Sudowrite won’t write your story for you. The writers who get the most out of it treat the tool like a fast, tireless brainstorming partner who sometimes says something brilliant and sometimes suggests a metaphor about whispering shadows for the third time. The trick is knowing which button to press, when to press it, and when to ignore the output.
This guide walks through drafting a 1,500-word literary mystery about a lighthouse keeper named Mara. Every prompt and example comes from a real session. Swap in your own genre, characters, and setting as you go. If you want the broader pros and cons before you start, this Sudowrite review covers what it does well and where it stumbles.
Step 1: Build a story bible that’s specific enough to be useful
Before you generate a single sentence, fill Sudowrite’s Story Bible. The tool uses it as context for every suggestion. Vague entries produce vague prose. Instead of ‘Setting: lighthouse,’ write ‘Setting: a decommissioned lighthouse on the Orkney coast, October 1987. The nearest village is a 40-minute walk. The lighthouse has no electricity; Mara uses oil lamps and a hand-crank radio.’
Here’s what a usable entry looks like for Mara:
- Protagonist: Mara Venn, 34, lighthouse keeper. Afraid of open water after her brother drowned. Keeps a logbook of every ship that passes.
- Force against her: the sea, a sealed letter, and the mainland council that wants to demolish the lighthouse.
- Tone: quiet, eerie, grounded. No gore. Think Colm Tóibín writing a ghost story.
- POV and tense: third person limited, past tense.
- Style sample: paste 200 words from a writer whose voice you like. Sudowrite will imitate rhythm and diction.
That last bullet matters more than people expect. Without a style sample, Sudowrite defaults to a polite, slightly generic literary voice. With one, it starts to sound like it’s been reading your shelf.
Step 2: Brainstorm ten openings, then pick the least obvious one
Open Sudowrite’s Brainstorm tool and ask for more than you need. A prompt like ‘Give me 10 opening lines for a literary mystery set in a decommissioned Orkney lighthouse. Third person past. Tone: quiet and eerie. Avoid weather clichés.’ might return:
- ‘The letter arrived on a Tuesday, which was the first thing that bothered Mara.’
- ‘Mara had counted 4,182 ships from the lantern room, and not one of them had ever turned toward her.’
- ‘The lighthouse had been dark for six years, but someone had left the door unlocked.’
The Tuesday line wins because it creates a question without announcing a mystery. It implies routine and disruption in the same breath. Once you pick an opening, write the next 200 words yourself. No generating. That keeps your voice in charge before the tool starts making suggestions.
Step 3: Draft in short bursts with Write and Continue
Use Sudowrite’s Write button on a selected sentence or Continue from the end of your draft. Don’t ask for 1,000 words at once. Generate two or three paragraphs at a time. A prompt like ‘Continue in third person past. Keep sentences under 20 words. Show Mara’s fear of water through action, not exposition. She is opening the letter.’ might produce:
She slid her thumb under the flap. The paper was damp, as if it had been carried through rain. Inside, a single line: ‘The light was on last night.’ Mara looked toward the window. The sea was flat and gray. She did not go outside.
That’s usable. The damp paper does more than a paragraph of backstory. But Sudowrite tends to over-describe when you let it run, and a detailed Sudowrite review notes this exact habit. If the next generation gives you three sentences about the color of the sky, cut two and move on.
Step 4: Use Describe to replace flat sensory details
Highlight a flat noun like ‘the lighthouse’ and choose Describe. Then give it a point of view and a sensory focus: ‘Describe the lighthouse from Mara’s point of view. Focus on sound and smell. She is afraid of the sea.’ Sudowrite might return:
The lighthouse smelled of cold iron and old kerosene. Wind pushed through the doorframe with a low whistle, like someone breathing through their teeth. The lantern room creaked even when nothing moved.
Pick two details and cut the third. ‘Cold iron and old kerosene’ is specific. ‘Breathing through their teeth’ is a little showy. The creaking lantern room earns its place because it adds unease without explaining it.
