A friend told me she was writing a book. (She’s reads a lot, but I never knew she wanted to write. ) She told me about StoryOVEN and how easy it was to use. So I tried it, and I’m about half way through my first draft of “The Partner Trap”.
Here’s my elevator pitch:
“Allison Stark has spent twelve years sacrificing everything for one goal: making senior partner at Manhattan’s most elite law firm. When she’s assigned to mentor Jamie Moretti—the managing partner’s brilliant, charming nephew—their undeniable chemistry threatens to destroy everything she’s built. As the partnership vote approaches and the lines between professional and personal blur beyond recognition, Allison must choose between the career she’s devoted her life to and a connection that could cost them both everything.”
I gotta admit it. I’m hooked!
Here’s my first draft of Chapter 1: Scene 1.
“The email arrived at 7:43 AM, and Allison Stark read it three times before allowing herself to exhale. “Partnership Committee Meeting: December 15th. Final vote to follow.” Twelve years of eighty-hour weeks, missed birthdays, abandoned friendships, and relationships that withered from neglect—all of it had been leading to this single date on the calendar.
She set her phone face-down on her desk, the glass surface cool against her palm, and stared out at the Manhattan skyline through floor-to-ceiling windows. The city stretched before her in steel and ambition, forty-three floors below. Her reflection ghosted in the glass—sharp suit, dark hair pulled back severely, the kind of polished armor she’d perfected over the years. At thirty-four, she looked exactly like what she’d worked so hard to become: untouchable, uncompromising, undeniable.
The knock on her door came before she could fully process the weight of the moment. Marcus Webb leaned against the frame, two coffee cups in hand and that knowing smile that had gotten them both through countless all-nighters. “I’m guessing you got the email,” he said, crossing to her desk. “You have that look. The one where you’re mentally calculating whether you can survive on four hours of sleep for the next ninety days.”
“Three,” Allison corrected, accepting the coffee. “Three hours. And yes, I got it.” She took a sip, let the heat ground her. “This is it, Marcus. Everything I’ve worked for.” The words should have felt triumphant, but something in her chest tightened instead—a feeling she couldn’t quite name and didn’t have time to examine.”
That’s the name of the slasher horror novel I’m working on. Here’s the elevator pitch:
“Ayla Green and 5 friends celebrate graduation at Pale Creek Falls…a remote campground in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. Unknown to the them, 17 years earlier, Sarah Kellerman had disappeared from that same camping spot… never to be seen again.
Now, facing away from the campfire, Ayla is looking at a pale, disheveled girl… glaring at her from the tree line…”
Here’s the first draft of Chapter 1: Scene 1. Written by the AI assistant…
“The gravel parking lot at Pale Creek Falls trailhead was empty except for Marcus’s ancient Subaru and Devon’s pickup truck. Ayla Green stepped out into afternoon sunlight filtered through towering Douglas firs, breathing in the sharp scent of pine and creek water. Behind her, car doors slammed as the others emerged, stretching road-cramped limbs and laughing about the playlist that had soundtracked their three-hour drive from civilization.
“This is it?” Jade Whitmore pulled her designer sunglasses down, surveying the weathered trail marker with obvious skepticism. “There’s literally nothing here.”
“That’s the point,” Devon said, already hauling their massive backpack from the truck bed with practiced efficiency. Their fingers traced the trail map posted beside the marker, confident and sure. “Five miles in, no cell service, no other campers. Just us and the forest for three days.”
Ayla shouldered her own pack, adjusted the straps, and felt something flutter in her chest—anticipation mixed with the bittersweet awareness that this was an ending as much as a celebration. High school was over. College applications had been submitted. In three months, they’d scatter across the country like dandelion seeds. Marcus caught her eye from across the parking lot and smiled, that crooked grin that had been undoing her for two years now, and she smiled back. For now, they were still together. For now, this was enough.
“The Road To Redemption”
I hate to admit it, but I’m a post apocalypse junkie! I’ve read everything Kyla Stone has on Amazon. And when I ran across StoryOVEN I had to give it a try. Here’s my first attempt.
