Full transcript
0:00Okay, so I've done a lot of videos on
0:02NAND automations recently and it's time
0:05to really start getting into the meat of
0:07things like how would you actually use
0:09these to write a book or at least to
0:12assist you in the writing process. And
0:15so I have the first automation that
0:17we're going to cover today that gets
0:19into that whole process. Now there are
0:22many steps to writing a whole book.
0:24People think of writing a book as one
0:26thing, you're just writing, but it's
0:27actually a lot more than that. There's
0:29brainstorming, there's outlining,
0:30there's character development, there's
0:32creating world building and lore,
0:34there's the actual first draft of the
0:36book. Then there's writing second and
0:37third drafts, developmental editing,
0:39line editing, copy editing, proof
0:41reading, and the list goes on, right?
0:43The one we're talking about today,
0:44though, is that initial brainstorming
0:46phase. And honestly, this is one of
0:48those areas where I don't rely on the AI
0:51too much myself. I will often just do
0:55all of the brainstorming myself and only
0:57consult AI if I'm feeling really stuck
0:59on a particular issue. But even then, I
1:02will still sometimes use this automation
1:04because I can still put all of my ideas
1:06into a single folder and even if I think
1:09they're all fleshed out, usually AI can
1:11flesh them out just a little bit more
1:13and get a few little holes filled in
1:16that I might not have anticipated. And
1:19then it just also formats all of the
1:21ideas very conveniently into a single
1:24document that I can then go through and
1:26approve and then move on to the next
1:28step. So let's take a look. So this is
1:30the automation here. I'm just calling it
1:32brain dump to uh dossier story dossier.
1:36And the term dossier in this context
1:38with AI I think originated with the
1:40folks over at Future Fiction Academy. Uh
1:43but I have not seen any other prompting
1:45for this. So, I have zero idea if what I
1:48have developed is anything like what
1:49they have, but I did use the term story
1:52dossier. Uh, so just credit where credit
1:55is due there. What we're essentially
1:56doing is taking your ideas, everything
1:58that you've put together so far, and
2:01formatting it into a nice story dossier,
2:04uh, which, as I define it, is
2:07essentially a giant list of all of the
2:09things that you need to get started
2:11writing and de and fleshing out your
2:13book even more. So let me show you a
2:15little bit of what that looks like.
2:17First, this automation starts with
2:19submitting a form. Okay, the way it
2:22works is if I select execute workflow,
2:24the form will pop up here and it has two
2:27fields that it asks. It says what is the
2:30title of your book? And it just asks for
2:33the brain dump. And the brain dump can
2:34be anything. It could be a single line
2:36about the concept that you have and then
2:39it'll take it from there and kind of
2:40brainstorm what how to flesh that out
2:43even further. Or you could give it like
2:45a 5,000word document and just paste it
2:48in here and from there it will refine it
2:52just a little bit but mostly it will
2:54stick to what you have provided as long
2:56as it works with the templates and
2:59everything. Now, for this example, I use
3:01this brain dump that I've developed for
3:03a specific series that I'm looking to
3:05start in the near future. The whole
3:06thing is about 2,800 words long. And uh
3:10the premise is that this is a series
3:12that centers around Michael, who is a
3:14descendant of Van Helsing, who fights
3:16mythological creatures from various
3:17mythologies. Over the course of the
3:19series, he ends up dying, going to hell,
3:20and leading a revolution in hell,
3:22eventually cleansing hell. That's over
3:24the course of the entire series. Um, but
3:26we do want to focus on a single uh the
3:29first book essentially. But I do have
3:32some information here that's more like
3:33serieswide and that's fine. It it will
3:35be able to understand that pretty well.
3:37And then I have like what's the genre
3:39mythologically maleled urban fantasy.
3:42This is a subg genre that I've kind of
3:45identified recently. The vast majority
3:47of urban fantasy out there is led by a
3:49female lead. But there is a kind of
3:51subniche of maleled urban fantasy that I
3:55have identified that actually is quite a
3:57bit different in a lot of its tropes and
4:00the way it structures the story and
4:02everything compared to the femaleled
4:04urban fantasy. So once I identified that
4:08and started picking apart what makes it
4:10tick, I realized that this series that I
4:13have would be a perfect fit for that.
