The Only 7 Prompts AI Authors Need to Write Their First Book

The video transcript outlines a seven-step process for authors to use AI to write their first book. It emphasizes the importance of dialogue and interaction with AI, starting with brainstorming prompts to generate a premise and an ending. The author then creates a detailed synopsis, followed by an outline that breaks down the story into parts. Character profiles are developed next, providing depth to the protagonists. The story beats prompt helps to establish what happens in each chapter, ensuring specificity. A style prompt guides the tone and voice of the writing, while the final prompt constructs the prose, using detailed chapter information and story beats. The process encourages authors to edit and refine the AI-generated content, adding a human touch for authenticity.

Takeaways

• 📚 Start with a brainstorming prompt to generate a premise and an ending for your story, ensuring the AI knows the direction for foreshadowing and a tight plot.
• 📝 Use a synopsis prompt to create a detailed synopsis in the traditional three-act structure, building towards the described ending.
• 📋 Develop an outline from the synopsis with additional details, breaking it down into parts or chapters using your preferred outlining method.
• 🧑 Character development is crucial; use a character prompt to create a profile for your protagonist, including physical description and backstory.
• 🎭 Establish the story's beats with a detailed action prompt, ensuring the AI knows what specifically happens in each chapter for a coherent narrative.
• 🖋️ Apply a style prompt to guide the AI on the narrative's tone, perspective, and descriptive language, crafting a personalized writing style.
• 📈 Iterate and edit the AI's output to refine the story, adding human authorship for specificity and emotional connection.
• 📉 Be aware that AI-generated content tends to be more general; enhance it with your unique touch to avoid clichés and generality.
• 🔄 Continually refine your prompts based on what you like and dislike in the AI's responses to improve the quality of the generated content.
• 📖 Construct the prose using a detailed prompt that includes genre, tone, key characters, and specific story beats, along with your established style guide.
• 🧠 Remember that these seven prompts serve as a starting point; you'll need to engage in a dialogue with the AI, iterating until you achieve the desired result.

Q & A

What are the seven prompts mentioned in the transcript for writing a book?

The seven prompts are: 1) Brainstorming prompt, 2) Synopsis prompt, 3) Outlining prompt, 4) Character prompt, 5) Story beats prompt, 6) Style prompt, and 7) Constructing the prose prompt.

Why is it important to have a premise and an ending during the brainstorming phase?

Having a premise and an ending is important because it ensures the AI knows the direction of the story. This helps in producing better output, including foreshadowing elements and constructing a tighter plot.

How does the AI help in generating a detailed synopsis?

The AI generates a detailed synopsis by using the provided premise, ending, and style notes. It structures the synopsis in the traditional three-act structure, with each act clearly labeled and building towards the described ending.

What is the purpose of the outlining prompt in the process of writing a book?

The outlining prompt helps to create a detailed summary of the story, fleshing out additional details and breaking it down into parts using the writer's outlining method of choice.

Why is editing important when using AI-generated content?

Editing is crucial because AI tends to produce more general content that may sometimes lack specificity. Human editing ensures the content aligns with the author's vision, adding a personal touch and refining the details to make the story shine.

How does the character prompt assist in developing a character profile?

The character prompt assists by providing a structured approach to describe the protagonist, antagonist, or any other character. It allows the writer to input known information about the character and specify elements to include in the profile, such as physical description and backstory.

What is the significance of the story beats prompt in preparing for the final prose?

The story beats prompt is significant as it establishes what specifically happens in each chapter. Detailed action beats ensure that the AI has a clear understanding of the chapter's events, leading to better quality prose.

Can you explain the role of the style prompt in influencing the AI's writing style?

The style prompt guides the AI on how to write the prose according to the author's preferred style. It can include instructions on point of view, tone, dialogue, and other stylistic elements, allowing the AI to mimic the author's voice more closely.

What does the final prompt, constructing the prose, involve?

The final prompt involves writing a section of the chapter using the details provided by the previous prompts. It incorporates the genre, tone, point of view, key characters, story beats, and style guide to generate a piece of prose that fits the author's vision.

How can the AI's output be improved to better fit the author's specific needs?

The AI's output can be improved by the author carefully editing and refining each step of the process. This includes adding specific details, clarifying vague elements, and ensuring that the style and tone align with the author's intentions.

What is the recommended approach for using the AI's prompts to write an entire book?

The recommended approach is to use each prompt as a starting point, iteratively building upon the AI's suggestions to develop a premise, synopsis, outline, character profiles, story beats, and finally, the prose. The author should continuously edit and add their unique input at each stage.

How does the AI assist in maintaining moral ambiguity in the story?

The AI can provide options and suggestions that include moral ambiguity, as seen in the example ending where the protagonist's actions leave readers questioning his motives. The author can then choose to develop these themes further during the editing process.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Brainstorming and Dialogue with AI

The paragraph discusses the overwhelming number of prompts available for AI and emphasizes that a few well-crafted prompts are sufficient for effective use. It highlights the importance of dialogue and conversation with AI, using seven key prompts to guide the process of writing a book from scratch. The first of these prompts is a brainstorming prompt, which can take various forms but should include a premise and an ending. The AI's role is to provide options and foreshadow elements, helping to construct a tighter plot. The paragraph also stresses the need for human editing to refine the AI's general output into a more specific and polished narrative.

