Sudowrite Review: Human-like or Hype? 3 Stories Test (Mar 2025)

Struggling with writer’s block? You’re not alone.

Meet Sudowrite: The AI story generator that’s got writers like us excited…

But, can it really silence that taunting cursor for good?

In this in-depth Sudowrite review, you’ll get:

• A breakdown of key features
• Transparent pricing info to help you select the best plan
• Real-world testing on 3 different stories

Stories I generated with Sudowrite:

Best Sudowrite Features

These are some of my favorite Sudowrite features:

• 1. Brainstorm: Get Inspired
• 2. Story Bible: Finish Long-Stalled Novels
• 3. Canvas: Your Storyboard
• 4. Expanding Plots, Write & Rewrite Features
• 5. Describe Story Elements
• 6. Generating a Story Twist: Expect the Unexpected!
• 7. Feedback on Your Writing: AI as Your Beta Reader
• 8. Shrinkray: Crafting the Perfect Blurb

1. Brainstorm: Get Inspired

Sudowrite offers a comprehensive brainstorming suite that covers every aspect of story writing, starting from a single sentence.

For this test, I asked Sudowrite to brainstorm a character: “a writer who takes help from a robot to write.” The result? Sudowrite’s brainstorming feature provided me with dozens of creative and helpful ideas.

Story #1: A Writer Taking Help from a Robot to Write (how meta!)

2. Story Bible: Finish Long Stalled Novels

Story Bible is another useful brainstorming feature for building long-form narratives with AI while keeping the lore consistent. It takes you from Braindump -> Outline -> Prose.

The Worldbuilding feature is particularly helpful for coming up with lore and environment for your story.

Some Sudowrite users reported writing an entire novel in just a weekend!

Others found it to be the push they needed to complete long-stalled projects.

3. Canvas: Visually Plot the Story

Sudowrite’s Canvas feature allows you to organize your thoughts, characters, and story points. One standout feature is its ability to visualize characters. For example, I visualized an antagonist in one of my other stories as a guy with a blue hat and a pointed, evil chin.

Dec 2024 update: Sudowrite now supports book series with Series folders. These folders let you keep all your plot ideas and notes together. Once you add your books and set their order, Sudowrite will remember it and help maintain consistency across your series.

There is also a Series Timeline feature that helps Sudowrite keep track of the order of your books and the events in your story.

4. Expanding Plots, Write & Rewrite Features

One-Click Expansion

I inserted the ideas brainstormed earlier into the editor and reordered the sentences according to my preference. Finally, I clicked ‘Expand’ on the last sentence.

Fine-Tuning Your Story

Sudowrite offers three writing modes: Auto, Guided, and Tone Shift. Each mode provides a different level of control over the AI’s output.

• First Draft: Generates up to 1,000 words from a scene description, offering a solid foundation for further editing.

• Guided and Auto Write: Guided Write lets you input a sentence or two about the next section and generates up to 250 words. Auto Write generates text without any guidance.

• Tone Shift: Allows for easy adjustments to the tone of your story.

In Write Settings, you can choose the AI model to use for writing. The Prose Modes currently available include:

• Premium: Based on Claude Opus

• Excellent - Claude Sonnet

• Unfiltered - Based on Goliath 120B

Additionally, Sudowrite offers a ‘Rewrite’ option that helps you rephrase or revise what you’ve already written. This feature provides options to be more descriptive, rephrase, shorten, add more conflict, and intensify your writing.

Focus Mode: A Clean UI

By the way, the clean UI you see above is called “Focus Mode.” It eliminates all distractions, allowing you to concentrate solely on your writing.

Shareable Links

Sudowrite also allows you to collect comments from your friends, editors, and beta readers. Each reader gets their own clean copy for unbiased feedback.

4. Describe Story Elements

When it comes to storytelling, details matter. Sudowrite understands this and offers a feature that lets you describe critical elements of your plot in full sensory depth.

I put this to the test by asking Sudowrite to ‘Describe’ my robot character. What I got back were five vivid descriptions covering sound, sight, smell, touch, and taste, along with a metaphor.

The word choices were spot-on, and the output was coherent. This feature helps you add layers to your characters, making them more relatable and real.

5. Generating a Story Twist: Expect the Unexpected!

Now, let’s talk about the fun part—story twists! Sudowrite has an experimental feature that generates twists for your story. I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised.

The twist I got? My robot character is apparently plotting world domination and has a knack for stealing my ideas.

Oh, wait. It wasn’t even real! And my protagonist hallucinated everything. Talk about a plot twist!

This feature adds an unexpected layer to your storytelling, keeping your readers on the edge of their seats.

6. Feedback on Your Writing: AI as Your Beta Reader

Feedback is crucial for any writer, and Sudowrite offers an experimental feature that provides just that. The AI goes through your story and gives you insights into its theme, plot, and more.

Story #2: To test this, I used a story where zombies, vampires, and humans co-exist in a city. The catch? Both vampires and zombies have managed to keep their identities a secret from humans. Now, a conflict is brewing between the two supernatural entities.

