This week, I face an all-too-familiar dilemma: I have no idea what to write about. We are currently on vacation in a small Greek town, and I've been busy with my son almost 24/7.
As I sit and stare at the sea, the blank page stares at me, refusing to offer any inspiration. Then I think to myself, what if I let AI write my newsletter for me.
I've been using AI to generate content for a long time, but my newsletter has traditionally been a creative outlet where I share ideas and thoughts, so I never saw it as an opportunity to use AI.
I haven't written actual stories with ChatGPT, so I did some research on how to get the best possible results.
Most online sources either give you specific magic prompts to use (which rarely work as well as advertised) or offer general vague guidance.
The most common suggestions seem to be those two:
Be Clear and Specific: The more detail you provide, the better the results. If you're looking for a specific genre, tone, or theme, mention it upfront.
Iterate and Adjust: If the first response isn't exactly what you envisioned, tweak your prompt or try asking follow-up questions. Sometimes a slight change can lead to much better results.
Those are both good advice, but they are pretty vague, if you ask me. I did some more digging and came up with a list of 6 things to include in your prompt to get better results.
Character Development: Define a protagonist (or more) with unique traits, motivations, and a specific challenge or goal.
Describe the environment: Include the time period, location, and atmosphere. The setting will shape the mood of the story.
Introduce a problem or tension: Conflict drives the plot forward, so include a specific problem the character(s) must resolve.
Highlight emotional stakes: Specify the emotions and consequences of success or failure to keep the reader engaged.
Add an unexpected element: Include a surprise or plot twist to make the story more compelling.
Set the tone: Specify if the tone should be suspenseful, humorous, dark, or whimsical.
Putting all those together, we can come up with a prompt like:
"Write a short story about [Galya], a curious archaeologist who is haunted by her father's disappearance. The story is set in [a forgotten desert temple], where time feels frozen and ancient whispers fill the air. Galya discovers [an ancient artifact] that may hold the key to her father’s disappearance, but [a rival explorer] is willing to kill to obtain it. Halfway through the story, Galya discovers [her father is still alive], but he is working with the rival explorer. The tone of the story should be [mysterious and adventurous] with moments of emotional vulnerability."
And here's the result from this exact prompt, with zero editing:
Whispers of the Desert
Galya knelt in the sand, her breath catching in the dry, still air of the forgotten temple. The sun had dipped below the horizon hours ago, leaving the ruins bathed in the cold silver of the moon. Ancient walls, etched with indecipherable runes, loomed over her, casting long shadows that seemed to dance with the desert breeze.
She brushed the dust off a strange, jagged relic buried deep within the temple’s floor - a blackened stone, glowing faintly from within. Her fingers trembled as they traced the strange patterns carved into its surface. For years, she'd searched for something like this, something connected to her father’s mysterious disappearance nearly two decades ago. He had been a legendary archaeologist, lost during his own expedition into these very sands.
Since then, the whispers had haunted her - theories, myths, and, most of all, the aching possibility that he might still be alive.
The relic pulsed beneath her touch, and the air around her grew thicker, filled with murmurs that seemed to echo from the walls themselves. Voices - ancient, forgotten voices - sounded just at the edge of hearing, as if the temple itself was speaking to her.
"Could this be it?" she wondered aloud. "Could this finally lead me to him?"
But before Galya could ponder further, a soft scrape of boots on stone made her freeze. She turned, her heart racing. Emerging from the shadows was Dmitri, her longtime rival, his cold eyes locked on the artifact in her hands.
"I was wondering when you'd show up," Dmitri sneered, his voice laced with venom. "You always were good at finding the impossible."
Galya stood, tucking the relic into her satchel. "You won’t take this from me, Dmitri. I’m here for my father, not treasure."
"Your father?" Dmitri laughed, the sound hollow in the ancient chamber. "Oh, Galya. There’s so much you don’t understand. You’re not the only one looking for him."
A wave of nausea hit her. The temple’s whispers grew louder, swirling around her like a rising storm. Her vision blurred, and for a moment, the world seemed to tilt.
