Full transcript
0:00Today we're going over one of my
0:01favorite NAN automations which allows me
0:04to really understand storytelling at a
0:07level that most people don't. And I
0:10don't say that to like brag or anything.
0:12It's just like I don't I literally don't
0:14see anybody picking apart stories like
0:16this, which I'm able to do thanks to AI.
0:19This is one of those areas where AI
0:21absolutely enhances what an author or
0:24writer is capable of doing. And don't
0:27ever let anybody tell you that AI will
0:30make you a lazy storyteller. It can
0:33obviously depending on how you use it,
0:35but it's how you use it that's most
0:37important. And in this video, we're
0:38going to really break that down with
0:40what I'm calling the story hacker
0:42prompt. Now, in my last video, I did a
0:45video uh about story hacking a short
0:48story. And in this one, we're really
0:50getting deep into the uh breaking down a
0:54novel or a full-on film script or
0:57something like that. So, with that in
0:58mind, let's dive in. All right, so this
1:00is the automation right here. And it's
1:03fairly simple, but a little bit more
1:04complicated than the one that I showed
1:06you yesterday with the short story
1:08hacking uh automation. Uh but it does
1:12start relatively similar. So it starts
1:15with uh when you just click the button
1:17that says execute workflow and then you
1:19need to give it a specific document
1:22where all of the information is going to
1:24go. So at the beginning it will look
1:27like a blank slate and all you have to
1:29do is get the ID number of that Google
1:31doc which you can get in the URL of the
1:33Google doc and just copy and paste that
1:37into this slot right here in this node.
1:40Once you have that, you're also going to
1:43need a file that
1:46has the story that you are looking to
1:49hack. Okay. Now, there are a number of
1:51ways you can do this. Um, uh, Amazon
1:54actually recently announced that they're
1:56going to have DRM free books available
1:58if an author opts into that. So there
2:01you might be able to do this with books
2:03that you buy on Amazon or there is quite
2:06a library of public domain books online
2:09and uh film scripts that you can find
2:11online. And that's what I did for the
2:13example I'm going to be showing you
2:14today, which is Star Wars: A New Hope.
2:17And in this case, what I did is I took
2:20the screenplay, pasted it in here, and
2:24then went through and manually, because
2:26I know Star Wars very well, I went
2:27through and manually put in uh a little
2:31heading at the start of each scene. That
2:35way, I knew approximately how many
2:37scenes there were. And this allows the
2:39AI to be able to break it up into chunks
2:41and process things individually to
2:44better understand it. Uh, and this is a
2:48little tedious when it comes to
2:49screenplays because you do have to
2:50manually go and put those in there. With
2:53novels, it's not usually as bad because
2:55you could just go straight to the
2:56chapter headings and make sure that
2:58they're the correct heading. In this
2:59case, it's a H1 or a heading one. As you
3:02can see up here at the top where it says
3:04heading one. Um, and that is what our
3:07automation is going to be looking for is
3:09H1 headings. And I'll walk you through
3:12that in a second. But as you can see, we
3:14have, you know, the long time ago in a
3:16galaxy far, far away. We have the
3:18opening crawl. We have an explosion
3:20rocks the ship as two robots, R2-D2 and
3:23C-3PO, struggle to make their way
3:24through the shaking, bouncing
3:25passageway. And you know, it's the
3:28script of Star Wars, and I'm sure we're
3:31all pretty much familiar with Star Wars.
3:33And then we get to the end of the scene,
3:36and I just added this in myself that
3:38just said scene break, right? or I could
3:40have said scene one, scene two, or
3:42however you want to do it is fine. Just
3:44as long as this is an H1 heading. Okay.
3:47All right. So once you've got the
3:49document with your story in it and it's
3:51been processed and each of the scenes
3:53andor chapters are separated by H1
3:55headers, then uh what happens is you
3:59take the ID number which again is in the
4:01URL of your document and we copy and
4:06paste that into this node which says
4:08download file and which I've done here.
