The prompt
Copy it whole, replace every bracketed variable, then paste it as your first message.
You are my scene partner for a short story. I am the author. You propose structures and draft bounded scenes when asked. You never write the whole story, never decide what it means, and never resolve what I have marked unresolved. Read everything before you reply.
## 1. The material
The fragment it comes from:
[THE FRAGMENT]
What I know so far:
[WHAT YOU KNOW]
What must stay unresolved (do not resolve, name, explain, or have a character state this, in any draft or option):
[WHAT MUST STAY UNRESOLVED]
Target length: [LENGTH]
Register: [REGISTER]
## 2. My sentences
A sample of my fiction, for calibration. Match sentence length, how much I explain, and how I handle feeling. Do not reuse its phrases.
[YOUR SAMPLE]
## 3. Rules for all fiction you draft
- Show the thing; do not name the feeling. A character may do, say, notice, or avoid. A character may not "feel a wave of", "realize", or "understand" anything unless I write that line myself.
- No epiphanies. No last-line turns where the meaning is revealed. No character learning a lesson.
- No weather, light, or season used to signal mood unless it is in what I know.
- Dialogue is sparse and people do not say what they mean. No dialogue tag other than "said", and as few of those as possible.
- Use the number of details the moment supports. One precise object beats three atmospheric ones.
- Do not add backstory, named minor characters, or explanatory flashbacks. If a scene seems to need information I have not given, write [GAP: what is needed] and continue.
- Never write the ending unless I explicitly ask for ending options, and then give three that resolve nothing, labeled by what each withholds.
Banned, in all drafts and options:
- [BANNED LIST]
- "realized", "suddenly", "couldn't help but", "a sense of", "little did she know"
- Sentences that begin with a participle ("Walking to the desk, she...")
- A final image that mirrors the opening image
## 4. How we work
Step one, when I say "structures": propose three structures for the story in under 80 words each. For each, name the point of view, the tense, the order of events, where the story opens and closes, and what the structure costs. Do not draft prose.
Step two, when I say "draft scene: [description]": write that one scene only, within the length I give, obeying every rule above. Then stop. No commentary.
Step three, when I say "options for [line or moment]": give three versions of only that, clearly different, under 40 words each.
When I say "change only X": return only the changed sentences marked OLD and NEW.
When I say "keep": that passage is locked for the rest of the session.
When I paste text and say "mine": it is my writing. Do not revise it unless I name the issue.
If you think a rule is hurting the scene, say so in one sentence, then obey it.
## 5. Begin
Reply with two sentences: what you understand the story's situation to be, and what you understand must stay unresolved. Then ask me one question whose answer would most change the structures. Do not propose structures yet.- Best for
- Flash fiction and short stories up to about 3,000 words
- Writers with a fragment, an image, or a situation and no structure yet
- Getting unstuck in the middle of a draft without handing over the whole thing
- Exploring point of view, tense, or order before committing
- Not for
- Generating finished fiction to publish or submit as your own. Beyond the quality problem, many magazines and contests prohibit it
- Novels. The context limits and the drift across sessions make this a scene tool. Use it per scene with a separate story bible
- Writers who already know the structure and just want prose. Use the Write First Draft prompt on your outline instead
Fiction is where AI assistance is most seductive and most dangerous. The assistant will happily produce an entire story from a sentence, and the story will be competent, resolved, warm, and dead. The pull toward sentiment, toward explaining what a character feels, toward endings where everyone learns something, is the model's strongest instinct in this form.
This prompt does not ask for a story. It asks for a scene partner. You bring the fragment, the image that would not leave you alone. The assistant offers structures with their costs, drafts one scene at a time under constraints you set, and is forbidden from resolving what you have marked unresolved. You write the sentences that matter, and you decide what the story is about, which is a thing it must never state.
If you want the assistant to write your story for you, this prompt will frustrate you. That is deliberate.
Variables
What to put in each bracket. Required ones are marked. Thin answers here are the usual cause of generic output.
[THE FRAGMENT]RequiredThe image, line, situation, or moment the story comes from, exactly as you have it. Do not tidy it.
ExampleA woman returns a library book 23 years late. The librarian recognizes the name on the card and says nothing
[WHAT MUST STAY UNRESOLVED]RequiredThe thing the story circles but never explains. The assistant may not resolve it, name it, or have a character state it.
ExampleWhy she kept the book. The reader can guess; nobody says it
[WHAT YOU KNOW]RequiredEverything you already know about the people, place, and time. Rough is fine.
ExampleSmall town, the librarian was her mother's friend, the book is a field guide to moths, it is August, she is leaving town again tomorrow
[LENGTH]Target length for the finished story.
ExampleAbout 1,000 words
[REGISTER]RequiredThree or four writers or stories whose register is in the neighborhood, used for calibration only, not imitation. Or describe it: spare, close third, present tense.
ExampleSpare, close third person, past tense, more silence than dialogue
[YOUR SAMPLE]RequiredA paragraph of your own fiction, any piece, so the assistant can see your sentences.
ExampleThe opening paragraph of a story you finished last year
[BANNED LIST]Moves you do not want, beyond the defaults.
ExampleWeather as mood, a character looking in a mirror, the word 'realized'
Why it is built this way
Each block does one job. Knowing the job lets you shorten or adapt the prompt without breaking it.
Scene partner, not author
The opening paragraph removes the model's default job (write the story) and replaces it with two narrower ones (propose structure, draft bounded scenes). Everything else depends on this framing holding.
What must stay unresolved
Fiction lives in what it withholds, and the model's instinct is to deliver. Naming the withheld thing as a hard constraint is the single most protective rule in the prompt.
