View source for Example Prompt Structure

From flicktheverb, [[promptsmith]]<ref>https://www.reddit.com/r/redquill/comments/1wqbxui/comment/pc330fb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button</ref>

A lot of the prompt is background on the character, which is super important to give the model for context but there’s no direction to tell the model where the story should go. What happens when Samantha arrives at the farm? Does she unpack, look around, have a nap, spy an interesting farmer down the way? Then what happens? And then what happens after that? How does the chapter end? Give the model a beginning, middle and end — even if it’s only a line of two if you’re not sure yet — and it will give it a roadmap to work with.

This is how I structure my prompts:<blockquote>This is chapter one of an ongoing, serialised short story unfolding over multiple chapters with these themes: [add tropes, broad kink categories, dynamics, e.g. BDSM, Praise & Degradation kink, Forced Proximity, First Time, etc.]

INSTRUCTIONS

POV & TENSE: The story employs a highly intimate and subjective first-person perspective through present tense and free indirect discourse.

OTHER INSTRUCTIONS: [Might be dialogue specific, or an emphasis on tone, or kink. Short & brief.]

Output only the narrative.

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SCENE SUMMARY: [If you know roughly what is going to happen, otherwise omit.] Julia is bored out of her brain, and restless, resulting in her picking a fight with Marcus.

SCENE SETTING: [I always use setting components for places, locations, etc, but here I add specifics. “''It’s 7pm on Friday and the characters are winding down from the week. They’re sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a bottle of wine.''” So for yours it could be, “Samantha arrives at her new house, all her things are packed in the boot…*”

SCENE BEATS

[START RIGHT HERE, BEAT 1 — The Beginning: In medias res: add inline micro instructions, if any.]

Julia is staring at Marcus wondering why, for the fiftieth time, the model decided to partner her up with another fucking Marcus. Bored, she twirls her wine glass and stifles a laugh, triggering an argument to start when Marcus asks what’s wrong and Julia has to try and explain it.

[BEAT 2 — The Middle: Show Julia’s internal discomfort only through inner monologue as she tries to repress feelings of shame, keep a neutral expression on her face so as to NOT reveal her true feelings.]

Julia can’t explain why Marcus is a terrible name without revealing her 49 previous Marcuses, so she steers the argument towards him always leaving the cap off the toothbrush and his towel on the floor instead.

The argument escalates to sheer ridiculousness. [Add genuinely funny dialogue between them. Use minimal speech tags. Convey tone and frustration through language and typography. Allow characters to talk over and interrupt each other. Use curse words as punctuation.]

[BEAT 3 — The End: Superficially resolve the argument — but not Julia’s feelings — with Julia conceding and Marcus seeming victorious.]

Julia and Marcus realise they’re being ridiculous and dissolve into laughter. Kiss and make up.

END SCENE: End the chapter only on an action beat, with Julia’s guilt pressing down on her.

FINAL INSTRUCTIONS TO THE AI:

Keep the sexual tension unresolved.

No coda.

No foreshadowing.

NEW COMPONENTS: [Characters, Setting, Acts/Themes]</blockquote>That’s pretty much how I outline all my chapters. I use more beats usually. For an epic-length chapter around 8 - 10. Background info I add to components. I used “Other” for those previously but am now using either traits or themes depending on what the content is.

For your inline instructions in brackets about upcoming tasks for fixing up the place, I’d omit them entirely and use Story Plan if you know where they’ll roughly fall. It’s just inviting the model to bring it in as narrative or foreshadowing.

== References ==