Guide
How to write a novel with an AI co-writer
If you want to write the book yourself, with AI help when you ask for it rather than a whole book generated for you, the Write Studio is built for that. You write. The AI rewrites, expands or continues a passage on request, and every change is shown marked up for you to accept or reject.
The short answer
- Start from a blank page with a working title, or open any book in your library, generated or imported.
- Select text to rewrite, expand, describe or shorten it, or have the AI continue the scene from your cursor.
- Every suggestion appears as tracked changes, with Accept, Try again and Reject.
- A Fast action costs 500 credits and a Pro action 3,000, within a monthly allowance. On a free account you can write, but not use the AI.
Writing a book with the AI beside you
Every step below is what the Write Studio does today, checked against the product on October 7, 2026.
- 01
Start or open a book
Choose Co-write in the app's sidebar. A new book needs a working title and, if you like, a line about what it's about; it opens on an empty first chapter and nothing is generated. Or pick any book from your library, one you generated or imported included, and it opens with all its chapters.
- 02
Set up the Story Bible
The left-hand pane is the Story Bible: narration and voice, characters, setting and continuity facts. It is filled in once, when a book first opens in the Studio, from what is already written. Correct or add entries by hand, or paste your own notes and let the AI sort them into entries. Every AI action reads it, up to 16,000 characters, so keep it current as the story changes.
- 03
Write, and select to revise
Write in the middle. Select a passage and choose Rewrite, Expand, Describe or Shorten, with a note to steer it if you want one. The suggestion streams in as tracked changes, new words in green and removed ones in red, and you choose Accept, Try again or Reject.
- 04
Let it continue the scene
Put your cursor where you stopped and choose Continue the scene: it writes one to three paragraphs for you to accept or dismiss. On a desktop, Tab at the end of a line starts it and accepts it, and Esc rejects it. Or describe in a sentence what should happen next and choose Write it.
- 05
Ask the AI about your book
Open Ask the AI on the right to talk through a plot problem, a character's motive or what a chapter needs. It knows your Story Bible, short summaries of earlier chapters and the end of the chapter you have open. It discusses and suggests; it never edits your text.
- 06
Keep going
Add, rename, reorder or delete chapters from the chapter menu. Your work saves a few seconds after you stop typing, and there is a Save button too. When the book is ready, download it as DOCX, EPUB or PDF from its page in your library, or order printed copies.
What the AI reads when it helps
It does not read the whole manuscript for each action. Long-range details belong in the Story Bible, which is the one thing every action reads.
- Your Story Bible
- Narration and voice, characters, setting and facts, up to 16,000 characters.
- The book's basics
- Its premise, genre and tone, and where the chapter sits in the book.
- The previous chapter
- A short summary of it, so a new scene follows on from the last.
- Your voice
- A profile of point of view, tense and sentence rhythm. The AI is told to keep them.
- The passage you chose
- The selection, or the text before your cursor, plus any note you added.
What to expect, and what it won’t do
The Bible doesn't update itself
It is set up once, when a book first opens in the Studio. After that, add new characters and facts as you write them.
Chat talks, it doesn't edit
Ask the AI is for thinking out loud. To change text, select it and use the toolbar, or continue from the cursor.
Free accounts write without AI
You can open the Studio and write on a free account. The AI actions, adding chapters and Story Bible imports need a paid plan.
The monthly allowance is a hard limit
On a paid plan, assists pause when the month's allowance is used up, even if you still have credits.
Review every suggestion
Nothing changes your text until you accept it. The AI keeps to your point of view and tense most of the time, not always.
English only
ScribistIQ writes in English.
What it costs
Assists spend credits and also count toward a monthly allowance. See plans and pricing for what each plan includes.
Common questions
Can I write a novel with AI without it writing the whole thing?
Yes. In the Write Studio you write the book and call on the AI for a passage at a time: to rewrite, expand, shorten or describe a selection, or to continue the scene from your cursor. Nothing changes until you accept it.
Is this an AI writing assistant like Sudowrite?
It works the same way: you write and the AI helps. ScribistIQ can also generate a whole book, or continue a manuscript you import, and either one opens in the same Studio when you want to take over.
Will the AI keep my voice?
It reads a profile of your point of view, tense and sentence rhythm from the Story Bible and is told to keep them, and it sees the text around the passage. It usually stays close; you review every change before it lands.
What does it cost?
A Fast action costs 500 credits, a Pro action 3,000 and a chat reply 500, within a monthly allowance that depends on your plan. An action that returns no text costs nothing.
Can I use it on a free account?
You can open the Studio and write. The AI actions, adding chapters and Story Bible imports need a paid plan.
Who owns what I write?
You do. Our Terms say: "As between you and us, you own the inputs you provide and, to the extent permitted by law, the output you generate."
Write the book you want to write.
The Studio comes with every paid plan. On a free account you can open it and write, and read the AI's writing on the opening of a new book before you pay.
Also worth reading: Finish the novel you started · ScribistIQ vs Sudowrite · Features