Improving AI Output

If the AI's output doesn't match your expectations — wrong tone, generic prose, inconsistent characters — the fix is almost always better context. This guide covers the most impactful things you can do to improve AI output quality.

The #1 Rule: Be Specific

The AI generates better prose when it has specific context to work with. This applies to every field in Proseweave — beats, character profiles, settings, and style guide.

Vague (weak output)	Specific (strong output)
"Something happens at the lighthouse"	"Elena discovers the journal, reads the first entry, and finds a date that makes no sense — 1987, the year her mother died"
"She's a detective"	"Methodical, emotionally guarded, quietly stubborn. Speaks in short declarative sentences; avoids metaphor."
"It's a creepy place"	"Salt wind, the groan of the iron lantern room door, weathered whitewash that comes off on your hands, the smell of old lamp oil that never fully leaves"

Write Better Beats

The scene beat is the single most important input for AI generation. A good beat answers: What happens, and why does it matter?

Weak beat:

"Marcus and Elena talk about the journal"

Strong beat:

"Marcus confronts Elena about the journal she's been hiding. She deflects, but he presses — he's seen the dates, and they don't add up. The conversation escalates until Elena admits she's afraid of what the journal might reveal about their mother. Marcus softens, and they agree to read it together."

The strong beat gives the AI:

• A clear emotional arc (confrontation → deflection → escalation → vulnerability → resolution)
• Character dynamics (Marcus presses, Elena deflects)
• A specific conflict (the dates, the hidden journal)
• An outcome (they agree to read it together)

Fill in Your Story Bible

The Story Bible is included in every AI request. The more complete it is, the more consistent your output. Priority order:

1. Characters (Highest Impact)

The Voice and Quirks fields have the most direct effect on generated prose.

• Voice: "Speaks in short declarative sentences; avoids metaphor" → the AI writes dialogue differently for this character
• Quirks: "Always touches her necklace when lying" → the AI weaves this into scenes naturally
• Personality: Be specific about contradictions — "Generous with strangers but ruthless with family" gives the AI more to work with than "Complex"

2. Style Guide (High Impact)

The Style Guide controls how the AI writes, not what it writes.

• POV and Tense: Set these correctly — a mismatch between your style guide and existing prose confuses the AI
• Avoidances: Add words and patterns you dislike. "Avoid adverbs", "Never use 'suddenly'", "Don't use rhetorical questions" — these are enforced across all generation
• Voice Samples: Paste 2–3 paragraphs of your best writing. This is the most powerful tool for tone matching. The AI studies the rhythm, sentence length, vocabulary, and stylistic patterns in your samples

tip

Voice samples are the secret weapon for consistent output. Paste a passage that sounds like you — the AI will calibrate its output to match. Update the samples as your style evolves through the project.

3. Settings (Medium Impact)

Sensory details are the most useful field. "The smell of old lamp oil that never fully leaves" gives the AI concrete imagery to weave into scenes. Generic descriptions like "a lighthouse" provide nothing.

4. Themes and Worldbuilding (Medium Impact)

• Motifs create recurring imagery. A motif like "locked boxes" will appear naturally — a character might notice a locked cabinet, a sealed letter, or a closed fist.
• Worldbuilding constraints prevent contradictions. "Mages can only cast spells while touching stone" is far more useful than "Mages can cast spells."

Choose the Right Model

Different AI models have different strengths:

Model	Best for	Credits
Haiku	Quick drafts, brainstorming, iteration	2
Sonnet	Balanced quality for most writing tasks	7
Opus	Complex scenes, literary prose, nuanced dialogue	35

Workflow tip: Use Haiku for rapid first drafts and brainstorming, then switch to Sonnet or Opus for revision and polishing. You can change the model in the Style Guide at any time.

Use the Right Tool

Each AI tool is designed for a different situation. Using the wrong one wastes credits and produces worse results.

Situation	Tool	Why
Empty scene with a beat	Generate Scene	Writes a complete first draft from the beat
Extending existing prose	Continue Writing	Picks up where you left off with full context
A passage doesn't sound right	Rewrite Selection	Targeted rewrite with your instruction
Full scene needs structural changes	Structured Rewrite	Remove/Add/Adjust/Keep criteria
You want to compare alternatives	Rewrite Options	Generates three options to choose from

What to Do When Output Is Wrong

If the AI produces something that doesn't fit:

1. Don't accept bad output. Click Dismiss or Stop and try again.
2. Improve the beat. The beat is the primary instruction — a vague beat produces vague prose.
3. Check your Style Guide. Is the POV correct? Are avoidances set? Are voice samples present?
4. Check entity assignments. Are the right characters and settings assigned to this scene? The AI only sees entities that are tagged to the scene.
5. Try a different model. Opus handles complex emotional scenes and nuanced dialogue better than Haiku.
6. Use Rewrite instead of regenerating. If 80% of the output is good, use Rewrite Selection to fix the 20% rather than regenerating the entire scene.

Checklist: Before Your First Generate

Before generating your first scene, make sure you have:

• A specific beat that answers "what happens and why does it matter?"
• At least one character with personality, voice, and quirks filled in
• A setting with sensory details for the scene's location
• POV and tense set correctly in the Style Guide
• Voice samples (2–3 paragraphs of your best writing) in the Style Guide

You don't need everything perfect — but each field you fill in makes the AI's output noticeably better.