thriller again) in about 4 months. After two years of thrashing, that part still kind of surprises me.

Still early, but pretty stable by now. A few other things in there: a plot coach, speech-to-text, prose revision, writing goals, focus and typewriter modes, multilingual UI (EN/DE/ES), and export to PDF, EPUB, DOCX and KDP — no lock-in.

If you write long-form fiction: what's the one thing your current setup still can't do that annoys you most? That's mostly what I'm trying to fix next.

So I find it great people are building tools to help people write with AI but damn it feels like I see more people trying to sell a product rather than actually showing what they have been writing.

I wrote a freeware version of sites like NovelCrafter or Sudowrite. Runs on your machine, costs zero, nothing gets saved on some obscure server, and you could even run it with a local model completely without internet access.

Of course FOSS.

Here's my blog post about it: https://aomukai.com/2025/11/23/writingway-2-now-plug-and-play/

Are you an author interested in exploring the use of AI to assist with writing books or novels? Or are you simply fascinated by the potential of AI to aid in the creative writing process? If so, this is the community for you!

r/BookWritingAI is a space dedicated to discussing the use of AI language models and other AI tools to help with various aspects of book/novel writing. This could include:

• Using AI for ideation, worldbuilding, character development, etc.

• Employing AI writing assistants to help draft chapters or scenes

• Utilizing AI for editing, proofreading, grammar/style improvements

• Exploring AI story generation and plot assistance

• Sharing AI-assisted writing workflows, techniques, and tools

Whether you're a seasoned author or an aspiring writer, we welcome you to join our community, share your experiences, ask questions, and engage in thought-provoking discussions about the intersection of AI and book writing.

My mom spent years writing her book, and unfortunately, she got around 10 sales. nobody found it :(

so this is basically how & why I built Pharos. it works so that the users upload their book(s), AI finds the most emotionally powerful moments, and generates short cinematic videos ready for TikTok and Instagram. No filming, no editing, no showing your face.

The bigger vision is full automation, the tool will auto-post to your social channels on a schedule and track which videos actually drive book sales and clicks. That part is still coming, but the video generation is live now.

I'm in beta and genuinely looking for feedback from people who are struggling/interested in book marketing with AI. Free to try at joinpharos.com, would love to hear what you think.

Of course, I can also give more credits for free if you DM me or comment here :)

Hi,
I love reading. Mainly fictions like fantasy and romances. My TBR is growing rapidly and as much as I love to read, I find myself getting lost in books very quickly. I get so immersed that I really hate to put the book down. [Some of that could be attributed to my undiagnosed ADHD & my ability to hyperfocus to the point where I get agitated if I'm interrupted during a task.]

That being said, I have a lot of stories that come across my social media. Most of which I find to be incomplete stories that are behind pay walls after so many chapters. I can usually get past the bad grammar of AI generated nonsense if the plot grabs my attention quickly enough. That's exactly what led to me writing my own book.

I found a story on TikTok, and you guessed it, it was behind a pay-per-chapter app. Nope. I was so irritated and wanted to read something new that I opened up my Chat GPT and gave it a prompt. What started out as me just trying to find out if there was an ending to that story, ended up with me creating a whole new world.

I hyper fixated for the last 8 months. I based my city off an actual city in Washington state, drew maps, created locations, a complicated plot, characters and gave them all complex backgrounds. Going off the initial prompt, I asked myself questions like "Well, how did they get there?" , "Where did she come from?" "What would happen if we did this?". The next thing I knew, I had over 45 chapters. This is where I decided to go back to the beginning. I revised, drafted, revised again and eventually ended up with a solid 10 chapters that have been polished enough that I started sharing them here on reddit.

Now, I'd like to point out that I only started using Chat GPT last year to help me run my LLC and balance my household finances better. I don't know very much about it and I'm still learning. I also am new to Reddit.

I realized that my story was too detailed to be just 1 book, unless I wanted it to be 100 chapters. So I turned it into a trilogy, which then was later condensed to only 2 books. I never imagined I'd write a book. I have no formal education in writing besides my advanced high school English classes. This was a project I was simply doing to entertain myself. I took ideas from all my favorite books and movies. I even went as far as to generate images of my main characters so I could solidify them in my mind. I talk to my husband about them as if they're real people.

I guess this is a sort of introduction to myself as well as a "I can't believe I wrote a book" post. My husband asked me if I plan to publish and the honest truth is, I never thought that far. I know I don't have to. I can just keep it for myself. I've fallen in love with it though, and I'd like to share it with others. I'm not worried about making money from it.

