Writers Factory Pre-Flight Manual

Complete your research in NotebookLM before launching Writers Factory.

Overview

Writers Factory is an extraction tool, not a generation tool. It doesn’t brainstorm your novel from scratch - it transforms your existing creative research into a structured Story Bible that powers consistent AI-assisted drafting.

Before opening Writers Factory, you must have completed research in Google NotebookLM.

The 3-Stage Pipeline

Stage What It Is Where It Lives
Stage 1 Raw brainstorming - podcasts, articles, vibes Your private NotebookLM notebooks (NOT registered)
Stage 2 Distilled, structured data Your 5 Core Notebooks (registered in Writers Factory)
Stage 3 Canonical Story Bible content/ directory in Writers Factory

Writers Factory only sees Stage 2 and 3. Stage 1 is your private creative chaos.

Pre-Flight Checklist

Before launching Writers Factory, verify you have completed these steps:

1. Create Your 5 Core Notebooks in NotebookLM

Go to notebooklm.google.com and create exactly 5 notebooks:

  • [Your Novel] - Characters (ALL characters in ONE notebook)
  • [Your Novel] - World (ALL world-building in ONE notebook)
  • [Your Novel] - Theme (ALL philosophical ideas in ONE notebook)
  • [Your Novel] - Plot (Structure and beats)
  • [Your Novel] - Voice (Style targets and samples)

2. Distill Your Raw Research

For each Core Notebook, run the appropriate Distillation Prompt in NotebookLM’s chat. See DISTILLATION_PROMPTS.md for the full prompts.

Quick reference - key markers the AI looks for:

Notebook Required Markers
Characters “Fatal Flaw”, “The Lie”, “Arc”
World “Hard Rule”, “Cannot be broken”
Theme “Central Question”, “Thesis”, “Counter-thesis”
Plot Beat names (Catalyst, Midpoint, All Is Lost, Finale), “Midpoint Type”
Voice “Rhythm”, “Anti-pattern”

3. Verify Your Notebooks Have Structure

Before registering, check that your notebooks contain the markers above. Open each notebook in NotebookLM and verify:

Characters Notebook:

- Character Type: protagonist | antagonist | supporting
- Fatal Flaw: [internal weakness, NOT circumstance]
- The Lie: [mistaken belief driving the flaw]
- Arc: [start → midpoint → resolution]

World Notebook:

HARD RULES (Cannot be broken):
1. [Rule that is physically/magically impossible to violate]
2. [Rule that is physically/magically impossible to violate]

Theme Notebook:

CENTRAL QUESTION: "Can [thesis] exist despite [counter-thesis]?"
THESIS: [argument FOR]
COUNTER-THESIS: [argument AGAINST]

Plot Notebook:

4. CATALYST (10%): [inciting incident]
9. MIDPOINT (50%): [event]
   MIDPOINT TYPE: False Victory | False Defeat
11. ALL IS LOST (75%): [lowest point]
14. FINALE (80-99%): [climax]

Voice Notebook:

SENTENCE RHYTHM: [description]
ANTI-PATTERNS (What to AVOID): [list]

Launching Writers Factory

Once your 5 Core Notebooks are ready:

Step 1: Register Your Notebooks

  1. Open Writers Factory
  2. Click the NOTEBOOK button in the top toolbar
  3. Paste each NotebookLM URL or ID
  4. Assign the correct category (Characters, World, Theme, Plot, Voice)

Your notebooks stay in NotebookLM. Writers Factory queries them remotely - you don’t download or upload files.

Step 2: Start ARCHITECT Mode

The Foreman (your AI partner) starts in ARCHITECT mode. This is where your Story Bible gets built.

The Foreman will:

  1. Query your registered notebooks
  2. Extract structured data (looking for the markers above)
  3. Help you build Story Bible documents interactively

Step 3: Respond to Extraction Failures

If the Foreman can’t find structured data, it will:

  1. NOT hallucinate - it won’t make up a Fatal Flaw
  2. Diagnose - explain what’s missing
  3. Offer help - provide the specific Distillation Prompt to run

This is the system working correctly. Go back to NotebookLM, run the prompt, and try again.

Common Mistakes

Mistake Problem Solution
Registering raw notebooks Extraction fails constantly Distill first using the prompts
One notebook per character AI can’t see relationships Combine ALL characters in ONE notebook
No Hard Rules labeled AI can’t enforce world consistency Mark which rules are immutable
Theme as statement (“Love matters”) AI can’t generate conflict Frame as question (“Can love survive betrayal?”)
Missing midpoint type AI can’t calibrate second act State FALSE VICTORY or FALSE DEFEAT

The Flow

Stage 1 (Raw)              Stage 2 (Core)            Stage 3 (Bible)
-------------              -------------             ---------------
Podcast notes    →  Character Notebook  → Protagonist.md
Random ideas     →  World Notebook      → Rules.md
Vibes notebook   →  Theme Notebook      → Theme.md
Book highlights  →  Plot Notebook       → Beat_Sheet.md
Style refs       →  Voice Notebook      → Voice Bundle

     [Distillation]         [The Foreman]

Technical Note: NotebookLM Integration

Your notebooks are queried via NotebookLM’s interface. The integration:

  • Keeps your research in NotebookLM (no file downloads)
  • Queries notebooks on-demand during ARCHITECT mode
  • Extracts structured data based on the markers above

If you encounter connection issues, verify:

  1. You’re logged into the same Google account
  2. The notebook URLs/IDs are correct
  3. The notebooks are not in a shared workspace with restricted access

Created for Writers Factory Distillation Pipeline