Full transcript
0:00If you give me 1 hour a day, I can give
0:02you a finished novel in under 30 days.
0:05And I'm not talking about a
0:06half-finished Google Doc. I'm not
0:08talking about just still working on your
0:10world-building. I'm talking about a
0:12complete draft here. The reason you
0:14don't have a book yet isn't that you're
0:15lazy or untalented, it's that you're
0:17trying to write a 50,000 word problem
0:20with a 500 word process. And in this
0:22video, I'm going to show you the exact
0:24AI workflow that I use to crank out 4 to
0:275,000 words an hour and turn that into a
0:30full novel in less than a month without
0:32quitting your job or abandoning your
0:34life. And if you stick with me to the
0:36end, you'll never look at I don't have
0:38time to write the same way again.
0:40Now, quick context, if you don't know
0:42who I am, my name is Jason. I help
0:44aspiring authors pump out quality,
0:46emphasis on quality, books fast with AI.
0:50My goal is to get you to a book a month
0:52at least without sacrificing your
0:54creativity or the quality of the book
0:56itself. And yes, it is possible. I have
0:59hundreds of students in my Story Hacker
1:00community that have done it. And before
1:02this, I wrote 14 books the traditional
1:04way plucking away at the keyboard for
1:06literally an hour every day before work
1:08cuz that's the only time I had. And even
1:10without AI, that was enough to finish a
1:12book every two to three months. So, I
1:14know a few things about squeezing in
1:15that writing time and actually
1:16finishing, not hemming and hawing around
1:19the book. In this video, I'm going to
1:20walk you through a three-part system.
1:22First, I will talk to you about why
1:24automations are probably what you want
1:26to work with. Second, I will talk about
1:29doing a solid week of prep work so that
1:32the book eventually writes itself
1:34essentially. And three, we'll run
1:36through a daily 1-hour loop that
1:37produces about two chapters a day until
1:39the book is done. Simple doesn't mean
1:42easy, but it does mean repeatable. So,
1:44let's get into the video. So, first of
1:46all, let's talk about automations. Why
1:48do I think automations are important?
1:50Well, I have found ever since I
1:52discovered automations through platforms
1:54like Make or N8N, I have found that they
1:57save me enormous amounts of time and I
2:00even pretty much eliminated all other
2:02writing tools from my process once I had
2:04a system worked out in n8n
2:07to automate uh good chunks of the
2:08process. And the reason for this is if
2:11you're using a chatbot like ChatGPT or
2:13even a more specialized writing tool
2:15like Sudowrite or Novelcrafter, I have
2:18found that those things often have loops
2:21that you have to go through that take
2:23your time but don't necessarily need you
2:26in that process. Now, it is absolutely
2:28important to have lots of human feedback
2:31in the whole loop, but there are ways
2:33through multiple steps of the AI process
2:36where you can actually get it to a
2:37higher level of quality before you even
2:39look at it so that when you do look at
2:42it, it can actually take you less time
2:44to approve it and make sure that
2:46everything is good rather than having to
2:48rewrite the whole thing. So, I've
2:49developed a five-part system, so five
2:52automations in the tool called n8n which
2:55I use to make this process really,
2:57really fast. And if you only have a
2:59limited amount of time like say an hour
3:00a day or less,
3:02then I strongly recommend learning
3:04automations, getting a system set up so
3:06that you can use that time more
3:08valuable.
3:09Uh but let's go into some of these
3:11automations and take a look of what they
3:13look like. Now, I have a whole playlist
3:15about how to create n8n automations and
3:17how to get started in n8n. It is a
3:19little bit technical and actually
3:22showing you step-by-step how to create
3:23these things is beyond the scope of this
3:25video. Uh so, you can go and check out
3:27that playlist and the other videos on my
3:29channel if you're interested in that and
3:30I'll also give you some um additional
3:33things that are coming up in the near
3:35future that might help you as well. So,
3:38this is my first automation in the
3:40process and like I said, I have five. Uh
3:42this one grabs a number of templates, so
3:44I like to give it templates on say
3:45tropes and the plot and the themes and
3:48the characters and worldbuilding and it
3:50creates a document called the story
3:52dossier. And all of these steps are part
3:55of that process so that you don't have
3:57to spend a whole lot of your time
3:59explaining yourself.
