Full transcript
0:00Hey, time for another automation. This
0:01is one of my advanced automations that
0:04together with a couple others that I've
0:06been building are the entire process
0:08that I use now to write a book with AI.
0:11So, let's walk through what this one
0:13looks like and how it can help you. This
0:16is my automation for uh taking the seeds
0:19of your idea and fully fleshing out the
0:21world building side of this idea so that
0:24you can then go through those documents
0:26and uh update them accordingly. So, here
0:29is my automation inside of n8n. Now, if
0:33you haven't seen my other videos on my
0:36advanced n8n workflows, I recommend
0:39going and viewing those first.
0:41Otherwise, this might seem a little bit
0:43confusing to you. I will quickly run
0:45through them. There's this one, which
0:47was my brain dump to dossier
0:50uh automation. This one is basically you
0:52just give it all the ideas that you
0:53have, everything you can think of, and
0:55then it will go through and create a
0:58full checklist of everything you need,
1:00all of the characters you need, all of
1:01the world building elements that need
1:03fleshing out, a few notes on the uh
1:06outline, and things like that. Once
1:09you've done this, I showed you an
1:12automation uh
1:13called dossier to characters. And this
1:16one, what it did is it went through your
1:18dossier, identified all of the different
1:20characters there, and then it did a loop
1:22one by one on each character running
1:24through a couple of prompts for each to
1:27fully flesh out those characters, right?
1:30And now we've got the world building
1:32automation, which does a very similar
1:35thing but for world building elements
1:36instead of characters. So, let's walk
1:38through this uh initially. First of all,
1:40I always like to leave a space uh at the
1:44beginning, so this activates by
1:47submitting this form. The only thing on
1:49this form is a place for author notes. I
1:51don't use this all the time, but I like
1:53to leave a space in in case there's
1:55something specific you want to add on
1:57this time around, you can do so so that
2:00it understands
2:02what those specific things are that you
2:05want. So, this is an optional space. You
2:08can just submit here without any notes
2:10and it'll continue on.
2:12Um but that's how it starts and then we
2:14start by pulling in all of the different
2:15documents that we need.
2:17Uh first of all, we need to get the
2:19dossier that was generated in this
2:21automation right here.
2:23Uh then we pull in a couple of
2:25templates. Now, if we go quickly, I'll
2:27show you this. I've got a bunch of
2:29templates that I've made inside of my
2:31Story Hacker group.
2:33Um so, here's a couple of them that you
2:35can see how to write dark rogue fantasy,
2:38how to write young adult medieval
2:40academy fantasy, urban fantasy, urban
2:42fantasy with a male lead, etc. I'm
2:45working to I've got 30 of these
2:47finished. I just need to upload them,
2:48but I'm hoping to do about 100 of them
2:50in the future.
2:52Uh but you don't have to use any of
2:54these. I I do have these books available
2:57for sale on Amazon.
2:58Uh you do not have to use them. You can
3:01create your own templates as much as you
3:03need to, but I have made these advanced
3:06automations. Uh they're designed to work
3:09with these particular
3:11uh templates. And so, for any one of
3:13these genres, I have a tropes doc, a
3:15plot tablet doc, a style guide, a
3:17characters doc, a world building doc, a
3:18themes doc, and a template for the book
3:20descriptions of the books in that genre.
3:23Um so, uh this is a extremely valuable
3:27resource.
3:28Now, for this particular automation,
3:31there are three of them that we need for
3:33this one. I like to pull in the tropes,
3:36the themes, and the world building
3:37templates.
3:38We don't necessarily need all the
3:40templates all the time
3:41uh
3:42because these automations focus on
3:44different things.
3:45Um but we definitely want the world
3:47building template. The tropes template
3:48is handy to have uh most of the time and
3:50same with the themes, even though the
3:52themes
3:53are more of a passive thing. Might not
3:55be as necessary here in the
3:58uh world building configuration and
4:00stuff, but I just like to have them.
4:02Uh then, we pull in the idea of a blank
4:05world building document.