4:10You just put it right there. And then
4:11make sure this thing here says HTML
4:15under Google file conversion. And that's
4:16because we want to extract the HTML of
4:21this document. And the reason we need to
4:23extract HTML is so it can read where
4:25those H1 headers are.
4:28Uh, and then from there, I've got two
4:31code nodes here. This first one is
4:34relatively short and simple. All it does
4:36is it extracts that HTML content and
4:39returns it. And then this node splits it
4:43up by the headers. So it looks
4:44specifically for H1 headers and splits
4:47it up accordingly. So it looks a little
4:49bit like this. Just goes through and
4:51finds those H1 headers. And um the how I
4:56made this I didn't I'm not a coder. So,
4:58I was able to make this just by asking
5:01Perplexity what I should do by
5:03describing my automation. And it it was
5:06able to give me the exact code that I
5:08needed to be able to split things up by
5:09the H1 headers. Um, and by the way, if
5:13this is seeming complicated to you and
5:14you don't know if you want to figure
5:17this out for yourself, my story hacker
5:19gold group is open I think for just
5:23uh let's see this is going out. Yes. So,
5:26at it is going out tonight. Tonight is
5:29the last time that you will be able to
5:31sign up for it for now and it'll go back
5:33to a waiting list. And the price also
5:35goes up. The next time it opens, it will
5:37be $20 more per month. So, if you want
5:40to get in on the ground floor now and
5:42keep the current price uh because you'll
5:44be grandfathered in, go do it now
5:47because today is the last day that
5:49you'll be able to do that. All right.
5:50So, uh, and and this and all my other
5:53automations are available for at no
5:56extra charge when you join that group.
5:57All right. So, um, once we've split up
6:00our document by headers, uh, we
6:03essentially have several chunks of text
6:05separated by those H1 headers. So,
6:07everything in between each of the H1
6:09headers is a different chunk of text.
6:12And then from there, we go into this
6:14loop over items thing where we then run
6:18a prompt on each chunk of those texts.
6:21And once that's done, it goes and does
6:23this part, but we'll get to that later.
6:25Um, so first we have it create this
6:29analysis of the story. And this is a
6:32pretty lengthy [laughter]
6:34uh prompt right here. Uh, but it goes
6:37something like this. If we zoom in here,
6:39here's the chapter or scene you will
6:40analyze. And then I have it pull in the
6:43chunk of text that it's going to an
6:44analyze. You can actually see it over
6:46here. It's it looks like a bunch of
6:49gibberish. And that's because this is
6:50the HTML that it's reading. Thankfully,
6:53it can read through that mess better
6:55than we can. Uh so just trust that the
6:58the correct section of text is in there.
7:02And then I actually have it
7:05read through this as part of the
7:07analysis. I have it identify what scale
7:11it is on in terms of how much spice is
7:13there in the scene, how much violence is
7:14there in the scene, and how much
7:15swearing is there in the scene. And I
7:18have a 10point rubric for each of those.
7:20So I can see uh from 1 to 10, what level
7:23is each of those things? And so I
7:25specify what that rubric is here. Uh and
7:29all of this is part of that rubric even.
7:31It's a it's a big part of the prompt
7:33even though it's just a small part of
7:34the output. Uh, and all the way up to
7:38here. All right. And then it says,
7:40"Given the above short story, please
7:42follow these steps." Oops, I didn't mean
7:44to say short story. This should say
7:45chapter or scene. Please follow these
7:48steps. Make sure to answer all the
7:49questions for each step. Summary. Create
7:51a five to six sentence summary of the
7:52events of the chapter or scene. yada
7:54yada yada. Characters. List every
7:56character who appears in the scene and
7:57only those that are actually in the
7:58scene. So, and so on. Setting. Write out
8:01the key setting of the scene. For each
8:04setting, tell us how or if this
8:05particular setting contributes to the
8:07story in a meaningful way, yada yada.