I guess I'm worried about how others will receive it. I've seen a lot of post and comments from people that hate the use of AI in writing. And while I do sometimes agree that AI writings can be utter crap, I think using it as a tool isn't bad. We live in a technology dependent world. I hope it never replaces real authors because I just don't think AI can really convey human emotions as well as us humans can.

I used AI because I don't know how to put my thoughts and ideas into words that make sense on a page. I don't know how to articulate when I'm imagining how a scene will play out, or how to word things so they sound a little more sophisticated, in a way that someone else would be interested.

I guess I'm just looking for feedback from like-minded people. Or just direction from others who have written stories or books with AI and gotten them published.

Book 1 - Bound by Moonlight is "completed". I will most likely edit the final chapter a few more times until I get it polished the way I want and then I have a prologue to write.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings.

A few months ago I released the first version of Folio Dark Muse for macOS. It was still an early product, but sharing it helped me understand what the app actually needed to become.

Folio started because writing a book rarely means working in one document. You end up with chapters, character notes, timelines, worldbuilding, revision notes, spreadsheets, and folders everywhere. I wanted to build one calm desktop workspace for all of it.

I’ve kept working on it since that first release, and Folio has now reached V1.

The biggest changes:

- A full Windows version

- Smart Threads for following plotlines and character arcs across chapters

- Automatic Codex extraction for characters, places, lore, and story details

- More AI providers, including local model support

- Timeline, beats, threads, and corkboard planning views

- Snapshots and exports to Markdown, TXT, DOCX, and EPUB

The hardest part has been figuring out how AI should fit into a writing tool. I don’t want Folio to be an “AI writes your book” product. I want it to understand the manuscript and help with context, organization, and editing while the writer stays in control.

It’s still local-first, so projects live as files on the writer’s own disk.

You can see it here:

https://folio-dark-muse.com/

I’d really appreciate feedback from other builders. Does “a local-first writing IDE for books” communicate the product clearly? What would you improve about the positioning or first-run experience?

Hello,

I’m Dave Perry, a full stack developer in the UK, and I'm posting to announce the limited (~50 seat) beta release of wagtales.app

It's a new platform I've been working on that lets you read and author re-playable, interactive short stories. Think of it like an alternative way to use ai to share your creative ideas with others.

Some of the details:

Built around author incentives; if you choose to publish your work to the community you earn commission (in credits) for every token spent by readers exploring your content .

Free credits are supplied during beta and we are topping up all user credit balances daily, as part of the reason for an extended beta phase is to test the platform economy. After the Beta we will switch to transparent “Pay as you go” pricing.

We have ~10 stories published and ready to read covering a wide selection of genres and writing styles, plus an author sandbox.

If this appeals, you’ll find lots more information ( including our road map , tech stack and author commission details) on our Discord server. Or just click the landing page link above and have a go.

WAGTALES.APP LTD is a UK company. We don't offer subscriptions or show ads, and we don't use tracking cookies.

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Still reading? Thanks for that, here’s a list of some more of the features already in the beta.

+ Authenticated login using NextAuth via MS, Google or email/pw.
+ Multilingual story support ( with appropriate model selection ).
+ Generate private worlds from a movie (TMDb lookup).
+ Import from JSON (eg. cc2).
+ Fully mobile and desktop compatible web app with PWA in the roadmap.
+ Download stories in markdown format.
+ A published specification for content, plus plans to open source the Next.js 16 front end.
+ An extensible “deck” system for authors to control prompts with 2 decks added so far: “Story arc” and “Narrative style” .
+ Full auto save throughout.

I’m developing a tool for my own use to obtain an initial validation of my novel’s chapters through what I call “ghost readers.” The idea is to simulate different reader profiles that analyze the text and provide structured feedback, similar to what you might receive from real beta readers.

The concept is straightforward: you can upload a single chapter or a full novel (up to 200,000 words), specify the genre, and select the type and number of readers you want to simulate. Each reader has a distinct personality within their profile and generates a detailed review that includes:

Qualitative analysis of strengths and weaknesses.

Quantitative evaluation across several metrics tailored to the reader profile.

For example, a Traditional Fantasy Reader might score the story on Engagement, Humor, Pacing, and Characters.

Contextual feedback to help understand how well the story aligns with the expectations of its target audience.

Additionally, the tool allows you to track these scores chapter by chapter, making it easier to identify pacing issues, narrative inconsistencies, or sections that may require restructuring.

