DeepCrafter User Guide

DeepCrafter is an AI-powered environment for literary creation and editing. It turns the thinking methods behind fiction—premise, voice, structure, character, revision, and perspective—into practical tools that help you shape more ambitious stories.

This guide begins with the shortest path to a successful first draft. The later sections explain each tool in depth.

Official website: https://deepcrafter.ai

Deep dives

Five topics from this guide also have their own focused, in-depth pages:

Why Authors Choose DeepCrafter

DeepCrafter is not simply a text generator. It is designed around the author’s voice, literary craft, and a complete writing workflow.

Your voice is the center of the system

My Writing Style is a core DeepCrafter capability. You can provide up to 12 samples of your own work, with up to 2,000 words in each sample, and select the samples that fit a particular project.

This gives the system evidence of how you actually write: your vocabulary, syntax, rhythm, narrative distance, and tonal habits. Instead of forcing every author through the same generic “AI voice,” DeepCrafter helps you draft in a voice that is recognizably your own.

The author remains in control. My Writing Style is not intended to freeze your prose into imitation. It gives you a closer, more personal starting point, which you can direct, rewrite, and edit throughout the creative process.

Models selected for literary creation

DeepCrafter uses a curated model stack built around models such as Claude, which are especially capable in long-form writing, nuanced language, character interiority, and literary prose.

Model choice and routing are handled inside DeepCrafter. The goal is not to make authors compare technical benchmarks or manage model settings; it is to apply strong language models to the right stage of planning, drafting, and revision.

This combination—literary models, AI Master guidance, My Writing Style, Human Score, and manual editing—helps produce prose with stronger voice, texture, rhythm, and narrative intention than one-shot generic generation.

No BYOK setup required

You do not need to bring an API key, create a separate model-provider account, configure billing with multiple vendors, or decide which model to use for every request. Full breakdown: AI Novel Writing Without API Keys.

DeepCrafter’s universal Cosmic Points system handles model access and routing for you. One membership provides a coherent experience across long-form generation, style learning, AI Master tools, revision, cover creation, audio, and export.

For authors, that means less technical setup and more attention on the manuscript.

Membership and value

DeepCrafter currently offers two paid membership levels. Prices and allowances shown below were verified on the subscription page in August 2026.

Standard

$8 per month
First month: $1
800 Cosmic Points, estimated for approximately 80,000 words
$80 per year, approximately 20% less than monthly billing
8,000 Cosmic Points on the annual plan, estimated for approximately 800,000 words

Pro

$24 per month
2,000 Cosmic Points, estimated for approximately 200,000 words
$240 per year, approximately 20% less than monthly billing
20,000 Cosmic Points on the annual plan, estimated for approximately 2,000,000 words

Membership access includes the integrated creative workflow: Deep Craft long-form generation, My Writing Style, AI Masters and custom Master agents, Mystery Box, multi-timeline creation, private drafts, audio playback, AI covers, Editor Check, the AI Writing Assistant, optimization advice, and supported text, ebook, and audio downloads.

Subscriptions are currently listed as not automatically renewing. New subscriptions may qualify for a 14-day satisfaction guarantee when the account is in good standing and usage remains within the limits stated in the current Terms of Service. Review the full refund conditions before purchasing.

Because prices, point allowances, and offers may change, confirm the latest details before purchasing:

https://deepcrafter.ai/subscription

Privacy, Your Work, and Terms

Your writing deserves clear handling. DeepCrafter’s current policies state that:

You retain ownership of the stories, prompts, and other literary works you create with the service.
Drafts can remain private until you choose to publish them.
DeepCrafter states that it does not sell your personal information.
The platform uses technical and organizational safeguards such as encryption, access controls, and security reviews.
Depending on applicable law, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object to processing, or request portability of your personal data.
Publicly publishing or sharing work involves additional licenses and community permissions. Read the Terms before publishing material that you want to keep exclusive.
AI-generated content may be inaccurate or unexpected. You remain responsible for reviewing the content and ensuring that you have the necessary rights to publish what you submit or create.

