To write a good short story with AI, give it the pieces a story is made of, not just a topic: one character who wants something, a place, the thing that goes wrong, and roughly how it should end. Ask for a length, a point of view and a tone, and ask for the story only. Then treat what comes back as a first draft. Cut the lines that explain feelings, keep the concrete details, and rewrite the ending yourself if it ties everything up too neatly.
An AI story writer is at its best on short fiction: a scene, a bedtime story, a piece for a writing group. For a novel it helps with pieces, but it will not hold a long plot together on its own. Below: what a short story needs, what to put in the prompt, a worked example, and how to edit.
What a short story needs
Most short stories that work have the same few parts. You do not need all of them in the prompt, but the more you give, the less the AI fills in with the obvious choice.
- One person who wants something. A name, an age or a job, and a want. "A retired postman who wants to finish his late wife's crossword" is a story. "An old man" is not yet.
- A place and a time. A kitchen in February, a night bus, a ferry in fog. Specific places make specific details.
- Something in the way. The want meets a problem: another person, a secret, the weather, time running out.
- A turn. One moment where something changes, even slightly. In a short story this is often small: a decision, a thing not said.
- An ending that trusts the reader. It does not have to resolve everything. A closing image often works better than a closing lesson.
What to put in the prompt
- The parts above, in plain notes. Rough is fine.
- Length. "About 400 words" gives you a scene. "About 1,500 words" gives you room for a middle.
- Point of view and tense. First person or third, past or present.
- Tone. Quiet, funny, eerie, dry. One or two words is enough.
- What to avoid. This matters more than people think. "No dialogue about feelings, no moral at the end, no one learns a lesson."
- A sample of the voice you want, if you have one: a paragraph of your own writing, or a description like "short sentences, few adjectives".
- "Only the story." Otherwise many tools add a title, a note on the themes, or an offer to write another version.
A prompt you can adapt:
"Write a short story of about [length] words. [Character], who wants [the want]. It is set in [place and time]. What gets in the way: [the problem]. The turn: [what changes]. End on [an image or a moment], not a lesson. Third person, past tense, [tone]. No one explains their feelings out loud. Only the story, no title."
A worked example
Here is a short prompt and what came back. The prompt, from the Hemmingway home page:
"Write a story of about 150 words about a lighthouse keeper who gets a letter meant for someone else."
Hemmingway-1 wrote this, unedited:
The supply boat came up the rock in November rain, and the boy who brought the stores had one more thing: a letter, addressed to Mr. Brannan, keeper of Vane Rock Light.
Callum took it without opening it, as he always did. After the lamp was lit and the log signed, he broke the seal. It was from a woman in Oban, Brannan's sister. She said she was leaving the mainland in spring. She said the things she had not said in the autumn were said now, all of them, and that she did not expect an answer.
Callum had kept letters like this for thirty years, for other men, other lights. None had ever been sent on. He read hers twice, then folded it along its old creases.
At four bells he climbed the stairs and trimmed the wick. The beam went out over the water, and the letter stayed in the drawer.
What makes it work is worth asking for and keeping when you edit. The details are concrete: November rain, Oban, four bells, the old creases. The letter's contents are summarised, not quoted, so the reader fills in what "the things she had not said" were. And the ending is an action, not an explanation: the letter stays in the drawer, and the story does not tell you what that means.
How to edit an AI draft
AI fiction tends to go wrong in the same places. Read the draft once for each of these.
- Named feelings. "She felt a wave of sadness." Cut it, or replace it with something she does.
- The tidy ending. A last paragraph that sums up what the story meant, or has a character learn a lesson. Stop one paragraph earlier and see if it is better.
- Stock images. Eyes that sparkle, hearts that race, silence that is deafening. Swap them for something only this story would have.
- Everyone talks the same way. Give each speaker one habit: one person answers questions with questions, one never uses names.
- The middle sags. If nothing changes between the opening and the turn, ask for a new middle with one specific event in it.
Ask for changes to one part rather than a whole new story: "Rewrite only the last paragraph so it ends on an action."
Making it sound like you, not like AI
If the story is going out under your name, it should sound like you wrote it. Paste a page of your own writing and say "match this voice". Keep your own details: the real street, the real name of the dog, the thing your grandmother used to say. Those are what readers remember, and an AI cannot invent them. Then read it aloud. Anything you would not say, change. More on making AI text sound human.
Where Hemmingway fits, and where it does not
Hemmingway-1, the model in the Hemmingway app, is built for short pieces that have to read as if a person wrote them: short stories, poems, letters, speeches. It keeps to the length you ask for and gives you the story itself, one version, without a note about the themes at the end. You can save what it writes as a PDF or a Markdown file.
On long fiction, big story models do better. In StoryBench, our own story test, Fable 5 Max (1277) and GLM-5.3 (1254) scored above Hemmingway-1 (1197), which sits level with Kimi K3. If you are writing a novel, one of the large story models is the better pick. The full results.
Try HemmingwayDownload the app
The model can be wrong and sound sure, so check any real facts you put in a story: dates, places, how a lighthouse actually works. It writes best in English.
Common questions
What is the best AI for writing short stories?
For short stories that should read as if a person wrote them, Hemmingway-1 is built for the job and came first in our own Human-Likeness test. For long fiction, big story models such as Fable 5 Max and GLM-5.3 scored higher in StoryBench, which is also our own test. Whichever you use, the prompt and your editing matter as much as the model.
How do I write a good prompt for an AI story?
Give it a character who wants something, a specific place, a problem, a turn and a kind of ending. Add a length, a point of view and a tone, say what to avoid (morals, named feelings), and ask for only the story. The more specific the notes, the less generic the result.
Can AI write a whole novel?
It can help with parts of one: a scene, a chapter draft, a description, a name. It does not hold a long plot and a cast of characters together well on its own, so the structure has to come from you. For long chapters, the large story models do better than smaller ones in our tests.
How do I stop AI stories sounding like AI?
Cut lines where characters explain their feelings, remove the moral at the end, and swap stock images for specific details. Give it a sample of your own writing to match, and put in details only you know. Read the result aloud and rewrite anything you would not say.
Is it okay to use AI to write stories?
For your own reading, a gift or practice, yes. For competitions, classes or publishers, check their rules first, because many ask you to say if AI was used or do not allow it. Being honest about it is simpler than being found out.