4:07So, you would essentially create a
4:09Google Doc, grab the ID for that Google
4:11Doc with nothing in it,
4:13and paste that ID right here. Once
4:16you've done that,
4:18it knows where that document is, and it
4:20can essentially update that document as
4:22it's going along. And then, I do a
4:24couple of things. First of all, this one
4:26is a step that I throw in using a very
4:28cheap model to very quickly condense the
4:31tropes into just a quick bulleted list.
4:34This tropes document is really lengthy,
4:377,000 words, and I don't necessarily
4:40want to be using those tokens all the
4:42time, so I just create this one thing
4:44here that will condense them into uh
4:47line each.
4:48That way, we're saving on tokens here,
4:51uh so we can still know what all the
4:53tropes are, but it's not going to be
4:55watering down our prompt, right? So, we
4:57do that.
4:58Uh and then, I have this prompt that
5:01looks at the story dossier, which is
5:04pulled in here,
5:06and it looks through that and identifies
5:09a list of all of the different world
5:11building elements that we need to flesh
5:13out.
5:14And just a quick look at this prompt,
5:15it's a very short prompt. You are a
5:17parser given the above book outline
5:18text, return a JSON array named world
5:21building containing each world building
5:22element listed in the dossier above.
5:25Cuz it's pulling in the content of the
5:26dossier here. Do not divide the elements
5:28into categories, and make sure all world
5:30building elements are accounted for, and
5:31don't add any new world building
5:33elements. Only output valid JSON. So,
5:34it's just making a list in JSON of all
5:37of these different elements. Then, we
5:39have this code node, which I vibe coded,
5:41so I can't tell you exactly what it
5:42does,
5:43uh because I am not a coder,
5:45uh but here's the code. This is all of
5:48it. You can take a screenshot if you
5:49want.
5:50Uh but, uh what this does is is it takes
5:53that JSON and parses it out. So, in the
5:54next step, we can start running a loop
5:57on each individual item that I it
5:59identified. So, what we do here then is
6:03it runs this loop, and there are three
6:06main
6:07uh AI
6:08steps in this that it'll go through for
6:11each world-building element. Um so,
6:14it'll do this. It check it does the the
6:17regular expansion.
6:19It uh grabs everything that was that's
6:23already in the world-building sheet, if
6:25any.
6:26So, it can run a logic check to make
6:28sure every what it just created fits
6:30with everything else. Then, it does a
6:32rewrite on that thing.
6:34And then, it adds this world-building
6:36element. This should say add
6:39world-building to doc.
6:42And then, it just repeats the loop for
6:44every world-building element. So, the
6:45main prompt here, the important one, is
6:49this one uh called expand world-building
6:51element. So, let's walk through this
6:53prompt really quickly.
6:55And then, we'll wrap up the video. And
6:57real quick, if you want the exact
6:58long-form prompts I used to write books
7:00with AI, hit the Story Hacker link
7:02below. The group's wait-listed right
7:04now, but when you join, I'll email you
7:05my full prompt pack for free. Pop in
7:08your email, and I'll send it over. So,
7:10first, we pull in all of our context.
7:12And some people have asked me why I pull
7:14in the context first instead of like
7:17in maybe a more appropriate place.
7:19Um that's a prompt engineering technique
7:21I learned from the folks at Claude.
7:24Claude recommended you put all your
7:25context first and then your instructions
7:26last.
7:27Which I thought was interesting. So, we
7:29pull in the condensed genre tropes.
7:32Again, I'm just pulling in the condensed
7:33ones cuz I don't want to like overwhelm
7:35the context here with nothing but
7:36tropes. So, I just pull in those
7:38condensed lists.
7:40Uh but, I do pull in the full
7:41world-building template because we need
7:43that and the themes template.
7:45Um, I don't condense the themes template
7:47because it's not a really long doc. Uh,
7:49then we pull in the full dossier that we
7:52had generated in the previous
7:53automation.
7:55And then the author notes here are
7:56included here it just in case you you
7:59wrote any of those. And then here we go,
8:01given the above brain dump information,
8:03genre tropes, and world building
8:05template, themes template, and story
8:06dossier, I want you to create a fleshed
8:08out world building sheet for this
8:09specific world building element. And
8:11then right here it's pulling in the name
8:13that it got from the loop. So, it pulls
8:16in whatever was in whatever the name of
8:19the element in the loop is.
