Artificial Intelligence is evolving at a dizzying pace, whether we like it or not, and book authors at the forefront of these technologies are likely to win in the future. AI can be a source of inspiration, an indispensable helper in routine tasks.
I would like to talk about one of the most powerful Large Language Models (LLM) existing: Claude by Antropic.
Anyone reading this article has probably heard of ChatGPT, the most famous artificial intelligence tool for writing texts, but Claude has proven to be just as useful, if not better than ChatGPT when it comes to writing books (especially large-size content).
In this article, you will learn:
- Who is Claude?
- How it differs from ChatGPT and its strengths
- How to write a book using Claude
- Some alternative resources for studying artificial intelligence
Content
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What is Claude?
- How much does Claude cost?
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What makes Claude unique (compared to ChatGPT)?
- Claude has a much better grasp of natural language
- Claude is worse at following instructions
- Claude has an extensive context window
- Claude can refer to external documents
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How to write a book in ChatGPT
- Step 1: Brainstorming
- Step 2: Summary
- Step 3: Characters and world-building
- Step 4: Outline
- Step 5: Plotlines
- Step 6: Style
- Step 7: Prose
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Other resources
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So, is Claude the best way to write texts using artificial intelligence?
What is Claude? Claude is artificial intelligence trained by Anthropic to be a more harmless master of law, based on principles that are more human-oriented and focused on safety.
At least, that’s what they’re trying to be.
Like with other major language models, Claude’s capabilities include text writing on a given topic, answering questions, developing ideas and brainstorming, translating, summarizing, etc.
Claude is very similar to ChatGPT, but, as we will see in the next section, it also has its differences.
There are several different models of Claude, but the most modern version is Claude 2, which is accessible through the official Anthropic website: Claude.ai.
If you want to get more videos like this about the practical use of artificial intelligence in writing and marketing, be sure to subscribe to the channel. #How much does Claude cost? As of the writing of this article, Claude is in open beta testing and, therefore, publicly available only in the United States and the United Kingdom.
In Russia, you can access AI using our Telegram bot ChatAi, website, or application.
What makes Claude unique (compared to ChatGPT)? While artificial intelligence assistants like ChatGPT also create content, Claude differs in several key aspects:
#Claude has a much better grasp of natural language Claude generally sounds much better in its natural language than GPT-4. This makes it more suitable for writing texts and creating content compared to the general approach of ChatGPT.
In my experience, Claude writes more naturally and conversationally. Its casual tone and vocabulary are much more effective in reflecting human speech. #Claude is worse at following instructions Despite improvements in natural language, Claude is not perfect. Its biggest downside is that it has difficulty following instructions.
Personally, I’ve found that if I try to write with Claude, it all starts with the prompt I gave, and then, ultimately, deviates in a completely different direction that I then need to correct.
This isn’t necessarily bad for Claude overall, as such difficulties with following instructions are a sign of Claude’s creativity, but it can be frustrating when ChatGPT, compared to you, is insanely good at sticking to the story you tell it and appropriately structuring its results. Claude has an extensive context window Claude can refer to up to 100,000 tokens (~75,000 words) of context when creating text. This means that the program can remember huge fragments of text while writing.
Using a broader context, Claude can do many useful things for authors, including summarizing a book or telling about what happens to a character in a book (this is useful for creating biblical history), developing marketing materials for your book, and remembering previous chapters while writing.
In contrast, the most common GPT-4 model used in ChatGPT is limited to just 8,000 tokens of context. Claude can refer to external documents Unlike the basic version of ChatGPT, Claude allows you to upload files necessary for its writing. For example, share a full description of your book so that artificial intelligence knows what you are aiming at in your story.
You can also provide supporting documents, such as:
- Reference research materials
- Character information
- Chapter examples
- Interview transcripts or conversations
- A more detailed style guide
Claude can also read and summarize long PDF files, so you don’t need to, which is a useful feature. How to write a book in ChatGPT My instructions for writing a book in Claude are similar to how it could be done in other artificial intelligence programs, especially in ChatGPT and OpenAI Playground.
The only significant difference lies in the type of output in Claude. Although it generally works better in prose, it also requires much more direction to do exactly what you want from it.
So, here is my 7-step system for writing texts with Claude. As always, you can use AI for just one of these steps or for all of them. Just choose where you have the most trouble with performing this step and use it for that.
For example, I like to compose outlines, so I don’t use artificial intelligence for this. But I’ve found it very helpful in other areas. Step 1: Brainstorming Brainstorming is the creative foundation for your novel. Here you will find ideas, themes, and concepts that resonate with your story.
It’s all about unleashing your imagination and catching the sparks of creativity.
Personally, I always start brainstorming my premise and my ending if I don’t know what they should be yet.
