How to Use Sudowrite: Complete Beginner Guide for 2026

Steps 1–3: Account and Project Setup

1. Start With the Free Trial

   Create a Sudowrite account through the official service. The current public free trial does not require a credit card. That gives you a chance to test the interface before committing to Hobby & Student, Professional, or Max. If you later subscribe through the qualifying SudoCoupon offer, the current partner promotion adds 200,000 bonus credits.

2. Create a New Project

   From the Sudowrite home screen, create a project for the book or story you want to work on. Use a specific title instead of “Test Project.” A real title makes the project easier to recognize once your account contains several books, experiments, and imports. If you already have a manuscript, consider Import Novel instead of starting empty.

3. Import Existing Work if You Have It

   Sudowrite's Import Novel feature is designed for works in progress and completed books. It can bring in an existing manuscript and help build Story Bible information from the text. This is particularly useful if you already wrote half the novel, want to finish a stalled book, are writing a sequel, are moving from Scrivener, or have a completed book and need continuity for book two. Do not paste 70,000 words manually into one editor document if Import Novel is the better route.

Steps 4–12: Build the Story Bible

4. Understand Story Bible

   Story Bible is where Sudowrite stores the core facts and plan for the project. Think of it as the source of truth the AI can consult. Common areas include Braindump, Genre, Style, Synopsis, Characters, Worldbuilding, Outline and Scenes. You do not need every section complete before writing.

5. Start With a Braindump

   Braindump is exactly what the name suggests. Write what you know about the story in ordinary language. Do not worry about polish — Braindump is planning material.

6. Set Genre

   Genre helps establish reader expectations. Be more specific than “fiction” when possible: gothic romance, cozy mystery, epic fantasy, psychological thriller, literary science fiction, dark romance, historical adventure. Genre affects pacing, scene expectations, tone, and the kinds of suggestions an AI may make.

7. Set Style

   Style tells Sudowrite how the prose should feel. Avoid empty adjectives such as “good” or “beautiful.” Useful style notes describe actual writing behavior: close first person, short paragraphs during action, dry internal humor, sparse physical description, dialogue-heavy scenes, lyrical landscape description, no rhetorical questions, avoid melodramatic metaphors. You can also use Style Examples to show rather than merely tell the model what you want.

8. Add a Synopsis

   Synopsis explains the overall shape of the story. It does not have to be a query-letter synopsis — for AI context, clarity matters more than sales polish. Include protagonist, goal, main conflict, important turn, and ending direction if known. A good synopsis reduces random plot invention later.

9. Build Character Cards

   Create cards for characters who genuinely matter. Useful details include role, age, physical description, personality, goals, fears, relationships, secrets, voice and backstory. Avoid creating a detailed card for every waiter and taxi driver — too much irrelevant context can become noise.

10. Add Worldbuilding

    Worldbuilding is not only for fantasy. A contemporary romance may need workplace details, town locations, family businesses and social groups. A mystery may need police procedures, crime-scene locations and local history. A fantasy novel may need magic systems, factions, geography, religion, politics and technology. Only store facts you want the AI to treat as canon.

11. Create an Outline or Keep It Light

    Sudowrite can support plotters and pantsers. Plotters can create a full chapter outline before drafting. Pantsers can keep only a few future turning points and develop the rest as they write. Do not force yourself into a 40-chapter plan because a button exists. The Story Bible should support your process, not replace it.

12. Understand Scenes

    Sudowrite's current Draft workflow uses Scenes rather than the older Beats approach. A Scene represents a meaningful unit of chapter action, often tied to a location, time, or POV. For each Scene, include enough information for the AI to know what changes, who is present, where it happens, what the POV character wants, and how the Scene should end. You can also add Extra Instructions for tone, pacing, or constraints.

Steps 13–21: Writing and Generating

13. Start Writing Manually

    Before pressing every AI button, write some of the opening yourself. Sudowrite works better when it has your actual prose to reference. Write's current documentation says it can look back at up to 20,000 words of preceding text. You do not need 20,000 words to start, but several paragraphs give it a better signal than a blank page.

14. Use Write

    Place the cursor after existing text and click Write. Sudowrite proposes a continuation based on manuscript context and enabled Story Bible information. Use Auto when you genuinely do not know what comes next. Use Guided when you know the event but want help drafting it.

15. Choose Muse or Another Model

    Muse is Sudowrite's fiction-focused model and a strong default, with controls such as Creativity and Style Examples. Sudowrite also provides other model choices — recent 2026 additions include GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra and Luna, Claude Opus 5, Kimi K3, GPT-5.4, Claude Sonnet 4.6 and Gemini 3.1 Pro. Do not switch models constantly at first. Learn what Muse does with your writing, then test alternatives when you have a reason.

16. Use Rewrite for Existing Prose

    Rewrite is for passages you already wrote. Good targets include a wooden sentence, repetitive description, dialogue that sounds too formal, a paragraph with poor flow, or a line that needs a different emotional tone. Use Rewrite locally rather than applying it blindly to a whole manuscript — the more text you rewrite at once, the easier it is to lose deliberate voice choices.

17. Use Describe for Sensory Detail

    Describe can suggest sensory material for a selected moment across sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. The right method is to choose one or two details that the POV character would actually notice. Do not paste every suggestion into the scene.

18. Use Brainstorm for Options

    Brainstorm is ideal when you need variety — character names, secrets, motives, plot complications, worldbuilding ideas, powers, obstacles and scene locations. Treat the output as a menu. The first suggestion is not automatically the best one.