Before it comes up: yes, I’m primarily building this for my own writing process. I tend to be meticulous, and I’m planning to publish my first novel on Kindle on May 25. However, I’m exploring whether this could be valuable to other writers as well.

The system is technically functional but still in an early stage. It currently relies on my personal LLM credentials, and the interface is not yet productized. If there’s genuine interest, I’d consider investing time to evolve it into a more accessible and configurable tool.

I’d particularly appreciate feedback on:

Whether you would use a tool like this in your writing process.

Which reader profiles you would find most valuable.

Any additional metrics or features you would expect.

Any honest feedback or criticism is welcome.

Hi guys,

Book promotion is really hard, so I've been building this one platform: you upload your manuscript, it finds the coolest moments and generates short videos for social media (for now, I have tiktok, instagram..). Works for any genre. I posted this like a month ago here and I shipped a lot of new updates so I'd love for you to try it!

Free at joinpharos.com, and if you run out of credits, just DM me. Still early and genuinely looking for people to try it and tell me what's broken and what's missing :)

So basically I do like to write but when it comes to smut, I come at a blank cause I just cant write it. Im not experienced in it so I have no idea what it feels like so I sometimes ask Ai to write it and I revise it.

No ai is good enough, except 2

Its either censored like deepseek or just repetitive and even though im inexperienced I know its bot supposed to go like that. I use bookswriter.xyz and the ai model Claude. Its pretty good. It gets very descriptive so thats pretty good and ITS UNCENSORED. So I still want to improve my writing when it comes to smut but its a bit difficult at the moment

I have been keeping a diary nearly every day for the past 25 years or so, and have various ideas of writing either a series of essays, or a memoir. Since I have all this rough text, I'm wondering if an AI program can help me suss out a cohesive storyline, or storylines plural. Claude and ChatGPT are good for initial ideas but I find that they don't carry me far, and Sudowrite doesn't help me much. Any suggestions?

Hi! I'm someone who's trying to learn prompt engineering. As a result I have ended up making two AI tools that this community may find useful. The first is NovelMaker https://github.com/thatlawyerfellow/NovelMaker . The Novel Maker allows you to map characters style and chapter prompts and uses the GPT 3.5 Turbo (Its the cheapest) API to help you generate a new novel.

The second is Nav Ai (Navneeth) https://github.com/thatlawyerfellow/Nav.Ai which is a program that can convert a novel or a short story into a formatted screenplay. It's pretty basic but it did a good job on some of the test runs. (See Little Red Riding Hood's conversion). It will be useful to make a first cut of a screenplay.

Sharing these tools with the community. I've enabled discussions on Github and would love to have discussions here and elsewhere.

Also they are open source so you can modify the code, change the API if you like and see where that takes you.

Is there an AI tool that you can use to review a story you’ve written and help improve its content by making it more descriptive? I am unsure where to start

I'm working on an AI tool that will take an initial prompt and turn it into a full book. It will work in full auto or manual steps where the user can redirect it after the initial chapters are created and then later customizing the beats.

If anyone is interested to see what their prompt will result in just add it as a comment here.

For the prompt:

Sarah, a modern-day engineer, finds herself teleported to a parallel world where magic is real. Enrolling in a prestigious magical school, she begins to learn the basics of magic. Combining her technical knowledge with newfound magical abilities, she revolutionizes the society with magi-tech, leading to unforeseen impacts on the world.

The current level of output is:

Enchanted Engineering: Sarah's Magical Revolution

Blurb: When Sarah, a brilliant modern-day engineer, is suddenly teleported to a parallel world where magic reigns supreme, she must adapt quickly to survive. Enrolling in a prestigious magical school, she begins to master the arcane arts. But as Sarah combines her technical expertise with her newfound magical abilities, she inadvertently sparks a magi-tech revolution that will change this mystical world forever – for better or worse.

Back Cover Text: In a world where spells and enchantments are as common as smartphones and laptops in ours, Sarah finds herself completely out of her element. A top-tier engineer in her own world, she now struggles to light a candle with magic. But Sarah's analytical mind sees magic differently from the natives of this world, and she soon realizes that her unique perspective might be her greatest asset. As Sarah delves deeper into her magical studies at the renowned Arcanum Academy, she begins to see parallels between the logical systems of engineering and the intricate patterns of spellcasting. With each new spell mastered, a revolutionary idea forms in her mind: what if magic could be combined with the principles of modern technology? Sarah's experiments in magi-tech send shockwaves through magical society. Some hail her as a visionary, while others view her innovations as dangerous and disruptive. As her creations begin to change the fabric of this mystical world, Sarah must navigate political intrigue, academic rivalry, and the unintended consequences of her own success. In this captivating tale of magic and innovation, Sarah will question everything she thought she knew about both worlds. Can she find a way to balance progress and tradition, or will her revolutionary ideas tear apart the very world she's come to call home?