4:00Uh basically, all you have to do is do a
4:02little work up front,
4:04let the process run, and then do a
4:05little work after. But, here's what this
4:08looks like. First, it identifies the
4:09genre, then it brainstorms five
4:11different pitches on essentially what
4:13would be a good story with a good hook,
4:17and then it picks the best one. Now, you
4:18can always go back and choose a
4:20different one that you want it to do,
4:21but generally, I find AI does pick a
4:24good one out of that list. And then it
4:25outputs that pitch and creates the full
4:27story dossier. Now, a story dossier in
4:29this case is not fully fleshed out or
4:31anything. It's more like a call sheet,
4:33like a list of all of the characters and
4:35the world building elements and
4:36everything that it needs to flesh out
4:39later. So, we're just sort of getting
4:40our bearings on everything that's going
4:42to be needed for this. And then it does
4:44an emotional check. And this emotional
4:46check is, you know, every book needs to
4:48have a lot of emotion at its core.
4:50Otherwise, it doesn't keep people
4:51engaged, doesn't get people interested.
4:54So, we run this check. So, it reads the
4:57story dossier and says, "Is this good?"
5:00Like, "Could we make this more of a gut
5:02punch?" or something like that. It also
5:05runs a character name check to make sure
5:06none of the names that it invented are
5:09super AI-ish, right? The names like
5:12Sarah Chen or Marcus Chen or Alara or
5:15Lyra, one of those names. And checks for
5:18those
5:19and renames them if needed. If you
5:22brought in your own names, they won't
5:23touch those. And then it'll do a dossier
5:25rewrite. So, it gathers all that
5:27feedback that it just got from the
5:28emotion check and the character name
5:29check and rewrites it. Then it does one
5:31more check called the logic check,
5:33which is just where I ask it to
5:36look through things and make sure it all
5:37makes sense. Like, are there any
5:38motivations of the characters and their
5:41actions that just don't quite fit? Uh is
5:44there something that doesn't quite fit
5:46with like the laws of physics as we know
5:48it, you know, the stuff like that. It
5:50just thinks through something logically
5:52to make sure everything kind of stacks
5:54up and then does a second rewrite and
5:57then it updates the document. So this is
5:59a good example of something that if you
6:01just went and said make me a story
6:03dossier for and you give it a couple of
6:06details about your story, it won't do a
6:08good job. But if you do it this way
6:10where everything is structured and it's
6:12doing multiple checks to make sure that
6:15it certain things that you want to
6:16prioritize high in creative writing are
6:19there,
6:20you're going to end up with a much
6:21better output. Now, I have four more of
6:24these and I won't go into each of them
6:26in super detail, but this one here takes
6:29that dossier
6:30that you created in the previous step
6:32and it fleshes out the characters.
6:34So of course between each of these you
6:36want to make sure that you go through
6:37the documents that it's creating and
6:39make sure it fits your vision, make sure
6:41everything's correct. You have extra
6:43details to add, you add those. There is
6:45some setup time required. But I do think
6:48that you can get through these first
6:50couple of automations in about a week
6:54with an hour a day roughly. So roughly 7
6:57hours of time, I'm pretty sure you can
6:59get through all of this especially with
7:01AI to help. All you have to do like for
7:03instance with the brain dump to dossier
7:04automation, you just have to start up up
7:07front with a little bit of time to brain
7:09dump everything you can think of related
7:11to your story and input that in and then
7:14when it's done with the automation, you
7:16go through the finished doc and you
7:18modify or add or take away anything that
7:21doesn't quite fit. Once you've done
7:22that, you move on to the next one which
7:23in this case is the dossier to
7:25characters
7:26and this one does a loop. So it goes
7:28through your dossier and identifies who
7:29are all the characters and it makes a
7:31list of them and then it goes through
7:33these three steps
7:34um where it expands upon that character,
7:38it does another logic check similar to
7:40the one before and then it rewrites what
7:43the expansion did. So, the logic check
7:45here is also checking for things like,
7:47does it fit within the plot of the story
7:49and all of that? And then it rewrites,
7:52okay?
7:53Uh and then it also, once it's done with
7:54that, it'll also establish what the
7:56relationship dynamic is between all
7:57these characters.