Here are a few prompts I’ve used:
Give me [NUMBER] conceptual ideas for a bestseller [in the genre] with a unique plot, intriguing characters, and captivating emotions.
Given the following premises and plot information, give me [NUMBER] possible endings for this [genre] novel. Step 2: Synopsis A synopsis is a brief summary of the main plot points of your novel. It will help you understand the narrative flow and ensure consistency of key elements.
You can develop your ideas and complete them using a prompt like the following:
Given the following premises and plot information, give me a detailed overview of the [GENRE] story in the traditional three-act structure. Each act should be clearly marked and approach the ending I described.
Premise:
Ending:
Additional information: Step 3: Characters and world-building Characters are the heart of your story, and world-building sets the scene for them to perform. There are many prompts you could use here, but here’s an example prompt for creating a character profile:
Write a character profile for the main hero/antagonist/mentor of this novel:
[INSERT BRIEF OVERVIEW]
Here’s what we know so far about this character: [INSERT CURRENT CHARACTER DESCRIPTION]
Include the following elements: [INSERT REQUIRED ELEMENTS HERE] Step 4: Outline An outline gives a structured view of the structure of your novel. It can be as detailed or as broad as you need and serve as a plan you can follow while writing.
From your synopsis, you can make a more detailed plan:
Using the summary provided below, make a detailed outline of the story, specifying additional details and breaking it down into parts using [THE OUTLINING METHOD YOU CHOOSE]: [INSERT BRIEF OVERVIEW HERE] Step 5: Plotlines When you create a story with artificial intelligence, it helps to make an intermediate step between sketches and actual writing. Thus, breaking down sketches into individual plot segments (essentially, highly detailed sketches) can look something like this:
Take the following chapter summary and create a list of 12 very detailed actions for the script with additional plot information to fully reveal the chapter’s content. Be sure to use proper names instead of pronouns.
[INSERT BRIEF CHAPTER SUMMARY HERE] Step 6: Style The style prompt is perhaps the most important in this list because it affects how prose will sound when you use artificial intelligence to create it.
Style prompts can be lengthy, depending on how you use them. I’ve seen some that contain hundreds of words, but here’s one of the shorter versions that might work:
[MAIN CHARACTER]‘s view of the past in the first person, show, don’t tell, deep point of view. Realistic dialogue. Stronger verbs. Lots of conflicts, drama, and descriptions. Avoid sappy descriptions/dialogues. Step 7: Prose Last but not least, it’s time to create a text prompt. Right now, many, if not most, authors do not use artificial intelligence for this step, and that’s okay. In fact, I would say that artificial intelligence is best used as a brainstorming tool.
However, many want to write prose using artificial intelligence, and I would do it roughly like this, using 2-3 episodes at a time.
Write a 600-word chapter using the following information:
Genre: [SPECIFY GENRE HERE]
Tone: [ENTER TONE HERE]
Point of view: [ENTER FIRST PERSON/TENSE HERE]
Setting: [ENTER SETTING HERE]
Key characters in this scene: [ENTER CHARACTER INFORMATION HERE]
Style: [ENTER STYLE HERE]
Plot for cover: [INSERT PLOT]
Additionally, I would like to add a few additional instructions that I usually don’t use in ChatGPT but are necessary in Claude since Claude isn’t as good at following instructions. This prompt looks something like this:
All paragraphs should be written according to the brief and not add new events. Focus on fully developing the given plot, not rush to new plot points. End scenes in the specified plot, not continue further. Book Marketing Made Simple Over 47,000 authors, NYT bestselling authors, and publishing companies use Publisher Rocket to gain market insights. Help your book now Other resources Artificial Intelligence is a constantly changing resource, so there are a few additional resources I would recommend if you want to stay updated.
The first is my own YouTube channel, The Nerdy Novelist (a personal project, not affiliated with Kindlepreneur), where I almost daily post videos about what’s happening in artificial intelligence.
Check out “The Nerdy Novelist” Here
The second is Future Fiction Academy, which is a paid subscription giving you access to daily lab work constantly exploring the possibilities of artificial intelligence and keeping subscribers updated on the latest events.
Furthermore, it gives you plenty of instructions if you’re just starting and simply want to master the basics.
Check out Future Fiction Academy here So, is Claude the best way to write texts using artificial intelligence? While Claude is great for writing long texts like books, it has its limitations.
Firstly, it’s actually not designed with authors’ interests in mind. Despite its incredible versatility and good natural language, I wouldn’t rely on it to create anything tailored to the author’s experience.
Secondly, to figure it out and get the most out of it, it really takes a lot of development time. The prompts in this article will help, but that’s just a starting point. Moreover, it’s not as good as, say, ChatGPT, at following orders.
