Full transcript
0:00All right, guys. We're going to actually
0:01start getting into a lot more of the
0:03actual automations that I use and how
0:05they work and how you could create
0:06something similar. If you want to get
0:08your copy of my exact automation, you
0:12can go to my story hacker gold program
0:14down below. I'll have a note about that
0:16later. But this is an automation that is
0:20simple but actually super powerful. And
0:23don't let any of the AI haters out there
0:27say that using AI will make you a worse
0:30writer or a worse storyteller because
0:33this automation is kind of proof that
0:35that is not the case. So what am I
0:37talking about? I'm talking about my
0:38automation that is I'm just calling up
0:41here. It's called the short story hack.
0:44Okay? And there's a reason why my group
0:47is called the story hackers, right?
0:49because a lot of it is all about just
0:52going through actual bestsellers and
0:55other successful stories and using AI to
0:58sort of figure out how they work and and
1:02then using that practical knowledge to
1:04inform our own storytelling capability.
1:07And this is one of my favorite
1:10automations, even though you can tell
1:11it's not that big. There's only one AI
1:14agent part of it. Um, but it creates
1:18some very interesting results.
1:20So, what this does is you start out with
1:23a Google doc that has everything that
1:26you want to analyze. So, you can have
1:29just one short story in it and that will
1:31be fine, but you could also have
1:32multiple short stories in it. So, in
1:33order to work with this this specific
1:36automation, you need to make sure that
1:37that document has a clear H2 heading for
1:40each of the short stories. Otherwise,
1:42it's not going to be able to do this
1:44properly. So what we're going to look at
1:46is first of all this has a manual
1:48execution trigger. So you just click a
1:51button and it starts and then it creates
1:53a document where the story hacked
1:56information is going to go. Then it
1:59downloads a file here. Now if we click
2:02on this you can uh specify the actual
2:06file ID of the Google doc that you're
2:09planning on doing. And we're here under
2:12Google file conversion. We want to make
2:14sure this is set to HTML right here
2:16because we need to download the HTML of
2:19the short story. Uh, and then what I
2:21have here are two little code nodes that
2:23I created. And uh, I'm not a coder, but
2:26I use tools like Perplexity to help me
2:29vibe code the whole, you know, what goes
2:31into these. There's not a whole lot. If
2:33we double click on this, you can see
2:35like this is a very small amount of
2:38code. Very little needed here. There's a
2:41little bit more in this one, which what
2:44this one does is it takes the
2:45information it got and it splits it up
2:48by the headers. So, it looks through the
2:50HTML, finds where the H2 headers are,
2:53and says, "Okay, everything between
2:55these two H2 headers, we're going to
2:58chunk that specific piece of text." And
3:01it does that for the whole document. So,
3:02it creates all of these different chunks
3:04of text to then run our automation on
3:08it. So we run through those two code
3:10things and then it starts a loop so that
3:13the loop it means that we're going to be
3:15running these two steps on each chunk of
3:19text as it is split up and then once it
3:22gets to the end of these two steps it
3:24loops back around and starts on the next
3:26chunk and so on and so forth. So, the
3:30prompt for this one, which by the way,
3:32in the past I've been using Gemini 2.5
3:35Pro, now I could probably update this to
3:38Gemini 3. Uh, or even honestly some of
3:42this you could pro because this is
3:43almost a summary type thing, you could
3:45almost get away with a less expensive
3:47model. But because we're trying to do a
3:49deep analysis and we wanted to be smart
3:52about it, we'll leave that at Gemini 3
3:53for now. It's not that expensive to be
3:55honest. Uh but let's look at the actual
3:57prompt for this. So under the prompt
4:00user message, if we open this up, it'll
4:03say here's the section of text you will
4:04analyze and then it pulls in the text
4:07that it got from the previous step,
4:09which was the the step that started the
4:11loop essentially. So it it essentially
4:13inserts the short story that we're going
4:16to analyze right here. Given the above
4:19short story, please follow these steps.
4:20Make sure to answer all the questions
4:22for each step. First is the summary.
4:24Create a five to six se sentence summary
4:26of the events of the chapter or scene.
