Made by the Feldar team. Feldar is our app, so it is our first pick here. Everything we say about other apps comes from their own pages, and we link to them.
For fiction you write yourself, the best AI works inside your manuscript and shows every change before it lands. Our pick is Feldar, our own app. For brainstorming outside the draft, use Claude or ChatGPT; for playful or interactive stories, NovelAI.
By the Feldar team · 8 tools, 8 writing tasks · prices checked 5 to 8 November 2026
The short answer
Eight tools that are worth a fiction writer's time, ordered by how well they serve someone writing their own stories. We make the first one.
01FeldarPlanning, drafting and revising fiction you write yourself OursFree, then $20/mo
02SudowriteDrafting and expanding scenes quicklyFrom $10/mo
03NovelcrafterPicking the model and seeing the prompt$8/mo plus AI
04ClaudeThinking through story problemsFree, Pro $20/mo
05ChatGPTBrainstorming and quick researchFree, Plus $20/mo
06NovelAIInteractive fiction and private, playful storytellingFrom $10/mo
07LivingWriterScreenplays, and apps on every deviceFree plan
08SquiblerGenerating a complete draft to react toFree, then $15.83/mo
The best AI for each part of writing fiction
Fiction writing is several jobs, and no tool is best at all of them. Here is where each one earns its place.
Brainstorming
Claude, ChatGPT, Sudowrite
General assistants are good at volume: twenty titles, ten ways a heist could go wrong, a dozen reasons a sister might lie. Sudowrite's Brainstorm does the same inside a fiction app. Treat the lists as raw material. The first ideas are usually the most obvious ones.
Plotting and outlining
Feldar, Novelcrafter
Feldar's Generate scenes turns the next story beats into a list of scenes you edit and reorder before any prose exists. Novelcrafter's grid, matrix and outline views lay scenes out so you can see the shape of the book.
Drafting a scene
Sudowrite, Feldar
Sudowrite drafts quickly and can expand a beat into a scene. Feldar continues from your cursor in blue, or writes a whole chapter from its scene list with Draft Page. In Feldar the new text waits for you to accept it.
Line editing your own prose
Feldar
Select a paragraph and choose Tighten, Clarify, Smooth Flow or Sharpen Prose, Dramatize or Add Interiority, or Raise Tension. The rewrite appears in a card with each change marked, so you see exactly what would change before you apply it.
Feedback on a draft
Feldar, Sudowrite
Feldar's Lens runs reader personas over a page, a Critic, a Cheerleader, a Poet, an Editor, a Plotter and a Reader, who answer alone or debate. Reader reactions leave markers in the margin from an audience you choose. Sudowrite's Professional and Max plans offer developmental edits, line edits and beta reads.
Worldbuilding and continuity
Novelcrafter, Feldar, NovelAI
Novelcrafter's Codex tracks entries that change as the story moves. Feldar's Canvas keeps characters, locations, items, factions and plot beats as linked cards that travel with every AI request. NovelAI's Lorebook does a similar job for generated stories.
Research
Claude, ChatGPT
Ask how a 1920s telephone exchange worked or what a ship's surgeon carried. Check anything that matters against a real source; chatbots state wrong facts as confidently as right ones.
Interactive and playful stories
NovelAI
Text adventure mode and open-ended continuation make NovelAI the most fun of the group for stories you play rather than publish, and its stories are encrypted end to end.
By the kind of fiction you write
The form changes what matters. A novel needs memory and structure; a short story needs every line to work.
Novels
Structure and memory matter most. Feldar keeps scene plans, a story Canvas and the draft together. Sudowrite is faster if you want the AI to draft more of the book. Novelcrafter suits writers who want to control the model and the prompt.
Short stories
A short story lives or dies on its sentences, so line editing and honest feedback matter more than planning. Feldar's Polish tools and Lens personas, or a long conversation with Claude about what the story is really doing.
Series
Continuity across books: Sudowrite's Series Folders share a Story Bible, and Novelcrafter's series and universes share a Codex.
Screenplays
LivingWriter formats screenplays and, on its AI plan, can convert a book into one.
Interactive fiction
NovelAI, with its text adventure mode and Lorebook.
Contests and publishers with AI rules
Use AI for questions and feedback, write the text yourself, and keep evidence of how you worked. Feldar's Writing record shows which words you typed and which came through its tools.
Side by side
The practical differences in one place.
Tool
Strongest at
Inside your manuscript?
Story memory
Trains on your writing?
