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ImaginCAT guide · facts checked November 14, 2026
Software and AI for writing a novel: 13 tools side by side
This guide is based on the AuthorCAT comparison of AI novel writing software. It keeps the same findings and widens the field from six AI apps to thirteen tools, adding ChatGPT and Claude used on their own, Scrivener, Dabble, LivingWriter, Plottr and Atticus.
For a whole novel written with AI, AuthorCAT covers the most ground of the thirteen: it is the only tool here with a full “yes” in all seven checks of the table below. It drafts the book from the author’s plan, tracks every character and place by itself, draws pictures where faces stay the same, and translates the finished novel. The AI behind it is the ChatGPT or Claude plan the author may already pay for.
Plenty of writers want something else, of course. Scrivener and Dabble are quiet rooms for typing a book by hand, Plottr lays a plot out on a timeline, Atticus turns a finished manuscript into an ebook. ChatGPT and Claude write strong prose, but organising the chapters and tracking continuity across chats is left to the author.
Why a library of classics cares about this: the books on ImaginCAT were illustrated in AuthorCAT, so the pictures you see here are what one of these tools actually produces.
Three kinds of tools, three different jobs
AI novel studios
AuthorCAT, Novelcrafter, Sudowrite, Squibler, NovelistAI, NovelAI
They understand what a novel is made of: chapters, scenes, characters, places. The AI drafts inside that structure. The real differences are how much of the book the AI can carry at once, and whose AI you end up paying for.
Chatbots used directly
ChatGPT, Claude
Excellent models with no notion of a manuscript. A long book splits into separate conversations, and keeping it consistent becomes the author’s job.
Writing programs
Scrivener, Dabble, LivingWriter, Plottr, Atticus
Tools for the writer’s own hands: drafting, plotting, layout. AI is absent, or sold as an extra plan (LivingWriter).
The table: 13 tools, 7 checks and a price
Yes Partly No Not stated
| Tool | Writes the book | Remembers the book | Plot and structure | Checks the whole manuscript | Pictures | Translates the book | Ebook export | AI inside | Price from | Full “yes”, of 7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI novel studios | ||||||||||
| AuthorCAT | Yes: Autopilot from your plan | Yes: Canon updates after every scene | Yes: Foundation, synopsis, scene plan, simulation | Yes: Checks the whole novel | Yes: Same faces, 20 styles, no credits | Yes: Chapter by chapter, one glossary | Yes: EPUB, DOCX, PDF, FB2 | Your Claude, ChatGPT, Google AI or SuperGrok plan, or an API key | Free in beta | 7 |
| Novelcrafter | Partly: Scenes from your beats; you start each one | Partly: Codex, kept by hand | Yes: Grid, matrix, outline | Partly: Rewrites a selection | No: No image generation | No: No | Partly: Word, Markdown; no EPUB | Your API key or a local model | $8 + API costs | 1 |
| Sudowrite | Partly: One chapter at a time | Partly: Story Bible, updated on request | Yes: Structure templates | Yes: Feedback and Beta Read | Partly: 2,500+ credits per image | No: No | Partly: Word only | Its own credits; 30+ models | $10, billed yearly | 2 |
| Squibler | Partly: Follows an outline its AI proposes | Partly: Cards, kept by hand | Yes: Corkboard | Partly: Whole-book edits, no proofreading | Yes: Unlimited on paid plans | Partly: Through chat, piece by piece | Partly: PDF and Word, paid plans | Its own credits; model not named | $16, billed yearly | 2 |
| NovelistAI | Partly: One chapter per click | Partly: Last few pages; deeper for extra credits | Partly: You outline, the AI advises | Partly: One page at a time | Partly: 1–15 credits per image | No: No | Yes: PDF, EPUB, TXT | Its own credits | $9, billed yearly | 1 |
| NovelAI | No: Continues your text; no plan | Partly: Lorebook, kept by hand | No: No | Partly: Rewrites selected text | Partly: Anlas credits; free on top plan | No: No | No: Text or its own .story file | Only models it hosts | $10 | 0 |
| Chatbots used directly | ||||||||||
| ChatGPT | Partly: A chapter on request, in chat | Partly: Memory and Projects, not a story canon | Partly: Only as text in chat | Partly: What fits in the context window | Partly: One picture at a time, in chat | Partly: Piece by piece, in chat | Partly: Text and files from chat | OpenAI models | Free plan; paid from Go | 0 |
| Claude | Partly: A chapter on request, in chat | Partly: Memory and Projects, not a story canon | Partly: Only as text in chat | Partly: Up to 1M tokens on some models | No: No image generation | Partly: Piece by piece, in chat | Partly: Text and files from chat | Anthropic models | $17 Pro, billed yearly | 0 |
| Writing programs | ||||||||||
| Scrivener | No: No AI | Partly: Notes and folders, by hand | Yes: Corkboard, Outliner | No: No | No: No | No: No | Yes: EPUB, Kindle, Word, PDF | None | One-time purchase | 2 |
| Dabble | No: No AI | Partly: Story notes, by hand | Yes: Plot Grid | No: No | No: No | No: No | Not stated: Not stated | None | $15, billed yearly | 1 |
| LivingWriter | Partly: AI outlines and rewrites; no full chapters | Partly: Element board, by hand | Yes: 9 story templates | Partly: AI Analysis | Partly: Cover concepts only | No: No | Yes: DOCX, PDF, EPUB | Optional, on the Pro + AI plan | Free up to 25,000 words | 2 |
| Plottr | No: No AI | Partly: Plot cards, by hand | Yes: Plot timeline: its main job | No: No | No: No | No: No | Not stated: Not stated | “No AI” on every plan | $60 a year | 1 |
| Atticus | No: No AI | No: No | No: Chapters by drag and drop | No: No | No: Places your own images | No: No | Yes: EPUB, PDF, DOCX | None | $147 once | 1 |
Marks for AuthorCAT, Novelcrafter, Sudowrite, Squibler, NovelistAI and NovelAI come from the six-app review on authorcat.com (checked November 12, 2026). The other seven were checked on November 14, 2026, on each product’s own site and pricing page. A dash means the official site doesn’t say. Price: the cheapest paid plan per month, or a one-time price.
