How do you use ChatGPT or Claude to analyze your novel?

Edited for readability. Passages from the original recording that are out of date have been left out and are marked in brackets.

The indie author revolution has been around for more than a decade, but we indies continue to push the boundaries of what we're capable of, from getting over initial prejudices to staring down perfectionism and author imposter syndrome. We've become a force to reckon with. Now, after years of hustle and grind, we indies are rebelling again. Gone are the days of publishing a book a month until we drop.

And in its place we're sowing the seeds of a better way. A way with more ease, abundance and flow.

[Out-of-date promotional section from the original recording removed.]

I'm Carissa Andrews and this is the Author Revolution podcast. Well, hey there everybody.

Welcome back to another episode of the Author Revolution Podcast. And oh, hopefully you can hear me and I can speak clearly today without my voice cracking or sounding like I've got a frog somewhere stuffed into one of my orifices because I cannot. I cannot breathe properly. I ended up somehow, someway managing to get a cold from my daughter.

And so Thanksgiving turned into a little bit of a fiasco, I have to admit. Like the day before Thanksgiving, I was not feeling my best. I knew something was coming, and it wasn't actually until Friday, the day after. So Black Friday day that I realized, oh crap, I am getting a really terrible cold.

Thankfully, now that it's Tuesday, I'm feeling much better. But I can still like hear crackling in my ears and my sinuses are all wonky, and I'm still irritated at my daughter because she knew exactly what she was doing when she was getting too close. We were on the couch, we were cuddled up, we were watching Gilmore Girls, and I could tell she had a cold and she didn't care. Dang kids.

Anyway, so I'm feeling better. It's it's getting better. I'm not quite as, like, dead to the world. I slept for 12 hours on Saturday, so I'm getting there.

But, now that we're reaching the end of NaNoWriMo, I have some interesting news that I wanted to tell you guys. And so we're going to be talking again about ChatGPT. I know it's like, wow, Carissa, you're talking an awful lot about this, but I just can't get over the usage that we can like the different usages, like all the things that we can do with chat to make our lives as authors easier. It just every week, every day seems to get just a little bit better.

And I'm just, like, profoundly, taken aback by just how awesome this tool is. And so I want you guys to definitely be, you know, perking your ears. If you haven't tested out ChatGPT yet, if you haven't, like, dipped your toes into AI yet, I get it. I understand the, you know, the qualms about it.

But I'm telling you right now, man, there is nothing quite like using this tool and being able to get your brain functioning and firing off like it. It's one of those tools where it makes writing fun because you can bounce ideas off of this, this tool, this friend, this digital friend that just makes writing so much fun. And it's not just about the writing part of it either. It's the planning part of it.

It's the post writing part of it. And that's actually what we're going to be talking about today. So NaNoWriMo is coming to a close. If you're hearing this on the Wednesday that it airs, which is November 29th, that means there's two days left of NaNoWriMo before the end of NaNoWriMo 2023.

[Out-of-date detail removed.]

But I do want to say that, like NaNoWriMo continues to be a challenge that I like to take on, not because of the organization, but because it's something that makes me feel like a better writer, something that pushes me to do better, be better, work harder. Do you know what I mean? So at any rate, enough of that old nonsense. If you've got, you know, the drama bug and you like to talk about all the things, more power to you.

I'm just not one of those people. I'm a Virgo. I'm a double Virgo. I like to keep things very organized in my brain, and I don't have a whole lot of time for basing on that regard.

So that's just how I am. But with this NaNoWriMo, it's been very interesting because even despite the cold, even despite all the things that have, you know, kind of gone on with, being busy this month and getting all the things organized, I was obviously writing Dirty Books at the same time as recording and mastering Ruins, which is the audiobook for my urban fantasy pen name. The whole thing has been recorded.

[Out-of-date promotional section from the original recording removed.]

But what was interesting, this nano despite this cold, was that using ChatGPT has helped me to stay focused on the story.

It's helped me stay focused on the plan. You know, we're like having DayQuil cloud. Your brain would normally put you out of the writing scene. At least it has for me.

