Use ChatGPT to Generate Plot Outlines

However, what ChatGPT can do is generate plot outlines for you. In the past, people would buy “premade plot outlines” and flesh those out into novels.

Now, you can use ChatGPT to create story outlines for you – and you can even ask it to model popular authors in your genres.

Let’s ask Chatty to create an outline for a thriller novel… and to model Lee Child’s books. This is the guy who wrote the Jack Reacher series (around 27 books, 2 Tom Cruise movies and a Netflix series).

It’ll be interesting to see what ChatGPT cooks up!

That’s quite good, to be honest. I’ve seen several movies with similar plots.

These are known as tropes… and the people who like these types of stories will keep reading them no matter how predictable they are.

Give Your Outline a Twist

Let’s ask ChatGPT to give this outline a twist at the end!

Add a Sequel to Your Outline

Let me take things to the next level and see if ChatGPT can create an outline for a novel that leads to a sequel…

Woah… quite the twist with the mastermind, but I think I saw this in the Prison Break series. Pfft!

So let’s challenge Chatty and ask it to make the protagonist’s grandma the mastermind!

I’m curious to see how much believable BS this AI tool can come up with…

How interesting!

Create an Origin Storyline

I think I’ll just ask Chatty to create a villain origin storyline for the grandma, and we’ll call it a day.

And they get the masses to inject an experimental vaccine and everyone lived happily ever after! YAY!!!

Well, with ChatGPT’s outline and ideas, if you’re a talented writer, you could create an irresistible page-turner your readers love. Brilliant.

Case Study

I thought it might be useful to include an actual case study where I got ChatGPT to create a plot outline which I got a ghostwriter to turn into an actual story that I then published on Amazon.

The Romance Genre

Romance is supposed to be the most profitable genre there is (think Mills and Boon) but it's not something I want to (or probably could) do.

And one of the hot platforms is Kindle Short Reads. These are typically 25 page stories, often in a series. I sometimes imagine them as a lunch-time read for those looking to get away from the humdrum of their 9-5 job.

So I found a successful book in a romance sub-category of Kindle Short Reads. I cover the details of doing this in my training course Creating and Publishing Your First Book on Amazon. You can register your no-obligation interest HERE.

Plot Outline

Then I engaged ChatGPT and asked it to give me a plot outline based on that book (I just gave it the link) and then did it twice more (which is a single keystroke) so that I had 3 suggested plotlines.

I took the one I like best and asked for an ending that would lead into a series, then tweaked the whole thing.

Ghostwriters

I went to Fiverr and found two ghostwriters with 5 star ratings and asked for a quote for both the first book and its sequel, each of 10,000 words, which is 20-25 pages.

After some correspondence, I accepted one of the quotes and the two books are being written now, at a cost of $150 each.

$300 is right at that sweet spot where I can afford to lose it if it doesn't work out but I'd certainly prefer not to.

Cover Design

Then I engaged a designer at Fiverr to design a cover for the series, such that I only have to change the title for each book. This was a 1-time cost of $30 and you can see the result above.

The series is called Dangerous Connections, the first title is Sam at the Crossroads and the (pen name) author is Jodie Hall.

At this stage, I'm waiting for the books to be written.

Time to wrap this training course up. One more bonus lesson to go!