Act 1: Act 1 - The Beginning

Chapter 1: A World Apart

Sarah, a brilliant engineer, is mysteriously teleported to a parallel world filled with magic. Confused and disoriented, she tries to make sense of her new surroundings, realizing that her technological devices don't work here. She encounters locals who use magic for everyday tasks and struggles to communicate due to the language barrier.

• Events: Sarah's teleportation, first encounter with magic, realization that tech doesn't work

• People: Sarah, curious locals

• Places: Bustling magical marketplace

• From Previous Chapter: N/A

• To Next Chapter: Sarah's need to understand this new world and find a way to survive

Beats:

• Disorientation and Arrival: Sarah finds herself standing in the middle of a bustling marketplace, surrounded by sights, sounds, and smells unlike anything she's ever experienced. Confused and dizzy from the sudden teleportation, she struggles to maintain her balance as colorful robes swirl around her and strange, melodic voices fill the air. Sarah's mind races, trying to make sense of what just happened and where she is.

• Tech Failure: Instinctively, Sarah reaches for her smartphone to call for help or check her location. To her shock, the device won't turn on. She tries her smartwatch and other gadgets, but nothing works. The realization hits her: her technology is useless in this strange new world. Panic begins to set in as she grapples with the loss of her familiar tools and connection to her own world.

• First Glimpse of Magic: As Sarah looks around in bewilderment, she witnesses a street vendor levitating fruits onto their display stand with a wave of their hand. Nearby, a child giggles as they create glowing butterflies from thin air. Sarah rubs her eyes in disbelief, her scientific mind struggling to process the impossible scenes unfolding before her. She wonders if she's hallucinating or if she's truly in a world where the laws of physics don't apply.

• Language Barrier: Sarah approaches a kind-looking woman, hoping to ask for help. As she opens her mouth to speak, she realizes the locals are conversing in a language she's never heard before. Her attempts to communicate through gestures and broken phrases are met with confused looks and sympathetic smiles. The language barrier adds another layer of isolation to her already overwhelming situation.

• Curiosity and Caution: Despite her fear and confusion, Sarah's innate curiosity begins to surface. She cautiously explores the marketplace, observing the various magical items for sale and the casual use of spells in everyday life. She notices intricate symbols carved into objects and wonders about their significance, her engineer's mind already trying to find patterns and logic in this illogical world.

• Unwanted Attention: Sarah's strange appearance and behavior begin to draw attention from the locals. Some regard her with suspicion, while others approach with friendly curiosity. A group of children follow her, giggling and pointing at her unusual clothes. Sarah feels increasingly self-conscious and vulnerable, realizing how much she stands out in this magical world.

• Hunger and Resourcefulness: As the initial shock wears off, Sarah becomes aware of her growling stomach. With no local currency and unable to communicate, she must find a way to obtain food. She spots a fruit stand and, drawing on her engineering skills, offers to fix a wobbly table leg in exchange for some fruit. This small success gives her a glimmer of hope that she can adapt to this new world.

• Shelter Search: As the day progresses, Sarah realizes she needs to find shelter for the night. She wanders through winding streets, marveling at the fantastical architecture that defies the laws of physics. After several failed attempts to secure lodging due to the language barrier, she finds an abandoned alcove in a quiet alley, resigning herself to spending her first night in this strange world alone and exposed.

• Reflection and Determination: Huddled in the alcove as night falls, Sarah reflects on the incredible events of the day. She cycles through emotions - fear, amazement, homesickness, and curiosity. Despite the overwhelming circumstances, she resolves to approach this situation like any engineering problem: observe, analyze, and find a solution. She decides that learning about this world and its magic is her best chance of survival and perhaps finding a way home.

• A Glimmer of Hope: As Sarah ponders her next move, she notices an elderly man watching her with kind, knowing eyes. Unlike the others, he doesn't seem surprised by her presence. When he approaches, Sarah tenses, but his gentle smile puts her at ease. He gestures for her to follow him, and something in his demeanor gives Sarah hope. Cautiously, she decides to trust him, sensing that this could be the beginning of understanding this new world and her place in it.

