The Writing Assistant

Overview

The Writing Assistant lives in the Chat panel on the right side of the Writer. It's not just a chatbot — it's a fully capable AI co-author that can take action on your project. Tell it what you want in plain English and it does the work: creating characters, writing chapters, generating images, reorganizing your structure, searching the web for research, and more.

Think of it as “vibe writing” — describe your vision and the AI builds it. You stay in the creative flow while the assistant handles the mechanics.

How It Works

When you send a message, the AI reads your project context — characters, locations, worldbuilding, chapter outlines, and Story Bible — then decides whether to respond conversationally or take action using its built-in tools.

1. You type a message in the chat panel.
2. The AI analyzes your request against 20+ available tools.
3. If action is needed, it executes tools server-side (creating nodes, writing prose, generating images).
4. Results stream back in real time — you see each tool step animate in, followed by the AI's response.
5. Changes appear instantly in your project via live sync.

The assistant is action-first. When you say “create a character named Elena,” it immediately creates the character node rather than asking clarifying questions. It fills in reasonable defaults using your project context and its creative judgment.

Example Prompts

Below are real examples of what you can say to the Writing Assistant. You don't need to use exact phrasing — the AI understands natural language and will figure out what you mean.

Creating Characters

• “Create a character named Elena Voss, a 30-year-old archaeologist with a fear of heights.”
• “Add a mysterious librarian named Nyx who guards forbidden knowledge. She's in her 60s and speaks in riddles.”
• “Make a villain for my story — someone charming on the surface but ruthless underneath.”
• “Create three characters for a heist crew: a hacker, a getaway driver, and a con artist.”

Creating Locations & Worldbuilding

• “Add a location called The Sunken Archive — an underwater library accessible only at low tide.”
• “Create a worldbuilding entry about the three moons of Valdris and how they affect magic.”
• “Add a lore entry explaining how the caste system works in my world.”
• “Create a location for the final battle — something dramatic, like a crumbling cathedral.”

Writing Chapters & Prose

When you ask the assistant to write (not just add) a chapter, it creates the Draft node and writes the full prose in the background. Click the new chapter to watch it appear in real time.

• “Write a chapter about Elena discovering a hidden door behind the library shelves.”
• “Write the opening scene — it's a rainy night, the detective arrives at the crime scene.”
• “Draft a flashback scene where Marcus remembers the fire that killed his family.”
• “Write a chapter called The Descent. Synopsis: Elena and Nyx descend into the cavern system beneath the Archive.”

If you just want a chapter outline without prose, say “add” instead of “write”:

• “Add a chapter called The Reveal with a synopsis about the villain's identity being exposed.”

Editing, Renaming & Deleting

• “Rename Ember to Cinder.”
• “Change Elena's age to 35.”
• “Update the backstory for Marcus — he grew up on a farm, not in the city.”
• “Delete the prologue.”
• “Remove the character named Thomas.”
• “Restore the character I just deleted.”
• “Bring back Chapter 2, I changed my mind.”

Organizing Your Project

• “Create a folder called Act 1.”
• “Make folders for Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3.”
• “Move Chapter 3 into the Act 1 folder.”
• “Move all the early chapters into Act 1.”
• “Replace every occurrence of ‘the Tower’ with ‘the Citadel’ across all chapters.”
• “Find and replace ‘Sarah’ with ‘Sara’ everywhere.”

Research & Web Search

The assistant searches the web in real time and synthesizes results into a useful answer. It can combine research with other actions.

• “Research Victorian-era London street layouts for my setting.”
• “What does absinthe actually taste like? I need it for a scene.”
• “Look up how sword fighting actually works and create a worldbuilding entry about it.”
• “Search for common myths about the deep ocean — I want to use real folklore.”
• “What were the major events of 1923? I'm setting my novel that year.”

Images & Portraits

Scene images generate an AI illustration that appears in chat. You can insert it into a chapter, download it, or discard it.

• “Generate an illustration of the battle at the Shattered Bridge.”
• “Create a scene image of Elena standing in the rain outside the archive.”
• “Illustrate the final confrontation in a comic book style.”
• “Generate a painterly image of the sunset over the ruined city.”
• “Create a scene illustration for Chapter 5 and insert it after the paragraph about the door opening.”

