1. Open a book and chapter
Sign in to Just Write and open the writing workspace. Create or open a book, then create or open the chapter you want to work on. If you already have prose, prepare it in the editor and check its save status.
To reference your own prose style, add earlier-work excerpts in this book’s Style page and decide which ones to enable for v1.48 or v1.49. When the entire book has no preceding prose, v1.49 excludes these excerpts from its opening continuation. Make the situation, character relationships and intended direction clear in your manuscript and instructions; style excerpts are not facts about the new story.
2. Place the cursor where the story should continue
Click in the manuscript and choose Continue near the cursor. Check the writing point before submitting, since continuation starts there.
When text is selected, the toolbar offers Rewrite. Clear the selection and reposition the cursor to draft new prose, or keep an exact selection to revise an existing passage.
3. Enter writing instructions
Explain the event to advance, the character’s purpose and any information to hold back. No fixed instruction format is required.
For example: “Have the protagonist probe the other person’s motives. Let the other person evade the key question, and keep the person behind the situation unrevealed for now.”
If no accepted prose precedes the writing point, enter instructions before starting. With preceding prose, instructions are optional. The default v1.49 continuation plans automatically; choose Plan yourself to take part in direction choices before drafting.
Press Enter for a new line, or Command+Enter on macOS and Ctrl+Enter on Windows to submit. If context is still loading, wait for the submit button to become available. A loading error can be retried in the popover.
4. Review the available versions
With v1.48 or v1.49, click the draft-count button at the bottom of the popover to cycle through one, two or three candidates. Version v1.36 generates one. After submitting, follow the progress and read the candidate text.
Choosing an intermediate scene does not write to the chapter. The final-scene action “Choose and add to manuscript” submits acceptance, so review the assembled content before using it.
5. Accept only after reading in context
Check whether the opening connects with the prior text, whether characters have reasons for their actions, whether information appears too early, and whether your instructions are reflected in the result.
Use the acceptance action shown for the completed content: a multiple-version flow can show “Choose and add to manuscript”, while a completed candidate can show “Accept candidate”. The manuscript changes only after successful acceptance. You can reject the candidate and revise your instructions.
How can specific instructions help when you are stuck?
This fictional situation was written for the guide; it is not generated product output or a user manuscript. The protagonist overhears someone hiding a ledger inside a room. The person inside does not know they were overheard. You want a confrontation without revealing who is behind it.
An instruction could be: “Continue as the protagonist opens the door. They want to find out where the ledger went without revealing what they overheard. The other person dodges questions with polite small talk. Let the exchange reveal a clue that prompts the next action, without identifying the person behind it.” This specifies an action, a purpose and information to withhold, without setting a length.
Check that the draft moves forward from the doorway rather than retelling the overheard scene. Does the other person somehow know they were overheard? Does the clue fit the existing situation? Instructions do not guarantee a correct result; reject unsuitable drafts. If only one exchange needs adjustment, select and rewrite that passage so the change is easier to check.
If the connection drops or a passage needs revision
A disconnected browser does not by itself mean the background task failed. Reopen the workspace and check the existing task’s progress and recovery options. Resuming keeps that task’s original inputs; later changes to instructions or references do not silently replace them.
To start with different instructions, create a new task. To adjust only part of the resulting manuscript, select that passage and use Rewrite, then review the replacement before accepting.
Platform writing uses account writing points. See the pricing page for current plans, allowances and usage explanations.