Plan your novel by talking it through
Last checked against the product October 1, 2026
Most novels stall before chapter one, somewhere between an idea and a plan. In the Novelmint Studio you plan by conversation. You tell Minty, the built-in editor, what the story is, and she lays it out as chapters and scene-sized moments on your Timeline while you watch. The building is hers to do. What the story is stays yours to decide.
Key takeaways
- Build is the mode Minty starts in. You describe the story and she creates the chapters, beats, characters, and plot threads on your Timeline directly.
- A beat is one story moment: a scene, an exchange, a turning point. Beats are what the prose is later written from.
- Structural work lands straight away and she tells you what she did. Before anything that spends credits or deletes something, she quotes the cost and waits for a yes.
- She takes one chapter all the way to prose you can read before laying out the next.
- A new author’s first chapter is free to build.
What it does
What Minty does in Build mode
Draws the story out
Genre, a lead with a want and a fear, the central conflict, the stakes. A question or two at a time, with concrete options when you are stuck.
Builds the structure for you
Chapters, beats, characters, places, and plot threads are created on the Timeline as you talk. You watch them appear, and there is nothing to copy across.
Matches how hands-on you are
Some authors want to steer every beat and some want a first pass to react to. She reads which you are, asks once if it is unclear, and adjusts.
Writes beats with something underneath
A beat carries what happens, what the viewpoint character feels, and a cue for voice, along with the subtext the scene turns on. The prose is written from all of it.
Keeps what you tell her
State a fact about your world and it is written into the character or place it belongs to, so it is still true ten chapters on.
Tells you what it costs
Turning a chapter into prose costs credits, and you see an estimate before it runs. She never starts one without your go-ahead.
How to use it
From an idea to a chapter you can read
Open a book and open Minty
The Minty button is at the top right of the Timeline. Build is the mode she starts in.
Tell her the idea
A premise, a character, an image, or "I don’t know where to begin". She takes it from there.
Shape the opening together
She builds a small slice first: your lead, chapter one, a few opening beats. Correct anything that is off before more is built on it.
Build chapter one
When the beats are right, she offers to turn the chapter into prose. For a new author that first chapter is free.
Read it, then plan the next
Read the chapter, change what you want, and move on to chapter two.
Example
What a first session looks like
You ask
A lighthouse keeper finds letters addressed to her, dated forty years from now. Gothic, slow, a little romantic.
You get back
- Your idea read back in two lines, then one question: is the sender someone she will meet, or someone she will become?
- After your answer, your lead is created as a character: Ines Varga, who wants to be left alone and fears she already has been.
- Chapter one is laid out as five beats on the Timeline, from the supply boat leaving to the first letter opened.
- An offer to build chapter one into prose, with a note that your first chapter is free.
An illustration with an invented story, to show the shape of a session. Yours follows your own idea.
Questions
Frequently asked
- Can AI help me outline a novel?
- Yes. In Novelmint you describe the story to Minty, the built-in editor, and she lays it out as chapters and beats on your Timeline. The outline is the real structure of the book, the same one the prose is later written from, so nothing has to be copied from a chat into a document.
- Do I need an outline before I start?
- No. A premise, a character, or a single image is enough. Minty asks a question or two at a time to draw the rest out, and offers concrete options when you are stuck.
- Does Minty decide what happens in my story?
- She builds the structure you describe and offers options when you ask for them. Who the story is about, what happens, and how it ends are your decisions, and you can edit every beat by hand.
- Will she change my book without asking?
- Structural edits you ask for are made straight away and reported back. Anything that spends credits or deletes something waits for your yes, with the cost quoted first.
- What does planning with Minty cost?
- Talking with Minty is counted as Minty chat. Turning a chapter into prose is a separate cost that is estimated before it runs, and a new author’s first chapter is free. Current allowances are on the pricing page.Pricing
- Can I plan a book from Claude?
- Yes. Novelmint runs an MCP server that gives Claude, or another MCP client, the same building tools Minty uses in the Studio.Use Novelmint from Claude
What this page does not claim
- Novelmint does not write a whole book from one prompt. It is built for authors who want to decide what the story is.
- A plan built this way is not guaranteed to be a good story. The judgment about what works stays with you.
- Minty can be wrong. She reads the live book before acting, and what she builds is still worth checking.
- The sample session on this page uses an invented story. It is not output from a real book.
Keep reading
What the plan turns into
The beats Minty lays down are the brief the prose is written from, and the characters and places she creates become the story bible every later chapter reads.
Powiązane
Chapter builds
Turn a chapter’s beats into prose, written from your plan, your bible, and your voice.
Revise and polish
Fix the one scene that missed without rebuilding the chapter around it.
Import a manuscript
Bring in a book you already wrote. Your words stay; the structure is worked out from them.
World building
Describe a character, a place, or a rule, and it becomes an entry every chapter is written from.