Generating with buttons

Where the AI buttons are

You don’t need the agent to generate: every shelf of the editor has its own button. The Backdrops tab has the star button “Generate a backdrop with AI”, the Library has “Generate an image with AI”, and in the Music tab music groups have “Generate music” while effect groups have “Generate a sound”.

A character is drawn in their card. First “Create the base” — the main frame, made from the card’s description. Then, under “AI sprite generation”, you tick the emotions and press “Generate”: one sprite per emotion, based on the base look.

The same generation sits right inside steps: “Generate a background…” in the Background step’s list, “Generate a sound…” and “Generate a track…” in sound steps. The finished file goes into that very step.

1. Open the Backdrops tab and press the star button next to the search box.
2. Describe the place in the Prompt field: “a sunset palace garden with a fountain and roses”.
3. Pick a group under “Add to a group” and a Format: Horizontal is a panorama the camera pans across, Vertical is a frame that fits a phone screen whole.
4. Press “Create”. The window closes, the backdrop appears in the group with a loading icon and fills itself in when it’s ready.

Model, quality and filter

Model is a list with a price on every entry. The models are grouped: “Drafts - fast and cheap”, “Workhorses - best per dollar”, “Flagships - for key frames”. The first entry, “From novella settings”, uses the model from the settings — it’s marked with a star in the list.

Pick a different model and the window warns you: models draw differently, and switching them from frame to frame makes the novella’s style drift apart. Better to pin the one you like in the AI features window.

Quality is how carefully the model renders the frame, from Draft to Maximum. Resolution is the frame size: 1K, 2K or 4K, with 2K by default. These rows only show for models that offer a choice, and every chip carries its own price.

Content filter is the provider’s own censorship, off by default. A frame it rejects comes back as a black image and is billed like any other. Models marked “filter cannot be turned off” have no such row: GPT Image always filters. This setting doesn’t skip our own check when you publish.

The novella style is added to the request automatically. In the backdrop window the “Apply the novella style” box turns it off, and the library image window has a Style row: “From the novella style”, “No style” or another ready-made style.

References and the final prompt

The “Use an asset as a reference” box opens “Pick a reference”: images from the library, backdrops or characters, several at once if you like. The Strength slider sets how far to stray from the sample: lower means closer to the reference. “Apply the novella style to the photo” redraws the picture in the novella’s style.

At the bottom of the window is “Final prompt”: open it to see exactly what goes to the model, style and technical additions included. The “Custom prompt (send as is)” box strips every addition — only your text goes to the model.

Generation history

The star circle in the editor’s top bar opens the history. While something is being drawn, a spinning counter replaces the star — how many generations are running. Only a few run for one person at a time; the rest wait in a queue, and the history shows their place in it.

The history lists every generation in the novella, co-authors’ included, newest first. It has a search by prompt and filters for images, video, music, voice-over and translation. Each row shows a status — queued, generating, done, failed or canceled — and a price. Clicking a row opens its prompt, model, references and result.

1. Press the star circle in the top bar.
2. Find the generation — by search or filter — and click its row.
3. A running one is stopped by the cancel button; a failed or canceled one starts over with the retry button.
4. If the content filter rejected the frame, there’s a “Retry on …” button at the bottom — the same generation on a model whose filter can be turned off.

Credits and cancelling

Generations are paid in AI credits. Your balance is the counter with the purple cat coin in the top bar. The plus on it opens AI token packs: same currency, just another word.

The price is visible before you start: next to every model in the list and on the quality and resolution chips. At the start the amount is held, and the actual price is what gets charged. Hover the counter to see how much is held by running generations. Not enough credits to hold — the generation won’t start.

A failed generation refunds its credits in full. Retrying is a new attempt and a new charge.

Cancelling works like this. While the job waits in the queue and for the first seconds after it starts, the credits come back in full. After that the request is already with the model, and the provider charges for it. Then the editor asks whether to cancel anyway: confirming stops the job and charges the credits with no result; declining lets it finish.

The AI features window

All of the novella’s AI settings live in one window. Sections run down the left, and each has a line under it saying what’s currently chosen.

Style & models holds the novella style as tiles plus its text, the Models row, the Budget and per-block models: characters, backdrops, objects, video, music and more. Filter covers the retry after a filter rejection and the Content filter itself. Agent is the agent’s model, memory and writing style. Voice-over has the original language, model, delivery and narrator voice. Voices is your voice library. My defaults are your personal settings that all your novellas inherit.

The Budget is Cheap, Balanced or Maximum. It picks the model and quality for you: Cheap means fast models with almost no quality loss, Maximum means flagships. Every button shows the price of one character.

The author and co-authors with edit rights can change the novella’s settings; everyone else sees them read-only. My defaults are there only for the owner: in someone else’s novella, generations follow its author’s settings.

1. Open the Novella tab in the left panel.
2. Press “AI features” in its row of sections — the window opens.
3. In Style & models, pick a style tile and a Budget level.

FAQ

I got a black image — what happened? The provider’s content filter rejected the frame, and it was billed as usual. Turn off the Content filter or pick a model not marked “filter cannot be turned off”. If the history offers “Retry on …” for that generation, it reruns it on a model whose filter can be switched off.

Can I cancel and get my credits back? Yes, while the generation is queued or in its first seconds. You can cancel later too, but without a refund.

I closed the window — is the generation lost? No, it keeps going. The backdrop lands in its group, the image in the library, and everything you started is in the generation history.

How much does one generation cost? It depends on the model, quality and resolution, and the price shows before you start — in the Model list and on the chips. For the novella as a whole, look at the Budget buttons in AI features: each shows the price of one character.

Why can’t a co-author change the novella’s model? They don’t have edit rights. A co-author with edit rights changes the novella settings just like the author.