7:59All right, the next one is almost
8:00exactly the same, except this time it's
8:02for world-building elements. So, any
8:05world-building that needs to be done,
8:06even if you're not doing a fantasy and
8:08science fiction, you still have
8:09world-building elements that are needed,
8:11like the layout of a house, or you know,
8:13just what does the workplace of this
8:15person look like, you know, stuff like
8:16that. Uh what city are they in? What
8:18does that look like? So, all of that
8:20needs to be fleshed out, and it's done
8:21so here in a three-step process similar
8:23to the characters.
8:25Then we move on to my favorite, which is
8:27the outline generator. I tend to get
8:29very hands-on with my outlines, but I
8:31still use this. So, I will give it the
8:33dossier and all the character info and
8:35the world-building sheet and everything
8:36that's been developed so far.
8:38And ideally, you should have gone
8:39through all of this and make sure
8:40everything is correct. And then it goes
8:43through, it writes the outline, it does
8:45another emotion check to make sure you
8:47got the those good gut punches, right,
8:49that we want for a good story. It does a
8:51rewrite after that emotion check. It
8:52does something called sliders. So,
8:55sliders is a term I came up with for
8:59certain things that vary from one scene
9:02to another.
9:03So, I'll give you an example. There are
9:05a bunch of sliders mentioned here and
9:06exactly what those sliders look like.
9:09This first one is tension.
9:11Right? So, number one is complete
9:14stillness. So, basically no conflict.
9:15You're rarely ever going to get that in
9:17a story.
9:18But at a 10, you'll have maximum
9:20immediate threat, like life, identity,
9:22or everything the protagonist has worked
9:24toward in the is on the line right now
9:26in the scene with no guaranteed escape.
9:28That's what it looks like if there's
9:29like a number a 10 out of 10 for
9:32tension. We also have sliders for dread,
9:34emotional intimacy, relationship
9:36tension, pacing, energy,
9:38humor,
9:39and it looks like those are the ones
9:41that we've got here.
9:42But yeah, so there are things like that
9:45that add a lot to the scene when it's
9:48being written.
9:49And so establishing those here at the
9:51outline stage really help with that
9:52process.
9:53Then we do a final logic check on this
9:55to make sure everything makes sense
9:58for the outline itself, and then it does
10:00a rewrite
10:01of the outline based on all of this
10:03feedback.
10:05Once this is done, I will go through and
10:07pretty heavily modify the outline. And
10:09as you'll see later, I actually also
10:11tend to do a little bit of modification
10:13of the outline as I'm going, which I'll
10:15get to next. But these first four
10:18automations that I've got, they're kind
10:19of one and done. You you do them, you
10:21check them. If everything checks out,
10:23you're done. You move on to the next
10:25one.
10:25This next automation
10:27is the one that takes your outline and
10:29your character doc and your
10:30world-building doc and it develops your
10:32whole book, but it does so one chapter
10:35at a time.
10:36This is where I have a specific system
10:39that I would use if you only have
10:4130 to 60 minutes a day to devote to
10:43this. So those first four automations I
10:46estimate will take about a week if
10:47you're really diligent and paying
10:48attention to everything. But once that's
10:50done, this next bit will probably take
10:52you three, maybe four weeks at at most
10:55depending on the length of your book.
10:57But most people could get this done in
10:58an additional three weeks after the
11:00first that you've done. So to just
11:02briefly run you through what this
11:04automation looks like, all of these
11:06first couple of nodes here are all
11:10devoted to creating a scene brief.
11:12This is essentially just going through
11:14all of your character doc, your
11:15world-building doc, and your outline,
11:17and it picks and chooses those things
11:19that are needed for this particular
11:21scene. And then it also modifies them to
11:24work for this scene. So for instance,
11:26you might have a character who is
11:29really, you know, she's normally a
11:31happy-go-lucky person, but in this
11:32particular scene, she's really sad.
11:35Now, if you just put in her a character
11:38doc that she's normally a happy-go-lucky
11:40person,
11:41it might write her that way in the
11:42scene. But, we need to make sure that
11:45the AI knows that she's not that way in
11:48this particular scene, and so it can
11:50adjust accordingly. And that's what all
11:52of these steps are essentially trying to
11:54do, not just for the characters, but for
11:56the world building and for the plot and
11:58stuff like that. And it creates the
12:00scene brief that's essentially a really
12:02fleshed out version of what needs to
12:04happen in the scene. And then here in
12:05this node right here,
12:07it actually goes and it writes the first
12:09draft of the chapter.