For the complete and legally controlling details, read:

The policies may change over time. The linked versions, rather than this summary, govern your use of DeepCrafter.

1. Quick Start: Create Your First Story

You can begin with a single idea. DeepCrafter only needs three creative decisions. For the full step-by-step walkthrough with more examples, see How to Write Your First Story with DeepCrafter.

Genre — the kind of experience you want to create.
Theme — the central story idea, conflict, or situation.
AI Master — the literary approach that will shape the prose.

Step 1: Sign in

Visit https://deepcrafter.ai.
Select Sign Up or Log In.
Continue with your email address or Google account.
Open Create in the navigation bar, or go directly to https://deepcrafter.ai/inovel.

Step 2: Give DeepCrafter a strong story seed

Choose one or more genres, then describe the story you want to explore.

A useful theme usually contains:

a specific protagonist;
a desire or problem;
an unusual constraint;
and a source of pressure.

Weak theme:

A space adventure.

Stronger theme:

An astronaut who is terrified of darkness must repair a generation ship after its artificial sun fails—while receiving messages from someone who should not be aboard.

More examples:

Mystery / Speculative Fiction: A detective who can read memories investigates a murder committed by someone with no past.
Romance / Historical Fantasy: A court translator falls in love with the enemy prince whose letters she has been ordered to falsify.
Literary Fiction: Three estranged siblings return to sell their childhood home and discover their mother had preserved a different version of their family history for each of them.

Step 3: Choose how the story should sound

Select an AI Master, use the Mystery Box, choose My Writing Style, or create a custom Master if your plan supports it.

Think of this choice as a creative lens, not a substitute for your own judgment. You can still edit every sentence, redirect the plot, and revise the voice later.

Step 4: Choose a creation mode

Use AI Create when you want to guide the story one decision at a time.

Use Deep Craft when you want DeepCrafter to develop a complete long-form draft from your setup.

For a first session, AI Create is the best way to learn the creative loop:

Select AI Create.
Read the generated passage.
Choose one of the suggested directions, or enter your own.
Continue, edit, or branch.
Repeat until the story has the shape you want.

Step 5: Make the draft yours

After the first passage appears:

edit the prose directly with Manual Editing;
use AI Rewrite when the direction or execution is wrong;
ask for AI Master’s advice when the passage is promising but needs refinement;
check Human Score to identify overly uniform or recognizably AI-like writing;
use the AI Writing Assistant to discuss character, plot, research, or revision.

Your first goal is not to generate the maximum number of words. It is to establish a compelling premise, a clear voice, and a direction worth continuing.

2. The DeepCrafter Creative Workflow

DeepCrafter works best as a five-part loop:

1. Plan

Define the genre, theme, voice, character pressure, and desired scale.

2. Draft

Use AI Create for guided drafting or Deep Craft for long-form generation.

3. Direct

Choose story directions, create branches, change perspective, and test alternatives.

4. Refine

Rewrite, optimize, edit manually, translate, and evaluate the prose with Human Score.

5. Experience and export

Create a cover, listen to the story, download supported formats, or publish when you are ready.

You can move backward at any point. A draft can return to planning; a branch can become the main story; an AI suggestion can be ignored or rewritten. DeepCrafter is designed for iteration.

3. Setting Up a Story

3.1 Genre

Genre tells DeepCrafter what kind of reading experience to aim for. You can combine genres when the combination is meaningful:

Dark Fantasy + Epic
Romance + Mystery
Science Fiction + Humor
Literary Fiction + Family Drama
Horror + Coming of Age

Genre is a frame, not a prison. The theme and AI Master will make the result more specific.

3.2 Theme

The theme field is where you describe the story seed. It may be one sentence or a compact creative brief.

For better results, include the elements that must remain true. For example:

In a city where grief can be sold, a widowed archivist discovers that someone has purchased every memory of his wife except one. Write intimate speculative fiction with restrained emotion, moral ambiguity, and a slowly unfolding mystery.