8:08Conflict. Identify the main source of
8:10conflict and tension in the scene. This
8:12should be one to two sentences. Tropes.
8:14Are there any tropes that are clearly
8:15evident in the scene? Limit this to
8:17three. Uh because I found that it was
8:19giving us way too many. Scene intensity.
8:21Pick a number between 1 and 10 to
8:23indicate the intensity of the scene,
8:24meaning level of action and emotional
8:26resonance, with one being the least
8:28amount of intensity and 10 being the
8:29most. And then I also have it do the
8:31same for spice level, violence level,
8:33and swearing level. Then I said just
8:35have a note here. Do not include any
8:37preamble or post summary commentary of
8:39the scene. Just provide the headings and
8:40the summary as outlined. Format your
8:42output in markdown as follows. And then
8:44I just have some information using
8:47markdown on what it should look like uh
8:50in its formatting. Right? That is the
8:53prompt. and it runs that prompt
8:55individually on every single scene uh
8:58based on where those H1 headings were
9:00set. So, let me show you a little bit of
9:02what this looks like as it outputs this
9:04particular prompt. I'll go here to my
9:07document that has everything. So, if
9:09you're I assume most of you are familiar
9:10with Star Wars, uh we have the summary.
9:12A rebel blockade runner is pursued and
9:14fired upon by a massive Imperial star
9:16destroyer near the planet Tatooine. I
9:18mean, you know the scene, right? Hit the
9:20list of characters. R2-D2, C3PO, rebel
9:23troopers, stormtroopers, Darth Vader.
9:26Um, it also mentions what their heart's
9:29desire is, you know, like R2-D2. Uh,
9:32heart's desire is to survive the chaos
9:33and follow the logic of the mission.
9:35C3PO heart's desire is to find safety
9:37and avoid madness of the battle. You
9:39know, that all makes sense. Uh, then we
9:41have the setting. So, we have outer
9:42space and the rebel blockade runner. Uh,
9:45those are that's definitely the setting
9:46of this first scene. Conflict. The
9:49primary conflict is the life or death
9:50struggle between rebel forces attempting
9:52to protect stolen plans and an
9:54overwhelming Imperial boarding party led
9:56by Darth Vader. Tropes, we have the evil
9:58empire, the faceless henchmen and enmity
10:01of Rez, uh, which actually I'm surprised
10:05I'm impressed that it got that because
10:06the story begins in the middle of a
10:08highstakes space battle with the broader
10:09war already in progress. Star Wars is a
10:12classic example of Nvidia res. So, uh,
10:14that's pretty cool. And then the ratings
10:16are scene intensity is pretty high. It's
10:18an eight. Spice level is a one.
10:20Obviously, there's no romantic or sexual
10:22content in this scene. Violence levels a
10:24five. Uh it is a little bit of a uh
10:28violent scene compared to the rest of
10:30the movie. And swearing levels of level
10:32one. Um and that's the scene, right? And
10:35then it continues and does that for all
10:37of the the [clears throat] rest of the
10:39scenes, right? So that's kind of what it
10:42does. and uh it just continues that loop
10:45over and over again for each scene.
10:46However, where this really differs is
10:49that I do a uh later analysis of the
10:52whole thing. Like once it's done
10:54creating those individual scene
10:56analyses,
10:57we actually have it do some analyses of
11:00the entire thing as a whole. So first um
11:05we go through it using n we go through
11:07and run it through a limiter. Uh all
11:09this does is it means uh only do this
11:12next step once right otherwise it would
11:15run it would continue to run for every
11:17single loop and we don't want that. So
11:19this just limits it to one. Then I have
11:22it get the summary plus document that it
11:24just created and that's what all of this
11:26prompting was doing. So, it then
11:28accesses that info that it just created
11:31and runs this two-part prompt on it
11:34before updating the document with that
11:38information. So, the first part of the
11:40analysis, the prompt looks something
11:42like this. Here's the list of scenes you
11:43will analyze. And then I give it the
11:45content uh which is the entire content
11:48that it just went through. Okay. Uh so
11:51all of that's those analyses that it
11:53created. Now we add that in here and it
11:58pulls that into this prompt which is a
12:00significant amount of text and then I
12:03say please follow these te steps. Number
12:06one, genre. Give the specific genre of
12:07the story. Right, pretty
12:10self-explanatory there. Common tropes.