It was nice having chat because I could say, hey, Chat, these are the things I'm kind of thinking I'd like to have in this scene. Do you have any other advice, any other ideas of what we could do with Carly and Adam? You know, I want to go this route. I want to include these characters that you already know about.

And now I'm using a custom GPT for my rom com so it understands who the characters are. It understands the plot points. It understands how things are working thus far. Right.

And so it's kept me focused so that I can continue to write and continue to do things, continue to be in the flow of Carly and Adam and all the things that are going on despite not feeling the best. And so it's it's been really cool. And what ended up happening is that I won NaNoWriMo on Friday, which would have been November 24th. So the Black Friday is when I finished my 50,000 words, and that's the fastest I've ever completed NaNoWriMo in any of the years that I've done this.

I've completed it early before, but like by a day or two days like this. So this was pretty cool. And it was even in the midst of me, like feeling like death to the world, like feeling like my, my face is going to implode or something. So it was good to to have that tool to just keep my brain focused, even when my own like strategy brain was not fully functioning like it was limping along.

It could keep up though. It could keep up with what chat was giving me and go, okay, yeah, I like that. But it probably would not have come up with anything exciting during that. I have a tendency when I get sick to either like be very mean and all the characters are just mad, they're all irritated with each other or like, I want to kill them all off or something.

And this didn't happen this time. I was able to maintain a funny vibe and keep kind of going. So that was cool. So now that we're coming to the end of this sucker, I wanted to give you some food for thought on how your next steps can play out when it comes to fine tuning your story using AI analysis.

So using ChatGPT to help you identify some problems in your story. Identify plot holes to just overall analyze how the story is going. So even if your book is not finished yet, which mine isn't, I'm. I'm about 25,000 words out ish is kind of what my brain is telling me.

And so it's not quite there yet, but I can have it analyze. And I did do it. So I'm going to tell you a little bit about, you know, condensed version, what it told me once I tell you what, how you can utilize it. Okay.

Let me get to that part first. So what I want you to be thinking about is, you know, sometimes when we write and we're writing fast, not all of us are plotters, and sometimes we're plotters, but we don't want to tell too much the story, because then the story gets boring. And so when we get to this point of NaNoWriMo, when we're coming to the end of the sucker, sometimes it helps to analyze it just to know, like, is there plot coherence happening in this story? Like, am I doing what I need to do for this story, for this genre?

Does that make sense? And so one of the ways that ChatGPT can help you is that it can evaluate the structure of your story and assess whether the plot follows its logical sequences, and if there's any glaring inconsistencies or plot holes. Key, key point, right? We don't need the plot holes there so you can input, you know, your summary or your key points, and ChatGPT can organize and identify for you.

But if you have those custom GPTs and can import your entire PDF so far, that's the best way, in my personal opinion, to be able to utilize this. Now, I know there's a wait time right now to be able to upgrade, so if you haven't yet gotten the chance to upgrade, haven't yet gotten the chance to be able to start working with custom GPTs, just know. You can still do this utilizing, you know, a normal chat. You just have to go like chapter by chapter in the same chat and start giving the information to ChatGPT.

It's a slower process. It might get a little bit more confused because it's not all in one location, like one small location like a PDF, but it will still give you the information you're looking for. Okay, just know that if you get the chance, if you do upgrade, if you have upgraded, utilizing a custom GPT is going to be your best bet. Okay, but what you can do then is just ask it questions to help you identify, you know, like how is this story structure looking?

So this is the question I asked. I said using the PDF upload of Dirty Books, which is the book that I'm working on in your knowledge bank so far. Can you review and evaluate the plot structure? So that's the question I asked.

Chat, just using the custom GPT, which is my Rom Com Muse, whatever the name is, and it came back with some really good key points. Like it said, the plot structure for Dirty Books, the second book, and the One Night Stand Club series, follows a blend of romantic comedy and erotic romance themes. Perfect. The story focuses on Carly, a quirky and clumsy character who is secretly a romance author.

Yes she is. Plot unfolds and Carly embarks on a journey of self-discovery and romance, but then it goes into key elements of the plot. Structure includes introduction and setup. It talks about the rising action and conflict with Carly and Adam.