Useful details include:

protagonist and point of view;
setting and period;
central desire;
conflict or impossible choice;
tone;
forbidden cliches;
ending preference;
narrative distance or tense.

Avoid overloading the prompt with dozens of unrelated instructions. Start with the dramatic core, generate a passage, then refine.

3.3 Trending Themes

If you do not have a starting idea, open Trending in the sidebar and explore current themes. Treat a trending theme as raw material: change the character, stakes, setting, or moral question until the premise belongs to you.

4. AI Master: Choosing a Literary Approach

AI Master is one of DeepCrafter’s central creative systems. It shapes how the story interprets your premise and expresses it in prose.

4.1 AI Master Mystery Box

The Mystery Box matches your project with a literary influence from a large library. It is useful when:

you want to escape your default habits;
the premise feels familiar;
you want an unexpected tonal or structural direction;
or you are exploring rather than executing a fixed brief.

Review the result as a creative proposal. If the voice does not serve the story, try another direction.

4.2 Preset AI Masters

Preset Masters cover a range of genres and literary approaches, including science fiction, fantasy, romance, thriller, fairy tale, literary fiction, gothic narrative, minimalism, and more.

Choose by the needs of the story rather than by prestige. A quiet family drama may need restraint; a mythic fantasy may benefit from scale and rhythmic language.

4.3 Custom AI Master

Eligible plans can create custom AI Master agents.

Open the Master selector.
Select Create New Settings.
Describe the intended voice and creative principles.
Save the Master and use it in compatible projects.

A strong custom Master description explains craft rather than merely naming adjectives. Consider:

sentence length and variation;
narrative distance;
amount of interiority;
dialogue style;
imagery and sensory density;
pacing;
humor;
tolerance for ambiguity;
what the prose should avoid.

Example:

Use close third person with restrained interiority. Prefer concrete physical detail over explanatory emotion. Dialogue should carry subtext and rarely state the central conflict directly. Vary sentence length, but avoid ornamental metaphors and tidy moral conclusions.

4.4 My Writing Style

My Writing Style helps DeepCrafter learn from your own prose. Full guide: How to Make AI Write in Your Own Voice.

You can upload up to 12 writing samples, with up to 2,000 words in each sample. You can maintain different samples for different projects and select the ones that fit the current story.

For the best style model:

use writing that genuinely represents the voice you want;
prefer polished passages over rough notes;
include enough prose to reveal rhythm, syntax, diction, and narrative distance;
keep samples stylistically consistent;
avoid using passages dominated by quotations or research material.

DeepCrafter analyzes patterns such as vocabulary, sentence structure, rhythm, and voice. The generated text remains a draft: review it for authenticity and revise it as you would any other prose.

5. AI Create: Write With Continuous Direction

AI Create is for writers who want to stay inside the decision-making loop.

Basic flow

Set Genre, Theme, and AI Master.
Select AI Create.
Review the generated passage.
Choose a suggested direction or enter a custom direction.
Continue from the selected path.

Write better custom directions

A custom direction should describe the next dramatic change, not summarize the entire novel.

Less useful:

Make it better and more exciting.

More useful:

Mara hides the message from the crew, but the ship’s child navigator notices her reaction. Let their conversation remain polite while each tries to discover what the other knows.

You can guide:

the next action;
a revelation;
a character’s private objective;
pacing;
point of view;
degree of tension;
emotional restraint;
or a scene-level constraint.

When to edit

Do not wait until the end of the story to intervene. Edit when a generated passage introduces a fact, voice, or motivation that could distort later sections. Early corrections give the next generation better context.

6. Deep Craft: Develop a Long-Form Draft

Deep Craft is designed for creators who want DeepCrafter to develop a complete long-form story from the creative setup. Full guide: How to Create a Long-Form Novel with AI.

Basic flow

Define Genre and Theme.
Choose an AI Master or My Writing Style.
Select the desired length.
Start Deep Craft.
Allow the process to complete.
Open the finished story and review the full text.
Use the editing tools to revise the result.
Download available text, ebook, or audio formats according to your plan.

