Plot Perfection: Integrating ChatGPT in Narrative Design

Coming up with a storyline, though fun at times, can be a time-consuming process. Or you may find yourself with writer’s block—the bane of every writer’s existence.

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That essential spark of inspiration is where ChatGPT can help. OpenAI’s popular text-generating chatbot can assist with any part of the writing process, from developing character traits to offering tension-filled conflict ideas. At the end of the day, ChatGPT may be just what you need to help master the art of storytelling.

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What Is Storytelling?

Storytelling is the art of relaying a narrative, whether through a written, spoken, or visual method. Anything can be a story, even your trip to the grocery store—though unless something amazing happened, that may be a bit of a dull anecdote.

Stories can take a variety of different forms. However, they all have something in common—the necessary elements to build a compelling narrative. This article is going to focus on eight elements: theme, characters, point-of-view, setting, plot, tone, conflict, and resolution.

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How to Use ChatGPT to Develop a Story

Now, how does ChatGPT fit into the art of storytelling?

One of the best things about ChatGPT is that you can use it for so many things . It can write and explain codes, give relationship advice, and even create descriptions for your next Instagram post. So, why not use ChatGPT for creative writing ?

Set the Premise

Before you can dive into storytelling with ChatGPT, you’ll need to give it some guidance. Sure you could go in with questions, but you may end up with longer explanations than you would like.

The best way to start with ChatGPT is to just be straightforward with your requests. Simply explain that you are wanting to write a story and would like some help. For this article, we still always go with ChatGPT’s first suggestion.

Generate a Theme

When starting a story, it may be best to start with a theme, so you have a sense of direction for the story. Will it be a story of good vs evil? Betrayal? Sacrifice? All of these sound like good, common themes for any story, but the point here is to see what ChatGPT will come up with for any writer.

Create the Characters

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Asking ChatGPT to create characters can become tricky because a single storyline can have hundreds of characters. For the purpose of this exercise, ChatGPT will only be asked to create the main character.

Pick a Point of View

Choosing a point of view can be as easy as knowing how you write best. However, if you are unsure which direction you want to take, ask ChatGPT.

Set the Setting

The setting allows your reader to see the world your character belongs in—whether it be a new world never before written about or a real street in a real neighborhood. Let’s see what ChatGPT comes up with.

Determine the Plot

The plot is what happens in a story. When you ask ChatGPT, it’ll give you the plot broken down into acts. Usually, a story’s plot contains three acts. Sometimes it can be more, depending on the overall story.

Form the Tone

Having emotion in a story is essential to keeping a reader engaged—this emotion is called the tone. Many times, the tone can be relayed using characters and settings.

Decide on the Conflict

When your main character wants something, but there is another clashing thing that happens to get in the way—that is conflict. Without conflict and tension in a story, it’s hard to hold any reader’s attention. Let’s see what ChapGPT can come up with for some drama in this story.

Choose the Resolution

The resolution is the ending of a story. Many times, the resolution will be a good ending that ties up all the loose strings in a story—however, it doesn’t always have to. If the story is going to continue at another point in the future, cliffhangers can be fun resolutions.

ChatGPT’s Storyline Results

Here are ChatGPT’s results:

Theme: In this exercise, ChatGPT’s first suggestion is to focus the theme on “the power of self-discovery.”
Main Character: Maya Bennett, a 28-year-old woman, lacks a sense of purpose, has brown hair, is a deep thinker, desires to find purpose in life, and has a fear of the unknown.
Point of View: ChatGPT chose first-person as the point of view for this story.
Setting: Main place—a small coastal town; other—Maya’s apartment, a local café, a community center, scenic spots.
Plot: Act I—Maya feels trapped and wants a fresh start. Act II—Engages with a community project in a small coastal town. Act III—Finds self-discovery.
Tone: Reflective and inspirational.
Conflict: The main conflict is Maya’s internal struggle with her identity. There are external tensions she must face as well, such as resistance from family and the normal problems of being in a new environment.
Resolution: Maya embraces who she truly is and continues her life with passion and excitement.

These results are very much on the surface—in other words, they don’t dig too deep as a story should. It’s also a bit generic; a girl goes on a journey of self-discovery through a community project. This has been done before, so it’s important to figure out what will make your story stand out from others.

Also, ChatGPT never makes it clear if she is moving from or to a small coastal town. In the end, it may be up to you what the main character is going to be doing.

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What to Keep in Mind

There are pros and cons to using ChatGPT for creative writing . However, understanding the cons can help to really take advantage of the pros—in the end, making you a better writer.

ChatGPT Is Still a Robot

ChatGPT cannot replace the element of human emotion. Yes, it was created by humans and is an insanely intelligent piece of advanced technology, but it can’t feel what you can feel.

If you rely too heavily on ChatGPT while writing your story, you may find many areas lacking the emotion that your readers would be expecting. To help alleviate this problem, it’ll be your job to add feeling to the story by using techniques like character dialogue and sensory language.

Be Patient With ChatGPT

It’s important to remember that sometimes ChatGPT won’t spit out exactly what you want the first time around—and there’s no shame in asking it to come up with something else, either.

However, if you want to truly challenge yourself as a writer, try being open-minded and use what it offers. See if you can make something great out of it. And if not, then call the time spent a practice session and move on to the next big idea.

Use ChatGPT as a Guide Only

Sure, you could ask ChatGPT to actually write the story for you, but would you be able to call yourself the author of the work at that point? The answer is probably not.

Using ChatGPT to help form an outline for your creative writing will not only give you a push to start your next project—it’ll help get your imagination going. You may only need the AI to come up with the conflict of your next book, and from there, your mind can start world-building around it.

In the end, ChatGPT should just be a writing tool to help you create the best piece of work.

Give ChatGPT a Try When Writing Your Next Story

ChatGPT can seem pretty straightforward to use, but it’s important to make sure you’re asking it the right questions to get the best possible answers. This is especially true when you are attempting to create a whole storyline while using AI.

Give it a try for yourself to see if ChatGPT can inspire your next story.

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Plot Perfection: Integrating ChatGPT in Narrative Design