Full transcript
0:00Back in the early days of my channel, I
0:02spent a lot of time just going through
0:03and talking about some cool prompts that
0:05I'd come up with. And now I'm going
0:07through and doing the same thing again.
0:09Today I have a really advanced prompt to
0:11get incredible results from your
0:14characters if you're writing fiction.
0:16And uh I just want to walk you through
0:18it and this includes a brand new
0:20technique, at least new for me. It's
0:22kind of derived from some techniques
0:24that I have heard about. And let's be
0:26clear, I have not seen any prompts or
0:28anything. I've just heard about this
0:29technique from the folks over at Future
0:32Fiction Academy. And really I only have
0:35just uh idea of the concept of what they
0:37were doing. Again, I haven't seen any of
0:39their actual prompts in use. So I just
0:41kind of took the concept and made it my
0:43own. Uh but I just want to make sure we
0:46give credit where credit's due for the
0:48concept of this.
0:49Uh all right. So this right here is my
0:53prompt and it's quite a lengthy prompt.
0:55Starts here and keeps going going going
0:58for quite a while as you can see.
1:01And
1:03still going and there it is. All right.
1:06So if you want to get this, this
1:07document is available to those who sign
1:09up for my waiting list. Uh which you can
1:11find a link to down below. And it is
1:13free. If if you want to get this
1:15document, it has all of my other prompts
1:17that I've talked about as well.
1:18Uh but this one starts the the goal of
1:20this one is it's meant to expand one
1:23character at a time. So this is not a
1:26prompt to flesh out all of your
1:27characters all at once. This is a little
1:29bit more fine-tuned for just one
1:32character at a time, but we'll go really
1:34in-depth on that character and you can
1:36run this on each of your different
1:37characters until you have a document
1:40with all of them. So this is a little
1:42bit what it looks like. First of all, we
1:44got to establish establish the genre
1:46because certain genres will depending on
1:49what genre it is, it'll have an effect
1:51on the type of character that you are uh
1:55working with. So I have these little XML
2:00uh, tags here to say this is essentially
2:02a box where your story where your genre
2:05tropes go. So, you want to insert any
2:07relevant tropes for your genre here.
2:10Then, we get into this fun little thing
2:12that I'm calling the slider rubric
2:14rubric. And this is a lengthy section of
2:17the prompt.
2:18>> [snorts]
2:18>> So, my slider rubric the idea behind
2:20this is that we have, I think, 15 or so
2:23different sliders that represent
2:26different personality aspects of the
2:27character.
2:28All right? And
2:30uh, I don't know about you, but I you my
2:34emotions can fluctuate sometimes. And
2:36what these sliders do is they allow your
2:38character's emotions to fluctuate in the
2:40story as well. So, you might have a
2:42character who is the nicest person ever,
2:44but put them under enough stress and
2:47they could murder somebody. Or, you
2:49know, what I'm saying? Like, it's it's
2:52something that can change depending on
2:56the situation.
2:57So, what this does is it allows us to
3:00establish a baseline numbers for each
3:02slider. Uh, so I have here below is a
3:05five-point rubric for each slider mapped
3:07to -10, -5, 0, 5, and 10. You can
3:11interpolate in between. Example is -7 as
3:14between
3:15uh, -10 and -5.
3:18And then we get into the individual
3:20sliders themselves. So, this first one
3:22is stress versus calm. So, like a -10
3:26would be really stressed.
3:28And a positive 10 would be really calm.
3:31So, that's kind of how this works. And
3:33then we actually spell out what the what
3:36those look like. And I don't give every
3:37single number,
3:39uh, but this does give you -10, -5, 0,
3:425, and 10. So, for this specific one,
3:45going between stress and calm,
3:48uh, we say a -10 is they're on the verge
3:50of a breakdown, panicky, scattered,
3:52unable to think straight, body
3:53overloaded, like shaking, sweating,
3:55racing thoughts. So, they're basically
3:56having a a panic attack.
3:58And like having genuine physical issues
4:02from their stress.
4:03Uh -5, they are noticeably tense,
4:06snappy, irritable, distractible,
4:07overreacts to small problems,
4:09catastrophizes internally.
4:11A zero is manageably pressured, feels
4:14strained, but can stay functional, maybe
4:16curt, but keeps perspective.
4:18A five is relaxed and easygoing, handles
4:20setbacks with patience, recovers quickly
4:22from annoyances.
4:24A 10 is deeply serene, almost
4:26meditative, unflappable even in crisis.
4:29Acts as a stabilizing presence for
4:31others. So, that's the slider here in
4:34case of stress to calm, okay?
4:37Um they, you know, a -10 is super
4:39stressed, a +10 is deeply calm.
4:43And then I have sliders for a bunch of
4:45different things. I think I've got 15 of
4:47them here. Uh so, we've got one that
4:49goes from fear on one end to courage.
4:51I'm not going to read each of these
4:52individually cuz we'd be here all day.