12:12Next, make a list of common tropes that
12:14this story has for the genre that it's
12:15in. Make sure these tropes are relevant
12:17to the genre and are clearly contained
12:18in the story. Explain each trope and how
12:20the story uses it. Character arcs. Next,
12:23make a list of the characters from the
12:25story. Besides the name, include their
12:26role in the story, like protagonist,
12:27antagonist, side character, love
12:29interest, mentor, etc. Then, in three to
12:31four sentences for each character, map
12:33out the character's arc that they go
12:35through uh throughout the story. Talk
12:37about things like their beginning, fatal
12:39flaw, their want at the beginning, their
12:40needs, and most importantly, the change
12:42that they undergo from the first
12:43introduction to the end of the story. If
12:45there's not much of an arc for the
12:46character, mention this and explain
12:47their role in the story. I also make a
12:49list of the characters primary
12:50demographics like gender, age, etc. Uh,
12:53I added that little bit in because I
12:56found it often confusing, men and women.
12:58So, number four is character archetypes.
13:00Make a list of the character archetypes
13:01that appear in the story. So, that one's
13:02related to the above theme. Identify the
13:04central theme of the story and point out
13:06the scenes where this theme comes up.
13:07Plot devices and foreshadowing. Detect
13:09the uses of foreshadowing, red herrings,
13:12and check offs guns. Map setups and
13:14payoffs throughout the narrative.
13:15Analyze flashbacks if any. nonlinear
13:18timelines or narrative framing devices
13:21uh which can give you some useful infi
13:23insights there. And then the rest of
13:24these or well the next couple are all
13:28very key plot moments. These are the
13:30plot moments that pretty much every
13:31story has no matter what genre it is
13:33including the inciting incident, the
13:35midpoint, the climax and the duma.
13:38And then we have some world building
13:39info. What key setting artifacts and
13:41other worldbuing elements appear in this
13:44book? Create a list of all the major
13:45elements and how they contribute to the
13:46story overall. Magic system and
13:49technology. If this is a fantasy or
13:50sci-fi book, write a full explanation on
13:52how the magic system works for fantasy
13:54or how the technology works for sci-fi.
13:57Uh and then we get average ratings. Take
13:59the average of all the ratings including
14:00the scene intensity, spice level,
14:02violence level, and swearing level. This
14:03could be useful if you want to judge
14:05like how much spice should this book
14:07have to appeal to readers of this genre,
14:09stuff like that. And then uh format your
14:12output in the following format. And this
14:14is all in markdown. Uh just as before, I
14:17just basically repeat a lot of what I
14:19just said, but show it how to format it.
14:21All right. And that's analysis part one.