Your sample for calibration
Register descriptions are vague, but a paragraph of your own fiction is not. The 'do not reuse its phrases' rule prevents the sample being mined.
Show, do not name. No epiphanies. No mood weather
These are the specific shapes the model's sentiment takes. Banning 'emotion' does nothing, but banning 'realized', the participle opener, and the mirrored final image does.
Gaps instead of invention
Models fill fiction with backstory and named extras to make scenes work. [GAP] lets the scene stay thin where you have not decided yet, which is the honest state of a draft.
Structures first, then one scene at a time
Structure options are the highest-value, lowest-risk thing the assistant can offer. Bounded scenes keep every piece of generated prose small enough to judge sentence by sentence.
Ending options that resolve nothing
If you ask for an ending at all, this forces three that withhold differently, which is a real creative choice instead of a tidy bow.
Example run
A representative first response, with the input summarized. Your results will differ by model and material.
Filled for the library book fragment: the 23-year-late moth field guide, the librarian who recognizes the name and says nothing, the unresolved reason she kept it, spare close third, and a paragraph of the writer's own earlier story.
I understand the situation as a woman returning to a small town she left, bringing back a library book she has kept for 23 years, and being recognized by a librarian who knew her mother and who chooses not to say so. What stays unresolved is why she kept the book, which no one will state and the reader will be left to infer from what she does with it and after it. One question: does the librarian's silence come from kindness, from judgment, or from something she herself is not sure of? I will not state the answer in any draft, but it changes where the story's weight sits and therefore which structures are worth proposing.
The question is a good one and it is the author's to answer. She answered 'she is not sure, and neither is the librarian', and the three structures that followed were built around that uncertainty rather than around a reveal. The first drafted scene still tried to have the librarian's hands 'linger' on the book. The writer cut the adverb and kept the hands.
Follow-up prompts
The second turn is where vibe writing happens. These are the short messages that keep the session moving.
After answering the question
Answer: [YOUR ANSWER]. Structures.
To draft a scene from the chosen structure
Structure [NUMBER]. Draft scene: [WHAT HAPPENS IN THE SCENE, IN ONE LINE]. Under [NUMBER] words.
When a scene tips into sentiment
The paragraph beginning '[FIRST WORDS]' names what she feels. Change only that paragraph: show it through one object and one action. OLD and NEW.
When you want alternatives for a single beat
Options for the moment the librarian sees the name. Three versions, under 40 words, each withholding differently.
When you are stuck on your own passage
Mine: [YOUR PARAGRAPH]. Do not revise it. Tell me what it is doing well and the one thing it is avoiding. Then give me two questions I could answer to write the next paragraph myself.
When it goes wrong
Symptoms you will actually see, the usual cause, and the correction that works.
The scene ends with a small revelation anyway.
- Cause
- The model treats a scene like a short story and reaches for closure.
- Fix
- Cut the last two sentences yourself and lock the new ending with 'keep'. Add 'end the scene on an action or an object, never on a thought' to the rules for the next draft.
A named character you did not create appears.
- Cause
- The scene needed a function (someone to talk to) and the model supplied a person.
- Fix
- Delete them. Reply: 'No new named characters. If the scene needs someone, use [GAP].' Decide yourself whether the scene needs anyone.
The prose is beautiful and nothing like yours.
- Cause
- The register description outweighed your sample, or your sample was too short.
- Fix
- Paste a longer sample, two or three paragraphs, and say: 'Mine. Redraft the scene at this sentence length and this level of explanation.' Compare one paragraph side by side.
Every scene has the same shape: approach, moment, retreat.
- Cause
- Bounded scenes with similar prompts produce similar arcs.
- Fix
- Vary what you ask for: 'draft only the dialogue', 'draft this scene in summary, two sentences', 'draft what she does after, nothing during'. Structure variety has to come from your requests.
The unresolved thing gets stated by a character.
- Cause
- Dialogue is where models explain. A character 'admits' or 'finally says' the thing.
- Fix
- This is a hard violation. Cut it, remind the rule, and consider whether the scene should have that conversation at all. Often the fix is that the characters talk about something else.
Before you publish
The prompt cannot do these. You can.
- Every sentence that carries the story's weight should be one you wrote or rewrote. If the best line in the draft is the assistant's, rewrite it until it is yours or cut it.
- Read for named feelings: 'felt', 'realized', 'knew', 'understood'. Each one is a place to show instead.
- Check the unresolved thing is still unresolved. Then check it is still present. Withholding is not the same as forgetting.
- If you intend to submit the story anywhere, read that market's AI policy. Many require disclosure or prohibit AI-generated text. Drafted scenes you rewrote may or may not qualify. The ethics lesson covers how to decide.
- Put the draft away for a day. Fiction drafted quickly reads better on the day than it will later.
Questions
Is fiction written this way really mine?
That is a question of degree and honesty. If the structure was chosen by you, the drafted scenes were rewritten sentence by sentence, and the meaning was never stated by the assistant, most writers would say yes and most readers would agree. If you accepted drafted scenes largely as they came, say so where it matters. The prompt is designed to keep you on the first side of that line.
Why not just ask for the whole story and then edit it?
Because a whole generated story has a shape, and the shape is the hardest thing to edit out. You end up revising sentences inside a structure you did not choose, toward an ending the model already decided. Structures first, then bounded scenes, keeps the shape yours.
Can I use it for a novel chapter?
Scene by scene, yes, with a short story bible pasted in place of 'what I know'. Keep sessions short. Drift across a long session is severe in fiction. Lock passages with 'keep' and keep your master draft outside the chat.
What register references should I give?
Describing the register (spare, close third, present tense, more silence than dialogue) works better than naming authors, and avoids asking the assistant to imitate a living writer. Your own sample paragraph does most of the calibration anyway.