05:01

📝 Crafting a Synopsis and Outline

This section details the process of transforming a brainstormed premise into a detailed synopsis and outline. It begins with a synopsis prompt that structures the story into three acts, each building towards the established ending. The outline prompt then takes the synopsis and expands it into a detailed summary, breaking it down into parts according to a chosen outlining method. The paragraph emphasizes the need for specificity and personal editing to ensure the outline meets the writer's vision, and it introduces the 24 chapter novel outline as an example method.

10:02

🎭 Developing Characters and Story Beats

The paragraph focuses on character development and the importance of characters in a compelling story. It outlines a character prompt that helps create a profile for the protagonist, including physical description and backstory. The process involves adding known information about the character and desired elements to the prompt. Following character development, the paragraph moves on to story beats, emphasizing their significance in establishing what happens in each chapter. The story beats prompt generates a list of detailed action beats for a chapter, ensuring the narrative is well-structured and specific.

15:03

🖋️ Writing Style and Constructing Prose

The final paragraph discusses the importance of writing style and how to implement it through a style prompt. It suggests that style prompts can be highly personalized and may evolve as the writer identifies preferences. An example style prompt is provided, focusing on aspects like point of view, dialogue, and description. The paragraph concludes with a prose construction prompt, which is used to write a chapter of the book. This prompt incorporates the chapter details, story beats, and style guide to generate an opening paragraph, setting the stage for the narrative that follows.

Keywords

💡AI Authors

AI Authors refers to individuals who utilize artificial intelligence tools to assist in the writing process. In the context of the video, AI is used to generate ideas, plot structures, and even prose for a book, making the process more efficient and potentially more creative.

💡Prompts

Prompts are starting points or questions used to stimulate a response or generate content. In the video, the speaker discusses specific types of prompts essential for guiding an AI in the process of writing a book, such as brainstorming prompts and character prompts.

💡Brainstorming

Brainstorming is a creative technique used to generate a large number of ideas or solutions. The video emphasizes the importance of brainstorming in the initial stages of writing a book with AI, focusing on establishing a premise and an ending to guide the story's direction.

💡Premise

A premise is a basic proposition or starting point that serves as the foundation for an argument or a narrative. In the context of the video, the premise is a fundamental concept for the book, such as 'a former Dragon Hunter discovers he's part Dragon.'

💡Ending

The ending of a story refers to the final part where the narrative is resolved. The video suggests that determining the ending early can help in crafting a coherent plot with appropriate foreshadowing, as exemplified by the AI-generated ending where the protagonist's actions lead to a morally ambiguous conclusion.

💡Synopsis

A synopsis is a brief summary of the plot of a story. The video describes using a synopsis prompt to create a detailed outline of the story's structure in the traditional three-act format, which helps in visualizing the story's progression from beginning to end.

💡Outlining

Outlining is the process of creating a structured plan for a narrative, breaking it down into parts or chapters. The script mentions using an outlining prompt to transform a synopsis into a chapter-by-chapter outline, which serves as a blueprint for the book's content.

💡Character Profile

A character profile is a detailed description of a character's traits, background, and role in the story. The video script discusses using a character prompt to develop a comprehensive understanding of the protagonist, including physical attributes and personal history.

💡Story Beats

Story beats refer to the significant events or turning points in a narrative. The video outlines the use of a story beats prompt to generate a list of detailed action points that outline what happens in each chapter, ensuring the chapter has a clear and engaging structure.

💡Style Prompt

A style prompt is a set of instructions or preferences that guide the AI in writing the story with a specific tone, voice, and descriptive approach. The speaker in the video provides an example of a style prompt focusing on aspects like point of view, dialogue, and description to shape the narrative's style.

💡Constructing the Prose

Constructing the prose involves writing the actual text of the book. The video describes a complex prompt for writing a chapter of the book, incorporating details from the character profile, story beats, and style guide to create a cohesive and stylistically consistent piece of writing.

Highlights

AI can be overwhelming with the number of prompts available, but only a few are needed to get the most out of it.

With AI, the dialogue and conversation generated are more important than the specific prompts used.

Seven key prompts are introduced to help authors write an entire book from scratch.

The first prompt is a brainstorming prompt, focusing on a premise and an ending for the story.

The AI can provide style notes, such as themes and moral ambiguity, alongside the premise.

The second prompt is the synopsis prompt, which creates a detailed synopsis in a traditional three-act structure.

The outlining prompt helps to flesh out additional details and break down the story into parts.

A character prompt is used to create a profile for the protagonist, including physical description and backstory.

Story beats are crucial for detailing what happens in each chapter; the AI generates a list of detailed action beats.

A style prompt is used to guide the AI in creating content that matches the author's preferred writing style.

Constructing the prose involves a complex prompt that includes genre, tone, point of view, setting, key characters, and story beats.

Editing is essential to refine the AI-generated content and add the human touch for specificity.

The AI's output tends to be more general, so authors should edit to their satisfaction for a more personalized result.

The process involves taking notes and moving interesting elements into a separate document for further development.

The AI can help construct a tighter plot by incorporating foreshadowing when it knows the story's ending.

Authors are encouraged to iterate with the AI, using the seven prompts as starters for a more in-depth conversation.

An example of a premise provided by the AI involves a former Dragon Hunter discovering he is part Dragon.

One of the endings suggested by the AI involves the protagonist returning to hunting with a new philosophy, maintaining moral ambiguity.

The character profile generated by the AI can be edited by the author to include unique traits and details.

The final prose prompt demonstrates the AI's ability to write an engaging opening paragraph based on provided details.