Price
Free option
Feldar Ours
Plotting, drafting, line editing, feedback
Yes
Scene outlines, Canvas cards, voice sample
No
Core $20/mo or $180/yr
Free plan, 500 credits
Sudowrite
Drafting, expanding, brainstorming
Yes
Story Bible, Series Folders
No, it says
$10/mo billed yearly, $19 monthly
Free trial, no card
Novelcrafter
Model and prompt control, continuity
Yes
Codex with progressions
No; your provider's terms apply
$8 to $20/mo plus AI usage
21-day trial
Claude
Story problems, research
No, you paste text in
The conversation
Only if you allow it
Pro $20/mo or $17 billed yearly
Free plan
ChatGPT
Brainstorming, research
No, you paste text in
The conversation
May be used unless you opt out
Go $8/mo, Plus $20/mo
Free plan
NovelAI
Interactive and generated stories
Its own story editor
Lorebook
Stories encrypted end to end
$10, $15 or $25 per 30 days
50 free generations
LivingWriter
Screenplays, writing on any device
Yes
Story Elements
No, it says
Pro + AI (price did not load)
Free plan
Squibler
Generating a full draft
Yes
Not stated
Not stated in the pages we read
Plus $15.83/mo billed yearly
500 AI credits a month
From each company's own pages, checked 5 to 8 November 2026. The table scrolls sideways on small screens.
The tools in detail
Short reviews with the catch for each one. Links go to the company's own site.
01Feldar Ours
Best for planning, drafting and revising fiction you write yourself
Feldar is the writing app we make, and it is built around one idea: the AI can help with anything, but the words stay yours unless you choose otherwise. New AI text appears in blue, and rewrites arrive in a card with the changes marked. Nothing enters the manuscript until you accept or apply it.
For fiction the useful parts are the scene outline on each chapter, the Canvas of linked cards for your characters and world, the line editing tools (Polish, Deepen, Enhance, or a plain instruction), five Checks for grammar, clarity, word choice, dialogue transitions and point of view, and Lens. Lens is the part writers tend not to expect: a set of reader personas who read your page and tell you what they think, or argue with each other about it.
Lens in Feldar: the Critic and the Poet read the same page and answer the writer's question in their own way.
Good
Every AI change is shown before it stays. Feedback from reader personas and Reader reactions in the margin. Voice & Style learns from a 600-word sample of your prose. GPT-6 and Claude 5.5 models. Feldar does not train AI models on your writing, and you own what you write.
Watch out
Web and Mac only; no offline writing and no phone app. No sharing or co-writing. English only. AI features use credits.
Price
Starter free with 500 credits, no card. Core $20 a month or $180 a year. Pro $40 or $400. Ultra $200 or $2,220.
Sudowrite is an AI writing app for fiction with its own models, Muse and Ballad, alongside dozens of others. Its tools work on your draft (Write, Rewrite, Describe, Expand, Brainstorm), and a Story Bible keeps characters and outline in view. If you want the AI to carry more of the drafting, it is the strongest choice here.
Good
Fiction-tuned models; Sudowrite says Muse was trained with the authors' informed consent. Series continuity. iOS and Android apps. It says it claims no rights over your writing or what it generates for you, and does not train on your writing.
Watch out
Credits go quickly with heavy drafting. The pricing page defaults to yearly billing.
Price
From $10 a month billed yearly, or $19 monthly. Free trial, no card.
Novelcrafter is a fiction workspace where you bring the AI: an OpenRouter key, another provider, or a local model. You can edit prompts, preview what will be sent and exclude scenes from the AI. Its Codex is a story bible with entries that change over time, which is a real help for long or complicated stories.
Good
Total control over models and prompts, including local models. A deep Codex. Low prices. Revision history.
Watch out
AI usage is billed separately by your provider. Setup takes effort.
Price
Hobbyist $8, Artisan $14, Specialist $20 a month (Scribe $4 without AI). 21-day trial.
Claude, from Anthropic, is a general assistant that many fiction writers use as a sounding board. Paste in a scene and ask what the character wants, why the ending feels unearned or which line is doing the most work. It is not a manuscript tool, and it has no idea what happened in your last chat unless you tell it.
Good
Careful, conversational answers. A free plan. Apps on desktop and mobile.
Watch out
No structure for a story or book. Anthropic uses consumer chats for training if you allow it, if a chat is flagged for safety review, or if you opt in.
Price
Free. Pro $20 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly. Max from $100.
