Full transcript
0:00If you've ever said, "I'll write a novel
0:02someday." and it's been more than a
0:04year, this video is your line in the
0:06sand. Because if you can watch YouTube,
0:08you can finish a novel draft in 30 days,
0:10especially if you use AI. And I'm not
0:13just talking an outline and not just a
0:14few chapters, a full finished novel
0:17draft that you can upload to Amazon and
0:19put in the reader's hands by the end of
0:21the 30 days.
0:23And no, you don't need a perfect idea.
0:25You don't need to be good at writing.
0:27You don't need 6 months of free time.
0:29What you do need is a clear realistic
0:31plan, a narrow daily target,
0:34and a willingness to let AI be your
0:36assistant instead of your replacement.
0:38That's a a key difference there. So,
0:40here's the deal. By the end of this
0:42video, you'll have a day-to-day road map
0:44from no idea to publish novel in 22
0:47working days, 30 total. If you follow
0:49it, you will have a book. Don't, you'll
0:52have another excuse. Your choice. So,
0:54let's get into it. The calendar. When
0:56people say, "I'll write a novel in 30
0:57days." they secretly mean "I'll half
1:00write a novel on random days and then
1:02feel bad when I don't finish." We're not
1:04doing that. We're going to assume we
1:06have 30 days on the calendar and that
1:09you're not working weekends. That
1:11removes at least eight days. You could
1:12obviously spend even more time on this
1:14if you did work all 30 days. But we're
1:17just working with 22 real work days.
1:20That constraint is a gift because it
1:22forces focus. Here is the high-level
1:25schedule that we'll be working with.
1:26Days 1 to 2 are brainstorming and
1:28concept. Days 3 to 4 are characters and
1:31arcs. Days 5 to 6 are world building
1:34that actually serves the story. Days 7
1:36to 10 are outlining the whole book. Days
1:3911 through 17 is actually generating the
1:42pros with AI and then using your
1:44judgment on your first edit.
1:46Days 18 through 20 is the second editing
1:49pass. Uh often using automations to help
1:52you out. Day 21 is formatting. Day 22 is
1:55publishing and the next steps after
1:57that. You're going to see a pattern.
1:59Every phase is short, constrained, and
2:01supported by AI, but the decisions stay
2:04with you. Think of AI as your
2:06over-caffeinated intern. Very fast,
2:08occasionally brilliant, often sloppy.
2:11You're the author, it's the assistant.
2:14So, step zero is to decide you're
2:16actually working. Before we even hit day
2:18one, I want you to make one decision.
2:19For the next 22 working days, I'm a
2:22writer with a deadline. Not a hobbyist,
2:24not trying it out. A writer with a
2:2622-day sprint. Give yourself a minimum
2:29time box each working day. An example
2:31could be 60 to 90 minutes of a weekday
2:35focus block. Where you put your phone in
2:37the other room and you have your AI
2:39open, your notes open, and that's it. If
2:42you can't give yourself an hour a day
2:43for 22 days, you actually don't really
2:46have a time problem, you have more of a
2:48priority problem. This entire system
2:50works if you just show up and do the
2:52block. So, step one is brainstorming and
2:55this will be for days one and two. The
2:56goal of this phase is to go from having
2:58no idea to a clear story concept and
3:01enough raw material to move on. Most
3:03people do brainstorming wrong. They
3:05stare at a blank page and ask, "What
3:07should I write?" Instead, we flip it.
3:09Let the AI interview you.
3:12First, you pick a genre and don't skip
3:14this. Genre is a constraint and a
3:16marketing decision. Romance, cozy
3:18mystery, thriller, litRPG, urban
3:20fantasy, etc. Genre gives you expected
3:23tropes, typical word counts, cover
3:25expectations, reader promises, and you
3:28absolutely can invent something weird
3:31later, but for speed and sales, we want
3:33to pick a lane today. The second part of
3:35this is to use AI as your question
3:38generator. Instead of "Write me a plot."
3:40ask AI to ask you questions like "What
3:42kind of emotional experience do you want
3:44readers to have? Who is your ideal
3:45reader? What do they already love? Name
3:48three to five tropes in your genre that
3:49you enjoy. What settings or situations
3:52have you always wanted to explore?"
3:54Answer the AI's questions and don't
3:56judge, don't polish, just dump
3:58everything that you can think of. Right
4:00now you're assembling puzzle pieces,
4:02which includes the themes and situations
4:04and vibes and conflicts and
4:06relationships.
