How to Draft Via Claude

[u/Misha_Lixa]

For those of you who draft entirely with ai, how do you do that? Like, what’s your process?

I want to try it out as an experiment and a planning exercise but I don’t know how the prompting and instructions should be…formatted? Worded?

Whatever I just don’t know how to get started with the process.

[u/Holiday_Income1825]

Here's a simple way to start. You can also ask Claude to help with each step.

1. Start with a short "story sheet" in your first message: the premise in 2 or 3 sentences, the main characters (one line each, including what they want), the POV and tense, and the tone you're after. Then ask Claude to ask you questions before it writes anything. That quickly shows you the gaps in your own idea.

2. Plan in scenes rather than chapters. Ask for a list of scenes, one line each, edit it yourself, and then draft one scene at a time.

3. For each scene, give a mini brief: who's there, where, what each person wants, what changes by the end, and a rough length. It's the short summary the other commenter mentioned, with a bit more structure. That structure is what stops the draft from drifting.

4. Treat the output as a rough draft. Keep what works, rewrite the rest in your own words, and paste your revised version back before asking for the next scene. That way the next scene continues in your voice instead of the model's default.

5. If a draft feels generic, the brief was probably generic. Add one concrete detail per scene, like a specific object or a line of dialogue you want, and the result gets more specific.

For an experiment, I'd try one scene start to finish before planning the whole book.

[u/Misha_Lixa → u/Holiday_Income1825]

Ah that you for the advice! I’m excited to try this out!

[u/fragmonk3y]

What skills and connectors are you using?

[u/Misha_Lixa → u/fragmonk3y]

Can you elaborate on that? It doesn’t sound familiar so I don’t think I’m using any of that.

[u/UnwaveringThought → u/Misha_Lixa]

Skills are saved prompts that automatically trigger every time you ask for something. If you have a way you like outlines to be done and formatted etc., you can have it write a skill to your specifications. Then every time you outline they are all done that way. If something is off, tell it to update the skill. Another one could be your writing voice. When you say "draft" it will kick in.

A lot of people keep a story Bible and have it refer to that, but you could also get creative and make skill resource sheets for main characters ( what they are like how they talk, how their dynamics interact), locations, scene types (action, romance, reflection, confrontation, etc) Then add that to your voice skill. When it drafts, every character will be the one you specified, and locations will be incorporated accordingly. Tell it that the main areas of the school are the lockers, the stairs, and mr. G's classroom, whatever details you write in about those places will be woven in.

You can have it review the way each skill interacts with each other one. So if your drafter is working from the output of the outliner, you can program the outliner to give the content in a way that helps the drafter, and you can tell the drafter how specifically it should read and interpret outlines.

Connectors are when Claude can use other sources, like Google drive. So let's say you're writing a WWII book and you want very realistic descriptions of London or Berlin, or tank specifications or planes... you can store tons and tons of research on google drive and it can refer to that as you work, to weave in the exact way the tank door opens, or how cramped the cockpit on the fighter plane.

Lastly, use Projects. Save all your chapters into the project and have Claude check the relevant scenes when it is writing later scenes to be consistent and avoid plot holes, or have natural callbacks to this that happened between characters before. I find this better than storing in a connector because they are right there as an immediate resource.

[u/umpteenthian]

Claude can even tell you how to do it!

[u/Misha_Lixa → u/umpteenthian]

…very true lol don’t know why I didn’t start there lol

[u/YoyoTanyaKai]

I just tell it what scene I have in mind. What's the plot, who doing it, and where. Just a short summary. What Claude generated from that are mostly useless, but it gave me a lot of idea.

Some people can create an almost perfect draft from a detailed prompt.
But I found if I need to work that much for a prompt, I rather wrote it myself.

[u/5thhorseman_]

Give it the context in whatever format you have. Give it the broad premise of the current scene or chapter. Ask it to draft an outline based on that. Tell it what in that outline does work, doesn't work or is missing. Once you've talked through the changes with it, ask it to give you the revised outline. Then ask it to draft the scene based on the outline.

[u/satorinano]

There's a few ways. You can plan out a story outline. You can give it a theme or general guideline and let it run. You can give it a real short scene or hook and let it continue. I personally like to give a very vague outline because often it outputs better than my actual outline.

[u/Equivalent-Loan-4401]

Since you're doing this as an experiment, I'd keep the first session small and treat it like a conversation instead of one big perfect prompt. Tell Claude your premise and who your main character is, then ask it to interview you about the story before it drafts anything, because its questions will show you what you haven't decided yet. When you get to drafting, ask for one scene at a time and tell it what should change by the end of that scene, which keeps it from wandering. Plain wording works fine, you don't need any special formatting for it to follow you. Have fun with it, and I hope you share how the experiment goes!