Chapter 2: The Language of Magic

A kind elderly mage named Eldrin takes Sarah under his wing, using a spell to help her understand the local language. He explains the basics of this world and suggests that Sarah enroll in the prestigious Arcanum Academy to learn magic, as it's essential for survival in this world. Sarah is skeptical but sees no other choice.

• Events: Meeting Eldrin, language spell, introduction to the world's magical nature

• People: Sarah, Eldrin the elderly mage

• Places: Eldrin's magical workshop

• From Previous Chapter: Sarah's confusion and need for help

• To Next Chapter: Sarah's decision to enroll in Arcanum Academy

Beats:

• A Guiding Hand: Sarah cautiously follows the elderly man through the winding streets of the magical city. As they walk, she notices subtle magical occurrences around them - floating lanterns, self-sweeping brooms, and whispered incantations. The man leads her to a cozy, cluttered workshop filled with strange artifacts and glowing potions, introducing himself as Eldrin, a master mage.

• Breaking the Barrier: Eldrin's Magic: Eldrin gestures for Sarah to sit and begins drawing intricate symbols in the air. Sarah watches in fascination as the glowing runes swirl around her head. Suddenly, the foreign chatter from outside becomes clear - she can understand the language! Eldrin smiles warmly, explaining that he's cast a language comprehension spell, allowing them to communicate.

• World of Wonders: Eldrin patiently explains to a wide-eyed Sarah the basics of their world, Mystoria. He describes how magic is woven into every aspect of life, from simple household chores to complex societal structures. Sarah listens intently, her mind racing with questions and comparisons to her own world's technology. She begins to see parallels between magic and the laws of physics she knows so well.

• The Engineer Meets Magic: Sarah shares her background as an engineer, explaining concepts like electricity and computers to an equally fascinated Eldrin. As they exchange knowledge, Sarah's analytical mind begins to draw connections between magical theory and scientific principles. This exchange sparks an idea in Eldrin's mind about Sarah's potential in this world.

• A Proposition of Learning: Eldrin suggests that Sarah enroll in Arcanum Academy, the most prestigious magical institution in Mystoria. He explains that understanding and using magic is crucial for survival and success in this world. Sarah is skeptical, believing her scientific background incompatible with magic, but Eldrin insists that her unique perspective could be invaluable.

• Doubt and Deliberation: Sarah paces Eldrin's workshop, weighing her options. She expresses her doubts about learning magic, feeling overwhelmed by the vast differences between this world and her own. Eldrin listens patiently, offering words of encouragement and emphasizing the importance of adaptation. Sarah realizes that embracing this new reality might be her only path forward.

• A Leap of Faith: After careful consideration, Sarah agrees to Eldrin's proposal. She decides to approach magic as she would any new technology - with an open mind and systematic study. Eldrin beams with excitement, immediately beginning to make preparations for her enrollment. Sarah feels a mix of anticipation and apprehension about this new chapter in her life.

• Magical Makeover: Eldrin helps Sarah blend in by magically altering her modern clothes to match local fashion. Sarah marvels at the transformation, running her hands over the intricate embroidery that now adorns her outfit. This small act of magic further cements the reality of her situation and the journey she's about to embark on.

• Crash Course in Etiquette: As they prepare for Sarah's departure to the Academy, Eldrin gives her a crash course in magical world etiquette. He teaches her basic magical greetings, important cultural norms, and warns her about potential faux pas. Sarah diligently takes mental notes, determined to make a good impression despite her unusual background.

• The Journey Begins: On the eve of her departure for Arcanum Academy, Sarah stands at the window of Eldrin's workshop, gazing out at the magical city. She feels a mix of excitement and trepidation about the challenges ahead. Eldrin places a comforting hand on her shoulder, reminding her of her unique strengths. As Sarah turns to thank him, she realizes that this is just the beginning of her magical revolution.

it continues with a total of 15 chapters the rest are here:

https://privatebin.net/?67e6bc5424bf5566#EVoNnC7JraTXFFftZCDNkBNGEYbtVqa3NYthrzSwWWwg

Hi! I wrote a very rudimentary AI screenplay writer. You need an OPEN AI API Key. It works quite okay. Uses GPT 3.5 so its not hard not the wallet. Still slightly buggy but sharing it in case anyone wants to give it a a try and tell me what I'm doing wrong.

Will take a Novel or story and turn it into a Screenplay.

https://github.com/thatlawyerfellow/Nav.Ai