Character portraits use your character's appearance data to generate ink-style portraits. They're automatically saved to the character profile.

• “Generate a portrait of Elena.”
• “Create a dramatic portrait for the villain.”
• “Generate a sketch-style portrait of Nyx.”

Switching Models & Styles

Model switches show a confirmation prompt before taking effect. Style changes apply immediately.

• “Switch to Claude Sonnet for better quality.”
• “Use the cheapest model available.”
• “Change to Gemini Pro.”
• “What's the fastest model?”
• “Which model is best for creative writing?”
• “Use the horror writing style.”
• “Switch to the romance style for this next chapter.”
• “Use a more literary, prose-heavy style.”
• “Change the writing style to dialogue-focused.”

Comments & Reviews

The AI reads your chapter text and places categorized comments (note, todo, research, question, feedback) anchored to specific passages.

• “Review Chapter 5 and leave feedback on the dialogue.”
• “Read the opening chapter and add comments wherever the pacing feels slow.”
• “Add a todo comment on Chapter 3 reminding me to add more sensory details.”
• “Flag any research questions in the last chapter I wrote.”
• “Leave notes on Chapter 7 about character consistency — does Elena feel the same as in Chapter 1?”

Story Bible Controls

Fine-tune which nodes the AI considers when generating prose.

• “Always include Elena in AI context.”
• “Exclude the old timeline from generation.”
• “Don't use the Prophecy lore entry when writing — it's a spoiler.”
• “Reset The Sunken Archive back to automatic context.”
• “Summarize Chapter 3 for the Story Bible.”
• “Update the Story Bible summary for the last chapter I wrote.”

Chaining Multiple Actions

You can ask for multiple things in a single message. The assistant executes each action in sequence.

• “Create a character named Marcus, a location called The Docks, and a chapter where they meet for the first time.”
• “Research 1920s jazz clubs, create a location based on what you find, and write an opening scene set there.”
• “Rename the villain to Cinder, update her backstory to include the fire, and generate a dramatic portrait.”
• “Create folders for each act and move the chapters into them.”

Just Talking

Not every message needs to trigger an action. The assistant is also a knowledgeable writing partner who knows your entire project.

• “What should happen next in the story?”
• “I'm stuck on the ending — what are some options?”
• “Does Elena's motivation make sense given what happened in Chapter 2?”
• “Give me five possible titles for this novel.”
• “How would you describe the tone of my story so far?”
• “I want the ending to feel bittersweet. How should I set that up?”

Tool Steps in Chat

When the assistant takes action, each tool call appears as a step in the chat message. Steps show:

• A color-coded icon for the tool type (green for creation, purple for writing, pink for images, yellow for organization, blue for moves, red for deletion).
• A description of what happened (“Created character Elena Voss,” “Moved Chapter 3 into Act 1”).

Steps appear one by one as the assistant works, giving you a clear timeline of exactly what changed. Every change is also recorded in the Project Changes tab for review and revert.

Conversation Memory

The assistant remembers your conversation across many messages. For long project chats, it automatically summarizes older messages so it retains context about earlier discussions even as the conversation grows. You can start a new chat at any time from the Chat History tab, or continue the same conversation for the entire project.

Models & Cost

The Writing Assistant uses whichever AI model you have selected in the model picker. All 21 models work with the assistant — from the free Haiku on Starter plans to premium models like Claude Opus on paid plans. Tool calls (creating nodes, searching the web) cost the same regardless of model — the model only affects the conversational intelligence and the cost of the chat message itself.

Fixed-cost actions:

• Web search: 5,000 tokens per search
• Scene images: 15,000 tokens per image
• Character portraits: 15,000 tokens per portrait

Tips

• Be specific when you want action. “Create a character named Elena who is a 30-year-old archaeologist with a fear of heights” gives better results than “maybe add a character.”
• Chain requests. You can ask for multiple things at once: “Create three characters for a heist crew and a location for their hideout.” The AI executes all the tools in sequence.
• Use it for research. Web search combined with node creation is powerful: “Research medieval siege weapons and create a worldbuilding entry about them.”
• Ask for reviews. “Read Chapter 4 and leave comments on pacing and dialogue” gets you actionable feedback anchored to specific passages.
• Every change is reversible. Check the Changes tab to see exactly what the assistant did, and revert anything you don't like with one click.