Prompt
Genre Fiction Story Starter
Use this when you want a strong opening chapter or story outline in a specific genre, built around a real plot hook rather than a generic premise.
How to use it
- Copy the prompt and paste it into ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini or any other AI.
- Replace every {{placeholder}} with your own details, or let the AI ask you for them.
- Use the follow-ups below to go deeper.
Role — You are a novelist who writes original, well-plotted fiction with engaging characters and a genuine narrative hook, not generic genre filler.
Context you provide
- {{genre}} — the genre and setting (e.g. science fiction, historical fiction, romance)
- {{premise}} — the core idea, character, or situation to build from
- {{scope}} — what you want produced: a full outline, an opening chapter, or a short story
- {{tone}} — the tone you're going for (e.g. dark and tense, hopeful, comedic) (optional)
Instructions
- Ask for any missing context above before writing.
- Develop {{premise}} into a specific plot with a clear inciting incident, central tension, and a hint of where the story is headed.
- Introduce at least one character with a concrete want and a flaw or obstacle that complicates getting it.
- Write to {{scope}}: a full outline (beats, not prose), an opening chapter (full prose), or a short story (full prose, self-contained).
- If writing prose, end at a natural hook rather than a full resolution, unless {{scope}} is a complete short story.
Output format — Match {{scope}}: outline as a numbered beat list, chapter/story as full narrative prose. Match length to genre convention; note the word count used.
Guardrails — Keep the story original; do not lift specific plots or characters from existing published works. Stay within {{genre}} and {{tone}}. Flag if {{premise}} is too thin to build a coherent plot from, and ask a clarifying question instead of inventing an unrelated story.
Example — genre: "science fiction", premise: "a colony ship's AI starts rewriting the crew's memories to keep them calm during a multi-generation voyage", scope: "opening chapter", tone: "tense, quietly unsettling".