There are four different pricing options for NovelCrafter:

1. Scribe - $4/month or $40/annually. This plan includes most of NovelCrafter's features, except you cannot use AI.

2. Hobbyist - $8/month or $80/annually. This plan includes everything in the Scribe plan, plus access to AI. However, you have to "bring your own key" for the AI, meaning you'll need to connect a third-party AI tool and pay for the AI usage separately.

3. Artisan - $14/month or $140/annually. This plan includes everything in the Hobbyist plan, plus additional "Workshop" and "Advanced Review" features, including the ability to use the "Chat" feature to interact with the AI.

4. Specialist - $20/month or $200/annually. This plan includes everything in the Artisan plan, plus features for shared series/universes and collaborative writing.

The Hobbyist and Artisan plans are likely the most suitable options for most authors. The Hobbyist plan provides access to AI at a low cost, while the Artisan plan adds useful features like the Chat functionality. The Specialist plan caters to authors with more complex needs, such as managing shared series or collaborating with others.

Regardless of the plan, you can save money by paying annually instead of monthly. The annual plans effectively give you two months free compared to paying monthly. Overall, NovelCrafter offers flexible pricing options to fit different budgets and writing needs.

The Codex and Snippets are two powerful features in Novel Crafter that allow you to organize and access important information about your novel.

The Codex

The Codex is where you store detailed information about the characters, locations, objects, lore, and other elements of your story. This information can then be accessed by the AI to help it write more coherent and consistent content.

To create a new Codex entry, simply click the "New Entry" button and select the type of entry you want to create. For characters, you can provide details about their physical appearance, communication style, personality, and more. This information will be used by the AI when writing scenes involving that character.

You can also create nested references, allowing you to link characters to groups or organizations they belong to. This helps the AI understand the relationships between different elements of your story.

Another useful feature is the ability to add "Progressions and Additions" to Codex entries. This allows you to update an entry at a specific point in the story, ensuring the AI has the most up-to-date information.

Snippets

Snippets are essentially notes or short pieces of text that you can store and reference throughout your writing process. They can be used for things like:

• Storing sample chapters or text passages
• Jotting down ideas or brainstorming notes
• Keeping track of research or background information

Unlike the Codex, Snippets are not directly accessed by the AI during content generation. However, you can choose to manually insert Snippets into your prompts if you want the AI to reference that information.

Snippets can be a useful way to keep your writing organized and easily accessible, especially for longer projects or series.

By taking the time to build out your Codex and utilize Snippets, you can provide the AI with a wealth of context and information to draw from, leading to more coherent and consistent writing in your novel.

The Plan Tab

The plan tab is where you can outline your novel. You can create new scenes, chapters, and acts, and add summaries for each. Some key features of the plan tab include:

• Creating new scenes, chapters, and acts
• Adding summaries for each scene
• Disabling scene/chapter numbering if desired
• Copying outline summaries or prose
• Quickly jumping to the write tab to start writing a scene

You can also create an outline from a template, such as the 24-chapter novel outline, to get a head start on your planning.

The Write Tab

The write tab is where you'll spend most of your time actually writing your novel. Key features include:

• Writing directly in the tab, with the option to use AI assistance
• Inserting scene beats, continuing writing, adding codex entries, and more using slash commands
• Applying text editing prompts like "expand", "rephrase", and "shorten" to refine your writing
• Creating sections to organize your writing
• Accessing your scene summaries from the plan tab
• Tracking word count and other metrics in the review tab

When using AI assistance, you can select from various language models and control parameters like temperature to fine-tune the output. The AI will take into account the context of your novel, including characters and plot points from the codex and plan tabs.

Overall, the plan and write tabs provide a comprehensive set of tools to outline, write, and refine your novel within the Novel Crafter platform. The flexibility and integration of these features make Novel Crafter a powerful tool for authors.

The chat feature in Novel Crafter is a powerful tool that allows you to interact with the AI in a more conversational way. Here's how you can leverage it:

Accessing the Chat

You can access the chat by clicking on the "Chat" tab at the top of the Novel Crafter interface. This will bring up the chat window, where you can start a new chat or view your previous conversations.

Providing Context

One of the key features of the chat is the ability to provide context to the AI. You can do this by selecting the "Context" option and choosing what information you want to include, such as the full novel outline, a specific scene, or the full novel text. This helps the AI understand the broader context of your story and generate more relevant and coherent responses.

Chatting with Characters

Another useful feature is the ability to chat with your characters. You can select a prompt that allows you to "Chat with People" and then choose a specific character, such as Gyan. This lets you have a conversation with the character, which can help you better understand their personality, motivations, and voice.

Brainstorming and Ideation

The chat can also be used for brainstorming and ideation. You can ask the AI for ideas on how to incorporate a specific trope, such as the "enemies to lovers" trope, or request scene beats for a particular chapter. The AI will draw on the information in your Codex and outline to provide relevant and tailored suggestions.

Prompt Customization

In the "Prompts" section, you can create and customize your own prompts for use in the chat. This allows you to fine-tune the AI's responses to better suit your writing style and the needs of your story.

By leveraging the chat feature, you can tap into the AI's capabilities in a more interactive and contextual way, helping to enhance your writing process and bring your story to life.

In Novel Crafter, you have the ability to create and manage your own custom prompts. This provides a high level of flexibility and control over the AI-generated content.

Creating New Prompts

1. Go to the "Prompts" section at the bottom left of the Novel Crafter interface.
2. Click the "New" button to create a new prompt.
3. You can choose to clone an existing system prompt and modify it, or start from scratch.
4. Customize the prompt by:
   • Selecting the AI models you want to use (e.g. GPT-3.5, Claude 3.5, etc.)
   • Adjusting parameters like temperature and max tokens
   • Editing the "System Message" and "User Input" sections
   • Utilizing the special bracketed codes to pull in context from your novel (e.g. character details, story summary, etc.)
5. Save your custom prompt for future use.

Managing Prompts

• You can view all your prompts in the "Prompts" section.
• Use the three-dot menu to clone, edit, or delete prompts as needed.
• Organize your prompts into categories (e.g. "Scene Beats", "Text Replacement", "Workshop Chat", etc.) for better management.
• Share your prompts with others by copying the prompt code and having them import it.
• Stay up-to-date on the Novel Crafter community's shared prompts, which you can import into your own account.

Prompt Best Practices

• Start with the system prompts and customize them to your needs.
• Experiment with different models, temperatures, and other parameters to find the best results.
• Create prompts for specific use cases (e.g. scene beats, character voice, text editing, etc.).
• Document your prompts and their intended uses for future reference.
• Share your best prompts with the Novel Crafter community to help others.

By leveraging custom prompts, you can unlock the full potential of AI-assisted writing in Novel Crafter and tailor the experience to your unique creative process.