It includes character development of Carly and Adam, the romantic development it goes into climax and resolution, and so then it gives like a quick overall thing that says, you know, throughout the story, the themes of friendship, self-acceptance, and exploration of one's desires are prominent. The plot is structured to balance the comedic elements and more serious introspective moments, providing a comprehensive view of the protagonist's life and transformation. So just with that PDF and just with that one question, it went through a whole big list of things that it told me how the interactions were, how the romantic development went, how the climax of the story worked, how the resolution thus far is going right. And so when you're doing these things, when you're asking these questions, if there's specific things, specific areas of your novel that you're not quite sure are working, you can ask Chat.

So like my next question was, okay, this is great chat. How is the pacing and tension for this romantic comedy? So then the Rom Com Muse would come back and said the pacing and tension in Dirty Books is well managed, contributing effectively to the romantic comedy genre of the story. The pacing is dynamic, balancing slower, introspective moments with quicker, more engaging scenes.

But then it goes again through a list of key aspects of tension that include gradual character development, intermittent romantic tension, humorous interludes, conflict and resolution, integration of subplots. It goes into all of those things, giving me more information about what it knows of the story and what's what's going well apparently in this story. So that's good, right? And then I asked, can you check dirty books and just make sure there's character consistency throughout the book?

Because I think a lot of us are going to want to know that, right? If we're writing characters, especially characters who are very different or have their own unique vibe, we want to make sure that we're consistent with those characters. And again, it gave me information about the the two main characters, Carly and Adam. It talked about the supportive characters.

It talked about the character development and dynamics throughout the story so far, dialog and actions and how they are or are not working, or if there's areas where I can do better. So it was really fascinating just to be able to see like, how is this working? Right. The last question that I asked was, do you see any plot holes in this book so far?

And so it took a second. It reviewed the whole book so far, and it said that after reviewing Dirty Books, it appears the plot is well constructed without any obvious plot holes. The narrative flows logically, with each event and character decision being supported by the story's established context and character development. The challenges, conflicts, and resolution encountered by the characters are consistent with their personalities and the story's progression, and it goes on for like three more paragraphs, right?

But it's telling me that there is nothing glaringly obvious that standing out that's going, okay, this this isn't going to work in the way or the direction that I'm going. The idea is that if it weren't going well, I want this thing to tell me it's not going well or to let me know like something's not quite right so that I can refine it and make it better. Of course, I've been doing this a while, right? I've been writing books for over a decade.

I understand plot structure. I understand character development arcs. I know what I'm doing even even though rom com is technically a new genre for me. I've been around like I've watched movies that are rom coms.

I get the flow, I've read stories right, so I get it. But if you're new to writing books, or if you're writing a different genre and you haven't really studied the structure of it, or if you're just not confident about it, this is like a such a cool tool to be able to figure it all out. So here's a few more ways that you can use ChatGPT to beyond just what I've showed you here to be able to analyze your book so far, your Nano story so far, or even some of the books that you already have, right? If you're just curious.

So you can. Again, like I said, we talked about plot structure reviewing. You could figure out like is the conflict and resolution going well? You can ask chat to analyze the central conflict of the story and figure out the effectiveness of its resolution so it can offer insights as to whether the conflict is compelling and the resolution like, is it satisfying and consistent with the whole story?

It'll give you those details. Ask the question like chat, can you help me analyze the central conflict of this story? And it will. You saw that I said pacing and tension.

I wanted to know is the pacing and tension consistent with a rom com, and it gave me insights and information into that. You can enhance your character development by digging deeper into those character arcs and growth, because chat can assess the development of major characters and look at their arcs and their growth throughout the whole story, it can provide some really good feedback on whether characters are well-developed or if they undergo, you know, a significant transformation or if they stay stagnant, which obviously most stories we don't want. We want them to grow and to be better. You can ask it about character consistency, like I did.

I wanted to know, like, are these characters consistent? Like, is Carly still funny from chapter one to chapter 25 so far? Is she still that goofy lady? And yes, so far she is.

