How to Brainstorm a Story Idea With AI

You have a spark. Maybe it's a character, a single scene, or a "what if" that keeps coming back. But when you try to turn it into a story, you don't know what to decide first, and the blank page wins again.

That's normal. A spark isn't a story yet, and nobody expects you to know the whole plan on day one. Most writers need someone to ask them the right questions.

That's what Brainstorms in Storiando are for. Here's how they work, what Ando (our story assistant) will and won't do, and how a brainstorm turns into a story you can start writing.

What a brainstorm is

A brainstorm is a conversation with Ando that turns a rough idea into a story blueprint: a plan with your title, premise, characters, places and a chapter-by-chapter outline.

Ando helps you plan. It doesn't write your chapters. It asks questions, offers options when you're unsure, and records the choices you make. The story and the writing stay yours.

If you already know your idea and a working title, you don't need a brainstorm: you can create a story straight away from New story and develop it later. A brainstorm is for when all you have is the spark.

How to start one

1. In the app, open Brainstorms and start a new one, or click Start a brainstorm with Ando on the New story page.
2. Type your spark. It can be one sentence, like "A lighthouse keeper finds a letter addressed to her future self." Half-formed is fine.
3. Send it. Storiando gives the brainstorm a name based on your idea, so you can find it again later.

Five questions to focus your idea

Ando's first reply isn't a wall of text. It's five short questions tailored to your idea, each with three options. They cover the big decisions, such as what your main character wants, what stands in their way, how the story should feel, or how it might end.

For each question you can:

• Pick an option. Ando marks the one that fits your idea best as recommended, but nothing counts until you choose it.
• Write your own answer if none of the options feel right.
• Let Ando suggest one if you have no preference yet.

Questions that are purely a matter of taste, like a name, come with no recommendation at all.

Shaping the story together

After the questions, it's a normal conversation. Ando keeps its replies short, uses everyday words instead of writing jargon, and asks at most two things at a time. When a writing term really is the clearest word, it explains it.

For example, you might write:

I like the letter idea, but I don't know who sent it.

And Ando might offer three possibilities, each with a one-line note on how it changes the story, and ask which one feels right. Its suggestions stay suggestions until you accept them, and you can push back, mix two ideas, or go a completely different way.

The blueprint panel

Beside the conversation, a panel shows your blueprint filling in as you talk:

• Premise and plot: a one-sentence logline (a short pitch of the story), genre, audience, tone, point of view and planned length.
• Characters and how they relate to each other.
• Locations that matter to the story.
• Chapter outline: what happens in each chapter, as a short summary rather than written prose.

The panel also shows a checklist of what's still missing, so you always know what's left to decide. Until you settle on a title, it shows the brainstorm's name as a working title, and you can keep it or ask Ando for better ones.

Turning your brainstorm into a story

When the blueprint is complete, Ando checks it for gaps, like a character who never appears in any chapter, and tells you which two or three choices might deserve one more look.

Then you decide. Ando never creates the story on its own. When you're ready, you'll see the blueprint one last time with two choices: Create story or Keep editing. Creating it gives you a new story with your characters, locations and chapter outline already in place, ready for you to start writing chapter one.

The brainstorm stays beside the story it made, so you can always look back at how the idea grew.

A few things worth knowing

• Your brainstorm is saved as you go. Close the tab, reload, or switch devices, and the conversation picks up where you left off.
• You can archive a brainstorm you're not ready for, and restore it later to keep talking with Ando. Your plan sets how many brainstorms you can keep open at once, and archiving frees up a spot. See pricing for each plan's limits.
• Each reply from Ando uses AI credits. You can choose Ando's speed and depth before you send a message. If you press Stop in the middle of a reply, you only use what was spent up to that point.

Try it with the idea you already have

You don't need a finished plan to start, only the spark that's been in your head. Open Storiando, start a brainstorm, and let the questions help you find the story inside it.

If you have more ideas than you know what to do with, read how to start a novel when you have too many ideas. And if you'd rather plan in ChatGPT or Claude, you can connect Storiando to them.