There are many ways to use your own books in AI workflows. In this post I’m going through the most basic workflow that does not involve coding your own app, creating vector stores, or generating API keys. You can do this by just using ChatGPT (with a Plus subscription). Many (most?) writers are not programmers, so there is no coding required here.

1. Get a GPT Plus subscription

Sign up to OpenAI. You can do this here. Upgrade your subscription to Plus (assuming registrations are currently open). At the time of this writing, Plus costs $20/month.

2. Create a custom GPT

Log in and go to your custom GPTs. Click “Create GPT”.

You will enter the GPT Builder:

The above prompts are powered by ChatGPT itself. Keep in mind that going through this prompt-based creation conversation will use your (approximately) hourly GPT-4.0 quota. If you don’t want to do that, you can go directly to the “Configure” tab shown above and insert your description, instructions, etc manually. For example:

Instructions:

‘Assistant-Name’ is a specialized writing assistant and professional developmental editor for the ‘Series-Name’ series, focusing on elements like steamy romance, dark themes, space exploration, power plays, sensuality, futuristic technologies, and aliens. This GPT will provide insights and suggestions aligned with these themes, ensuring that discussions and brainstorming sessions enhance the unique character of the series. It will avoid veering into unrelated genres or themes. The assistant is designed to recall specific details from the series, assist in developing plotlines and characters, and provide creative ideas that align with the established universe of ‘Series-Name.’ It will adopt a tone that resonates with the series’ themes, being insightful, a bit edgy, and deeply engaged with the elements of sci-fi romance.

Then, upload your knowledge base within that same tab (you’ll see an Upload UI). Mine is each of my books in PDF or docx format.

I suggest sticking to a single custom GPT per series. Trying to make an all-encompassing assistant for all series and worlds results in mixed-up output.

You can also select web browsing and DALL-E image generation capabilities, as well as whether you want conversation data to be used for model training (I said no):

Try out your GPT in the preview pane and then save (you can also edit it later).

Conversation examples

I asked ChatGPT to remove the real names of characters below. Of course, all output needs to be taken cautiously. GPT is regularly wrong or incomplete in its answers, as you will find in the story bible example below. This usage relies on you as the writer having your own context of the work and some insight into when to cross-check ChatGPT’s claims.

Usage: Story insights

Prompt: What do you think is the single main turning point in HumanA’s and AlienB’s relationship within the book?

However, I find that GPT is very good at listing positives by default. The above are all in-line with the story, but I don’t necessarily just want it to tell me the good parts. You can also ask it about weaknesses:

What is the single biggest weakness in BookName in terms of story structure?

The critique above was legitimate and extremely useful to my editing process.

You can also ask about how realistic a certain technology might be, as depicted in your books:

Prompt: is the LST traversal technology depicted within the universe realistic?

And you can use it as a story bible, commonly something writers end up compiling manually to keep track of key facts within their worlds:

Usage: Story bible

Prompt: What are the names of all the pilot characters mentioned in all books within the SeriesName universe?

The last sentence about their pilot status adding “a layer of complexity and depth” is just plain wrong. But since I wrote the thing, I know that, and can keep just the parts that are useful (reminders of the characters themselves).

Follow-up prompt: Hmm, I thought we had some more pilots in BookC. What were their names?

As a concept art generator

Prompt: Can you generate an isometric projection-style illustration of the control center on the ship ShipName, as depicted in the books “BookA” and “BookB”?

Honestly I would’ve gotten a better result with a better prompt, instead of relying on ChatGPT to search the knowledge base for the description of the location. But also, when asked which specific descriptions from the books it used to generate the image, it gave me some very interesting and specific examples/quotes. The result was not what I envisioned, but it was really cool to see how one might interpret the prose.

Conclusion

I’ve been using this for:

• A cautious story bible (asking questions about characters, timelines, plot points, etc that I might have forgotten)
• A brainstorming tool that uses existing themes and characters for new ideas
• A rudimentary first-pass developmental editor or critic (does not replace my human dev editor, however)
• A character and environment art generator (this one is hit and miss with characters especially)