Sudowrite is an AI writing tool for fiction. Its site describes a set of tools for novelists: one that writes the next passage in your voice, one that adds description, a story bible that takes a book from idea to chapters, tools to rewrite, expand and brainstorm, and feedback on a draft. People who look for an alternative are nearly all writing fiction too. What differs is the part of the work they want help with.
We make Hemmingway, which is on this list, and we will say now that it is not a novel-writing tool. We have not tested Sudowrite or the other writing apps here, so this page sorts them by job and does not rank them. What each one does is taken from its own website.
Who looks for a Sudowrite alternative
- You want to choose the AI model yourself. You would rather connect your own, or run one on your own computer.
- You build big worlds. You want the tool to keep track of characters, places and lore across a long story or a series.
- You draft alone and want help editing. You do not want AI prose in the manuscript. You want a critique of yours.
- You want no AI in the manuscript at all. You want a good place to organise a long book.
- You just want the strongest prose from a chat window. You will handle structure yourself.
- You write short. Flash fiction, a story for a child, a scene, a poem. A novel tool is more than you need.
The kinds of alternative
Novel workspaces keep the manuscript, your notes on the world and the AI tools in one place. Story co-writers are editors where you and the AI take turns. Editing tools read what you wrote and report on it. Organisers hold the book and have no AI. Chat models have no manuscript tools but can write strong prose. Short-form writers produce a complete short piece. Sudowrite is the first kind.
The tools at a glance
| Tool | What it is | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Novelcrafter | A novel-writing workspace where you connect the AI model you choose | Writers who want a codex of their world and control over the model | You bring and manage the AI yourself |
| NovelAI | A story co-writer and an anime image generator | Writing alongside an AI that draws on your notes about the world | Half the product is image generation |
| ProWritingAid | Editing and critique software for authors | Grammar, style reports and feedback on chapters you wrote | It helps you revise more than it drafts |
| Scrivener | Writing software for long projects; its overview page mentions no AI | Organising a manuscript, notes and research | It will not write or critique for you |
| Claude | Anthropic's general assistant | Long scenes and chapters from a chat window | No manuscript workspace, and you manage continuity |
| Hemmingway | An AI for short writing that sounds like a person | Short stories, scenes, poems, and the emails around a book | Not built for novels |
Novelcrafter
Novelcrafter's site describes a writing platform built around a codex: a record of your characters, places and lore that it keeps track of and links as you write. It has planning views, a chat that knows your story, and sharing with co-authors and editors. The main difference from Sudowrite is that you connect an AI provider of your choice, or a model running on your own machine.
NovelAI
NovelAI's site presents two things: an anime image generator and a story writer that, in its words, writes with you and not for you. Its documentation describes a Lorebook for characters, places and factions, which is fed to the AI when they come up in the story, and a text adventure mode. It suits open-ended, world-heavy fiction more than a planned manuscript. NovelAI alternatives looks at that side.
ProWritingAid
ProWritingAid's site describes software that helps authors plan, write, edit and publish, with most of its weight on editing: a grammar checker, writing reports, and critique tools for chapters and whole manuscripts. It works inside Word, Google Docs and Scrivener. If you would rather write every sentence yourself and have something read it back critically, this is nearer what you want than any drafting tool.
Scrivener
Scrivener is writing software for long projects. Its overview page describes a binder for the parts of a manuscript, a corkboard of index cards, an outliner, a place for research, and export to common formats. That page does not mention AI. It is the alternative for writers who liked having a home for the book and did not want the generated prose.
Claude
Claude is Anthropic's general assistant. It has no chapter list or story bible, but in our own story test, StoryBench, its model Fable 5.1 scored highest of everything we have tested, and Fable 5 Max was also ahead of our model. If you are happy to paste in your notes and keep track of the story yourself, a strong chat model is a real alternative. The best AI for creative writing has the scores.
Hemmingway
Hemmingway is ours. It is a writing app built for text that sounds like a person wrote it: messages, letters, and short creative pieces. For fiction, that means a short story, a scene, a page of dialogue, a poem. The short story generator writes a complete short piece from your idea.
In our Human-Likeness test, where a judge picks which of two texts a person wrote, Hemmingway-1 came first of the models we tested. On StoryBench it scored 1197, level with Kimi K3 and behind Fable 5 Max at 1277 and GLM-5.3 at 1254. Both tests are our own. Sudowrite was not in them, because they compare models and not writing apps.
Where Hemmingway fits, and where it does not
It does not replace Sudowrite for a novel. It is a chat, not a manuscript workspace: there is no chapter list and no story bible. If you are drafting a book, pick from the tools above.
It fits around the edges of one, and for short work on its own:
- a complete short piece that keeps to the length you asked for
- a scene or an exchange of dialogue you are stuck on, to react against
- text messages and letters inside a story that need to sound real
- the query letter, the blurb, the email to your editor
Hemmingway vs Sudowrite has a sample story and the full comparison. If you are planning a whole book, how to write a book with AI goes through the stages.
How to choose
- Decide what you want the AI to do: draft, suggest, critique, or nothing.
- If you want drafting inside a manuscript, compare the novel workspaces, and check whether you want to pick the model yourself.
- If you want critique only, look at an editing tool and keep your own prose.
- If you want no AI near the book, use an organiser.
- Test any drafting tool on a scene you have already written well, and see whether its version sounds like you.
- For short pieces, try Hemmingway. There is a free trial with no card needed, and the plans are on pricing.
Try HemmingwayDownload the app
Common questions
What is the best alternative to Sudowrite?
It depends on the help you want. Novelcrafter is the same kind of tool with a model you choose yourself. NovelAI suits open-ended, world-heavy stories. ProWritingAid critiques what you wrote. We have not tested these apps, so we do not rank them.
Is there a free alternative to Sudowrite?
Hemmingway has a free trial with no card needed, and it suits short fiction more than a novel. For the novel tools, check each one's own site for what you can try without paying.
Can ChatGPT or Claude replace Sudowrite?
They can draft the prose. In our own StoryBench test, Claude's Fable 5.1 scored highest and ChatGPT's GPT-6 Astra was second. What a chat model lacks is the manuscript side: a place for chapters and a record of your characters. We have not tested Sudowrite, so we cannot say which writes better.
Is Hemmingway good for writing a novel?
No, not as the main tool. It is built for short writing, and larger story models scored higher than Hemmingway-1 on long stories in our own tests. It is useful for short stories, scenes, and the letters and emails around a book.