12:11Then it runs through a chronology check,
12:13which it actually did uh we did another
12:15chronology check as part of the scene
12:17brief.
12:18Uh but, it does a second one here on the
12:20actual finished prose, just in case. It
12:23also does a style check cuz as part of
12:25this automation, we include a style
12:27sheet for your books so that it can
12:30hopefully write as close to your style
12:32as possible, but sometimes it still
12:34doesn't do a very good job there. So, we
12:35have it do a style check where it rates
12:38the content that it got against the
12:41style sheet that you have and makes
12:43suggestions for improvements. And then
12:45it rewrite here where it incorporates
12:48that feedback that it got and it adds it
12:50to the document.
12:52Uh and it'll do this, it'll loop like
12:55this for every chapter.
12:56However,
12:57uh I generally do not recommend that
12:59people do this to write the whole book
13:00at once cuz you're going to end up with
13:02a bit of a messy draft. It is better to
13:04do this maybe at most two or three
13:07chapters at a time. So, this brings me
13:09to the process that I have if I only had
13:11an hour a day, this is what I would do.
13:14Uh I would go through, of course you you
13:16do the first two chapters, so you you
13:18have it generate chapter one, chapter
13:20two, and I would only do about two,
13:22maybe three chapters.
13:23And it would have it go through that
13:25process, then go through and you'll
13:27spend the majority of the hour editing
13:29those two to three chapters, okay?
13:31Making sure it's up to snuff, up to your
13:34standards, maybe adding in a bit of
13:36prose here and there, taking away
13:38certain things, and just general line
13:40editing stuff. It's actually a really
13:42useful process to teach you some of the
13:45basics of line editing. You'll get very
13:47good at it. But then, what I like to do
13:49is usually after I've gone through and
13:51I've edited the first two chapters,
13:53let's say,
13:54I like to go into my outline and look at
13:58the two chapters that are coming. So, if
14:00I've just edited chapters one and two, I
14:03look at the outline at chapters three
14:04and four,
14:06and usually, after having gone through
14:08that process, in that flow state still,
14:10and I can go through those chapters and
14:12say, "Okay, I actually wanted to expand
14:14on this. I want to change this." And
14:16usually, I will flesh it out just a
14:17little bit further, or give it more
14:19specific details that I want to make
14:21sure it covers in those next two
14:23chapters.
14:24And then, once I've done that, which
14:26takes like 5 minutes,
14:28then I will ask this automation to
14:31continue and actually flesh out and
14:33write those two chapters. So, what I
14:36would do is therefore, I would spend the
14:38majority of my time editing chapters one
14:40and two, then I'd modify the outline for
14:43chapters three and four, then I'd hit
14:45the go button on writing the chapters
14:48three and four, and then I would leave.
14:50And that would be my hour for the day.
14:53The next day, I'd come back, and those
14:55next two chapters are already written.
14:58So, all I have to do is start going
15:00through those and editing them and
15:01making it my own.
15:03And then, I'd go and modify chapters
15:06five and six inside the outline, and hit
15:09go on the button to write chapters five
15:10and six, and so on and so on to repeat
15:13that process. I use this exact process
15:15and these exact automations to write a
15:17book in about 4 days. Uh now, granted, I
15:19was doing a lot more than an hour at a
15:21time, but I was doing two or three
15:22chapters at a time, and uh I would just
15:25take breaks every time I would set it to
15:27automatically go through and write those
15:29two those next two chapters. That would
15:31just be my cue to like get up, get take
15:33a stretch, walk around, etc. And come
15:37back 15 minutes later after the whole
15:38thing has been uh fully finished, and
15:42continue with the next two chapters, and
15:44just continue that way. And after 4 days
15:46of about 6 to 8 hours of work, I was
15:48able to get that done. If this process
15:50interests you, you can actually get all
15:52of these automations in my membership,
15:54which is linked down below, along with
15:56the detailed instructions on how to get
15:58them started. But, I am also working on
16:00my own tool, which should be out very
16:02shortly. It might actually be out in
16:04open beta among my members. So, you
16:07might be able to get access to it
16:08already, but that tool will actually
16:10have these automations incorporated in
16:11it that won't require the huge technical
16:14setup that it takes to get any of them
16:16going.
16:17And uh and you won't have to do all of
16:19this. So, if that's interesting to you,
16:21go ahead and check out that link down
16:22below, and I will see you in the next
16:24video.