4:15Um, and it's set in the modern day
4:16mostly in New York City and Washington
4:18DC. And then I have a whole bunch of
4:20other information. This, some of this is
4:22like notes that I have on what should
4:24happen in each book. Some of it is
4:27worldbuing notes, but a little under
4:292,000 words there. So, all I would do is
4:32copy this, then go into my automation
4:34and submit it in that form. Okay. After
4:37that, we go to a couple of documents
4:41that it's pulling from. Now, you don't
4:42have to have these if you're creating
4:44your own uh version of this automation.
4:48You don't have to have these, but I find
4:50that I really like templates, right? And
4:53AI really likes templates as well. It
4:55really likes having some kind of
4:56structure to lean on. Otherwise, it's
4:58just going to give you very generic
5:00fluff. You know, what what the world is
5:02calling AI slop right now. That's kind
5:05of generic stuff that doesn't really
5:08interest a lot of people because it's
5:10just too predictable. You can get around
5:13that by having really good templates.
5:15And so in this case of a male-led urban
5:18fantasy book, I actually went through
5:21and created a list of tropes for that, a
5:24a list of essentially a chapter by
5:26chapter template of what happens in the
5:28plot as well as information kind of
5:31templates for what the characters should
5:32look like and as well as the world
5:34building. And how did I get these? I did
5:37a very very deep story analysis of
5:40bestsellers in the genre. And that's a
5:43story for another time. I will have more
5:45videos coming out in the near future
5:47kind of going in depth on some of these
5:49templates, but suffice it to say, I
5:51created all of these uh based on actual
5:55analyses of bestsellers, not just asking
5:58perplexity what the tropes are in a
5:59maleled urban fantasy. Uh it's a lot
6:02more in-depth than that. And those will
6:06by the time you see this they might
6:07already be in the group but but at the
6:09very least they will be in the group
6:11that I run the my story hacker gold
6:13membership very very soon along with
6:16many other subg genres and my hope is to
6:18be able to put out a whole lot of those
6:20guides in the near future. It's kind of
6:22the the big [clears throat] nerdy thing
6:23that I'm working on right now is
6:25providing guides for a lot of really sub
6:27subniches.
6:29But anyway, that's kind of beside the
6:31point. Essentially, uh, what I'm doing
6:33is pulling all of these in. Now, if you
6:34don't have access to templates like
6:37that, you could go to AI and just ask it
6:40to give you a template. That would be
6:44more or less helpful.
6:46Or you could just skip this part and
6:49take it out of the automation and just
6:51have it brainstorm a good story. But I
6:53do think you get slightly better results
6:55by having really specific and targeted
6:58templates for it to work work with which
7:00is why I include these in this
7:03automation. All right. And then then the
7:05last step of the documents is it needs
7:09to get a document where all of this
7:12story information the the story dossier
7:14will go. So for that I went and just
7:16created a file in my Google Docs called
7:19Michael one story dossier.
7:21I don't have a title for the book yet,
7:23so I'm just calling it Michael 1. I make
7:25sure that the ID number for that
7:27document is included here in the doc ID
7:31in NAN. So, it makes sure that it is
7:34accessing the correct document so that
7:36later once it's gone through and created
7:38the story dossier, it can then output it
7:42into the correct folder. All right. And
7:44then we go through a series of steps and
7:46these are all done with little AI
7:48agents. and
7:50uh to give you a highle overview of it.
7:52First, it takes everything that you've
7:54given it and does some brainstorming
7:56kind of like goes through a bunch of
7:58premises. If you've given it a lot of
8:00information on what the premise and the
8:02synopsis of the book is, it will just do
8:05it. It'll draw from that and it'll all
8:08of the options that it brainstorms will
8:10be pretty similar to each other. Uh but
8:12it might add some extra little flares
8:14and stuff like that. uh if you didn't
8:17give it a whole lot, it will continue to
8:19brainstorm uh based on what little you
8:22gave it and come up with some ideas on
8:25what to do. The prompt looks something
8:27like this. It's pulling in the genre
8:29tropes document, the plot template
8:32document, which is one of those
8:33documents earlier, as well as your brain
8:36dump. And then it says above, you will
8:37find a variety of tropes and a plot
8:38template for a specific genre. You will
8:40also find an author's brain dump for a
8:42book or series. Your task is to
8:44brainstorm 12 premises for a new book in
8:46this genre called and then it'll pull in
8:48the name of the book that you entered in
8:51earlier. Make sure it has an original
8:53setting and premise but still sticks to
8:54the tropes and overall plot outlined as
8:56well as adheres to the author's brain
8:59dump. Each premise should be no more
9:01than one paragraph long and formatted in
9:03markdown. So that's the first prompt
9:06that we give it. From there, we have it
9:09go through the output of this step and
9:12it picks the one it thinks is the best.