4:07Also, pay attention to tropes. Use or
4:09subvert on purpose. Once you've listed
4:12tropes, have AI list out common setups,
4:14common twists, common endings. Then
4:17decide for each one to use it straight,
4:19to twist it and subvert it, or to avoid
4:22it entirely. This keeps you inside the
4:25"This feels like the genre I like." box
4:28without being a clone of other books in
4:30the genre. Then we want to assemble all
4:32of this info into a concept. So, you
4:34want to feed your answers into a
4:36structured prompt. This is what my
4:38brainstorm to dossier prompt does. I
4:40have a whole automation that does this.
4:41And have AI spit back a one to three
4:44sentence story premise, a one-line what
4:47if hook, a paragraph on tone and vibe,
4:50short bullets on the core conflict. And
4:53at the end of the day of day one or day
4:55two, you want a clear concept that
4:58you're excited about, a rough sense of
5:00main characters and setting, a document
5:03gathering all of this into one place,
5:05and that's enough to move forward. You
5:06do not need the full story yet. Now, as
5:09a bonus, I also recommend commissioning
5:11the cover now. This is a hot take of
5:13mine, but I recommend commissioning your
5:15cover as soon as you know the genre, the
5:17title, the basic concept, and the main
5:20visual element or character. Why do we
5:23do it now? Because good cover artists
5:25have queues.
5:26And a finished cover can makes the
5:28project feel real and you can design
5:30toward the promises that that the cover
5:32makes. Your artist does not need to know
5:34every scene and every plot twist. All
5:36they need is the genre, the tone, and
5:38maybe a clear central image. So, the
5:41thing you want to have done by the end
5:43of the these first two days in step one
5:46is a two to three page story dossier doc
5:49and your cover brief sent to an artist.
5:52That leads us to step two, consisting of
5:54days three and four, where we focus
5:56exclusively on the characters. The plot
5:59ultimately does not move your story.
6:01Characters wanting things and failing or
6:03succeeding, those are what move your
6:05story. Your main job here is to define
6:07your protagonist's character arc and
6:10give major characters mini arcs that
6:12intersect. You want backstory, hair
6:14color, favorite coffee shop, all of that
6:16stuff is nice to have, but the character
6:19arc is the non-negotiable. So, start
6:21with the protagonist before and after.
6:24Prompt the AI to ask you, at the start
6:26of the story, what does your protagonist
6:28believe that is wrong or incomplete? And
6:30by the end, what do they know or embody
6:32instead? What wound or fear is driving
6:35their decisions? What do they think they
6:37want versus what do they really need?
6:39Answers to those questions will give you
6:41the spine for your character arc. For
6:43example, at the start your character
6:45might say something like, "I must do
6:46everything alone or I'll be hurt." And
6:49by the end, they're letting people in
6:51they've realized that letting people in
6:53is the only way to survive and win. Now,
6:56every major decision in the book is
6:57pulled between these two poles.
7:00Now, next you want to define three to
7:02five major characters with mini arcs.
7:04And real quick, if you want the exact
7:06long-form prompts I use to write books
7:07with AI, hit the Story Hacker link
7:09below. The group's wait-listed right
7:11now, but when you join, I'll email you
7:12my full prompt pack for free. Pop in
7:15your email and I'll send it over. For
7:17each, define what do they want? What are
7:20they afraid of? How do they change, even
7:23slightly, by the end? You can have AI
7:26generate a character sheet, but you
7:27answer the emotional questions yourself.
7:30Ask AI to generate things like the
7:32physical description, the quirks, the
7:33speech patterns,
7:35relationship dynamics,
7:37and then you approve or edit. Don't get
7:40lost in the 40-page character bibles.
7:43Instead, ask, "Will this detail show up
7:44in the story?" If not, you can probably
7:47safely cut it. The next step is to map
7:50out your conflicts. Before you leave
7:52this character phase, have AI help you
7:54map where does each character's goal
7:57clash with the others?
7:58Who is directly blocking the
8:00protagonist? Where can alliances form
8:03and break? You're building a pressure
8:05cooker here, not a cast list.
8:08So, by the end of step two, you should
8:09have a one to two page protagonist arc
8:11summary and a one page roughly per major
8:15character with their goal, fear, arc,
8:17and key relationships.
8:18Now, step three is world building, where
8:21and this will take place over days five
8:23and six. World building is where many
8:24authors disappear for like 6 months or
8:27more and never return. But remember, we
8:29are not building an encyclopedia here.