I didn’t give away the ending or the direction the story would take. Would they annihilate each other, or would they form some sort of unholy alliance?

Regardless, the story was long enough to get feedback on my writing style. After clicking the feedback option, Sudowrite spawned three AI readers who “tried” to read the story as a human would.

The feedback I received was insightful and helped me understand how my story could be perceived by readers. I am adding excerpts of the feedback I got below.

As per Sudowrite, AI readers get better at giving feedback as your story grows. Besides, it is experimental as of now and will continue to improve.

7. Shrinkray: Crafting the Perfect Blurb

Let’s face it, writing blurbs for your novels or books can be a daunting task. But guess what? Sudowrite has got you covered with a feature called Shrinkray.

All you have to do is upload your manuscript, and voila! You get loglines, blurbs, synopses, and even full outlines generated for you. It’s like having a marketing assistant who knows your story inside and out.

This feature is a real time-saver and can help you capture the essence of your story in a way that grabs potential readers.

Tips To Get Better Outputs With Sudowrite

I’ve been tinkering with Sudowrite for a few weeks now and have a couple of pointers to share:

• Do not try to generate entire chapters at once when using Premium prose mode.

• While using story bible, generate beats, then hit pause to correct stuff the way you like. Then continue.

• You can save words by explicitly choosing the senses under ‘Describe’ function instead of describing for all 5 senses.

My User Experience

When it comes to user experience, Sudowrite nails it. The onboarding process is incredibly user-friendly. I was guided through a sample story that showcased all the major features, and I got the hang of it in less than a minute.

The welcome screen is inviting, and the focus mode lets you dive deep into your writing without any distractions. Most features are just a click or two away, making the whole writing process seamless.

And if you ever get stuck or need help, Sudowrite offers the option to talk to their support team.

For a bit of fun, I decided to challenge Sudowrite with a unique story idea. This mixes two genres — science fiction and folklore.

Story #3: I asked it to write a romance between a vampire and an AI robot!

It started fairly well but fumbled a bit towards the middle where it confused my AI with a human (Sudowrite was treating it as an AI initially). With a gentle nudge from me, the story got back on track. Then my word limit ran out!

Alas, I was not able to complete my vamp-AI fanfic. Perhaps you will be able to. Do share it with me in the comments, in case you do!

Sudowrite Pricing

Sudowrite has three straightforward pricing options - student, pro, and max.

Each feature in Sudowrite uses up AI credits (explained below). You can get a 50% discount if you opt for annual billing vs paying month to month.

• Student & Hobby Plan: For USD 19/month (with monthly billing) or USD 120 (billed annually), you get 225,000 AI credits/month. That’s more than enough to kickstart your writing projects without breaking the bank.

• Professional: At USD 29/month or USD 264 (billed annually), you get 1,000,000 AI credits/month. This is the goldilocks zone—maximum value at a reasonable price.

• Max Plan: Need to write a lot? For USD 59/month or USD 528 (billed annually), you get a massive 2,000,000 credits per month. The best part? Credits in MAX plan rollover to the next month. Ideal for those who are writing around the clock.

How Sudowrite AI Credits Work

Credits don’t correlate 1:1 with AI words. It depends on the AI model (fast, best prose, unfiltered) and the feature you are using.

Here’s a chart from Sudowrite that shows how many tokens some features use:

If you’re like most writers, the Pro Plan at USD 29/month or USD 264/year is the way to go. It offers the best bang for your buck in terms of AI-generated words**.** (I opted for annual billing to get a 50% discount)

On average, I use about 20,000 to 30,000 credits per 2000-word chapter so 1 million credits in Pro plan are more than enough to write 20-30 chapters per month!

Click for Best Price

In my experience, Sudowrite is by far the most affordable AI writing tool when compared to competitors like Jasper, which starts at $40/month, or even ChatGPT Plus at $20/month which only offers a chat interface.

Is There a Free Version of Sudowrite?

Sudowrite has no free plan, but it does offer a free trial of ~4000 words with all features unlocked. I tried it out and liked the fact that they did not ask for my credit card to sign up for the free trial.

Likes/Dislikes

What I Liked About Sudowrite

• Highly Customizable: Sudowrite’s Storyengine AI adapts to your writing style, making its suggestions highly relevant. This means you’re not just getting generic advice; you’re getting personalized coaching.

• Focuses on Improving Your Writing: Sudowrite goes beyond mere text generation. It offers alternative phrasings and identifies clichés, helping you refine your writing. Canvas and Shrinkray are a boon to boost productivity and save time.

What I Did Not Like About Sudowrite

• No Free Version: The lack of a free version can be a barrier for writers who are hesitant to invest right away.

• Struggles with long form content - a problem common to all AIs. (But, to be fair, Sudowrite’s Story Engine is the closest you can get to an effective solution.)

User Reviews/Reputation

Joanna Penn, a New York Times best-selling author, had Amit on her podcast and had a lot of good things to say about Sudowrite.