Three Describe prompts that work well:
- ‘Describe [object] through [character]’s senses. Focus on [smell/sound/touch]. They are feeling [emotion].’
- ‘Give me five details about [place] that a person who hates it would notice.’
- ‘Describe [character]’s hands without using the words rough, calloused, or work-worn.’
Step 5: Rewrite dialogue that sounds too direct
Sudowrite’s Rewrite tool is best for small fixes. Take a line like ‘I don’t understand why you would send this to me,’ she said angrily. Highlight it, choose Rewrite, then More subtext and Less on-the-nose. One output might be: ‘She turned the envelope over. ‘You could have told me in person.”
That’s better because it shows anger through action and withholding. But don’t rewrite whole pages at once. Do one to three lines, then read them aloud. If the character voice drifts, add a note to the Story Bible. For Mara: ‘She speaks in short, clipped sentences. Rarely uses contractions.’ For the mainland inspector: ‘Long, bureaucratic sentences. Says ‘procedure’ and ‘liability’ a lot.’
Step 6: Break a sagging middle with What If and Twist
At 800 words, your story stalls. Mara has read the letter. She’s scared. Nothing else happens. This is where Sudowrite’s What If and Twist tools earn their subscription. Ask: ‘What if the letter is from Mara’s brother, who she believes drowned 12 years ago?’ Or ‘What if the lighthouse was never decommissioned, and Mara has been imagining the darkness?’
Generate five options. Pick the one that forces Mara to make a choice she can’t take back. Then write the next scene yourself. The tool is good at proposing doors. You’re the one who decides which one your character walks through.
Step 7: Polish with Critique, but keep your own judgment
Sudowrite’s Critique tool will flag adverb overuse, repeated words, and pacing issues. It might say: ‘Adverb overuse: ‘slowly’ appears four times. Consider cutting three.’ Or ‘Repetition: ‘cold’ appears six times in 500 words.’ That’s useful data.
Don’t accept every change. A line like ‘She walked slowly to the window’ can become ‘She crossed to the window. Each step pressed a cold knot into her heel.’ That’s stronger. But if Critique tells you to cut a strange image you love, keep it. The tool doesn’t know your story’s heart.
A 90-minute workflow that actually finishes
Here’s how the steps fit into a single session. This works for a short story or one chapter. For a novel, stretch each block.
- 0-10 minutes: Fill the Story Bible. Write three sentences about what Mara wants and what she’s afraid of.
- 10-20 minutes: Brainstorm 10 openings. Pick one. Write the first 200 words without Sudowrite.
- 20-60 minutes: Draft in 10-minute sprints. Generate two or three paragraphs, edit, repeat. Aim for 800 to 1,000 words.
- 60-75 minutes: Use Describe on three flat moments. Use Rewrite on two lines of dialogue.
- 75-90 minutes: Run Critique. Fix the top three issues. Read the story aloud.
Where Sudowrite gets in your way
The tool can drift tone, over-explain emotions, and reuse phrases like ‘a shiver ran down her spine’ or ‘little did she know.’ It also forgets details if your Story Bible is thin. Shorter generations, frequent regenerating, and pasting in your own best sentences as style samples all help.
The biggest complaint in this honest Sudowrite review is that it can make every character sound like a polite literary novelist. If your protagonist is a foul-mouthed mechanic, you’ll have to fight for that voice. Add a style sample with rough, clipped dialogue. Rewrite every line that sounds too clean. The tool is a collaborator, not a ventriloquist.
Your first 250 words are still yours
Before you open Sudowrite, write 250 words by hand or in a blank document. No prompts, no generating. That raw material does two things: it gives the tool a voice to match, and it reminds you that you’re the one with taste. Sudowrite is a power tool. It can sand a rough edge in seconds, but it can’t tell you which edge matters. Start with your own sentence. Then let Sudowrite help you finish it.