When she refocused, Dmitri had stepped closer, his smile twisting into something darker. "Your father… He’s alive."
The words hit her like a punch to the chest.
Alive? Could it be true?
Before she could ask anything, a shadow shifted behind Dmitri. A figure emerged from the gloom, his features half-hidden by the dim light. But she knew him immediately - the salt-and-pepper hair, the same piercing gaze she’d seen in the mirror her whole life.
Her father.
“Dad?” Her voice broke, trembling with disbelief.
But there was no joy in his face, no relief in his expression. Only a grim, resolute stare. He stepped beside Dmitri, their silent alliance unmistakable.
“How… why are you with him?” Galya’s heart raced, her pulse a drumbeat in her ears. “What’s going on?”
Her father glanced at Dmitri, then back to her, the lines in his face deep with regret. “It’s not what you think, Galya. There are things in this world you don’t understand yet. This artifact... it’s more dangerous than you know. I stayed away to protect you, but Dmitri and I... we’re trying to stop something far worse.”
Galya shook her head, backing away as tears stung her eyes. “You’re working with him? After everything? After abandoning me for years?”
Her father’s voice softened, and for a moment, his resolve cracked. “I never wanted to leave you. But if I had told you the truth, they would have come after you too. This temple… it holds power, enough to reshape the world. Dmitri and I...”
“You don’t have to justify this!” Dmitri interrupted, his voice sharp as a blade. “You should have stayed away, Galya. Now, you’re just another obstacle.”
The sudden glint of metal flashed in Dmitri’s hand - a knife, aimed directly at her.
Galya’s instincts kicked in. She darted back, narrowly avoiding the strike, her mind reeling. The man she had spent years searching for wasn’t just alive - he was part of this nightmare, bound to the very person who’d betrayed her before.
As she scrambled for an escape, her father stepped between them, holding Dmitri back. “Stop! You won’t harm her.”
Dmitri’s eyes darkened, but he sheathed the knife. “Fine. But she’ll never leave with that artifact. If we don’t take it, others will. And then all of this - everything we’ve sacrificed - will be for nothing.”
Galya’s heart pounded, torn between the desire to flee and the ache to understand. The whispers of the temple grew louder still, wrapping around her like invisible chains. The artifact in her satchel pulsed again, its glow brighter now, as if responding to her turmoil.
Her father turned to her, desperation etched in his face. “Galya, please. Let it go. We can fix this together, but you have to trust me.”
She held his gaze, the years of longing, pain, and unanswered questions swirling inside her. Could she trust him? Could she really walk away from the only thing that might finally explain his disappearance?
In that moment, Galya realized the truth: the choice wasn’t just about the artifact or even her father. It was about her.
She took a deep breath, the weight of the relic pressing against her side.
“I won’t let you control me anymore,” she said, her voice steady. “This ends now.”
With a single, determined motion, Galya turned and ran into the shadows of the temple, the ancient whispers urging her forward into the unknown, leaving her father and Dmitri behind.
I don’t see the above becoming a New York Times Best-seller, but it’s way better than I anticipated. Giving it a specific prompt covering these 6 elements helped quite a lot.
I want to play around with this concept more. I know a lot of people are developing complex prompt systems and are able to generate much more complex and longer stories with multiple timelines and character arcs. So far this seemed impossible unless I pour countless hours into studying prompt engineering and testing.
Now, with my very short and limited experiment, I believe this is much more attainable.
Don't get me wrong, I don't plan on writing novels and publishing them on the Kindle store - this is not a get rich quick with AI thing. But I've been thinking about building a workflow where I can input topics and generate short stories for my boy. Adding an integration with an image model would also allow me to generate images for those stories, making them more compelling and visually appealing for a little kid.
I will work on this workflow and share how it goes in a future newsletter issue.
Thank you for making it this far and for sharing the newsletter with your friends. It's the only way I grow and am able to reach more people that might find value in what I have to share.
See you next week!
Best,
Dobri 🍃