4:28And actually, I could probably change
4:29this to short story. Use the character
4:32names instead of pronouns. Summarize the
4:34direct events of the scene only. Do not
4:35provide commentary of the scene. And
4:37then we have the conceptual hook. Do a
4:40deep analysis of the short story to
4:42uncover the what the primary hook is for
4:44that short story. What makes it
4:46interesting? What makes the story stand
4:47out? What is the concept of the of the
4:49story? And what can we learn from it as
4:52writers? And then we have it give
4:54information about characters. So it
4:55lists every character that appears in
4:57the scene and some information on them,
4:58including what is their heart's desire,
5:01aka the thing they want most in the
5:03story. How does that heart's desire
5:04change over the course of the short
5:05story? Do they get it in the end? And I
5:07include this because u of a book that I
5:11read from a writers of the future winner
5:14who talked about this being one of the
5:16most important things in a short story
5:17is making sure your main character has a
5:19very clear heart's desire. So I make
5:21sure that we identify that in the short
5:23stories we're analyzing. Next comes
5:25world building and setting. Write out
5:27key setting or world building elements
5:29mentioned or important to the specific
5:31scene or that the scene takes place in
5:33etc etc. Then I have it analyze like
5:36specific plot beats in the short story
5:38including the inciting incident and
5:41what's the conflict. Uh we have a have
5:44it look for the magic sword. Uh because
5:47this is another one I got from that same
5:49book. Uh, in every short story, the
5:51protagonist should gain some ability,
5:52item, knowledge, companion, or other
5:54tool that will help them in their quest
5:56to solve the problem of the inciting
5:58incident. This is not a literal sword,
6:00but can be anything of power that can
6:02defeat the opposing force if the
6:04protagonist can get their hands on it.
6:05Or perhaps they already have it in their
6:07possession, but they have no idea how to
6:08wield it effectively. Identify what this
6:10magic sword is in this story. And then
6:13we go into a series of tri fail cycles.
6:15And every short story has these. Every
6:17novel has these where where there are
6:20usually one to four try fail cycles aka
6:22moments when the protagonist tries to
6:24solve the problem presented in the
6:25inciting incident fails then tries
6:27again. So we have it identify what those
6:29are. And then finally, what's the
6:32climax? What's the duma? [snorts] And I
6:35have it select some of the best examples
6:37of pros from the short story to give us
6:39an idea of like what, you know, what
6:41does the good pros sound like. And then
6:43I just have some formatting information
6:45at the end. And I always end with this
6:47just to make sure it's formatting
6:48correctly and has the correct headers
6:51and all of that. I also like to put a
6:53note like this in almost all of my
6:54prompts where I say, "Do not include any
6:56preamble or post summary commentary of
6:57the scene. Just provide the headings and
6:59the summaries as outlined." And that's
7:01to avoid it to be having things like
7:04here is your uh detailed summary of this
7:07short story. I don't want it to do that.
7:08I just wanted to give me the summary and
7:11no like intros like that. Uh, and so I
7:15have it I give it information about how
7:18to format each of these things that I
7:20just kind of went over already. And
7:23that's it. And then it in the next step,
7:25it updates the document where this goes.
7:29So for this, it's pulling the ID of the
7:32node earlier over here where we have it
7:36create the story hack document. So it
7:38pulls the ID from that document right
7:40here. And then here it just includes the
7:44output of the previous step. And then
7:46it'll continue and loop around so that
7:48it'll continue putting the output of
7:50multiple stories
7:53uh into the same document. Uh that's
7:55assuming you have multiple short stories
7:57in a single document. All right. So what
8:00let's actually take a look at the actual
8:02document for an example of this. And by
8:04the way, if you want this specific
8:07automation for yourself, you can get it
8:09by joining my story hacker gold group.
8:10It is open right now, this week only uh
8:14because we usually have it on a waiting
8:16list, but it is open to the public right
8:18now and it will be going up in price by
8:21the end of the year. Well, we'll be
8:22closing it down and then the next time
8:24it opens up, it will be at a higher
8:26price. It's currently 47 a month. It
8:28will be 67 a month. My goal is for it to
8:30eventually be worth $100 a month or
8:33more. So, if that sounds interesting to
8:35you, go check the link down below
8:36because we will be closing that out down
8:38in like just a few days. So go check
8:41that out and hopefully you you can join
8:43us. All right. So here is a document
8:45that is a example of some story hacks of
8:50the writers of the future uh anthology
8:54that they put out every year. Uh, I ran
8:56one of those anthologies through this
8:58prompt specifically because in my story
9:01hacker gold group, we have a quarterly
9:04challenge to write a writers of the
9:07future submission without the use of AI
9:10because AI is not allowed, but I think
9:12it's worth practicing a little bit here
9:15and there to actually write the pros
9:17yourself. I think there's value in that.