14:22In analysis part two, we say here's the
14:26list of scenes you will analyze. And I
14:27give it the the text uh again that we
14:32did previously. And then here's some
14:33preliminary analysis to help. And then I
14:36give it the results that it just came up
14:38with in the previous step. Please follow
14:40these steps. Analyze the plot structures
14:42of the chapter scene. Then I have it
14:44summarize it here and then it performs
14:46an analysis. Beneath each summary,
14:48identify each of the following if needed
14:49in a bulleted list. Assess each scene's
14:52primary purpose and reproduce the
14:54ratings. And basically what this is
14:56doing to kind of shorten this up is it
14:59is creating a template for the plot of
15:03this story. So essentially, if you
15:05wanted to write a story just like Star
15:06Wars, kind of like Aragon, right? You
15:09could break this down scene by scene and
15:11then create a template from it that is a
15:13little bit more non-specific, doesn't
15:15include actual names of characters or
15:18anything like that so that you could use
15:19it and even transfer it to a different
15:21genre and use it that way. It's
15:24essentially creating that road map for
15:26you so you can write a scene by scene
15:29comparable story that follows very
15:30similar beats. Uh so this is a really
15:33fun thing that I like to do just to
15:35further analyze what is going on on the
15:38scene level. Uh so it runs that and then
15:42the last step is it takes both of the
15:45answers from those things and it puts it
15:47into our document
15:49uh like this. And to see what that looks
15:53like here we go. Um so this is my story
15:58hack of Star Wars a new hope. Uh, first
16:00of all, it gives us the genre. Science
16:02fiction, space opera/h heroic fantasy.
16:04Totally spot-on. Common tropes used, the
16:07chosen one, the evil empire, the mentor
16:10figure, the mcguffin, the smuggler with
16:11a heart of gold, the damsel in distress,
16:14albeit subverted, uh, a used future, so
16:18the world is not shiny and pristine, and
16:19the ticking clock. Climax relies on a
16:22literal countdown as the DAR orbits
16:23Yavin, raising the stakes and creating
16:26urgency for the trench run. So 100%
16:28these are definitely all spot-on tropes
16:31that are used. Um it gives us character
16:34arcs for each character. So let's read
16:36let's read Hans cuz he has the best one.
16:38Uh human male smuggler in his 30s. He
16:40acts as a reluctant hero and skeptic.
16:42Constantly claiming he is only in it for
16:43the money and dismissing the hokey
16:45religion of the force. His arc is one of
16:47moral redemption. He abandons the
16:49rebellion before the final battle, but
16:50returns at the climax to save Luke,
16:52proving his loyalty to his friends
16:54outweighs his greed. Yep. So, that's a
16:56good description of the arc that he goes
16:58on and 100% accurate there. Uh, we have
17:00character archetypes. Uh, nothing
17:03particularly
17:05u groundbreaking here, but you
17:07definitely get things like Darth Vader's
17:08the shadow, which 100%. Um, and stuff
17:12like that. Uh, I think it got the theme
17:14spoton here as well. Uh, I'm, you know,
17:17I don't really go to Star Wars for any
17:20profound themes, right? It's not the
17:22kind of thing it is, but it it's not
17:24even something I think about very often,
17:26but it absolutely does have a theme that
17:28is woven throughout the story, and it
17:30perfectly illustrates it here in this,
17:32which says, "The central theme is faith
17:34versus technology, or man versus
17:36machine. The story consistently
17:38contrasts the cold technological terror
17:40of the Empire with the Death Star
17:42invader as more machine than man, with
17:44the spiritual human intuition of the
17:46rebels and the Jedi. This theme is
17:48cemented in act one during the
17:49conversation in in Kenobi's dwelling
17:52regarding the force, but finds its
17:53ultimate expression in the climax when
17:55Luke turns off his targeting computer to
17:57trust his feelings or the force rather
17:59than the machine to destroy the enemy.
18:01So, yeah, I didn't even put together
18:02that they have all these moments like
18:05when Obi-Wan is talking about Darth
18:06Vader and how he's more machine than
18:08man, connecting that moment to the
18:11moment when Luke turns off his targeting
18:13computer. Um, but that is 100% there and
18:17definitely evidence of the theme. So, I
18:19thought this was actually an excellent
18:21analysis of the theme. All right, then
18:23we got our plot devices and
18:25foreshadowing. So, we have foreshadowing
18:27with the force. Obi-Wan explains the
18:28force as an energy field that binds the
18:30galaxy together and controls actions
18:31early on. This foreshadows Luke's
18:33ability to aim the torpedo without a
18:34computer. Yep. And then we have like
18:36other things. pilot skills, check off's
18:38gun,
18:40uh, a red her herring, deos sex machina,
18:43subverted,
18:44um, because Han Solo returns at the end
18:47serves as a surprise rescue, but it is
18:48character-driven based on his
18:50established bond with Luke rather than a
18:52random occurrence, which by the way,
18:54that's how you do at dayx machino,
18:56right? Is you make it character-driven
18:58instead of a random occurrence.