Here’s the premise:
“Seventeen-year-old scavenger Rylee Blake must cross two hundred miles of raider-controlled wasteland to rescue her sister, the only medic still alive in Redemption. The warlord has given the settlement 72 hours to open the gates before his army starts shelling the village. the settlement’s leaders are already preparing to surrender, guaranteeing her sister’s execution.”
It needs work… but it’s a good start…
Chapter 1: Scene1
“The static crackled through the salvaged radio like breaking bones, sharp and brittle in the pre-dawn darkness. Rylee Blake hunched over the battered receiver in the corner of her shelter, the metal casing cold against her palms, her fingers trembling as she adjusted the frequency dial with the precision Maya had taught her three years ago. The air tasted of rust and the acrid smoke from her dying candle. The voice that cut through the white noise made her breath catch—familiar, desperate, and impossibly far away.
“—anyone listening. This is Maya Blake, the only doctor left here in Redemption. The warlord’s forces are seventy-two hours out. Repeat, seventy-two hours.” Her sister’s voice fractured, reformed, each word edged with the tinny compression of distance. “The council’s talking surrender. They don’t understand what he does to medics. If you’re out there, Ry—don’t come. It’s too—”
The transmission dissolved into static. Rylee’s hand shot to the dial, twisting frantically, but found only the empty howl of dead air. She pressed her forehead against the cold metal casing, her heart hammering against her ribs, the sharp scent of ozone lingering in her nostrils. Seventy-two hours. Two hundred miles of wasteland, raider patrols, and radiation storms. Maya had always been the one with the plan, the one who kept them alive after Mom and Dad died in the outbreak. Now she was trapped, and the Warlord—the man who’d left a trail of executed doctors and burned settlements across the eastern territories—was coming for her.
Rylee lifted her head, jaw set. The shelter’s single candle threw dancing shadows across the wall where she’d marked every day since Maya left to help the only settlement where children are still born alive, each scratch visible in the flickering amber light. Three hundred and forty-seven marks. Three hundred and forty-seven days of waiting, of surviving alone, of hoping her sister would come back. She reached for the leather jacket hanging by the door, her fingers brushing the cracked surface that still held the faint smell of Maya’s soap—lavender, impossibly precious, a ghost of the world before. Maya’s voice echoed in her memory: “Sometimes survival means knowing when to run. Sometimes it means knowing when to fight.”
The wind outside moaned through the gaps in the corrugated metal walls, carrying with it the sulfur stink of the dead zones to the east. Rylee pulled the jacket on, feeling its familiar weight settle across her shoulders, and tasted copper fear on her tongue.”
I’ve noodled with writing fiction since college, and ran across this writing software in a Facebook group. It’s free to try, so I did. I have the first 4 chapters written and I’m shocked at how easy it is to use, and how helpful the AI assistant has been in guiding me thru the process.
Here’s the elevator pitch:
“A reformed corporate defense attorney must expose a pharmaceutical giant’s deadly cover-ups before thousands more die—while a corrupt judge systematically destroys his case from the bench. Armed with devastating evidence, but facing a rigged system, he’s forced to choose between his career and breaking the very laws he once manipulated to protect the guilty.”
Here’s my first draft of Chapter 1: Scene 1:
“The jury foreman’s voice cut through the Manhattan courtroom like a benediction. “We find in favor of the defendant, Hexagon Pharmaceuticals.”
Michael Brennan allowed himself the smallest smile, the kind that conveyed confidence without arrogance—a carefully calibrated expression he’d perfected over fifteen years of corporate defense work. Around him, the legal team from Hexagon erupted in restrained celebration, handshakes and shoulder pats that spoke of relief and vindication. Across the aisle, the plaintiff’s attorneys sat frozen, their four-year battle reduced to ash in a single sentence.
Michael gathered his files with practiced efficiency, each motion deliberate and unhurried. The courtroom still hummed with energy—reporters scribbling final notes, spectators filing out in clusters, discussing the verdict that would shield Hexagon from $300 million in liability claims. He’d dismantled the plaintiff’s case piece by piece, turning their medical experts into uncertain witnesses, their documentary evidence into ambiguous data points. It was what he did best: find the cracks in certainty, exploit the margins of doubt.