9:19uh but we use AI in every way that we
9:22can legally uh in order to submit to
9:24this thing just not in the actual pros.
9:27So as part of that we have regular
9:29classes during the month of that
9:31challenge where we really study these
9:34stories and we do so having hacked the
9:37stories themselves. So here is a good
9:40example
9:42of one such thing. So the title of the
9:45short story here in this case was Storm
9:47Damage by TR NS. These are short stories
9:50that won the writers of the future. So
9:52we can actually get a sense of uh what
9:54was it about the story that was so good?
9:57How can we try and emulate something
9:58similar? And here we go. We've got uh
10:02the summary. Dr. Greger is a scientist
10:04researching time manipulation is
10:05escorted by the skeptical captain
10:07Kushner to investigate a powerful Tachon
10:09energy reading at a remote cottage.
10:12Right? and so forth. It just gives us
10:13the the full summary of the thing. And
10:15this, by the way, is from the writers of
10:16the future volume 41, which you can buy
10:18on Amazon. Uh, and I bought it in order
10:21to do this, obviously, um, to make sure
10:24that I was legally in my rights to do
10:27so. Uh, otherwise, this this would be
10:30illegal to do any kind of
10:32post-processing like this on a book that
10:34I do not own. Uh, the conceptual hook.
10:37The primary hook is a high concept
10:38sci-fi morality play that pits personal
10:40ambition against the salvation of
10:42humanity. The story is interesting
10:44because it subverts the typical
10:45protagonist journey. We follow a
10:46character we believe is on a mission of
10:48discovery only to learn he is the
10:50story's primary threat and the cause of
10:52the apocalypse he's investigating. This
10:54twist forces the reader to re-evaluate
10:56the character's motivations and the very
10:58notion of scientific progress. The
11:00concept writers can learn from is the
11:02power of the Fouian bargain as a central
11:04theme. Is a personal dream worth a
11:06collective nightmare? And how inverting
11:08the protagonist/antagonist dynamics
11:10creates a memorable and
11:11thought-provoking narrative? All right,
11:13so we can look at that and be like,
11:14okay, that's interesting what it did
11:16there. And then we have the list of
11:17characters and what they're all about,
11:20including their heart's desire, which in
11:22for this character is to have his
11:23theories of time manipulation validated
11:25by the scientific community and to
11:27achieve a permanent celebrated legacy
11:29for his life's work. This desire does
11:31not change. It hardens into a defiant
11:32refusal to sacrifice his dream. he does
11:34not get it. Instead, his entire
11:36existence is erased from time. So,
11:38there's information like that about each
11:39of the characters. Then, we have the
11:41world building information here um about
11:44all of the different settings, uh
11:46including like the cottage on a cliff
11:47and the tachon energy, all those
11:49elements. We have an identification of
11:52what the inciting incident is, what the
11:54main conflict is, what the magic sword
11:56is, the different tri fail cycles that
11:59go on in this story, the climax of the
12:02story, the duma of the story. Here are
12:04some pros examples from the story. In
12:06the distance, you could see thick great
12:08clouds producing a new explosive plumes
12:10in a rhythm of constant motion that
12:11brought the tempest closer to them and
12:14so on. And then that's it. And then we
12:16move on to the next short story in the
12:19bunch. and continue on from there. And
12:21so this is a really great way,
12:22especially if you're reading the story
12:24itself and then using this as kind of a
12:26study guide alongside. It's a really
12:28fantastic way to really understand what
12:31makes a good story and how the
12:32storytelling brings these stories to
12:35life. In the next video, I'm going to
12:36give you another automation like this,
12:38but one that works for a whole novel,
12:40not just for a short story. So stay
12:42tuned for that. And once again, check
12:44out my story hacker gold program if
12:46you're interested because the price is
12:47going up very soon and it will not be
12:49open for much longer. So check that out
12:52and I will see you in the next