How to Turn AI into Your Researcher, Editor and Writing Companion, all in one
If you have ever asked ChatGPT to critique a novel of a chapter from a novel, you may well have been disappointed. Often, the response is generic praise, vague suggestions, or a complete misunderstanding of what the text was all about.
The problem usually isn’t the AI’s capability; it’s the instructions it was given.
Most writers use simple prompts (e.g., “Critique this chapter”). But to get high-level literary analysis, you need a Super-Prompt. This guide explains what they are, why they are a game-changer for fiction writers, and how you can use them to make AI a transparent, expert partner in your creative process.
What is a Super-Prompt?
A super-prompt is a comprehensive set of instructions—often thousands of words long—that configures an AI to act as a specialist for a specific task.
Think of the difference between asking a builder, “Can you build me a house?” versus handing them a complete set of architectural blueprints.
- A simple prompt asks for a result.
- A super-prompt provides the rules, constraints, literary theory, and step-by-step process to generate that result.
When you use a super-prompt, you aren’t just asking the AI to “be creative.” You are embedding deep domain knowledge directly into its working memory, effectively turning a generalist AI into a specific expert—like a researcher or a copy editor—for the duration of your conversation.
Why Writers Should Use Them
1. You Control the “Rulebook”
Commercial AIs run on hidden “system prompts” that define their default behavior (usually to be helpful, polite, and generic)5. A super-prompt layers your own specific instructions on top of that.
For example, my Narrative Structure Super-Prompt doesn’t just ask for feedback; it forces the AI to analyse your work using specific frameworks like Shawn Coyne’s Story Grid and John Yorke’s Into the Woods. It ensures the AI evaluates your scene based on established craft—like “inciting incidents” and “value shifts”—rather than random opinion.
2. Transparency (The “Glass Box” Approach)
Many writers use “Custom GPTs” from an app store. The problem is that these are “black boxes”—you can’t see the rules they are following7.
A super-prompt is completely transparent. It is a human-readable document that you can open, read, audit, and edit. If the AI is being too harsh or missing the point, you can tweak the instructions immediately.
3. Consistency
By providing a structured process, super-prompts reduce the variability (or “credible slop”) often seen in AI responses. They ensure the AI follows the exact same analytical steps for Chapter 1 as it does for Chapter 50.
How to Use a Pre-Written Super-Prompt
I publish my super-prompts under a Creative Commons license, meaning you are free to use and adapt them. Here is the workflow for using a complex prompt, like my Narrative Structure Analysis tool:
- Upload: All modern AIs (Claude, ChatGPT, Co-Pilot or Gemini) have the ability to upload entire documents and this is what you need to do with your super-prompt.
- The Handshake: I would always start by checking that the AI has been able to read the uploaded document. Ask ‘Are you able to read the super-prompt I just uploaded’. A good super-prompt will then start working through its instructions and will ask you questions in return.
- The Interaction: Once started, the AI will guide you throughout the entire process, or, if a very lengthy process, it may guide you to the end of phase 1 and give instructions for moving to phase 2.
Pro-Tip: Don’t paste your entire novel at once. Super-prompts work best when focused on specific sections (like a single chapter or a 15,000-word sequence) to ensure the AI’s memory remains sharp.
You could write your own super-prompt, although it is a substantial undertaking. Try reading through the entirety of a few super-prompts to get the hang of the language, the process and the inputs and outputs.
Next Steps
You can find my Narrative Structure Super-Prompt [link] ready to copy and paste. Use it to diagnose a troublesome scene, or simply to see how a super-prompt is constructed so you can build your own.
This content is based on the research behind my book “AI-Augmented Decisions” and my work on Context Engineering.