What really separates them: eight questions
A novel needs a memory, and only one tool keeps it current by itself
What usually breaks an AI-written novel is not the sentences but the details: a character who died in chapter twelve speaks in chapter twenty, blue eyes turn green, a secret everybody already knows gets revealed a second time. The model simply can’t see the earlier chapters.
AuthorCAT keeps a canon of the book (who the characters are, where things happen, how the world works, what happened when) and revises it after every scene the author accepts. Novelcrafter’s Codex, Squibler’s cards, NovelAI’s Lorebook, Scrivener’s notes and LivingWriter’s element board hold the same kind of knowledge, but someone has to keep them current by hand. Sudowrite refreshes its Story Bible when asked; NovelistAI looks back a few pages, deeper for extra credits. ChatGPT and Claude have memory and Projects, which remember the author’s files and preferences, not who knows what by chapter thirty.
Who writes: the author, the AI, or both in turns
This is where the thirteen differ the most. Scrivener, Dabble, Plottr and Atticus write nothing, because there is no AI inside (Plottr prints “No AI” on its pricing page). LivingWriter’s optional AI builds outlines and rewrites passages. Sudowrite and NovelistAI draft a chapter per request, Novelcrafter a scene from the beats the author types, Squibler works from an outline its own AI suggests.
AuthorCAT goes the furthest. Its autopilot moves from the novel foundation and synopsis to a scene plan, then writes every scene in that plan, and any step can be paused and edited. When the AI subscription runs out of messages, the autopilot waits for the limit to reset and carries on. ChatGPT and Claude will write a chapter whenever asked, too; the order, the plan and the continuity stay with the author.
The plot is visible before the prose
Plottr is made for exactly this: the whole story on a timeline, with plot lines and characters as rows. Scrivener has a corkboard and an outliner, Dabble a plot grid, LivingWriter nine story templates, Novelcrafter a grid and a matrix, Sudowrite ready-made structures.
AuthorCAT adds a step none of the others offer, story simulation. A narrator sets up the situation and proposes what the hero might do; the author picks a move or types a new one, watches the consequences unfold, and the branch that was played becomes part of the scene plan. NovelAI does offer a text-adventure mode, though nothing in it connects to a plan.
A check of the whole manuscript, not of one paragraph
Most AI tools edit whatever is selected: a paragraph, a page. That fixes clumsy sentences but misses a broken timeline or a character acting against everything earlier in the book.
AuthorCAT checks the entire novel: style, repetition, transitions between scenes, slips in the logic of the world and in the characters’ choices. Polish then makes targeted edits from the author’s notes. Sudowrite also reads a whole book and replies with written notes (Feedback and Beta Read). LivingWriter offers AI Analysis of a manuscript. Some Claude models take in up to a million tokens, enough for a long novel, yet the remarks come back as chat messages and the manuscript itself stays untouched.
Pictures in which the hero keeps one face
A single good picture is easy today. Three hundred pictures in which the heroine is recognisably the same woman is another matter, and that is exactly what an illustrated novel needs.
AuthorCAT first paints each character’s portrait and each location once, and only then draws the scenes, checking every frame against those references, in any of 20 preset styles. It runs on a ChatGPT plan or an OpenAI key, with no credits per picture. This library is the result: Pride and Prejudice alone has more than a thousand illustrations.
Among the rest, Squibler draws without limits on paid plans, NovelistAI and Sudowrite charge credits per image (Sudowrite from 2,500), NovelAI spends Anlas credits below its top plan, ChatGPT makes one picture at a time inside a chat, and LivingWriter sketches cover concepts. Novelcrafter, Claude, Scrivener, Dabble, Plottr and Atticus generate no images; Atticus places the ones it is given.