“Masterful work, Michael,” said Gerald Hastings, Hexagon’s chief legal counsel, extending his hand. The older man’s grip was firm, his relief palpable. “You’ve saved this company from a precedent that could have destroyed us.” Michael accepted the praise with a nod, his mind already shifting to the next case, the next challenge.
Outside the courthouse, his phone buzzed with congratulatory messages—partners, clients, colleagues who’d been watching the verdict. His reputation as the attorney who could make pharmaceutical liability disappear had just been reinforced. He had no way of knowing that in six hours, everything he’d built would become a monument to his greatest mistake.”
Have you ever finished a novel and found yourself thinking; “I’d have written that differently.” or “That ending made no sense.”
Then you probably have a book or two inside you, just waiting to get out. But asking “could I write a book” is the wrong question. Professional authors don’t WRITE books, they BUILD them, by following step-by-step recipes.
And the difference between these two approaches is huge.
“Could I WRITE a book?” implies staring at a blank page while you’re waiting for the “Writing Fairy” to show up and sprinkle “Inspiration Dust” on your head. And we both know that ain’t gonna happen.
Picture grandma in her kitchen, pulling out her recipe book and setting her ingredients on the table. No waiting for the baking fairy…. nothing mysterious or mystical. She simply followed a recipe.
And that’s how the professional writers do it… they simply follow recipes.
My first novel took me 12 years to finish. My last book took me less than a month. The difference? The tools and formulas found in “StoryOVEN”.
Can’t come up with a killer story idea? With the app, you simply click through a series of multiple choice questions, and when you’re done, it will take those choices and generate two story ideas. If neither of them trips your trigger, just go back through the Story Wizard, clicking different choices.
Don’t know how to structure a plot? No worry, just choose one of the story outlines in the app.
Have characters rattling around in your head, but can’t seem to bring them to life? Use the app to create believable characters — with backstories, motivations, fatal flaws, and the kind of depth that makes readers fall in love with them. Or hate them. Which is sometimes even better.
If you’ve ever wondered, “Could I actually write a novel?” Then you owe it to yourself to create a free account and spend some time playing with the tools.
At worst… it’s really good therapy. At best? You might become the next John Grisham. Or Nora Roberts… the next writer whose book somebody else finishes and thinks “I wish I could write like that!”
But I gotta warn you, creating characters so real that they literally tell you what to write is so addictive you may wind up cured of your Youtube addiction, and disappear from Facebook altogether. Wouldn’t THAT be a tragedy!
So… if you’ve ever asked yourself, “Could I actually write a book, one that people would enjoy reading?” Then click the link below this video, register for free, and let the system personalize your workspace.
Then, just follow the yellow brick road.
And prepare to be amazed!
Just so you know… (Especially in the early stages.) the more thought you put into your plot and your characters, the better the AI’s output will be. If you want a quality product, the best way to hurry is to SLOW DOWN!
Start with the Wizard
The Wizard asks you a series of multiple choice questions about the kind of story you want to tell. Just click the ones that feels right. At the end, AI hands you a story idea… based on your choices. And don’t worry, you can change any THING at any TIME in the process.
Meet your Cast
In the Codex you’ll find the core characters the Wizard suggested for that book. Fill in what you know about each one — their wound, their want, their flaw, their strength. The more you give the AI to work with, the more consistent and human your characters will become.
See your Blueprint
The Blueprint is in the Edit section of each of your books. It holds your story premise and notes — the DNA of your book. Like everything else in the system, you can edit it any time.
Open your Outline
Your Outline breaks your story into chapters and scenes, each one with a purpose. You don’t have to fill it all in before you start writing — but knowing what a chapter is supposed to do makes it a lot easier to write.
Write
Click any scene in your Outline and you’re in the editor. Write in your own words, at your own pace. If you get stuck, hit Help Me Write This Scene and the AI will take a pass — you keep whatever you want and throw out the rest.