So that's good book for me. You can ask about the character, dialog and interactions, like can ChatGPT offer any insights into the way they interact with each other? Like is there anything that stands out that's not consistent in the way that they're speaking? And sometimes, especially if you're doing it from chapter to chapter, you can actually get some really good insights.

There are two you could say, hey, chat, take a look at the story so far is the way I'm writing the dialog here consistent with how this particular character speaks. And I can give you that information like I do that in real time so that it keeps me kind of in the flow and the vibe of the characters. Now, Carly in Dirty Books, she is a very, a very unique and potent character. Like she has a specific way of thinking, a specific way of speaking, a specific way of being.

And she is definitely a more funny character than, like, Adam that the guy that she's ending up with. So there's you're going to know the second you're in her head, that you're in her head because of the way that she just instantly is. And I want to make sure every chapter when we're in her head is like that. Right.

So I have to take a look at all those things. Like, is this consistent? Is it working properly? Finally, I guess one of the big things that you can do and it sometimes it works when you're mid story, and sometimes it's best to hang on to it until you're done with the whole thing.

But you can have chat evaluate thematic elements. So like it can identify the central themes that your story has and analyze how well they're being integrated into your narrative, which is really cool. So like if you know, you want to have, you know, a curvy woman who is trying to kind of get back her her groove and trying to feel more confident, and she ends up with a guy who is a personal trainer and she's feeling very self-conscious about everything. How can she grow into the person that maybe, you know, she was really wanting to become throughout the course of this story, right.

So you can have it, look at that narrative and ask it those questions like, are the themes reflecting through the characters and the setting and the plot events like, is this working the way that I expected it to? You can also ask it about symbolism and motifs, because chat can assist in recognizing and analyzing any symbols or motifs within your story, so it offers insights as to how they're contributing to the overall themes and messages that are happening. Because symbols, sometimes the symbols can be almost more powerful than if you come straight out and say it right. So ask chat if it's, you know, if everything is working in tandem together.

And then finally, honestly, you can have it look at your thematic consistency and search for depth so chat can provide the feedback. If you ask it the questions like chat, how is this looking like? Is the consistency and depth of my theme going well? Like what can you see here?

And it will suggest ways to enhance your thematic expression without being too explicit or crazy, right? Or if your themes are coming through well enough, it's going to let you know that as well. Because when we're putting the themes into our stories, I think more often than not we're sitting in this place of it's sitting in our subconscious, and so we think we know how it should expose itself and how it should come through the story, but we need to know for sure. And so having that question or asking that question of ChatGPT can help us identify like, is it functioning the way that we want, or is there a better way to do it?

And I do these things a lot throughout the chapters as I'm writing as well, because I want to know, you know, is this scene flowing the way I expected it to flow? Is there enough humor in this scene? Are there ways to be able to add a little bit more humor into the scene, especially because it's a rom com, but also because I'm not always like on my game. Obviously, if I if I have a cold and I'm trying to explain or expand or be funny and I'm just not feeling the vibe of it, it's nice to have ChatGPT here to go.

Oh, well, Carly's usually like this, so let's add these types of elements. Here are some suggestions. And then I can look at those suggestions and go, heck yeah, that's actually really cool, let's do that or not. But what I'm finding guys, is the more that I'm playing with the custom GPT, the more that I'm using Rom Com Muse specifically, because that's the one that I'm using for this particular series.

The more it understands my story structure, the way that I write, the way that the characters are, the better the prompts back to me I'm getting, the better the you know the suggestions are, the better the information is, which in turn is making me faster because I can take what it's saying or heck yes, I'm going to run with that right now without having to go up chat. What are you talking about? Like what plan are you on? We're not even, you know, we're not doing science fiction.

Romance? Where? We're here at rom com. They'll like, come on.

Like, I don't have to do that. It understands. And we can function in a way that we're both understanding the story so well. It's it's absolutely phenomenal.