8:32We are instead building a stage for your
8:33characters to perform on. This is true
8:36of every genre genre, whether it's
8:38contemporary romance, which will have a
8:40small town layout and workplaces and
8:42social circles. All of that is world
8:43building, even though it's not a fantasy
8:45or a science fiction. In your thriller,
8:47you might have city geography,
8:48institutions, law enforcement, all of
8:51that. In fantasy and science fiction,
8:52you have magic systems, technology, and
8:54the rules of that, politics and
8:56geography. But what we want to make sure
8:59we focus on is story-first world
9:01building. The rule is, if it doesn't
9:03touch the story, it is optional. So, ask
9:06the AI to list every location that will
9:08appear in the story. Then list systems
9:11that impact the plot, like magic, tech,
9:14government, school, workplace, etc. And
9:17then for each item, decide is it vital?
9:19Must it be defined clearly now? Is it
9:22flexible? Can it be sketched and refined
9:25later? Or is it just flavor? Can it be
9:27added ad hoc if needed? And what you
9:30want to do is spend your time mostly on
9:31the vital list. Use AI as your
9:34researcher, for especially for
9:36real-world settings. So, you can ask it
9:38to give you things like an overview of
9:39the neighborhoods in a city that would
9:41fit the correct vibe you're looking for.
9:43Or what's a realistic floor plan for a
9:45type of house or apartment in a given
9:49area? What about common slang or fashion
9:52and hangout spots for an age group in
9:55your setting? And for speculative
9:57settings, you can ask it to explain a
9:59magic system based on your concept with
10:02a couple of hard rules and a couple of
10:03soft rules.
10:05Or you can ask five different ways that
10:07a certain technology would impact daily
10:09life for ordinary people, then simplify
10:11that. If a detail doesn't drive conflict
10:13or flavor in a key scene, don't lock it
10:15in. The next step is to get visual
10:17references. Optionally, you can use AI
10:20tools or even a simple social media
10:23platform like Pinterest to grab a couple
10:25of images per key location, couple
10:27images per major character, and these
10:30can be just mood boards for general
10:31vibe. You don't necessarily need these
10:33to write, but they can be useful. Uh
10:35this is not for perfection, uh for
10:37speed.
10:38Visuals help your brain and the and AI
10:40to stay more or less consistent. So, by
10:43the end of step three, you'll have a two
10:44to five-page world doc with key
10:46locations, rules that affect the plot,
10:48and any reference images or links that
10:50you uh want to have.
10:52Step four is outlining. This will take
10:55the take up days 7 through 10. This is
10:57where the book becomes inevitable. You
10:59can technically skip outlining
11:01uh if you're more of a discovery writer,
11:03but if you do, add those days these days
11:05that we're doing now to the editing
11:06process later because you will pay that
11:08cost later. And I recommend you do it
11:10now while it's cheaper.
11:12First, you want to choose a basic
11:13structure. Pick a skeleton, any
11:15skeleton. This could be the three-act
11:17structure, the four-act structure, the
11:18hero's journey, save the cat. I have my
11:20own plot module.
11:21Uh whatever fits your genre. And then
11:23have the AI summarize that structure,
11:26show how it usually applies in your
11:27genre, then slot your story concept and
11:29character arcs into that structure.
11:31Then, you want to have a high-level beat
11:34outline. Or I usually just do a kind of
11:37more extensive outline with 500 words or
11:40so per chapter. You want to know what
11:42happens, whose POV is it in, and all of
11:45that. You're also aiming for clear
11:47escalation of stakes, the logical cause
11:49and effect, and at least one meaningful
11:51decision or reveal per chapter.
11:54Use AI to propose alternatives. Like,
11:56give me three options for how this
11:57chapter could end with higher stakes.
11:59Suggest three complications that could
12:01happen at the midpoint. And then you
12:03just approve, tweak, or reject all that
12:05it gives you. You are the showrunner
12:07here.
12:08Then, we want to get into granular
12:10chapter planning. Now, this is kind of
12:12optional. I tend to work with a kind of
12:14loose outline and work from there, but
12:16some for some authors it can be really
12:18helpful to have a more detailed chapter
12:20outline, uh sometimes called a scene
12:22brief.