4:54Uh we've got one that goes through from
4:57suspicion on one end to trust on the
4:59other.
5:00A callous to empathetic.
5:03Uh impulsivity to self-control.
5:07Dominance to submission.
5:10Pessimism to optimism.
5:13Introverted to extroverted. I actually
5:16decided to make this one a slider. I I
5:18originally was going to make this just
5:20like a common personality trait. But I
5:22realized that
5:23at least for me, my level of
5:25introversion and extroversion does
5:26actually change depending on the
5:29situation. So, sometimes I might be more
5:31extroverted, sometimes I want more alone
5:33time. Depends on what happens, like
5:35for instance, if some tragedy happened
5:37and I'm super depressed, I'm going to
5:38want to be more introverted, you know?
5:41Um
5:42so so I made this a slider instead. And
5:45And we have gut to logic. So, are they
5:47gut driven or are they logic driven?
5:50Uh detail focused or big picture?
5:53So, if they're negative, it means
5:54they're more detail focused. If they're
5:56more in the positive, they thinking more
5:58big picture.
5:59Uh cautious versus risk taker.
6:02Seriousness versus humor.
6:05Um like a 10 is a constant jokester.
6:08Um whereas a negative 10 is grave,
6:10rarely jokes, treats most topics
6:12solemnly, uncomfortable with levity.
6:14Quick break. Most people watch these
6:16videos not along and then don't actually
6:18write. I built my Story Hacker
6:20membership to fix that. For just $9 a
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6:25are uh over $200 if you bought them on
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6:38join the $9 tier, and we'll get you on
6:40boarded. Deception to honesty.
6:44Stability to sensitivity. Or like as in
6:48like ego fragility.
6:50Uh so, a negative 10 means they're
6:52unshakeable and a positive 10 means
6:54they're extremely fragile like small
6:56comments feel like attacks, frequent
6:58shame spikes, may lash out or withdraw
7:00dramatically. I'm sure we all know some
7:01people like that. Uh then the next one
7:04is shame to self-worth. So, negative 10,
7:07they're super shameful. At a at a
7:08positive 10, they have really high
7:09self-worth.
7:11And that's it. That's the slider rubric.
7:13Uh let me know in the comments if there
7:14are any others that you would slip in
7:16here.
7:17Uh I think there are 15 of these, so um
7:20that's that's the slider rubric part of
7:22this and it's a key part of this prompt.
7:25And then I give it these XML task tags
7:29and have you insert your story dossier
7:31here. This prompt is is uh
7:34uh assumes that you have a story dossier
7:38or at least a detailed
7:40overview of what your story is and maybe
7:43a list of characters and everything
7:44first before we get to this part.
7:47Uh in my story dossiers, I typically
7:50have a summary of the plot, quick
7:51summary of the plot like a few
7:53paragraphs for the whole thing.
7:55A list of characters and a list of
7:58world-building and setting elements as
8:00well.
8:01And that's so we just have a
8:04kind of over broad high-level view of
8:08the book itself that it can draw from.
8:10Otherwise, it's going to be pulling in a
8:12bunch of random unnecessary and
8:14non-relevant details. So, make sure you
8:17do have at least a high-level view of
8:19your book and include that here.
8:23Um additionally, you might just have
8:24other random things that you wanted to
8:26know like, oh, this character has this
8:28issue
8:29uh and I want to make or this happened
8:31in their backstory or they have a scar
8:33here, you know, whatever notes
8:35that you want to make sure are included,
8:37you can put those here.
8:39And then we get to the instructions,
8:41which goes something like this. Given
8:42the above brain dump information, genre
8:44tropes, and the story dossier, I want
8:46you to create a fleshed-out character
8:47sheet for this specific character. Then
8:48you want to insert your character name
8:50here. It should know who that is because
8:52the story dossier was inserted earlier.
8:55Uh first, determine if this character is
8:56a major or minor character in the story.
8:58You can reference this dossier to see if
8:59they are. If they are a major character,
9:01I want you to generate the following.
9:03And I do this so cuz minor characters do
9:06not need the same level of fleshing out.
9:09Um so, we want to make sure that we
9:12aren't spending too much time or tokens
9:14on them.
9:15But for the major characters, we want a
9:17physical description, their primary role
9:19in the story, i.e. protagonist,
9:21antagonist, love interest, henchman,
9:22etc. Their most appropriate Myers-Briggs
9:25profile, the Enneagram and Clifton
9:27strengths,
9:28their core motivation, what is their
9:30heart's desire that is driving them most
9:31of the time,
9:32a brief explanation of their background
9:34before the start part story, an
9:36interesting quirk, hobby, or something
9:37that makes them unique. This should be
9:38something that doesn't necessarily fit
9:40with the story, but makes the character
9:41more interesting.
9:42The dialogue style, how do they talk?
9:45Uh number eight is slider levels. Select
9:47the baseline numbers on each of the
9:49slider levels based on the slider rubric
9:51found above. These are just the
9:52baselines for this character, the level
9:53of their slider most of the time.