9:14So, from here, this prompt is pretty
9:16straightforward as well. Yeah, you give
9:18it your brain dump from earlier. And
9:20then this right here is just the ideas
9:22that it generated in the previous step.
9:24And you say, "Your task is to carefully
9:25analyze the above ideas for a new novel
9:27called your book. You should analyze
9:30them based on how logically sound the
9:32premise is. Like, does it make sense?
9:33even if it's a fantasy or science
9:35fiction premise, which feels most
9:37original and which one has the potential
9:39for the most emotional gut punches. You
9:41should also make sure it adheres to the
9:43author's brain dump listed above. Once
9:45you've made your choice, your next task
9:47is to produce the text of your idea
9:49verbatim and only output the text of
9:51that idea. Do not add any preamble or
9:54textual analysis, just the chosen idea.
9:56So, all it's doing is essentially just
9:58picking the best idea of the 12 that it
10:00had previously generated. And then we
10:02move into actually writing the complete
10:04story dossier. So for this one, I have
10:06it pull in the premise that it selected
10:08in the previous step, the list of genre
10:10tropes, the outline template, the
10:12character template, the world building
10:13template, basically all of the
10:14documents, as well as your brain dub.
10:18And from here, I have it create a
10:21complete story dossier that has a list
10:23of everything the author will need to
10:24fully flesh out the characters, world
10:26building, and outline for this premise.
10:27Here are just a few things that you
10:28should include, but you could have more.
10:30And I have it give you information on
10:32characters, including minor characters.
10:34And mostly what it's doing here is just
10:36listing out everything that you need to
10:39create this story. Um, so we want to
10:42have named characters. We don't want to
10:44have just generic like, oh, there's
10:46going to be a technician in chapter 6.
10:49You know, we want to make sure
10:50everyone's named. So, it lists out
10:52pretty much all of the characters that
10:53you will need. Uh, for the most part, it
10:56does the same for any world building
10:57info that is needed for this. Uh, it
10:59reproduces the synopsis. Uh, it creates
11:03a uh, a plan on what will be needed to
11:05fully outline this book, but it's not
11:07outlining the book yet. It's just
11:08creating a plan on some things that will
11:10actually be needed. And then I add here,
11:12you may have other details that you may
11:14want to add to complete the story
11:15dossier. This is fine. So, I sometimes
11:18just allow it to add its own stuff as
11:20long as it's got the things that I asked
11:22for. So, that's a big step right here.
11:25However, we don't want to stop there
11:27because sometimes AI doesn't do so well
11:30in its first shot and we want to go
11:32through a little bit of a pass uh to
11:35improve things. Now, there are two ways
11:37to do this. Uh, one you've already seen
11:40where I ask it to brainstorm multiple
11:42options and then pick the best one. This
11:44is one way of kind of getting the best
11:47results out of an AI uh without
11:49involving human involvement. Obviously,
11:52a human looking through the brainstormed
11:54results might be able to get something
11:55better, but I've actually found that AI
11:58does pick really good options usually
12:01when it is picking the best what it
12:03thinks is the best out of a list.
12:05Additionally, when you have AI
12:06brainstorm multiple ideas, it's less
12:10likely that those ideas will be as
12:11generic as if you asked it to just give
12:14you one idea. So that's one way to kind
12:17of get a slightly improved quality of
12:20ideas out of AI. The other way to do
12:23this is to have AI critique itself. And
12:27you can do this with the same model. You
12:28can do this with a different model. Uh
12:30but essentially you have the AI perform
12:33a critique on its last step and then it
12:36does a rewrite. So that's what these two
12:38steps here are doing. The first one is
12:41critiquing the complete story dossier
12:42that was generated in this step. And
12:45then this one is just rewriting it with
12:47those critiques in mind. And so if we
12:50look at the prompt for this, it's
12:52picking up on all of the documents from
12:54before, but also including the story
12:56dossier that it generated in the
12:58previous step. And it says, "Given the
13:00above templates in the story dossier for
13:02the premise, I want you to critique the
13:03dossier based on best practices in
13:05storytelling, focusing heavily on
13:06logical consistency, even for fantasy
13:08and sci-fi, originality while
13:10maintaining the correct tropes and other
13:12recommendations in the guides and
13:14potential emotional impact. Then create
13:16a new plan to improve the dossier. Don't
13:19write rewrite the dossier, just given
13:21suggestions on how to improve it and
13:23give specific examples of what you would
13:25change and why."