8:21And then it can compare that to what's
8:22in the dossier, pull the information
8:24from the dossier that it needs to, and
8:26so on.
8:27First, determine what world building
8:28category this element, and then I rename
8:31that element again here just to be
8:34specific, belongs to. The list of
8:36categories are as follows. And I've
8:40uh, put together these categories
8:42myself. We have high-level world
8:43building, we have setting and locations,
8:46objects and artifacts, magic systems and
8:48technology, groups and races, gods and
8:50deities, geography and nature,
8:53population and politics, culture,
8:54history and lore, religion and beliefs,
8:57and languages. So, pretty much any world
9:00building element is going to fix fit in
9:01there. Even if you don't have a
9:05uh, fantasy or science fiction book,
9:07obviously some of these are for fantasy
9:08and science fiction, like magic systems
9:11and technology or gods and deities and
9:12stuff like that. Uh, but there are
9:14plenty of uh, world building elements
9:16you'll have in every genre. For
9:19instance, settings and locations, every
9:21book you write is going to have certain
9:23settings and locations that it's worth
9:25kind of mapping in them out in your
9:27head. This is one of the things I
9:28discovered when I was first becoming a
9:29writer is that world building is not
9:31just like the history and lore of your
9:33planet, right? It's a lot more about the
9:36actual room-by-room layout of a building
9:39that you have certain scenes take place
9:40in. So, we have that same with artifacts
9:43and lore or objects,
9:46beliefs, culture, pop politics. These
9:49are all things that you might see in any
9:51genre.
9:52So, they're important here. And then I
9:54have an important note. Not all stories
9:57will have all of these categories. Some
9:58stories might only have one or two. Keep
10:00this in mind as you're selecting the
10:02appropriate category for the specific
10:04world building element. Once you know
10:05the category for the world building
10:07element, use one of the following
10:08instructions depending on what which
10:10category you are working with. And then
10:12I have step-by-step instructions for
10:14each of the categories. So, let's look
10:16at one. Let's look at settings and
10:18location cuz this is one you're likely
10:20to have in any book that you write.
10:23Create a detailed profile for this
10:25specific location that makes it feel
10:26lived in and three-dimensional, not like
10:28a stage backdrop. Cover its physical
10:30reality and layout, emotional resonance,
10:32the people who inhabit it, its secrets,
10:34and its larger role in the story. Format
10:36your response in markdown as follows.
10:38Begin with a H1 header in the following
10:41format. So, this is in markdown.
10:44So, in markdown you mark a H1 header
10:46with just with a single pound sign here.
10:48Setting and location and then name of
10:51the element after that. This is all to
10:54just standardize the formatting so that
10:56it's always going to be
10:57the same for every element. Just makes
11:00it easier. Include a single italicized
11:02sentence immediately below the header as
11:03a tagline that captures the essence of
11:05this place in one evocative line. This
11:07was a recommendation by an LLM. I
11:09actually thought that would be kind of
11:10cool just to kind of give a little
11:12epitaph or something related to the
11:14element. And then we use
11:17two pound signs. This is an H2 subheader
11:19for each of the following sections.
11:21Physical description and layout,
11:22atmosphere and emotional tone, who lived
11:24here or who passes through,
11:27purpose and function in the world,
11:28purpose and function in the story,
11:29secrets and hidden layers, history and
11:31how it how it has changed, connections
11:34to other locations. Now, you might not
11:35need all of these for every setting, so
11:37you're welcome to like delete chunks of
11:39this as it generates
11:41if it's not necessary, but it if it is
11:44necessary, it can be really helpful.
11:46Setting is often
11:48far overlooked in storytelling cuz
11:51there's a lot of
11:53kind of
11:54spatial storytelling that you can do
11:56just by
11:58what is in a room, you know? Uh and it
12:01and the setting can definitely
12:03contribute to the tension or the mood or
12:06the vibe that you're going for in a any
12:07particular scene. Write each section in
12:09prose, one to two sentences, avoid
12:11bullet points except under secrets and
12:13hidden layers where a short bulleted
12:15list is appropriate, and then that's it
12:17for that section. And then move on to
12:19objects and artifacts, which has a
12:21similar layout. And do so for all of the
12:24different categories here.