Deep Craft can produce novel-length work exceeding 100,000 words and can create a cover as part of the process.

Before starting a long draft

Long-form generation amplifies both good and weak setup decisions. Before you begin, clarify:

whose story this is;
what changes for the protagonist;
what opposition sustains the middle;
what cannot be easily undone;
the desired tone and audience;
and any ending conditions that matter.

After generation

Treat the result as a complete developmental draft, not an untouchable final manuscript. Review it in passes:

Structure: causality, escalation, turning points, and ending.
Character: desire, contradiction, agency, and change.
Continuity: timeline, setting rules, names, and factual consistency.
Scene craft: objectives, conflict, subtext, and reversals.
Prose: voice, rhythm, specificity, repetition, and clarity.

Use DeepCrafter’s revision tools at the level where the problem exists. A structural problem usually needs a new direction or branch; a sentence-level problem may only need Manual Editing.

7. Branches and Timelines

Every major choice can open a different version of the story. Branching is useful for testing creative hypotheses without erasing earlier work.

Create a branch

At the end of a passage:

select one of the suggested directions;
enter your own direction;
or choose Choose another writing direction to explore an alternative timeline.

Navigate branches

The sidebar displays story segments as connected nodes. Select a node to review the corresponding passage and move between timelines.

Trim a branch

Use Trim Branch to remove a path you no longer need. Review the selected branch carefully before trimming it.

A practical branching method

At an important turning point, test two genuinely different dramatic choices:

one where the protagonist acts from fear;
one where the protagonist acts from desire.

Compare which branch creates stronger consequences. Keep the version that generates more meaningful pressure, not merely more spectacle.

8. Rewrite, Optimize, and Edit

Different problems need different tools.

8.1 AI Rewrite

Use AI Rewrite when the passage needs a substantially different execution or direction.

Open the passage menu.
Select AI Rewrite.
State what should change.
Generate a new version.
Compare it with the existing branch before continuing.

Good rewrite instructions are diagnostic:

“Keep the events, but remove the exposition and reveal the history through disagreement.”
“Rewrite from the sister’s limited point of view; she should misunderstand why he has returned.”
“Make the scene quieter. Replace the open confrontation with evasive dialogue and one irreversible action.”

8.2 AI Master’s advice

Use AI Master’s advice when you want critique or improvement while preserving the scene’s purpose.

Ask about a specific craft dimension:

vocabulary;
syntax;
narrative clarity;
rhythm;
voice;
pacing;
imagery;
dialogue;
or emotional distance.

Read the advice before accepting changes. The useful question is not “Is this more polished?” but “Does this version serve the story better?”

8.3 Manual Editing

Select the text in the editor and revise it directly whenever you know what the passage needs.

Manual Editing is often the fastest choice for:

a wrong fact;
an imprecise verb;
a repeated image;
an unnatural line of dialogue;
a continuity correction;
or a sentence whose rhythm you can already hear.

8.4 Recreate

Use Recreate when you want to return to the premise and make a fundamental change—such as the protagonist, era, setting, central event, or genre logic.

8.5 Translate

Use Translate to create another-language version of a story passage. Always review names, cultural context, idioms, dialogue register, and literary rhythm after translation.

9. Human Score

Human Score is a writing-analysis tool designed to identify patterns that can make prose feel uniform, mechanical, or recognizably AI-generated.

Open it at https://deepcrafter.ai/human-score, or read How to Identify and Improve AI-Sounding Prose for the full explanation of each dimension.

Five dimensions

Vocabulary — variety, precision, and natural word choice.
Syntax — diversity and control of sentence structure.
Narrative — how naturally the prose presents and develops information.
Rhythm — variation in pace, sentence movement, and emphasis.
Voice — the distinctiveness and consistency of the writing personality.

How to use the score

A score is a diagnostic signal, not a definition of literary quality.