12:23For each chapter here, or at least for
12:24the first half of the book or so, you
12:26want to define the POV of the character,
12:28the location that it's in, the goal of
12:29the scene, the obstacle, the outcome,
12:32the emotional shift. And you can save
12:34time by having AI turn your high-level
12:35outline into a table with all of the
12:38columns that you need, and then you fill
12:40in or correct as needed.
12:42By the end of step four in these days,
12:44you'll have a chapter-by-chapter outline
12:46for the whole book, and each chapter has
12:48a clear purpose and outcome. At this
12:50point, the hard thinking is mostly done.
12:53This you've done everything that is most
12:56essential for the human to be involved
12:57with
12:58uh until we get to the editing stuff
12:59later on. Now, we just have to write it.
13:03So, that leads us to step five, which is
13:04generating the prose, and I give you
13:07essentially a whole week to do this one,
13:08days 11 through 17. This is actually
13:11where AI really shines if you've set it
13:13up correctly.
13:15You're aiming for something like 60 to
13:1780,000 words total depending on the
13:18genre, at least that's what I shoot for.
13:20Some genres will have more, some will
13:22have less. And we're giving you seven
13:24working days of prose generation,
13:25roughly 10K words per day, which is
13:28actually pretty easy with AI. If that
13:30sounds insane, remember you're not
13:32typing every word. You are guiding it
13:34and curating it. And you'll do this one
13:36chapter at a time. Do not ask the AI to
13:39write my entire novel or you'll get
13:41mush.
13:42Instead, for each chapter, we want to
13:44paste the relevant pieces in, like your
13:46story dossier,
13:48your character sheets that you developed
13:50already, the world-building snippets
13:51that are relevant to the scene, and the
13:53specific chapter outline and scene goal
13:55that you've already established in the
13:57previous step. And then prompt along the
13:59lines of, "Using the information above,
14:01write chapter X in this style around
14:04this world word count with this POV,
14:06focus on such and such emotion and
14:08conflict, uh avoid these things. You
14:12write it in this style."
14:14And then you are at the first editor in
14:16real time as it generates. So, stop and
14:18redirect if it goes off tone or off
14:20plot, and ask it to rewrite paragraphs
14:22that feel generic or AI sloppish. And
14:25then you insert your own lines where it
14:26matters emotionally.
14:28Then, once the chapter draft is done,
14:30read through it once, fix obvious
14:32continuity errors, flag anything you're
14:34unsure about for the second editing
14:36pass.
14:37And this is your first editing pass
14:39folded into the drafting. Uh let's talk
14:42about the daily targets and the pacing
14:44because uh this can be overwhelming for
14:45some people. At roughly 10,000 words per
14:48day using AI, many people can do this in
14:51about an hour of focused generation plus
14:53an extra 30 to 60 minutes of light
14:55editing per day.
14:56If your schedule is tight, split it into
14:58generating in the morning with the quick
15:01cleanup at night. The key is consistency
15:03here. Even if you're tired, do one
15:05chapter because momentum is everything.
15:07When you stop, friction grows. The
15:09deliverable by the end of this step five
15:12is a complete, messy, but coherent first
15:14draft of your novel. You are now farther
15:18than 99% of what aspiring authors ever
15:21get to. Now, step six is the second
15:24editing pass, which is days 18 through
15:2620. This is where we turn AI-assisted
15:29draft into this actually reads like a
15:30book, right? You've already done a light
15:33first pass during the drafting. Now, we
15:35zoom out a bit. I like to use tools like
15:38Autocrit or even some of my own
15:39automation set I've built for line-level
15:41cleanup.
15:42Uh you want tools and workflows that can
15:44catch AI slop, AI-isms, repeated
15:47phrases, overused clichés, overly formal
15:50or robotic terms of phrase. And we want
15:53to improve clarity and flow by shorting
15:56bloated sen- sentences, varying sentence
15:58length, uh sharpening weak verbs. And
16:01I'm built currently building and using
16:03automations that do exactly this. Uh
16:05like a full line edit plus an AI tell
16:07cleanup. And then hand it back to you
16:09for a human sanity check where I give it
16:11one more read through. You don't need to
16:13become a line or let the machine be the
16:16grammar cop here, and you focus on,
16:18"Does it sound like me? Does this feel
16:20like my story? Is it chronologically
16:22consistent?" etc. After the automated
16:25line edit, do one fast but attentive
16:27read through. Track continuity like
16:29ages, timelines, locations, weather,
16:32injuries, etc. Check the character arcs.
16:35Does the protagonist's internal change
16:38land? Do subplots resolve or at least
16:40land intentionally open?
