How to Use Sudowrite Story Engine to Plan and Draft a Complete Novel Outline

Writing a novel is a daunting endeavor — you need compelling characters, a gripping plot, proper pacing, and satisfying resolution. Sudowrite‘s Story Engine is designed to make this process systematic and creative simultaneously. In this tutorial, we’ll walk through how to use Story Engine to plan, outline, and draft a complete novel from scratch.

Step 1: Set Up Your Story Premise

Open Sudowrite and navigate to the Story Engine tab. Start by entering your core premise — a one-sentence summary of your novel’s central conflict. For example: “A disillusioned detective in a near-future city discovers that the AI policing system she trusted has been secretly manipulating crime statistics to justify its budget.” Story Engine uses this premise as the seed for everything it generates next.

Step 2: Configure Genre and Tone Parameters

Below the premise field, you’ll find genre and tone selectors. Choose your genre (e.g., Sci-Fi Thriller) and adjust tone sliders — gritty vs. lighthearted, fast-paced vs. contemplative, character-driven vs. plot-driven. These settings deeply influence the AI’s output. A gritty, fast-paced sci-fi thriller will produce tight, action-oriented beats; a contemplative, character-driven setting yields introspective scenes. Spend time here — these parameters shape your entire novel’s DNA.

Step 3: Generate the Story Beat Sheet

Click “Generate Beats” and Story Engine will produce a structured beat sheet — typically 12-20 beats covering your novel’s full arc. Each beat includes a scene description, character involvement, and emotional tone. Review the beats carefully. You can edit, reorder, delete, or add custom beats. This is where you exercise authorial control — the AI proposes, you decide. Look for beats that feel predictable and twist them; identify gaps in character development and insert new beats.

Step 4: Expand Beats into Chapter Drafts

Select a beat and click “Expand to Chapter.” Story Engine will generate a full chapter draft (typically 2,000-4,000 words) based on that beat, incorporating your premise, genre, and tone settings. The generated prose will include dialogue, internal monologue, sensory descriptions, and scene transitions. Read through the draft, highlight passages you want to refine, and use Rewrite Mode on those sections. You don’t need to accept everything — treat each expansion as a rich starting point that you sculpt into your final prose.

Step 5: Use Canvas for Branching Plot Exploration

As you progress through chapters, you may encounter decision points — should your protagonist confront the antagonist now or gather more evidence first? Open Canvas to create branching paths for each major decision. Canvas lets you explore multiple narrative trajectories simultaneously, writing divergent chapters for each path. When you’ve evaluated all options, collapse the branches you don’t want and commit to your chosen direction. This non-linear approach mirrors how many professional authors actually think through complex plots.

Step 6: Refine and Polish with Describe and Rewrite Modes

Once your full novel draft is assembled, switch to revision mode. Run Describe Mode on sparse passages to enrich sensory detail. Use Rewrite Mode on any section that feels flat, overwritten, or tonally inconsistent. Sudowrite’s style-matching ensures that even AI-generated revisions blend seamlessly with your original prose. Export your final manuscript and continue editing in your preferred word processor — Sudowrite excels at acceleration, but the final polish always belongs to you.