13:28Then we go to the rewrite which brings
13:31in the premise, the story dossier, the
13:33improvement plan from the previous step
13:35as well as the brain dump just so it
13:37understands your background. And then it
13:39says, "Using the text of the story
13:40dossier and the improvement plan, I want
13:42you to implement the changes from the
13:43improvement plan into the dossier. Only
13:46implement the suggested changes and do
13:48not change anything else about the
13:49original dossier. Reproduce the entire
13:51dossier with suggested changes made."
13:53And so what this does is it essentially
13:55gets a another level of polish on your
13:58story idea before you take a look at it.
14:00Obviously, nothing is a replacement for
14:02a real human to actually look through
14:04the stuff. We're just trying to get 80%
14:06of the way there, maybe even closer to
14:0890%, so that when you, the human, come
14:11in and add your influence on it beyond
14:14what you've already done in your brain
14:16dump, uh, it's it's just that much
14:20closer to what you would want. So let's
14:23actually look at what this looks like uh
14:25after it's gone through. Uh so I've
14:27already generated this uh but here is
14:29the story dossier for Michael one which
14:32it named cold case hot blood. Not the
14:34worst name in the world. Um but
14:37essentially uh this is the synopsis
14:40here. Michael Walsh is an urban explorer
14:42and savage runner living on the fringes
14:44of society haunted by the unsolved
14:46mystery of his father's death. While
14:48scavenging for copper wire in the crypts
14:50beneath a historic Brooklyn church, the
14:52same building where his father died, he
14:54witnesses a banshee kill a squatter. The
14:57creature recoils from Michael's blood,
14:59but a tactical team from the Harker
15:00Institute sweeps in to clean the scene.
15:02Michael escapes, but drops his father's
15:04old sketchbook in the chaos. Now hunted
15:06by both the monster and the institute,
15:08Michael is cornered by a werewolf
15:09lieutenant who offers him a choice.
15:11Become a a weapon for the institute or
15:14be contained by as a biological hazard.
15:16To survive, Michael must embrace his
15:18legacy as a hunter and finish the job
15:20his father started. Actually, not that
15:23bad of a premise.
15:25Some of this obviously came from me, but
15:27it also added a few of its own little uh
15:30embellishments as well as more specific
15:32details. like I didn't have anything
15:34about his a historic Brooklyn church for
15:37instance. Um I did mention that his dad
15:40had died but I gave no reason why that
15:43would be the case and it added that in
15:44there and I think that's actually fine
15:46uh that we could leave it in there. Then
15:48it gives us the list of characters. So
15:51here's the main cast right here.
15:54It gives us a list of groups and minor
15:56characters in each group. Uh here is the
15:59worldbuing dossier. So how everything
16:01works, right?
16:03um the outline, planning, and
16:05instructions. Here's that in
16:07information. So, things like the hook,
16:09the threshold, the fun and games, all of
16:12those key points, what those would look
16:14like. Some instructions on tone, which I
16:16didn't ask it for, but it added in there
16:18as well, as well as additional
16:20development notes. So, on the whole, not
16:22a bad story dossier. Uh there are
16:25probably some things I would change
16:26based on my knowledge of this genre. Uh
16:29because I need to adapt my story idea a
16:32little bit to fit the genre a little bit
16:33better. You know, I initially wrote my
16:35brain dump before I had done my deep
16:37analysis of the genre. So, it's totally
16:39normal to just tweak things a little bit
16:42to make it fit the genre better, but
16:43overall it's still going to be very much
16:45the same type of story. And yeah, that's
16:47pretty much it. Uh that's how this one
16:49works. Now, if you have questions about
16:51this, please let me know. But we do have
16:54uh much more guidance and you can
16:56actually get the JSON files from this
16:58exact automation so you can in you can
17:01put it into your own N8 platform and uh
17:04that's all available in my story hacker
17:06gold uh membership is a little bit more
17:10of an advanced topic so that's why we
17:11keep it behind the pay wall. But
17:12hopefully this has been an interesting
17:14and useful video for you and if not just
17:17let me know what I can do to improve.
17:18I'm always looking for advice and uh and
17:22ideas. So, let me know.