Beyond Basics: Elevating Story Outlines Using AI in Novelcrafter

Welcome back to Byte-Sized Booksmith, where we delve into the exciting world of AI-assisted writing and creativity. Today, we're building on our previous exploration in "Unlocking Taboo: Make an NSFW GPT in Novelcrafter," taking our story development skills to the next level.
In this video, I'll guide you through three key topics:
- Creating an Original Story Outline: Learn how to craft an engaging story outline from scratch, stepping away from pre-made plots.
- Enhancing Outlines in Novelcrafter: We'll dive into techniques for refining outlines generated in Novelcrafter, focusing on strengthening and detailing.
- Custom Categories in Novelcrafter: A tutorial on creating custom categories in Novelcrafter, enhancing your organizational workflow.
📘 Outline Your Book with AI Notion Document: bytesizedbooksmith.notion.sit...
📺 Previous Video - Unlocking Taboo: Make an NSFW GPT in Novelcrafter: • Unlocking Taboo: Make ...
🖋️ Novelcrafter - Transform your writing: bytesizedlinks.com/novelcrafter
📚 Recommended Reads:
- Save the Cat Writes a Novel: amzn.to/3P2bHWu
- Romance in the Digital Age by Mira Gold: amzn.to/42OywlY
Join the Byte-Sized Booksmith community as we explore how AI can revolutionize your writing process. Whether you're plotting a new novel or refining your storytelling techniques, this video is packed with tips and tricks to enhance your creative journey.
#AIWriting #Storytelling #ByteSizedBooksmith
LEGAL:
Some links in this video description may be affiliate links. Clicking these helps support the channel at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support and for being a part of our writing community!
Timestamps:
00:00 Welcome
00:32 Agenda
02:05 Story Structures
02:26 Save the Cat Beat Sheet
04:02 Romancing the Beat
04:44 Lester Dent Pulp Fiction Formula
05:04 Other Story Structures
06:00 Custom Categories
11:30 Prompt 1
15:36 Prompt 2
17:20 Prompt 3
23:12 Wrap Up

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

Folks, I'm geeking out! Spacemotion made some tweaks to Novelcrafter last night in response to this video, making it even easier to extract your Outline, Codex Entries, or Scene Beats from Chat. I can't wait to share this with you guys!

[@JessR-oo2zd]

Can't wait to hear all about it!

[@montanadivacreations9267]

I am late to the party here.. are you making a course , as this stuff is GOLDEN.. how you are setting up a series Bible in the Codex is beyond awesome.. I would love to understand what all is going into this , and if you have an over all course on setting up for a series.. You definately GROK Novelcrafter better then most.

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

@@montanadivacreations9267 A course has been discussed. No ETA.

[@sebastiancarter9322]

Love the video! And yes, a deep dive into the codex creation would be a godsend. Every time I watch your videos with Novelcrafter, I think how I need to set my codex up the same as yours. Adding references, for instance, to characters to break out things like appearance and personality was a lightbulb moment. Tips like that are amazing. Thank you!

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the feedback!!

[@andrechaperon]

Yes, for a video about your codex set up and structure, Angie. 🤘

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

You got it! Thanks for watching.

[@kellydraper504]

I have learned more in your videos than all of the others on AI. Being new to writing this will help me conquer my writers block, and create flow throughout a novel. Thank you so much!

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

I appreciate your feedback! Be sure to post any other questions that come up and let us know how the writing is coming along. I'm excited to see what you come up with 😄

[@finnjensen2472]

I would be interested in a Course on how to build the codex in novelcrafter in the best way. An explanation on how Reference works, and when and why its Necessary to use. I think understanding how novelcrafter Reads the codex entries, would help to build it. And best practice of novelcrafter as you see it :-)

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

You got it! I'll get started on that.

[@StrikeBoogie]

Amazing video! I really like the way you set up your codex and I would love it if you would focus on the details behind how you populated and wired everything to trigger the results you desire within your writing. Notably I am very intrigued with how you use your tropes and what you have them directly connect to for the results you want. Any guidance or information would be so greatly appreciated!

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

Thanks! A few people have requested this kind of video, and I'll try to get it out this week.

[@davidridge6429]

Superb video Angie. Love how you deep dive into the codex's capabilities ❤

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

Thank you! It is a labor of love and I enjoy sharing all my experiments with Novelcrafter.

