Using AI To Write a Minimum Viable Story

Writing the Skeleton of Your Story with AI Assistance

Hi everyone,

In this lesson, we’ll explore how to harness AI to create a Minimum Viable Story (MVS)—a bare-bones version of your narrative that serves as a foundation for your creative process. This approach lets you use the AI for what it does best while reserving the actual writing—your unique story—to you. After all, the goal isn’t for the AI to replace your voice but to assist in areas you find challenging, freeing you up to be more creative and effective as a writer.

So, what does AI do well? AI excels at generating compelling characters, suggesting intriguing character arcs, and brainstorming plots. It can also help with plot dynamics, like weaving together seemingly unrelated events or characters in a way that makes the story cohesive. In other words, AI is great at the nuts and bolts of story-building—the structural work. The question, then, becomes: how can you use these strengths to speed up and improve your writing?

The Minimum Viable Story

That’s where the concept of the Minimum Viable Story comes in. Borrowed from the tech world’s “Minimum Viable Product,” an MVS is your story’s first pass—a skeletal framework that outlines the major beats, characters, and arcs. With this foundation in place, your job as a writer becomes simpler: you can focus on fleshing out the story with your unique voice and prose. The AI becomes your collaborator, helping you see the structure of your story clearly so that you can focus on what you do best: writing something truly original and yours.

Let’s dive in and experiment with the “AI suggests, I write” formula in a practical, real-world setting. By the end of this lesson, you’ll have the structure of your story sketched out, ready for you to bring it fully to life.

Pro Tip: Use the AI to generate outlines, characters, or plot suggestions, but remember: you’re the final decision-maker. Accept the suggestions that inspire you, reject the ones that don’t, and let the AI’s strengths fuel your creativity without compromising your voice.