Over on Reddit, users have been comparing Sudowrite to other AI tools like NovelAI and ChatGPT. Generally, users praise Sudowrite for its ability to aid in brainstorming, overcoming writer’s block, and offering creative suggestions. Features like “Describe” and “Brainstorm” are particularly well-received. Many users find it helpful for fiction writers to generate ideas, develop characters, and refine their prose. Some users appreciate the ability to train the AI on their own writing style.

However, as with any AI tool, some users find the generated content requires editing and refinement to truly match their vision and voice.

Alternatives to Sudowrite

When looking for AI writing tools, I’ve found several options competing with Sudowrite in the creative writing space. After testing most of them for my fantasy novel project, I’ve noticed significant differences in how they handle narrative development.

I’ve spent months with these tools, and Sudowrite consistently delivers the most coherent long-form narratives. It has better AI model selection including custom models like Muse. Its refusals are lower for violent and spicy scenes which are important for fiction writers.

While Novelcrafter offers good value at $4/month, I found it less feature-rich than Sudowrite. The downside is of course that having many features can feel overwhelming - thankfully the community tutorials are readily available for Sudowrite. For anyone serious about novel writing rather than casual storytelling, Sudowrite remains the most complete solution despite the alternatives. The extra cost pays for itself in time saved editing AI-generated content.

Your Move: Let’s Hear It!

So where does that leave us? I see a future where humans increasingly co-create with AI. Imagine having a tool that helps you brainstorm ideas, refine your plot, and even give you feedback—all while you infuse the story with your unique voice and perspective. That’s the promise of tools like Sudowrite.

So, have you taken Sudowrite for a spin? What was your experience like? Was it a game-changer, a letdown, or something in between? Your insights could help others make the right choice, so don’t hold back—share your thoughts in the comments below!

FAQs

All your questions answered.

Can AI Replace Human Writers? A Reality Check.

The rise of AI writing tools like Sudowrite might have you wondering: Are human writers becoming obsolete? If we define a story as just a sequence of events, then sure, AI is already there and might even surpass human capabilities in stringing together a coherent plot.

But let’s get real. A story is so much more than that. It’s a window into the writer’s soul, a tapestry woven with the threads of the author’s emotions, experiences, and insights. Great stories don’t just entertain; they make us think, feel, and reflect. And that’s something AI just can’t replicate.

Who Created Sudowrite?

Amit Gupta and James Yu, the co-founders of Sudowrite, are the brains behind Sudowrite and sci-fi writers at heart. Before launcing Sudowrite, they even founded a sci-fi writing group called Sudowriters and a Zoom book club named Short Story Club.

When the creators are passionate about writing, it shines through in the product. These guys are quick to roll out new features and are super responsive to customer feedback.

How long is Sudowrite free trial?

Sudowrite offers a free trial of 4000 generated words to explore its key features like brainstorming, describing, and rewriting. Users need to sign up using email to try Sudowrite. However, the free trial does not require a credit card.

Are AI-generated stories plagiarism free?

AI-generated content is created through the use of machine learning algorithms that analyze patterns in text data, rather than copying and pasting text. The AI system generates new text, word by word, based on the patterns it has identified in the training data. In such a case, the likelihood of generating plagiarized content is very low.

Can Sudowrite generate plagiarized content?

Sudowrite AI has been trained on a large corpus of narrative text and generates the next word(s) based on previous input. If you’re using original text as your input, you will get original content out of Sudowrite. However, Sudowrite can be forced to output content that is not original by giving it verbatim input text from famous sources like Harry Potter. It is recommended to use Sudowrite with original writing for original output and to double check the final result with plagiarism checkers.

Is writing stories with AI ethical?

On one hand, AI-generated stories can be seen as a tool for writers to generate new ideas and inspiration, and can help with writer’s block. On the other hand. the use of AI to write stories raises ethical concerns about authorship, originality, authenticity, copyright infringement and the role of human creativity. A middleground is to use AI as a helping hand rather than using AI content as is. It might also be more ethical to mention the use of AI in your content generation process or use a separate pseudonym.

Can AI write believable stories?

There exist several AI writing tools that are specialized for believable story generation. For example, Sudowrite, Deep Story AI, Novel AI, and Sassbook AI Story Writer.

What kind of stories I can create with AI?

AI story generators can create short stories and even help you write a novel. You can ask the AI to create any genre of story as it is trained on millions of stories of different genres. You can create AI-generated horror stories or funny stories, for example.

What is an AI story generator? How does it work?

An AI story generator is a program that can write stories using artifical intelligence and machine learning technqiues. It is a mathematical model that mimics the structure of a human brain (neural networks). AI story generators are trained on millions of rows of data, telling the ‘program’ what a story looks like. Then the AI learns from this data and is able to create new stories as a human would.

Is there a free AI story generator?

Plot Generator and Sassbook AI story writer are free AI story generators. Sudowrite offers a fully featured trial with 4000 words. Sassbook is the best free ai story generator in my opinion.

Are there AI story-generator games?

AI story generator games are video games that use artificial intelligence to generate unique and dynamic narratives within the game. These games use natural language processing and machine learning techniques to create new storylines, characters, and events based on the player’s choices and actions. The AI adapts the game’s story in real-time, making each playthrough unique and different. Dungeon AI is a popular AI story generator game.