Generate & Continue
Generate Scene
When a scene has a beat but no prose (status: Outline), the Generate Scene button appears in the AI toolbar. Clicking it sends the scene beat, your full Story Bible context, and surrounding chapter context to Claude, which generates a complete first draft of the scene.
The generated prose streams into the editor in real time. When streaming is complete, you can:
- Accept — the generated content replaces the empty editor
- Edit directly — start typing to modify before accepting
- Dismiss — discard and try again with a modified beat
Before generating, make sure the scene beat is specific enough to guide the AI. "Something happens at the lighthouse" will produce generic prose; "Elena discovers the journal, reads the first entry, and finds a date that makes no sense — 1987, the year her mother died" will produce a focused, emotionally grounded scene.
Continue Writing
Continue Writing (⌘Enter) extends existing prose from where it leaves off. Use it when:
- You've written an opening and want the AI to carry it forward
- You've reached a natural pause and want to see where the scene goes
- You want to draft quickly and revise later
The AI reads:
- Your Story Bible (characters, settings, style guide)
- The scene's beat
- Everything you've written in the scene so far
- The preceding scene's content (for continuity)
Streamed text appears at the end of the existing content. You can stop the stream at any point and continue editing manually.
When to Use Which
| Use case | Feature |
|---|---|
| Scene has a beat, no prose yet | Generate Scene |
| Prose exists, you want to extend it | Continue Writing (⌘Enter) |
| You want to rewrite an existing section | Rewrite Selection or Structured Rewrite |
Accepting AI Output
After any AI generation:
- Accept saves the streamed content to the scene.
- Before accepting, the content is editable in the streaming panel.
- Accepting automatically creates a version snapshot of any previous content, so you can always revert.
Streaming Behavior
AI output streams token by token so you can read it as it arrives. If the output is clearly going in the wrong direction, click Stop to halt the stream and try again. Stopping does not save the partial output.