[@davidridge6429]

@ByteSizedBooksmith love to do a few videos myself, but nobody would probably be able to understand my UK strong Northern accent 🤣🤣

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

@@davidridge6429 If you want to do videos and are worried about your accent, there are huge advancements in AI voice that will blow your mind!

[@archonjubael]

Great take!

[@jonpodosek6942]

What’s tripping me up using the mira gold prompts is it gives you chapters in which most or all the save the cat beats are represented as beats within each chapter. I know this isn’t uncommon, but isn’t it really intended to be across the book?

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

You can use Save the Cat to structure the arc of your book, the arc of your series, and/or the arc of an episode (or chapter). If it doesn't feel right to structure your chapter that way, don't use it like that. You are the one ultimately in control. You could try using my Scene Brief prompt and process from Cipher's Shadow. That might work better for your process. I find that it gives me more control, which I like because I'm a bit of a control freak-ok, maybe a complete control freak.

[@user-zg8fg7pc7n]

It would be interesting to see how output from Plottr could be used in tandem with Novelcrafter.

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

That's a great idea. I'll add it to my list.

[@mikeha]

I wonder if it is possible to use Kimboo York's serial fiction template. She has overlapping subplots and arcs in her story outline for long running serial fiction, but i'm interested in using it, however any time I have tried asking chat GPT to follow the outline, it seems to get confused about the overlapping story arcs

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

Only one way to find out. I'll take a look and let you know. It was on my To Buy list anyway! I have played with overlapping storylines as well, but that was in ChatGPT-4, not Turbo. It didn't do great. A considerable amount of human intervention was required. But we can try again!

[@JessR-oo2zd]

I've owned Romancing the Beat since it first came out, and I have the scrivener template also. Is there a way to add the Romancing the Beat structure to Novelcrafter as a template so I don't have to write it all out over and over again? Or will I just have to copy and paste each time I want to use it. I'm brand new to Novelcrafter, just signed up yesterday, so still figuring it all out

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

My suggestion, get a free Notion account and keep your favorite prompts in there. That's what I use and it's awesome. Then you can copy it into the Codex when you start a new project and only have to type it out once!! It saves so much time.

[@Strangepaper]

Do you believe that the quality of the books generated would be able to generate sales? I’m wondering about scalability. Thank you!

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

Absolutely! There is more to selling books, but a quality book is the start. Putting in the time at the beginning and editing are necessary.

[@Ihearyou642]

what is the PNR Romance Developmental editor?

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

Do you mean the PNR Instal Love Dev Editor? "You are an expert developmental editor with a specialization in writing character-based instant-love stories for adult audiences. You have extensive experience in crafting and refining compelling narratives within the paranormal romance genre, with a keen understanding of their unique conventions and reader expectations. You work with authors. They will ask you questions about their story and you will answer them."

[@user-oz9sk9hg4l]

Hi. Enjoy your videos. I still don't quite get it. lol. was wondering if you'd be open to me hiring you to quickly show me to do it for a short story I'd like to write (I think this is the best way for me to learn). thx

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

Let's try doing a video on short stories first and then you can let me know if you still need help. Sound good?

[@Strangepaper]

So one point confusion that I have is when for example you mention that you have butter. I realize that’s from seven figure fiction. And I see that you have an entry for it on the left. Where in your prompt does it tell the AI to reference that?

[@Strangepaper]

I ask about this, because before I had mentioned using the output from Plottr. It feels like what you generated in an initial outline with all the chapters that you could then set up a Plottr file where you detail things for each chapter location, and character. Theoretically, you should be able to define each characters emotional state, for example, across all of the time points in the outline, then use that as a reference to color the prose that’s generated

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

@@Strangepaper I've been filming and editing a new video this morning. I'll get back to you shortly.

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

So I just double-checked and I included Butter in the Coded Charms codex entry, right underneath tropes and themes. "Butter: The billionaire boss with a secretive, softer side; the competent woman excelling in a male-dominated field and uncovering her magical abilities; power dynamic turned passionate partnership." In all of the prompts, I called the Coded Charms codex entry and that's how it ended up with the butter. In retrospect, I could have created separate Universal Fantasies codex entries, like I did with tropes, and connected them with nested references. I probably should have also specified the term Universal Fantasy instead of Butter, since ChatGPT-4 does know what it is in relation to "7-Figure Fiction."

[@ByteSizedBooksmith]

@@Strangepaper I am not particularly well-versed in Plottr, but I do believe that this is possible. I have added it to my list of tools to investigate.