16:42And then you want to cut the dead
16:43weight. Any scene that doesn't change
16:45something like the relationship, the
16:47knowledge, the stakes is a candidate for
16:49cutting or combining. Ask AI specific
16:51questions like, "Identify three to five
16:53scenes that feel slow or redundant.
16:55Where does the protagonist's arc feel
16:57weakest?" And you don't have to take
16:59every suggestion. In fact, I recommend
17:01you don't because it will always give
17:02you something. And it's not always going
17:04to be right, but it can give you some
17:08patterns that it can spot for you to
17:09pick up on.
17:11The deliverable by the end of step six
17:13is a clean, readable manuscript that
17:15you're not embarrassed by, and a short
17:17list of any last fixes and like typos,
17:20small continuity tweaks, etc. Then, we
17:22get into step six, which is formatting,
17:24and this is day 21, the penultimate day.
17:26This is one of the easiest parts, and
17:28people love to overcomplicate it. You do
17:30not need to become a book designer. To
17:32There are tools like Atticus, which is
17:34my choice, or Vellum if you have a Mac,
17:37uh that can make this process almost
17:39trivial. You start by importing and
17:41choosing a template,
17:42which involves importing your cleaned
17:44manuscript into Atticus or Vellum,
17:47picking a genre-appropriate interior
17:48style, setting your trim size. I like 5
17:52by 8 in myself, and that's only if
17:54you're doing paperbacks. Then, fixing
17:57your fonts and that and sizes and
17:58everything for chapter headings, front
18:00and back matter, and you can
18:01realistically get a solid format done in
18:04under an hour for your book. Then, you
18:06want to make sure you check your cover
18:08specs. If your designer has delivered
18:10your cover by now, make sure the
18:11dimensions and the bleed match your
18:13ebook cover. Make sure the dimensions
18:15and bleed match. You want to make sure
18:17your ebook cover is the required pixel
18:19size and aspect ratio, and that your
18:21paperback cover, if you are choosing to
18:24have one, is specific for your page
18:26count and your trim size. Most tools or
18:29even KDP itself have calculators for
18:30spine width. So, if your page count
18:33changed significantly from what you
18:35estimated, ask your designer for an
18:36updated file. The deliverable by the end
18:39of step seven is a production-ready EPUB
18:41and/or print PDF, and your finalized
18:45book cover.
18:46All right. Now, step eight is the final
18:49day, day 22, where you hit publish. This
18:52is where most people stall, not because
18:54it's hard, but because it's scary.
18:56You're not afraid of the uploading
18:58process. In this case, you're afraid of
19:00people actually seeing your work. But
19:02we're going to do it anyway.
19:03So, the first step is figuring out your
19:05platform, and if you're just starting
19:07out, I recommend Amazon KDP. And I also
19:09recommend enrolling your book in Kindle
19:11Unlimited, which makes it exclusive, but
19:13I recommend this only for your first
19:15couple of books
19:16uh until you've actually made some
19:18success on Amazon. And why is this?
19:20Because it's the easiest to set up. It
19:22has built-in traffic. It They tend to do
19:25better on Kindle Unlimited. You optimize
19:27for one ecosystem at first instead of
19:30five. And if you're more experienced and
19:32want wide distribution, platforms like
19:34Draft2Digital make it easy to get into
19:36multiple stores. But for book one with
19:38AI,
19:40keep it simple. Upload the process
19:42And then you want to upload your book.
19:45So, you'll create your KDP account if
19:46you don't have one already, enter in
19:49your book details like your title, your
19:51subtitle, your series info if
19:53applicable, your description, and yes AI
19:55can help with the draft of that, too.
19:57Your keywords, your categories, and then
20:00you want to upload your manuscript file,
20:03which will include your ebook cover or
20:05the paperback cover if you're doing
20:06that. And then you go through and set
20:09your pricing. For this one, you look at
20:11the genre norms for your genre, what are
20:14they pricing for that, and then start
20:15within the standard range, and you can
20:17experiment later. Then you hit publish.
20:20Now, you're not done done until the book
20:23is actually live and you have at least a
20:24few readers. I personally don't consider
20:27a book truly done until a reader has
20:30read it. So, that is the next step where
20:34you actually start to do a little bit of
20:35marketing, but that's a whole 'nother
20:37step entirely
20:39and worthy of another video on its own.
20:41So, I hope this was useful for you, and
20:44I will see you in the next video.