Analyze a passage.
Identify the weakest dimension.
Read the prose yourself and locate the actual pattern.
Revise with AI tools or Manual Editing.
Compare the new version with the original.
Keep the revision only if it improves the reading experience.

Patterns worth checking include:

repeated sentence shapes;
generic transitions;
excessive explanation;
familiar metaphors;
emotional labels without observable behavior;
uniform paragraph length;
predictable contrasts;
and a voice that never takes a specific linguistic risk.

Do not optimize merely for a number. Literary voice can be controlled, repetitive, or unusual on purpose. Your artistic intention remains the final standard.

10. AI Writing Assistant

The AI Writing Assistant is a context-aware creative partner inside the story editor.

Open the Chat panel in the sidebar and ask questions about the current work.

Useful tasks include:

brainstorming the next scene;
testing character motivation;
finding contradictions in a plot;
developing setting rules;
discussing research needs;
proposing scene objectives;
generating questions for revision;
and exploring alternatives without immediately changing the manuscript.

Specific questions produce better conversations:

What does Lena want in this scene, what is she pretending to want, and which action could expose the difference?

Identify three places where the antagonist’s plan depends on coincidence. Suggest causal alternatives that preserve the ending.

Give me five sensory details for this abandoned orbital greenhouse, but avoid rust, flickering lights, and “eerily silent.”

Use the assistant to sharpen decisions. You remain responsible for selecting what belongs in the story.

11. Character Tools

11.1 Character Switch

Use Switch Character from a passage menu to retell or explore the material from another character’s point of view.

This is useful for:

discovering hidden motives;
testing whether a secondary character has agency;
exposing a different interpretation of the same event;
and finding information the current narrator cannot see.

A perspective shift changes more than pronouns. Review what the new viewpoint notices, misunderstands, values, and refuses to admit.

11.2 Chat with Character

Chat directly with a story character to explore voice, history, desire, or hidden knowledge. Treat the response as exploratory material rather than fixed canon until you decide to incorporate it.

Questions that reveal character tend to involve choices:

What would you never forgive?
Which lie are you most afraid someone will discover?
If you could win only by becoming like your enemy, would you still try?
What do you want from the other person in the next scene?

12. Covers and Audio

12.1 Create a cover

During creation, select AI Create Cover. DeepCrafter uses the story’s genre and theme to generate cover options.

Choose a cover based on:

genre signal;
focal point;
readability at thumbnail size;
tone;
and whether it creates curiosity without misrepresenting the story.

Select Retry Create Cover if the result does not fit. Deep Craft may generate a cover automatically with the story.

12.2 Listen to a story

Eligible plans can play story audio in the reading interface. Listening is also a useful editing technique: awkward repetition, long sentences, and unnatural dialogue are often easier to hear than to see.

Eligible plans may also download the complete audio file for offline listening.

13. Save, Download, Publish, and Discover

Drafts remain private until you choose to publish them.

Download

Depending on your plan, available formats may include:

TXT for portable plain text and further editing;
EPUB for ebook readers;
and story audio.

Publish

When the story is ready, select Publish to make it available in the DeepCrafter community. Before publishing, review the title, cover, opening, formatting, and ending.

Discover stories

Explore community work through:

New for recently published stories;
Hot for popular stories;
and genre pages such as Fiction, Romance, Horror, and Fanfic.

You can also rate, comment on, and save stories where those options are available.

14. Account, Language, and Subscription

Language

DeepCrafter supports English, Chinese, and Japanese interfaces.

Open Settings, locate the Language selector, and choose your preferred interface language. The setting is saved automatically.

Plans and Cosmic Points

DeepCrafter offers free access and paid plans with different creation, customization, download, and audio capabilities. AI generation uses Cosmic Points.

Because plan allowances and promotional offers may change, visit the current subscription page for exact pricing, included points, and feature availability:

https://deepcrafter.ai/subscription

Legal and company information

About: https://deepcrafter.ai/about
Privacy Policy: https://deepcrafter.ai/privacypolicy
Terms of Service: https://deepcrafter.ai/termsofservice

Community Discord: https://discord.gg/r8vVWFunz9

15. A Better Prompting Method for Fiction

You do not need to write a long prompt. You need to communicate the story’s pressure clearly.

