Novelcrafter

Using AI in Novelcrafter

Help with your first forays into AI use in Novelcrafter.

2 min read Last updated Jan 23, 2025

So you’ve tried out the system prompts, and want to start branching out with Novelcrafter. You may have heard that you need to do extensive prompting to get started. This is not the case.

On this page, we’re going to work through some easy additions to your workflow that involve minimal prompting knowledge.

Text Editing

Do you have some prose that’s in the wrong tense? Do you want to remove the passive voice? Or you simply want to add in more drama to a paragraph?

You do not need a custom prompt to do any of this.

  1. Add your instructions in [square brackets] (1), Using text replacement prompts in Novelcrafter
  2. Highlight that and the prose you want to tweak (2),
  3. Click expand or rephrase (3). By placing these instructions amongst the text you are replacing, the LLM will rewrite the output prose using your instructions as guidance. Using text replacement prompts in Novelcrafter
  4. Then hit apply once your text is generated (4). Using text replacement prompts in Novelcrafter

It really is that easy.

Codex Entries as Prompting Shortcuts

Did you know that codex entries aren’t just for character details! You can also store commonly used prompting phrases in the codex, and then call them by their name or any alias. Think of it as a shortcut!

Let’s take a look at how you can use this technique in practice:

  1. Make a codex entry and write your instructions. For this example, I will include a brief character template. It is called CharacterTemplate.
  2. In chat, with the general purpose prompt, type in the following:
    Please use the CharacterTemplate to organize the codex entry of [name]
  3. We now have an output for our character that we can easily copy and paste into their codex entry. Using codex entries to help with prompting in Novelcrafter

You aren’t limited to designing characters with this technique - plot structures, analysis questions… anything you think of can be used in this way!

Scene Beat Completion: Change Word Count

Finally, we are going to look at the simplest of prompt edits - changing the word output for the scene beat completion prompt.

Why might you want to do this? The system prompt sets a word count of approx. 400 words. If you write extremely detailed beats, you might find that this is not a high enough word count to get your desired output.

To change the word count of the system prompt, you first need to clone it. To do this:

  1. Go to prompts. You can find this at the top of the novel library, or the bottom right of an individual novel interface.
  2. Click on the system prompt for scene beat completion.
  3. In the blue message box in the top, go to the right-hand side, click clone prompt. Cloning your prompts in Novelcrafter.
  4. Rename your cloned prompt (in our case we have added the desired word count to the prompt name).
  5. Go to instructions. Renaming and changing your prompt in Novelcrafter
  6. Scroll down until you reach the user message that says:

    Continue the story and write about 400 words for the following instructions

  7. Change the number of words to your desired word count. I have picked 1000. Renaming and changing your prompt in Novelcrafter

And you’re done! It’s worth keeping in mind that some LLMs are not yet accurate at counting, and so you may need to tweak the number you specify based upon the output text the model you use gives.