It's just so good. So as you're ending NaNoWriMo, be thinking about like if you are curious about your story, if you're questioning whether or not this story is playing out the way that you thought or intended or you think it should be, utilize this tool if you can. If you've got chat and it's only ChatGPT 3.5, that's okay. Start inputting in the chapters and then ask it to go back and analyze what it knows about this story.

And some of the best ways to do that are going to be to add that end, add that the chapter in, say, summarize, summarize this chapter. Just let me know what you think of this chapter real quick. Summarize it 3 to 5 sentences, whatever. And then do the next chapter and the next one and the next one.

And if it starts to get really confused, you can take then all of those little summaries that I gave you and start a new chat. And now it knows all the summaries of the chapters. So it's not ideal. It's not the best way to do it from my experience, because having the custom GPT with the PDF is really phenomenal.

But it works because that's how I was using using it before custom GPTs were even a thing. So it's there's so many ways, guys, so many ways to use this tool to better your writing, to better your plots, to increase your dynamic ability to do everything. I mean, it's just literally it's phenomenal. It is so freaking cool.

I just love it. So I encourage you to do just even if it's just short excerpts of your story and put it in there for an analysis, do it because you're going to find out that you know your writing is probably better than you think it is, and if it needs a little bit of tweaking, it's going to give you specific places you can look at to make better. Like if your flow isn't right, if you're if you're telling instead of showing, if you're, you know, using a lot of dialog and the dialog tags are off, it's going to tell you, it's going to tell you where to start tweaking. And if you are paying attention to that, and if you're making those changes, your writing is going to get better.

It's like having a writing coach specifically telling you how to make your work better. I mean, I can't I can't tell it any better than that. It literally is the most phenomenal tool I have ever used. And I have used a lot of tools, a lot of tools throughout my time.

So at any rate, that's how I am utilizing ChatGPT after the fact, after I get finished, I'm using it even for Dirty Plans, which is book one. I'm in the editing process and getting it ready to rock and roll.

[Out-of-date detail removed.]

And so I'm editing, in a sense, in this same regard, like asking these same questions because I want to know, like, is there any way I can make this better before I drop this thing? And so I haven't even started the audiobook on it yet.

I want to make sure the story is as good as possible before I put it out there. And guys, it's just it's so freaking cool. It is so freaking cool. So that's what I have for you today.

That's what I have for you this week as we end NaNoWriMo 2023, I hope you'll utilize some of these tips and play around with chat again. It's it's become my new like digital BFF. It really, really has. I love it so much.

I can't imagine writing now without like, talking to it every day and trying to figure out, you know, like, is this the best thing ever? You know, what do you think of this chapter chat? Because even though I have, you know, some really great ARC readers and I have some really great beta readers, and my husband is reading the story, you know, he's not he's not typically a rom com reader. He's reading it because, you know, he reads all of my books.

And so it's nice to get feedback from someone that can kind of elaborate into things a little bit more, or can catch things that, you know, only certain people are going to catch because, you know, not everyone is going to take a look at the the way things are named or the Easter eggs that might be dropped or whatever. Like even my husband doesn't catch that. Like Colin, you'll catch certain things, but he won't catch everything. And so it's really cool to have a conversation.

And I know it's not a person I say with a person, but you know what I mean. Have a conversation with something that is going to understand at the same level, almost. It's really cool. I like it.

[Out-of-date promotional section from the original recording removed.]

And, just know that there's some really spectacular ways to use ChatGPT right now, and it doesn't have to create the stories for you.

Although I will say like some of the text that it can come out with now it's getting better. Like the more it understands my writing style, the more it understands what I'm looking for in a scene, the better it's getting. And so when I said, you know, at the beginning of this year that I didn't think I would ever get to that point, I was definitely wrong. Like, it's it's starting to understand, especially if you prompt it well, if you prompt it really well, it understands where you're going.

It understands the, you know, the thematic style, it understands what you're trying to accomplish. And it just it flows so much easier. It's just amazing, amazing what it can do. So at any rate, that is my show for today.

Hopefully I made it through without too much of a sniffle in the background. I'm trying really hard not to sniffle. Anyway, I hope you have a great week, enjoy the end of NaNoWriMo and go forth and start your author revolution.