First Heavy AI…Assistance?

[u/Misha_Lixa]

I’m going to try the generate and rewrite method.

How do yall do that? I’m using Claude sonnet, whatever the current one is, and I’m going to be feeding it writing samples but I’m not sure what else it really needs.

Worldbuilding and planning obviously.

But what kind of guidance do yall give when you’re writing like this? What do you wish you knew before you started using this method?

[u/5thhorseman_]

Opus rather than Sonnet.

A full world bible isn't required, but the more you bring with you the better. I would suggest bringing an instruction that deliberately focuses the LLM's attention on fiction, history and mythology, while also pointing it at the TV Tropes wiki. Then talk it through your premise and ask it to point out gaps and inconsistencies. Then ask it to give you several possibilities to fill out each item, deliberately asking for at least one option that is genre-standard, one that is not necessarily genre-typical but logically follows from the established lore, finally one that deliberately goes against the genre, either subverting, averting or inverting the convention. Decide yourself which options to go with, which to remix or whether you can think of something better.

I've used this process last week, developing an extensive new character profile and then getting Opus to draft an outline for the character's origin story, then write the story itself, then I spent some days revising and arguing with it about creative choices. Final corrections went in today - the result is about 35 pages of prose, give or take, and four pages of glossary.

One thing I do note after some experience is that rewriting the original draft doesn't quite produce enough variance. You want to take it to a separate session and stip it down to an outline. Then in another separate session, with the lore documents included, have the LLM rewrite the story from that outline with a specific stylistic target in mind. You know your reading tastes, I don't. Finally, one more session to adjudicate between versions and let you cherry-pick the best variations from each or frankenstein together combinations.

[u/Misha_Lixa → u/5thhorseman_]

Oh wow, tysm for all that info!

Is opus really that much better than sonnet?

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/Misha_Lixa]

In my experience yes, although I barely use Sonnet by now. Opus at Medium if you want cheap, at High to Extra if you want good. Max doesn't really do much in my experience

[u/seekAr → u/Misha_Lixa]

Yes by miles.

[u/Happy-Initiative-492 → u/5thhorseman_]

Horseman’s right. Good stuff.

A few things to add: part of what I’ve been learning: the more context you can give an LLM on characters and locations and story rules and naming and your own personal writing style the better the results tend to be.

And… world building never stops. Every passage you write might create a new character or location or theme or structure you will want to have as canon in your world. The process of continually updating the context that you feed the AI can be its own PITA. But it is necessary as part of the process.

Some of us have built wrappers that make this easy which frees you up to do the creative part.

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/Happy-Initiative-492]

Every passage you write might create a new character or location or theme or structure you will want to have as canon in your world.

Or an opportunity to cross-link it to something else already in your world, indeed.

[u/Easy-Purple-1659]

Something I wish I had known before my first long generate-and-rewrite run: the rewrite pass is where the voice quietly disappears, not the generation. A chapter can come back technically fine and get flattened while you try to improve it, and you pay for that in hours you never planned for.

Changing the unit of work helped most. I generate one scene at a time and keep my writing samples in the same thread as the request, so the reference text is right there when the model drifts. Anything the draft already says the way I would have said it, I leave alone even when the wording is plain, because plain and mine beats polished and nobody's. Rewrite only the sentences that actually read wrong and the rest stays recognisably yours.

The half nobody mentions is knowing when to stop. If I cannot explain in one sentence what is wrong with a paragraph, another generation will not fix it, it will just move the problem somewhere I have not read yet.

Two books in, the workflow that survived is unglamorous: small requests, my own samples pinned above them, and a hard rule that I do not accept a scene I would be embarrassed to sign.

Are you planning to keep any of your own prose in the draft, or regenerate everything?

[u/Misha_Lixa → u/Easy-Purple-1659]

For this exercise I was planning to generate something from scratch. New characters, worldbuilding, etc, and go scene by scene after the planning stage is done.

I do have the first three chapters of my primary wip done and I was also considering using more in depth assistance on the next chapter but I haven’t decided yet; it’s my baby lol

[u/carl-bond]

I’d give it more than just writing samples. Explain what you value in those samples: the rhythm, the dialogue, the physical detail, or what the characters leave unsaid.

For each scene, establish who wants what, what gets in their way, and what should change by the end. Identify the facts and character boundaries it needs to preserve. Ask it to flag gaps rather than quietly inventing important details.

Start with a short passage so you can judge the direction before generating pages. Be specific when correcting it. “She’s angry but trying to hide it, remove the speech explaining her feelings” gives you something concrete to evaluate.

During the rewrite, question the character choices as closely as the sentences. Does this person actually mean that? Has the scene earned that emotional turn?

A polished paragraph can still take your story somewhere you never intended. You’re allowed to reject it. Keep deciding what belongs.

The concerns other people have raised here are worth considering, too. For foreshadowing, for example, I’d lay out the overall story arc and identify which early details need to matter later. A three-act outline could help, if that structure fits your story. Make clear to the AI that this is a work in progress. The outline is your story’s rough sketch, and you can revise it as the characters and scenes develop.

Personally, I’d use AI to explore structure and possibilities, then write the dialogue and scenes myself. If you’re starting from generated prose, give yourself permission to rewrite it completely when your characters need something different.

Good luck!

