AI Write & Continue

Overview

Write and Continue are your two primary AI generation tools. They both add new prose to the end of your draft, but they work differently:

• Write opens a dialog where you describe what you want. Great for starting a new scene, jumping to a specific moment, or giving the AI detailed direction.
• Continue picks up exactly where your text left off. No dialog, no prompt — just one click (or one shortcut) and the AI extends your story.

Both require a Draft node to be selected in the left panel. They won't appear if you're viewing a Character, Location, or other non-draft node.

Write and Continue buttons in the editor toolbar

Write — Generate New Prose

Click the Write button in the toolbar to open the Write dialog. This is where you tell the AI what you want it to write.

The Write Dialog

The dialog has two main controls:

• Prompt field — describe the scene, passage, or moment you want. Be as specific or as vague as you like. The AI will combine your prompt with the context from your project (characters, story, existing text) to generate prose.
• Length selector — choose Short, Medium, or Long to control roughly how much text the AI generates.

The Write dialog — describe what you want and choose a length

Length Preference

The three length options give you rough control over output size:

• Short — a paragraph or two. Good for transitions and brief moments.
• Medium — several paragraphs. The sweet spot for most scenes.
• Long — an extended passage. Use this when you want the AI to really dig into a scene.

Your length preference persists across the session, so if you usually prefer Medium, you only need to set it once. It resets when you close the writer.

Continue — Extend Your Text

Continue is the faster of the two tools. Click the Continue button and the AI immediately starts generating from where your text left off. No dialog, no prompt.

This is the tool you'll use most. When you're in a flow and you want the AI to keep the story going, just hit the shortcut. The AI reads your existing text, understands the pacing and voice, and continues naturally.

How Context Works

Both Write and Continue send much more than just your prompt to the AI. Behind the scenes, Genesis Writer builds a rich context package that includes:

• Your existing text — the draft content leading up to the generation point, so the AI matches your voice and continues the story coherently.
• Project context — information from the node hierarchy, including sibling drafts, parent nodes, and linked context.
• Character data — personality, backstory, and voice analysis for any characters linked to this part of the story. See Context Building & Story Bible.
• Writing style — the active writing style is applied to shape vocabulary, sentence rhythm, and tone.

This is why Genesis Writer produces better results than pasting your text into a generic AI chatbot. The context builder gives the AI deep understanding of your story.

The Streaming Animation

When the AI generates text, it doesn't appear all at once. The response streams in character by character with a smooth reveal animation. This gives you time to read as it writes and decide whether the output is going in the right direction.

Generated text is visually highlighted in the editor so you can always distinguish AI-written prose from text you typed yourself. The highlighting disappears when you accept the generation.

The editor also auto-scrolls to follow the generation. If you scroll away manually (using the scroll wheel or touchpad), auto-scroll pauses so you can review earlier parts of your draft. It resumes when the generation finishes or you scroll back down.

Keep or Discard

After the AI finishes generating (or while it's still streaming), the inline generation toolbar appears with three options:

• Keep (green) — accept the generated text. It becomes part of your draft and tokens are finalized (deducted from your balance).
• Discard — remove all generated text. Tokens are refunded back to your balance.
• Stop — halt the generation mid-stream. You can then Keep or Discard whatever was generated up to that point.

Token Usage

Both Write and Continue use Genesis Tokens. The cost depends on the model you've selected and how much text is generated. More expensive models (like Claude 4.6 Opus) produce higher-quality prose but use more tokens per generation.

When your token balance drops below 20%, you'll see a low token warning to give you time to manage your usage. You won't be charged for discarded generations — tokens are only finalized when you click Keep.

Tips for Better Results

• Give the AI a running start. Write the first sentence or two yourself, then use Continue. The AI matches your voice better when it has something to build on.
• Use Write for scene starts, Continue for everything else. Write is best when you're starting from scratch. Once you have momentum, Continue keeps the flow going.
• Link characters to your draft. The AI writes better dialogue and character moments when it has access to character profiles. See Creating Characters.
• Choose the right model. Fast models are great for first drafts. Premium models shine when you need nuanced prose. See Choosing a Model.
• Set a writing style. Without a style, the AI uses its default voice. With a style, you get consistent tone, vocabulary, and pacing. See What Are Writing Styles?