How to write and plan your AI series with ChatGPT or Claude (with prompts)

An AI assistant won't write a great series for you, but it can be the best writers' room you've ever had. Here are the five steps and the prompts that work.

A writers' room, not a ghostwriter

AI assistants are excellent at structure: building a world, outlining a season, finding twists, turning a scene into a shot list and a shot list into video prompts, and spotting continuity errors across episodes. What they can't do for you is care about your characters. Keep the final say on every scene, and use the assistant to go faster and see further.

All three major assistants have free tiers that are enough to plan a season. The steps below work with any of them.

Step 1: build the series bible

The series bible is the document every later step depends on: the world, its rules, the characters and the shape of the season. Let the assistant interview you instead of inventing for you: the answers stay yours.

You are a story editor for an animated AI series. Help me build a series bible. Ask me questions one at a time about the world, the main character's goal and flaw, the antagonist, the tone and how the season ends. Then write a one-page bible with a logline, five main characters, the rules of the world and a six-episode arc.

Step 2: outline each episode with a hook

Short AI episodes live or die by their endings. Ask for alternatives and the reasoning behind them, then choose the one that makes you want to watch the next episode.

Using the series bible above, outline episode 1 in 8 to 12 scenes. For each scene give the location, the characters, what changes and the main emotion. The episode must end on a cliffhanger. Suggest three alternative endings and explain which one makes viewers most likely to watch episode 2.

Step 3: turn scenes into a shot list

Video models handle one simple action per shot best. A shot list breaks each scene into those simple pieces, with framing and duration, so you know exactly what to generate.

Turn this scene into a shot list for AI video. For each shot give the shot number, the framing (wide, medium, close-up), what we see in one sentence, the camera movement, a duration of 3 to 8 seconds and the dialogue if any. Keep every shot simple enough for an AI video model: one action per shot.

Step 4: write the video prompts

Now ask for one prompt per shot, always with the same character description (your identity line, see our guide on consistent characters). A fixed structure gives more predictable results.

Write an image-to-video prompt for each shot in the list. Use this structure: subject and action, camera movement, lighting and mood, style. Always describe Mara with this exact line: [paste your character's identity line]. Keep each prompt under 60 words.

Step 5: check continuity

After a few episodes, paste your scripts and ask the assistant to hunt for mistakes. It catches things you stopped seeing long ago.

Here are my scripts for episodes 1 to 3. List every continuity problem: changes in a character's appearance, objects that appear or disappear, timeline mistakes and characters who know something they shouldn't know yet.

ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini?

Keep one project or conversation per series with your bible pasted at the top, so the assistant always works from the same reference.

FAQ

Can ChatGPT or Claude write an AI series for me?

They can draft, structure and check a series, but the strongest AI series are written by people who use the assistant as a writers' room: for ideas, outlines, shot lists and continuity checks.

Which is better for scripts, ChatGPT or Claude?

Both work well. Claude is often preferred for long documents and a consistent writing voice; ChatGPT for brainstorming and its built-in image generation. Both have free tiers and paid plans at about $20 a month.

How do I turn a script into AI video prompts?

Ask the assistant to convert each scene into a shot list (one action per shot, 3 to 8 seconds), then to write an image-to-video prompt for each shot, with the same character description every time.

How to write and plan your AI series with ChatGPT or Claude (with prompts) — DeepStories Magazine