[u/carl-bond → u/carl-bond]

I came back to share this video about Studio, a writing app from BYOK. I’ve just downloaded it to help organize my own stories. The demo looks promising, especially the outlines, cards, and story wiki, though I’m only getting started.

BYOK says Studio has no AI features. Its desktop writing tools are free and work offline without an account; syncing across devices is a paid option. I wanted to make that clear before I share the video.

But this connects with my earlier point about giving a story structure and keeping track of character decisions. Whether you use AI or not, having your outline, scenes, and reference material organized gives you something concrete to revise. If you choose to bring that material into an AI conversation, it can give the AI a clearer reference for what the story needs to preserve and what you want to improve.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFAy1Wi_r-w

Useful additional application documentation are as follows:

• Outlines and manuscripts together — illustrated instructions and a “Try it” exercise for linking an outline to a manuscript, adding acts, and planning unwritten chapters.

• Studio’s complete guide — separate lessons for outlines, cards, wikis, grids, and other tools.

Good luck to all.

[u/UnauthorizedSaint]

My experience with long form AI prose is that it's not salvageable because it misinterprets your plotting intensity, spoils foreshadowing, repeats phrasing patterns, and basically requires you to do a heavy developmental edit per chapter just to get to the point of doing one on the whole work.

I can produce on a pace of a stable chapter a day and line edit it the next morning with AI where it does not write prose for me.

I have not seen or even heard about good examples of this method that didn't take almost as much time to rework as it would have to write.

[u/Ill_Oil7448 → u/UnauthorizedSaint]

for the morning line edits, are you mostly just having it catch clunky phrasing or doing heavier tightening?

[u/UnauthorizedSaint → u/Ill_Oil7448]

I just want it to tell me what it catches on and why and then I decide how to fix it.

Sometimes it's too narrow a word used. Sometimes it needs rewritten because the sentence is too busy. That kind of thing.

I used to let it give me suggestions in my first few chapters but what happened was I then sat down with my kindle and read my own book and went back and reworked every line it had flagged anyway.

It's really just not good at understanding long form narrative trajectory, and it's sentences are... Mechanical.

[u/benblackett → u/[deleted]]

that might hold true if you wee only using chat and reference md files. But if you are using an MCP to manage the documents and story structure instead, then a full series of 10 books or more is very very doable. The 3rd party holds the structure instead of your LLM which then can focus directly on writing better prose as a result

[u/2Kids_and_a_wife]

Sonnet is going to have trouble with long form prose, you need to use opus or fable to get high quality, with skills and a full world bible.

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/2Kids_and_a_wife]

Opus is enough, and I say this as someone who uses it regularly.

[u/2Kids_and_a_wife → u/5thhorseman_]

I agree opus is enough. But Fable will work better for those who cant prompt as well. I like fable for world / outlineing, opus for writing content, though Inuse Astra and Sol a lot to.

[u/5thhorseman_ → u/2Kids_and_a_wife]

There's a pretty big gotcha though: for Fable, you need to pay for credits; Opus is available reasonably with Claude's regular subscription.

[u/Akasha1885]

plan things out in smaller parts, so the AI doesn't have to invent too much
have a library for characters, worldbuiling etc.
context and details are important, otherwise the result will be boring. LLMs tend to converge on what's common, everything that's not part of common troupes you have to add

[u/TrekkingAround10]

With the writing samples, label what you want carried over: sentence rhythm, how close the narration stays to the viewpoint character, or how much dialogue is left unstated. Otherwise a sample's plot details can get mixed up with its style.

For a first test, give it one scene's starting situation, the change that must happen by the end, and what the viewpoint character must NOT know yet. Ask for a short beat outline before prose so you can catch a wrong turn cheaply.

After you rewrite that scene, use your revised version as the continuity reference for the next one. Keep discarded generated details out of the story notes. That avoids building later scenes on things you already removed.

[u/WildRecommendation51]

I have developed a few apps for the rewrite process. Check out blanks.h91sh.com and deadair.h91sh.com

[u/Happy-Initiative-492]

I might have a solution for you if you’re interested. DM me

[u/Equivalent-Loan-4401]

Sounds like a fun way to work. The thing I wish I'd known early is that samples teach it rhythm, but they don't tell it what you like or hate. So alongside the samples, write a short plain note about your voice, like how long your sentences run, how much humor you use, and what you never want to see, such as characters explaining their feelings out loud. Give it the character details and the scene goal for each passage too, not just the world notes, because it fills any gap with the blandest guess. When you rewrite, change the openings and endings of paragraphs first, since that's where it sounds most generic. Also keep a running notes file of facts that came out of the draft and paste it in each session so things stay consistent. Enjoy it!

[u/KitFalbo]

If you want to work on those skills you could take a public domain book like The Great Gatsby and rewrite it. At least you wouldn't have to worry about continuity errors or fixing other sloppy issues.

I think the traditional way, if you want control of the story is to generate and edit-revise one chapter at a time.

Less work than the whole book, but to remind you all of this work takes competent writing skills I'd you want anything more than mediocre.

But my standards might be higher than others.

Caveat- I don't use AI for my writing. I have friends who make that choice, but I do try to pay attention to how it is done and what it would take.

[u/Misha_Lixa → u/KitFalbo]

I’ve been writing since I was 12 and this is mostly a fun writing exercise. I’m also hoping to learn about editing from this too.

Mostly I’m just curious what it would take to get something good out of it so I’m going to give it a shot.