9:56>> [snorts]
9:56>> So,
9:58uh you might be mostly uh introvert most
10:01of the time. In which case, it would
10:03probably pick a number like -4 or
10:05something for that particular slider.
10:08But, that's just your baseline cuz all
10:09of these things can fluctuate, and
10:10that's something that we determine later
10:12when we're going through each chapter
10:15and figuring out, okay, where is this
10:16character on all of these sliders for
10:18this chapter?
10:20And that can just add a little bit more
10:21depth and uh intro
10:24you know, make it so that they're less
10:25copy-paste.
10:27Right?
10:28Uh then the character arc. Every major
10:30character should have a character arc,
10:31aka change that they undergo from the
10:33beginning of the story to the end. The
10:34protagonist will usually have a positive
10:36arc unless the genre dictates otherwise,
10:38but not all major characters have
10:39positive arcs.
10:40Villains, for example, might have a
10:42change, but it won't necessarily be
10:43positive. Your job is not to produce a
10:45happily ever after for each character,
10:47it is to be a brutal storyteller. Do not
10:49invent major story information that is
10:51not included in the dossier. Here is
10:53something of the information you'll need
10:55for this and uh here is some of the
10:57information you'll need for this and an
10:58explanation of what that looks like.
11:00How they began.
11:02So, this is another major thing that I
11:04added to my character prompts is really
11:07plotting out the character arc for each
11:08one.
11:09And so, each of these are like key
11:11moments in their character arc that I
11:12want to make sure we establish early on.
11:15Uh this will help us later when we're
11:16doing outlining, for instance, uh
11:18because the character arc is so tied to
11:21the plot in the outlining.
11:23So, how they began. Every character
11:24starts somewhere, and they usually have
11:26something to learn or do at the start of
11:27the story. They don't have this yet.
11:29How they They changed by the end. By the
11:31end of the story, something should have
11:32changed. They are no longer the person
11:33they were at the beginning. They have
11:34learned something, changed in some way
11:36for good or bad depending on the type of
11:37arc. And that is evident in their
11:40interaction with the other characters.
11:42What pushes them into joining the events
11:43of the plot? Every character starts in
11:45their own little ordinary world where
11:46they are comfortable.
11:48And the plot at some point pushes them
11:50into action. For the protagonist this is
11:52usually at the bridge between act one
11:54and act two, where they have to make the
11:55conscious choice to leave their ordinary
11:57world and become proactive. But other
11:59characters go through a similar moment,
12:00though it can be earlier or later in the
12:02plot depending on the character.
12:04Their midpoint moment. The protagonist
12:05goes through another switch from passive
12:07to active at the midpoint of the story,
12:09but every character arc should have a
12:11midpoint like moment, even if it's not
12:13quite aligned with the midpoint of the
12:14story overall. This is the moment when
12:16they become more proactive.
12:18And then the climax moment. Somewhere in
12:19the climax of the story, though not
12:21necessarily all at the same time, every
12:22character arc experiences a climax. The
12:25moment when they fully embrace the
12:26change that needs to happen for them to
12:28complete their arc.
12:29If the character is a minor character,
12:31so so everything that we just went
12:33through is for major characters. And
12:35then here's um here's the uh
12:38instructions for the minor characters.
12:39If the character is a minor character,
12:40just output two to three sentences that
12:42give us a brief understanding of their
12:43background, their core desire, and their
12:44relationship to the plot.
12:46So I really don't need much for them.
12:48Uh format your list using markdown in
12:50the following format. If a major
12:51character, output the following format.
12:53We have the main major character's name,
12:56and then the physical description, role
12:57in the story, personality profiles, core
12:59motivation, background, quirk, dialogue
13:01level, slider levels. Then I list all of
13:04the slider levels here.
13:06Uh insert baseline level here as a whole
13:07numeral for each of those.
13:09>> [snorts]
13:09>> Character arc, how they begin, how they
13:11have changed by the end, what pushes
13:12them into joining the events of the
13:13plot, their midpoint moment, their
13:14climax moment. If a minor character,
13:17output in the following format. Minor
13:18character name, description, two to
13:20three sentence description here.
13:22Only include the asked for character
13:23details. Do not add any preamble
13:25commentary or anything other than what
13:27I've asked for above.
13:29And that is the advanced character
13:34fleshing [snorts] out prompt, whatever
13:35you want to call it. Uh
13:37I'm pretty happy with this. I think this
13:39is an excellent prompt. I've gotten
13:40really good results with it so far, and
13:42I'll show you in a future video how I've
13:44managed to incorporate this into an
13:46automation,
13:47uh which will do all of my characters
13:48for me. Once again, if you want to get
13:50your hands on this prompt and all of the
13:52other prompts in this prompt list, make
13:53sure to do so by joining the waiting
13:55list at the link below.
13:57And I will see you there.