12:26Then I end it with only include the
12:28asked for world building details. Do not
12:30ask add any preamble commentary or
12:32anything other than what I've asked for
12:33above. Remember
12:35to only use one to two sentences for
12:36each section unless stated otherwise.
12:39And I added that even though it was
12:40already up in the previous sections
12:42because I found it was often overdoing
12:45how much it was writing.
12:48So, we have it do that, and then this
12:50one is done. So, it'll
12:52essentially find a world building
12:54element,
12:55expand on that, and then it moves on to
12:58the logic check.
12:59What we're doing in the logic check is
13:01we pull up all the context it needs,
13:04and then I have a checklist of things
13:05for it to flag. Like, is it consistent
13:07with the dossier?
13:09Uh is it consistent with the other
13:11elements of world building that we've
13:13established so far?
13:14Is it consistent with the author notes,
13:16if any?
13:17Does it fit the world building template
13:19that I have that's included in each of
13:22the genre guides that I've made?
13:25Uh does it have good internal logic and
13:27consistency, plausibility and cause /
13:30effect? Uh, does it fit the story? Does
13:32it fit the thematic resonance or or in
13:35other words, the theme of the story?
13:38Um, and then output a list of anything
13:40you might flag and create an improvement
13:41plan on how to improve the world
13:43building element while still making it
13:44fit into the story and genre.
13:46And then from there, we move on to the
13:48rewrite, which basically takes, here's
13:50the original world building element,
13:52here's the improvement plan,
13:54and this basically just asks it to
13:57implement the changes listed in the
14:00improvement plan.
14:02Rather than do a full rewrite, it's just
14:03implementing the changes. All right? So,
14:05it does that, and then it adds that to
14:07the world building doc and then
14:09continues on its loop to the next world
14:10building element, and that's the entire
14:13thing. So, let's look at what this
14:15actually looks like in a book. So, since
14:18this is going from the dossier to the
14:20world building thing,
14:22uh, here is an example of a dossier that
14:24I've got here. Uh, this is all in
14:26markdown, so apologies if it looks a
14:28little messy.
14:29Um, but basically what this does is
14:31right here, it's giving me a full list
14:34of all of the world building elements
14:36that it wants to go through.
14:38Uh, things like the city, like Arch
14:40City, the Sunspires, the Processing Lab,
14:43the Chasm Floor, you know, things that
14:45uh, might be necessary for it to know as
14:48it's going through and and building up
14:49the story. And so, if it's going through
14:52that automation, it'll automatically
14:53detect all of these and run that loop on
14:57each one of these in turn. So, what that
14:59looks like here is we've got this first
15:02one here for Arch City.
15:03Uh, here's that little epitaph that goes
15:05at the beginning, a city that climbs
15:07towards sunlight it will never share
15:08equally built into the bones of a wound
15:10the mountain never healed. Uh, because
15:12this is a city kind of built into these
15:14large
15:15chasms that are in the mountains, kind
15:19of like uh, think of it like if you had
15:21a more narrow Grand Canyon with a city
15:25kind of built over it with bridges and
15:27stuff,
15:28uh that's kind of what this city is.
15:31Um and so it went ahead and generated
15:33the physical description and layout
15:34here, the atmosphere and emotional tone,
15:36who lives here, who passes through, the
15:38purpose and function in the world,
15:40uh the purpose and function in the
15:41story, the secrets and hidden layers,
15:44the history and how it's changed, and
15:46the connections to other locations. And
15:48that's the full thing right there, and
15:49it's pretty extensive in this case. I
15:51don't always need it to be this
15:52extensive,
15:53uh but this is an important location, so
15:55I did allow it.
15:57And um and so that's what it looks like
15:59in practice, and now we can take this
16:02and the character doc and uh use those
16:05to help shape the outline, which is the
16:07next automation that I'll make a video
16:09on in the future, so be sure to
16:11subscribe and all of that. You can
16:12gently caress the like button, because
16:15it's been smashed way too many times.
16:17And uh then go from there.
16:20And uh of course, if you're interested
16:22in my membership, you can check that out
16:23at the link down below as well, and I
16:25will see you in the next video.