The chat interface is a great way to get to know your characters better, and to get inspiration for your story.
In the chat interface, you will find:
A top bar. Here you can:
Select your prompt and AI model.
Name your chat
Through an action menu:
Pin the thread,
Export/copy the conversation,
Delete the thread.
The main interface, where you can read your conversation.
The lower bar. Here you can:
Type your message (by default, pressing enter makes a new line, and does not send the message),
Select the AI context. As of April 2024, this includes:
The full novel outline,
The prose of an entire scene (not chapter)
The entire novel text. (be careful which model you choose here so that a) it has a sufficient context window, and b) you don't get charged a ton. We recommend haiku as a balance of them both.)
See any codex entries mentioned in the chat thread.
How to use Chat
To start a chat, simply click on the chat button in the top bar.
Select the AI model you wish to use. By default GPT4 Turbo is selected, with the general purpose prompt (see below). If you wish to use a different model/prompt, you need to do this before you send your message. We advise this being your first step so that you don't forget.
You can then start chatting with your novel by typing in the text box at the bottom of the page. The AI will respond to your messages in the chat thread.
Chat threads can be named and favorited/pinned so you can easily find them again later.
If you’re unhappy with the AI’s response, you can click on the “Retry” button on the answer to generate a new message.
Taking information from chat
There are three ways to save the information from your chats.
Copy the conversation in JSON, YAML or Markdown format. Use this if you want to share or save the whole chat thread.
Save as snippet. On the bottom of every message, you can save an individual message as a snippet in the sidebar. This is good when you want to refer to details in the plan or write interface.
Extract. This incredibly powerful tool allows you to extract the data from an individual chat thread straight into
a) Codex entries (character, location, etc)
b) Chapter/Scene summaries that you can add to your outline,
c) Scene beats formatted so that you can paste them into the scene you are working on.
System Prompts
There are currently two system prompts within the chat interface to help you get started.
General Purpose. This prompt is an all-purpose prompt working in the background of your chats. It instructs the AI models to help you with your writing, answering your questions, and to ask for clarification if it doesn't understand you.
Scene Beats from Summary. This prompt takes a chapter or scene summary and writes beats for instructing the AI to write prose. You can then put these beats into the write interface for writing your novel.
For information on how to clone system prompts and write your own, see here.
Types of Conversations
If you combine this with your own custom AI prompts, you can have tailored threads for all kinds of situations:
General Brainstorming: Ask your novel about a location, or about a character, and bounce ideas back and forth.
Character Sheets: Formulate a character’s backstory, or about their motivations, and see what they come up with.
Plot Development: Ask your novel about a plot point, or about a character’s next step, and see what they come up with.
World Building: Ask your novel about a location, or about a character, and bounce ideas back and forth in order to fill up your codex.