OpenAI's ChatGPT is fast and broad: names, period details, ten versions of a premise. Like Claude, it works outside your manuscript, so you carry ideas across by hand.
Good
Quick, wide-ranging answers. A free plan and a low-cost Go plan.
Watch out
On individual plans OpenAI may use conversations for training unless you turn off "Improve the model for everyone".
Best for interactive fiction and private storytelling
NovelAI continues whatever you start, as far as you want, with a Lorebook for world details and a text adventure mode. It runs on GLM 4.6 with NovelAI's own models on the top tier, and it includes anime image generation.
Good
Stories encrypted end to end; NovelAI says it cannot read them. Unlimited text generation on every paid tier.
Watch out
Not built for manuscripts: no chapters, outlines or book export.
Price
$10, $15 or $25 every 30 days. 50 free text generations to try.
LivingWriter is a writing app for books and screenplays with boards, templates and Story Elements, on web, Windows, Mac, iOS and Android. Its AI (chat, analysis, rewrites, outlines, summaries and book-to-screenplay conversion) is optional and comes with the Pro + AI plan. It says it does not train on your work.
Good
Screenplay formatting. Native apps everywhere. A free plan.
Watch out
Unlimited AI only on the top plan. Prices did not load on its pricing page when we checked.
Price
Free plan, then Pro and Pro + AI. A 7-day trial for $0.99.
Squibler generates books and screenplays and gives you an editor to work on them. Some writers find a generated draft useful as something to argue with. If the point is to write the story yourself, it is the wrong end of the spectrum.
Good
A free plan with 500 AI credits a month. Unlimited AI credits on Pro. You keep ownership of what you create.
Watch out
Export needs a paid plan. No training statement in the pages we read.
Price
Plus $29.99 a month or $15.83 billed yearly. Pro $89.99 or $49.17 billed yearly.
The writers who get the most from AI tend to use it like a good editor or a well-read friend, not a ghostwriter. A few habits help.
Write the scenes that matter yourself. The opening, the turn, the ending. Use AI where you are stuck, not where the book is most alive.
Give the tool your voice, not a description of it. A real sample of your prose beats "write like a literary novelist". Feldar's Voice & Style takes a 600-word sample; most tools let you paste one in.
Ask for options, then choose. Three ways a scene could end are more useful than one finished ending.
Keep the AI's words visible until you decide. Tools that mark AI text, as Feldar does in blue, make it hard to let a borrowed sentence slip through unread.
Read everything you keep aloud. AI prose tends toward the familiar phrase. Your ear will catch it.
Keep a record. If a contest, magazine or publisher asks how you worked, notes or a Writing record answer the question better than any AI detector.
Questions
What is the best free AI for fiction writing?
For brainstorming, the free plans of Claude and ChatGPT. For writing inside a manuscript, Feldar's Starter plan (500 credits, no card) or Squibler's free plan (500 AI credits a month). NovelAI has 50 free generations, and Sudowrite and Novelcrafter offer free trials.
Is there an AI that writes in my style?
Several tools learn from a sample. Feldar's Voice & Style uses a 600-word sample of your prose and then leans on the project's own writing as it grows. Sudowrite offers style matching. Results depend on the sample: use your best recent prose, with its own paragraphs and punctuation.
Can I use AI for stories I submit to magazines and contests?
Check each set of guidelines. Many magazines and contests refuse AI-generated stories, and some allow AI for brainstorming or editing only. If you use AI at all, keep notes on how, so you can answer honestly if asked.
Can AI give useful feedback on a short story?
Yes, as a first reader before a human one. Ask specific questions: where did you lose interest, what does this character want, which line could go. Feldar's Lens gives several reader perspectives on the same page; a chatbot will answer whatever you ask. Treat the feedback as a reader's reaction, not a verdict.
Which AI is best for fantasy worldbuilding?
Use a tool with a story bible so your world's facts travel with each request: Novelcrafter's Codex, Feldar's Canvas or NovelAI's Lorebook. For a world encyclopedia with maps and magic systems, a dedicated worldbuilding app such as Campfire goes further than any AI tool here.
Who owns a story written with AI help?
Read each tool's terms. Feldar says you own what you write. Sudowrite says it claims no rights over what you put in or what it generates for you. Squibler says you keep full ownership of what you create, generate or upload. Copyright law on purely AI-generated text is a separate question and varies by country.
Sources
Checked 5 to 8 November 2026. Facts come from these official pages; the opinions are ours.
