Writing with an AI while the book keeps the facts
How to let your own AI draft with a long book in view: read the state first, save a version, write with a revision, run the checks. And what Author deliberately does not do.
Writing with an AI has one failure mode that long books make worse: the AI does not remember. Every session starts with a summary you wrote, and the summary is shorter than the book. The AI drafts a scene in which someone knows a thing they do not know yet, or turns up in a city they left.
Bring your own AI. Author has a door through which it can read the facts of the book and write into it safely. On every plan you connect Claude, ChatGPT or Grok once, and the AI can do the following.
1. Read before it drafts#
Before writing scene 9.1, it asks for three things: the outline and the scenes around it, the state of the characters in the scene (where they are, what they know, what has happened to them) and the open issues. It is working from the same facts you would use, not from a summary.
2. Save a version first#
Before it rewrites prose that a person wrote, it saves a named version of the book. If the rewrite is wrong, you restore it. Restoring saves the current book first, so even a restore can be undone.
3. Write with a revision#
A scene has a revision, a counter that changes when the scene changes. To replace text you wrote in the app, the AI must read the scene and pass the revision back. If you edited the scene in the meantime, the write is refused. It cannot overwrite a newer edit of yours by accident.
4. Mark what happens#
A good draft comes with its events. The AI adds the events the scene implies, with their effects: who goes where, who learns what. That keeps the state honest for the next session, and it keeps the checks useful.
5. Run the checks#
After drafting it runs the continuity checks and tells you what it broke. You see the rule, the scenes and the cause.
What it does not do#
- It does not write without you asking: only the AI you connect drafts, and only when you ask.
- It does not resolve your readers' comments unless you ask.
- It does not invent events from prose. You, or your AI at your request, add them.
A first prompt#
Use my Author connector. Open my book, read the outline and the state of the protagonist at the end of chapter eight, then draft scene 9.1 as Markdown, add the events it implies, save a version first and run the continuity checks afterwards. Tell me what they found.
A note on cost#
Your AI runs on your own subscription. What the plan buys is the connection and the number of books.