19. Use Expand When a Scene Feels Rushed

    Expand adds length to existing prose. Use it when an emotional beat passes too quickly, a physical action needs more steps, a transition is abrupt, or a confrontation resolves too fast. If the scene has enough length but lacks vividness, use Describe instead.

20. Use Draft for Chapter-Length Prose

    Draft takes your Scenes and generates a larger chapter section. Sudowrite's documentation describes chapter outputs commonly reaching 3,000 to 5,000+ words depending on the setup. Before generation, Draft checks the Scenes and provides estimates. You can accept suggested fixes or keep your existing structure. Current Draft also provides a credit estimate, and Sudowrite's August 2026 update says the final charge should not exceed the displayed upper estimate.

21. Add Extra Instructions Before Drafting

    Do not assume the AI knows which details matter most. Extra Instructions can specify tone, pacing, style, a required plot event, what not to reveal, a cliffhanger requirement, or level of interiority. Specific constraints reduce expensive discarded drafts.

Steps 22–27: Revision, Chat and Plugins

22. Use Chat as a Story Partner

    Chat lives beside the project and can understand project context. Use it for questions such as “What does my protagonist currently believe about the murder?”, “Which chapter first establishes the old bridge?”, “Give me three consequences of moving this reveal earlier.” and “Find contradictions between the character card and chapter six.” Chat can also edit documents and Story Bible information when given editing permission.

23. Use Chat Web Research Carefully

    Sudowrite added web research capability to Chat in 2026. This is useful for exploratory questions such as common tropes in a subgenre, historical background, location ideas, or broad research directions. For high-stakes factual material, verify the information with reliable primary sources before publishing. AI research is a starting point, not a substitute for fact checking.

24. Run Feedback

    Feedback reads your work and places comments in the margin. You can use built-in or custom feedback types. Good uses include pacing review, character consistency, scene effectiveness, structural problems, clarity and voice issues. Feedback can see Story Bible context, making its comments more project-specific than a generic grammar checker.

25. Discuss Feedback With Chat

    You do not have to accept Feedback automatically. Ask Chat “Why do you think this scene feels slow?” or “If I accept this edit, what setup later in the chapter will need to change?” This keeps you in control of revisions.

26. Use Plugins

    Plugins extend Sudowrite with custom workflows. The public directory contains more than 1,000 tools. Plugins can write, edit, analyze, or combine those jobs — dialogue checks, pacing analysis, romance tension, character voice review, blurb generation, custom style rules. Do not install twenty Plugins on day one. Add one when you discover a repeated task you genuinely want to automate.

27. Track Credit Usage

    Credits are not equivalent to words. A premium model reading large context can cost far more than an efficient model doing a small Rewrite. Open recent activity and watch which tools consume the most. This matters before choosing a paid plan.

Step 28: Pick the Right Paid Plan

Current plans are:

Compare the tiers properly on the Sudowrite pricing page.

Steps 29–32: Series, Mobile, Sharing and Export

29. Use Series Support if You Write Multiple Books

    Create a Series Folder for connected books. Projects in that Series can share relevant Characters and Worldbuilding, helping maintain character continuity, shared settings, magic rules, family relationships and long-term arcs. Do not create separate duplicate character cards in every book unless you intentionally want different versions.

30. Use the Mobile App for Capture

    Sudowrite has official iOS and Android apps. Use mobile for Smart Dictation, Chat, quick writing, Write, Rewrite and checking project details. Use the web app for complex Series management and large structural work — see the app guide.

31. Share With Beta Readers

    Sudowrite supports document sharing through links. This can be useful for beta readers, editors, writing partners and critique groups. Keep private drafts private and only create sharing links intentionally.

32. Export Regularly

    Do not keep the only copy of a novel inside any cloud writing platform. Sudowrite lets you export individual documents as .docx, projects as .zip, entire projects as one merged document, and Outline, Characters and Worldbuilding data as CSV. Create periodic local backups.

A Practical Sudowrite Workflow From Idea to Draft

Here is a simple sequence for a new novel.

Best Workflow for Your Writing Style

Best Workflow for Pantsers

Keep Story Bible light. Start with character, premise, tone and current conflict. Then use Write and Chat to explore possibilities. Update Story Bible only when a discovered fact becomes canon. This prevents the planning system from killing the surprise that makes discovery writing enjoyable.

Best Workflow for Plotters

Build more structure before drafting: detailed Synopsis, character goals, Worldbuilding, full Outline, Scenes, POV settings and Extra Instructions. Then use Draft as an execution tool rather than a story-deciding tool.

Best Workflow for Existing Manuscripts

Import the book and let Sudowrite help create the Story Bible. Then:

1. Clean imported character and world information.
2. Confirm POV and tense.
3. Add the intended ending.
4. Use Write at the point where the manuscript stalled.
5. Use Feedback on the previous chapter.

This gives the AI a much better idea of what the book already is.

Common Sudowrite Beginner Mistakes

Compare “Make it better” with “Make the dialogue more restrained and let Mara avoid answering the question directly.” The second is much stronger guidance.

Final Beginner Advice

The best Sudowrite users do not press the most buttons. They build a clean source of truth, give the AI enough context, ask for one useful thing at a time, and edit the result with intention.

Start with your story. Use Story Bible to keep it coherent. Use Muse or another model to help with prose. Use Write when you need momentum. Use Draft when you have enough structure to justify a long generation. Use Chat when you need to think. Use Feedback when you need another set of eyes.

Then make the final decisions yourself. That is the workflow where Sudowrite becomes a writing partner rather than a slot machine for generated paragraphs.