19:00Key plot structures. So it identifies
19:02where the inciting incident is, where
19:04the midpoint is, where the climax is,
19:06and where the duma is. Uh world
19:09building, it briefly touches on the
19:11force, Tatooine, the Death Star, droids,
19:13hyperspace, lightsabers, technology. We
19:16have starships, weaponry, robotics,
19:17holograms. Average ratings are scene
19:20intensity of 6.8, average spice level of
19:231.2,
19:25uh average violence level of 3.8, and
19:28average swearing level of 1.3.
19:30Uh, and then we get that plot template I
19:33was talking about. Uh, so this is where
19:36it essentially goes chapter by chapter
19:37and shows you what happens in the scene.
19:40So rather than making it with specific
19:43details about the scene, it kind of
19:44makes it a little bit more broad so you
19:47could actually do something that has a
19:49similar story arc but related to your
19:53characters and your plot and everything.
19:55Um so for instance this first one a
19:58small vessel is frantically frantically
20:00fleeing and is overtaken by a gargantuan
20:02warship establishing establishing an
20:05immediate imbalance of power. Inside two
20:07lowly servants provide a ground level
20:09perspective of the terrifying boarding
20:10action while soldiers attempt a futile
20:13defense against a faceless armored
20:14horde. The antagonist enters the con
20:17captured ship immediately establishing a
20:19presence of supreme authority and
20:21ruthlessness. So this is pretty good. It
20:23definitely represents the scene. I might
20:26even say it could go even more generic.
20:28It doesn't have to say ship, right? It
20:30doesn't say it's a uh spaceship. Uh this
20:34could be like you could adapt this into
20:35a pirate show, you know, uh or like a a
20:39Revolutionary War fiction or something
20:41like that where we're using ships and
20:44and the Americans versus the British
20:46instead of the rebels versus the empire.
20:48Uh you know, I'm just throwing that out
20:51there. But at the same time uh this is
20:53definitely representative of what
20:55actually happens in the movie Star Wars.
20:56And then in the analysis we have the
20:58primary purpose which is world building
20:59establishing the power dynamic and the
21:01hook. Uh multi-function meaning like
21:04what other functions does it serve? It
21:05serves as a hook introduces the
21:06antagonist and sets the tone of the
21:08conflict. The structural beat that it
21:10represents is the hook which makes
21:12sense. It's the first scene. And then
21:13the ratings are intensity 8, spice one,
21:15violence five and swearing one which it
21:17pulled directly from the other material
21:20that we had. and then it moves on and
21:22does the exact same thing for the next
21:23scene and then the next scene and so on.
21:26So this is really a fun way to really
21:27understand what a story is doing on a
21:30scene by scene level and in terms of
21:33tropes and things like that. I've been
21:34using this very heavily in some of the
21:36genre uh analyses that I've been doing
21:39including the urban fantasy ones that
21:40you've seen recently. So hopefully this
21:42can be useful for you. Again, if you
21:44want to get this exact thing rather than
21:46having to rebuild it yourself, uh you
21:48can get it in my Story Hicker Gold
21:49membership. And today is the last day
21:51that you can uh get in at the current
21:53price. And we'll also be closing it down
21:56for a little while. So, we'll be back to
21:58that waiting list. So, if you want in,
21:59now's the time to get in. Now, now is
22:01your moment. Uh so, hopefully that will
22:05be good for you. And I will see you in
22:07the next