Use this compact pattern:

Character + desire + obstacle + consequence + voice

Example:

Write close-third literary suspense about a municipal diver who wants to recover the body of her missing brother from a flooded town, but the government has declared the site empty. Each dive reveals evidence that residents are still living below. Keep the prose tactile and restrained; let dialogue carry more information than narration.

For a scene direction, use:

Immediate objective + opposition + change

Example:

Elias tries to obtain the archive key without revealing that he knew the victim. The curator recognizes his handwriting. End with the curator giving him the key anyway.

For revision, use:

Preserve + change + avoid

Example:

Preserve the scene’s events and first-person voice. Increase subtext and make the apology feel self-serving. Avoid explanatory thoughts and sentimental metaphors.

16. Common Problems and Fast Fixes

“The prose is polished but generic.”

Add concrete constraints to the voice. Specify narrative distance, sensory priorities, rhythm, and what to avoid. Use My Writing Style when appropriate, then revise manually.

“The story keeps drifting away from my premise.”

Correct important facts early. Give the next direction a clear objective and consequence. Rewrite from the first point where the drift began rather than patching only the latest passage.

“The character behaves only to serve the plot.”

Define what the character wants in the current scene, what they fear, and what they will not do. Ask the AI Writing Assistant to test the motivation before continuing.

“The middle has events but no momentum.”

Strengthen causality. Each major event should change the available choices, increase the cost, or reveal information that forces a new plan.

“The dialogue says exactly what everyone feels.”

Give each speaker a surface objective and a hidden agenda. Let them avoid, redirect, bargain, or misinterpret.

“Human Score is low.”

Inspect the weakest dimension and revise the actual pattern. Do not chase the score blindly. Specificity, varied syntax, subtext, and a coherent point of view usually matter more than cosmetic synonym changes.

“I have too many branches.”

Name the dramatic question behind each branch. Keep the one that produces the strongest consequences for the protagonist. Trim only after you are sure you no longer need the alternative.

17. Recommended Workflows

Explore a new idea

Start with a one-sentence premise.
Use AI Create.
Test two branches at the first irreversible choice.
Keep the stronger branch.
Edit the opening manually.
Continue in short creative cycles.

Develop a novel-length draft

Write a clear premise and ending condition.
Select an AI Master or My Writing Style.
Use the AI Writing Assistant to stress-test character and conflict.
Start Deep Craft.
Review structure before polishing prose.
Rewrite weak branches or scenes.
Run Human Score on representative passages.
Edit, listen, and export.

Revise an existing passage

Identify whether the problem is structural, scene-level, or sentence-level.
Use AI Rewrite for structural or execution changes.
Use AI Master’s advice for focused craft improvement.
Use Manual Editing for precise corrections.
Compare versions aloud.
Keep the one that best serves the story.

Learn your own voice

Upload several representative samples to My Writing Style.
Generate a short scene.
Compare vocabulary, syntax, rhythm, and narrative distance with your samples.
Correct mismatches manually.
Refine which samples are selected for future projects.

18. Final Checklist

Before you continue a draft:

Does the protagonist want something specific?
Is there meaningful resistance?
Does the scene change the story?
Is the point of view consistent?
Does the prose sound like this story rather than any story?

Before you publish or export:

Review structure and continuity.
Check names, timeline, and setting rules.
Remove repeated explanations and generic imagery.
Read important scenes aloud or use audio playback.
Review Human Score as one diagnostic.
Confirm the title and cover match the work.
Save or download the formats you need.

DeepCrafter is most powerful when generation and judgment work together. Let AI expand the field of possibility; use your taste, intention, and craft to decide what the story becomes.

This guide reflects the available DeepCrafter workflow and may evolve as the product changes. Last updated: August 2026.

Ready to start writing? No API keys, no model setup — just genre, theme, and an AI Master.

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