Another language: translating a book and writing in it from the first line
AuthorCAT translates a novel chapter by chapter against one shared glossary, so a name or an invented word reads the same on the last page as on the first. Squibler, ChatGPT and Claude translate inside a chat, one piece at a time, and keeping names and terms consistent is the author’s job. The remaining tools don’t translate books.
Writing in a language other than English is a separate matter. AuthorCAT keeps its model instructions, the canon and the drafts in the novel’s own language for English, Russian, German, Spanish, French and Portuguese, so nothing passes through English on the way. The authorcat.com comparison found that Squibler does its best work in English and Sudowrite tends to slide into it.
From a manuscript file to a finished ebook
AuthorCAT accepts a finished novel as a file of up to 100 MB, cuts it into chapters and builds the canon from it, so an old manuscript can be checked, illustrated, continued or given a sequel. Voice recordings turn into text in the draft. The book leaves as EPUB, DOCX, PDF or FB2.
When the only goal is layout, Atticus is the specialist: a DOCX in, an EPUB and a PDF out, for a one-time $147. Scrivener exports EPUB, Kindle, Word and PDF, LivingWriter DOCX, PDF and EPUB. Sudowrite saves to Word only, NovelAI to plain text or its own .story file, and NovelistAI has no way to bring a manuscript in.
Whose AI you pay for
This is what decides the monthly bill. Sudowrite, Squibler and NovelistAI sell their own credits on top of the plan, NovelAI runs only the models it hosts, and Novelcrafter needs an API key billed by use, or a model running on your computer. Claude Pro is $20 a month ($17 billed yearly), and ChatGPT has a free plan plus paid ones starting with Go.
AuthorCAT is the only tool in the table that works through an AI subscription the author already has (Claude, ChatGPT, Google AI or SuperGrok) or through an API key, with nothing added on top. The models are named and chosen per job: Claude Fable 5.2, Claude Opus 5.5 or GPT-6 Astra for the prose, another model for the background work. AuthorCAT itself costs nothing while the beta lasts. It needs a computer: a Mac with Apple silicon or a Windows 10/11 PC, on which the small Bridge app links AuthorCAT to the AI. There is no phone version yet.
Which tool suits which writer
- The AI should write the novel with you, and the book should hold together AuthorCAT: autopilot from your plan, a canon that updates itself, pictures and translation in one place.
- You type every word yourself and want order in a long manuscript Scrivener or Dabble: Scrivener is a one-time purchase with strong export; Dabble works in the browser and on phones.
- You think in plot lines and timelines Plottr: the story on a timeline, with no AI at all.
- The book is finished and has to become an ebook Atticus: DOCX in, EPUB and PDF out, one payment.
- You need a few scenes or a brainstorm, not a whole book ChatGPT or Claude: strong prose on request, as long as the author keeps track of the story.
- You already pay for an API key and enjoy tuning prompts Novelcrafter: your own key or a local model, with a detailed Codex kept by hand.
Questions writers ask
Can ChatGPT or Claude write a novel on their own?
They write chapters on request, and the prose can be very good. The scene plan and the facts about characters, though, stay with the author, who carries them from chat to chat and assembles the EPUB separately. AuthorCAT uses the same models through the author’s own ChatGPT or Claude subscription, inside a structure built for a novel.
Which novel writing programs have no AI at all?
Scrivener, Dabble, Plottr and Atticus. Plottr states “No AI” on every plan, and Dabble says any AI features it adds later would be optional. LivingWriter keeps its AI in a separate Pro + AI plan.
Which tool keeps characters consistent across a long book?
In this table, only AuthorCAT updates its memory of the book by itself after each scene. The others rely on a Codex, cards, a Lorebook or a Story Bible that a person keeps up to date, or they remember only the most recent pages.
Is Scrivener still a good choice in 2026?
For writing by hand, yes: a one-time purchase, a corkboard, an outliner and export to EPUB, Kindle, Word and PDF. It has no AI, so drafting, planning with AI and keeping a canon are a different job, the one AI novel studios do.
How much does writing a novel with AI cost?
With AuthorCAT, nothing beyond the AI subscription while the beta runs: the AI comes from the author’s own Claude, ChatGPT, Google AI or SuperGrok plan with no markup. Dedicated AI novel apps start at $8–16 a month, plus their own credits or API costs (see the price column above).
Where can I see what such a tool actually produces?
Right here. Every classic on ImaginCAT was illustrated in AuthorCAT, and all of them are free to read.
Where this guide comes from
The findings about AI novel apps first appeared in the AuthorCAT comparison of AI novel writing software; screenshots, prices, pros and cons for each of the six apps are in the six-app review on authorcat.com. This guide adds seven tools and its own table.