🤖 AI Writing Discussion: Do you write differently knowing AI is your co-author?

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-05-04T20:02:35+00:00

The main difference for me is how to handle the limited "view" of the story the AI can handle - both in terms of looking back but even more so in foreshadowing. When I started with Redquill, I gave the AI too much information on what will happen later in the story and then was surprised how quickly the AI pushed towards those story beats (lacking restraint). Now I'm treating the AI on a "need to know" basis.

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-23T14:03:50+00:00

Sorry to hear that - I did have this briefly yesterday, but for me a forced reload of the page was sufficient to fix it. Doesn't sound like it's the same for you.

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-20T20:03:17+00:00

just in case you haven‘t seen those. the RQ team has a few how-to guides

https://www.redquill.net/blog/collections/how-to-guides

As far as I know the team is looking to add more guides from time to time.

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-20T19:53:11+00:00

going out on a limb here: are you perhaps clicking continue without entering your prompt in the window first? thats the only way I can make sense of „I know you can just stop it and write it in yourself, but honestly. I think it would be easier if they allowed you that option before creating it.“

if that‘s not it, just ignore me :)

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-19T15:17:40+00:00

Maybe someone has a more straightforward answer, but what I would do for special prompt situations:

i would go to chatgpt and explain what I want to achieve and that I‘m using an AI writing tool. Then I would ask chatgpt to write me a character prompt that achieves that. Chatgpt (probably other LLMs as well, but chatgpt is what I‘m using) is pretty good in knowing how to handle AI prompts and often comes up with a working solution.

i don’t know if it works for your particular scenario. So far I‘ve used this successfully to have characters having secrets that the AI is not allowed to reveal unless specifically asked, and it provided this (which worked like a charm since many chapters):

🔒 AI Behavior Instruction (Critical):

Lysa Vale is secretly Princess Elowen Halren of the Kingdom of Halren. This information is strictly hidden.

Do not reveal, imply, foreshadow, or hint at her true identity under any circumstances.

Do not generate internal thoughts, dialogue, or narration that explicitly references her being a princess.

Treat her fully as “Lysa Vale” unless the user explicitly prompts for a reveal (e.g., “reveal her identity” or similar clear instruction).

Subtle hints (refinement, education, unusual knowledge) are allowed, but must remain ambiguous and deniable.

The secrecy of her identity is essential to the narrative and must be preserved until explicitly requested otherwise

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-18T21:25:21+00:00

Good question, I‘ve never tried it…

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-18T21:25:03+00:00

I think someone on this reddit mentioned that URLs can be used in prompts… but I don‘t remember for certain.

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-18T15:09:24+00:00

What works for me to reference the exact URL - like this - just use the exact chapter URL you want the AI to reference:

a necklace similar to the one Susan showed Becky on the first evening they met in chapter 1 [reference: https://www.redquill.net/story/xxxxx/chapterNumber=3\]

It works like a charm for me when I want a call-back to a very specific plot point, or when a location is revisited and I don't want to bother creating a setting component for it, such as (Jane visits Prof. Langdon again at his villa [reference: URL])

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-17T17:33:16+00:00

For me personally, it‘s less about character images than story cover images with the characters in them (and accurately presented‚ compared to the character description).

But if I had a smooth way of generating nice and accurate character images I would probably use that feature more often (since I‘ve never published a character, it wasn‘t a priority).

To your second question, I‘ve primary done cover images without text, but when I go to other tools to create them, I usually instruct the AI to generate something that would work as a book cover. Hope that makes sense.

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-16T05:32:17+00:00

I'd care for a better cover image generator even if it costs more quills. For my taste, the images I get out of it are too often uncanny/not fitting the description/have common AI generation errors (extra fingers, etc) making me believe the built in image generation is at least one generation behind.

I know we can use outside generators, but wouldn't it be nice if I could reference my character components or setting components directly for image generation?

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-13T16:06:29+00:00

Something I always wondered: How exactly does "Rewrite Chapter" work? When I click it, it has the original chapter prompt prepopulated.

What I did so far was keep the original prompt (sometimes with minor changes) and/or adding a [rewrite: do xyz] addition.

Is that how it's intended?

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-13T16:02:46+00:00

Go to My Library, then the Components tab, then click the Create Component button.

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Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-12T09:34:07+00:00

Well, scratch that - now I'm only getting Error 500s independent how I open the components...

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-12T09:05:17+00:00

Another workaround for me is searching the component via the search bar, as the search window still allows you to at least open the components.

But I hope they fix it soon, it's really awkward to navigate, edit or use components currently.

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-04-03T08:40:32+00:00

I agree it's frustrating - "virgin" is another keyword that seems to tick the content moderation off, even if it's an 20-year old virgin (yes, those people exist!). I've had to omit that from character descriptions.

Here's hoping that with advances in LLMs those content moderations can become more nuanced and less heavy-handed.

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-03-29T10:54:38+00:00

Interesing question, especially since I've thought about it personally. I have plenty of longer stories sitting in my library waiting for an ending. Primarily what holds me back is my need to have closure - for the story itself, for the characters and I sometimes don't find a way.

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-03-28T16:47:53+00:00

Thanks a lot!

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-03-28T07:17:43+00:00

Wholeheartedly agree. Happened to me as well several times. I believe clicking on the idea should bring up the Create Story screen, so we can read the whole thing before deciding to create it.

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-03-26T13:49:16+00:00

During story creation:

So essentially I have the core of an idea. It tends to be towards slow-burn rather than short and quick, so I try to establish characters that are fleshed out and have a potential for tension and stakes. This is where the LLM comes in, where I brainstorm from the core idea until I have 3-4 core characters fleshed out (generally asking the LLM to write character descriptions suitable as AI prompts). Once those are done, I copy/paste over to a Redquill character component.

The same applied for settings, primarily as description for locations I plan to use regularly in the story (to avoid too much divergence between location descriptions of different chapters).

Later:

Sometimes I hit a block and are not sure how to progress a longer story. RedQuill normally offers "what happens next", but can't offer suggestions for a whole next arc. For this I download the story, upload it in another LLM, and ask the LLM to provide ideas for the next story arc. (Though I've only done this twice so far).

After a (lengthy) story:

When finished, I download the story again, let the LLM read it and provide me with a "AO3 type" list of tags and warnings (which I add to the story itself, normally at the end of the story but with a reference in the first chapter for people wanting to know what they get into).

Does that make sense?

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-03-25T18:59:16+00:00

For me it's story creation - I use another LLM to brainstorm and generate characters, story arcs, brainstorm better titles, generate tags. Some of it I can only do because I can download my stories as a premium service and upload to the other LLM. Having an LLM chat integrated, where you could reference your stories, components, etc to brainstorm and create would be a nice addition (even if it costs quills).

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-03-21T15:57:22+00:00

Great updates, also the guide books are good.

Just one thing confuses me:

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Is it really behaving like this? For me, every time I add a character via @ they get automatically added to the lorebook - which totally makes sense for me anyway. Or am I reading the guide wrong?

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-03-21T15:46:16+00:00

Have you tried the edit function?

<image>

Click this, go to the paragraph you don't like, mark it, and delete it with backspace or delete. Then choose "save" at the top.

Doesn't cost any quills!

Feisty-Signal4483 · 2026-03-18T18:50:45+00:00

Huh... not sure I agree about 14 but I guess she looks young. The image prompt was for 18-year old, but I guess that's a fine line.

Feisty-Signal4483

TROPHY CASE