By Jacob Beasley
An interactive workbook that teaches fiction writing craft from the ground up—using AI as your personal coach, editor, and creative partner.
Read Book MarkDown | Read Book HTML | Download DOCX | Download EPUB
Learning to write well is hard. It always has been. But for the first time in history, writers have access to a patient, tireless coach who can read their work at any hour, give honest feedback, and generate endless practice material tailored to exactly the skill they need to develop.
This book is a hands-on creative writing course that takes you from crafting your first strong sentence all the way through outlining, drafting, publishing, and adapting cross-medium stories. Each chapter teaches a core fiction craft principle and then puts you to work immediately with an AI-powered exercise that grades your writing in real time.
AI does not have your voice. It cannot feel what you feel or tell the story only you can tell. But it can teach you the craft, help you find your strengths, organize your novel, and coach you through revision. AI is the tool. You are the author.
- Me because I am honestly not that strong of a writer and I could not find a curriculum like this, so I made one.
- Aspiring novelists who want to learn fiction craft from scratch.
- Experienced writers looking to sharpen specific skills (dialogue, pacing, self-editing).
- Anyone curious about AI who wants to see how tools like Gemini, ChatGPT, and Claude can accelerate creative writing without replacing the human voice.
No prior writing experience is required. No technical skills needed.
Every chapter follows a consistent three-part structure:
- Principles & Examples — 2–4 core craft principles with clear before-and-after examples showing exactly what good (and bad) writing looks like.
- Interactive AI Activity — A hands-on exercise completed alongside an AI chatbot. You write or rewrite something, and the AI coaches you through it.
- Sample Prompt — A copy-paste prompt you drop into your AI tool of choice. The AI generates a challenge, you respond, and it grades your work on a strict A–F scale. Keep revising until you earn at least a B before moving on.
The core learning engine of the book:
- The AI presents a challenge (a flawed passage, a flat character, a broken outline).
- You write or rewrite, applying the principles you just learned.
- The AI grades your work with a letter grade and specific coaching feedback.
- You revise until you earn a B or higher.
- You practice again by asking the AI to generate a fresh challenge.
| Part | Focus | Chapters |
|---|---|---|
| I | Sentence Craft | The Music of Prose, Strong Verbs, Economy of Language |
| II | Paragraph Craft | Concrete Specifics, Flow & Transitions, Openings & Closings |
| III | Self-Editing | POV, Dialogue Tags, Trusting Your Reader, Pacing |
| IV | Mastering Dialogue | Dialogue as Action, Subtext, Exposition, Beats & Voice |
| V | Outlining & Scaling | Outlining Principles, Scaling to Series |
| VI | Character Psychology | Ghost & Lie, Wants vs. Needs, Antagonists |
| VII | Building Your Story Bible | World-Building Categories, Organization |
| VIII | Narrative Structures | Three-Act, Hero's Journey, Save the Cat!, Story Circle |
| IX | Mastering AI Collaboration | Prompt Engineering, Brainstorming, Story Bible Assistant, Workspaces, Ethics |
| X | Publishing | Feedback Loops, Publishing Paths, Self-Publishing |
| XI | Beyond the Novel | Poetry & Lyric Prose, Screenplays, Interactive Fiction, Flash Fiction, Graphic Novels, Memoir, Audio Dramas, Conclusion |
You'll need access to at least one AI chatbot to complete the exercises:
All three work. Pick whichever you prefer. Free tiers are sufficient for every exercise in the book.
book.md — The full 42-chapter book manuscript
book.docx — Exported Microsoft Word manuscript
book.epub — Exported EPUB e-book manuscript
book.html — Exported HTML web page
images/ — Full-color comic strip illustrations for each part and chapter
scripts/ — Python & PowerShell tools for parsing, asset processing, and comic generation
game/prose-quest/ — Godot 4 gamified learning companion app ("Prose Quest")
.agents/
AGENTS.md — Persona and structural rules for AI-assisted drafting
skills/ — Custom AI pair-writing skills (write_chapter, generate_chapter_image)
You can convert the Markdown manuscript (book.md) into E-Book (.epub), MS Word (.docx), or standalone HTML (.html) formats using Pandoc.
If Pandoc is not installed, install it via Windows Package Manager:
winget install --id JohnMacFarlane.Pandoc -e-
Convert to E-Book (
.epub):pandoc book.md -o book.epub --metadata title="Learning to Write Novels with AI: From Sentence to Series" --metadata author="Jacob Beasley" --epub-cover-image=images/cover.png
-
Convert to MS Word (
.docx):pandoc book.md -o book.docx -
Convert to Standalone HTML (
.html):pandoc book.md -o book.html --standalone
This is a living manuscript and contributions are welcome—whether you spot a typo, have a suggestion for an exercise, or want to propose a new chapter topic.
Ways to contribute:
- Bug reports & typos — Open an issue describing what you found and where.
- Exercise suggestions — Open an issue with the label
exercise-idea. Describe the craft skill you'd like covered and any AI prompt ideas you have. - Chapter feedback — If you've worked through a chapter and something didn't click, open an issue. Real reader friction is gold.
- Pull requests — Small fixes (typos, broken links, formatting) are welcome as PRs. For larger changes—new sections, restructured chapters—please open an issue first so we can discuss before you invest the time.
Note: This is a personal project and I maintain final editorial control over the manuscript. I may not accept every suggestion, but I read everything and appreciate the feedback.
All rights reserved. This manuscript is a work in progress and is not licensed for redistribution.