What to ask your assistant

1. How to use these

Once your assistant is connected, you ask it for things the way you would ask a person. There are no commands to learn, and none of the phrases below has to be word for word. They are here to show what is possible and how specific you can be.

Two habits make the answers better. Name the manuscript when you have more than one, and name the part you mean — a chapter by its number or title, a scene by what happens in it, or the whole book. If your assistant has other connectors too, mentioning Tabularia tells it where to look.

2. Reading and finding

“Read chapter four of The Fathom and tell me what you think.”
“Summarize each chapter in a sentence.”
“Find every scene where Mira and her brother are in the same room.”
“Where did I first mention the lighthouse?”
“How long is the manuscript now?”
“Which Drafts do I have, and what does each one cover?”

The word count it quotes is the one Tabularia shows you, not one it worked out. It reads the copy that last synced, so a sentence you typed a moment ago may not be there yet.

3. Structure and continuity

“Does my structure work?”
“Is the middle sagging? Where does it lose pace?”
“Check act two against the story shape I started from.”
“Have I contradicted myself anywhere about Tomas's age?”
“Check the timeline of the first ten chapters for anything impossible.”
“Does anyone know something before they could have learned it?”

These start the structural read and the continuity check, which follow instructions of their own. A continuity check reads your Sheets first, then searches for each fact rather than reading straight through, so a chapter from months ago is not missed.

4. Prose and counts

“How does chapter nine read? Compare it with chapter two.”
“Am I repeating words too close together in the opening?”
“What's the readability grade of the whole book?”
“Are my sentences getting longer as the book goes on?”
“How much of chapter six is dialogue?”
“How many sentences start with she in this chapter?”
“List every passive construction in the prologue.”

Sentence length, echoes, adverbs, dialogue, and the readability grade are measured by Tabularia. A count it does not measure, like the last two, the assistant makes itself from the text: it lists every instance with where it sits, so you can check the number, and says the count is its own.

5. Line edits and corrections

“Tighten the first page of chapter three.”
“Do a grammar pass over chapter nine.”
“Find the clichés in the opening and suggest replacements.”
“Fix the dialogue punctuation in the argument scene, and nothing else.”
“Tomas is spelled Thomas in a few places. Correct them.”
“Check the tense in chapter twelve; it should be past throughout.”

The corrections go into the assistant's own Draft, named for it — Edits from Claude, say — which it makes the first time and reuses after. Markup shows each one against your text, and you merge the third and leave the fourth. The narrower the ask, the fewer differences you have to go through.

6. Rewrites in a Draft

“Rewrite the opening scene in a Draft so it starts on the boat.”
“Try chapter seven in first person, in a Draft called First person.”
“Cut chapter fifteen by a third, in a Draft I can compare.”
“Put your version in the same Draft as last time.”
“Write the fix into my Winter revision Draft.”
“Rename that Draft Boat opening.”
“Put away the Drafts I've finished merging.”

A rewrite bigger than a line goes into a Draft, where Markup shows it against the original and you merge the parts you want. Your assistant reuses the Draft already covering a passage rather than making a new one each time, so your Drafts panel does not fill up. It will not write into a Draft you have locked or an editor's review, and a Draft it puts away can be brought back.

7. Changing the text directly

“Turn on direct edits.”
“Fix that typo in the text itself.”
“Correct the spelling of Tomas directly, everywhere.”
“Don't change the text; put this one in a Draft so I can compare.”
“Let yourself place pictures without asking.”
“Turn direct edits off again.”

Direct edits is off until you turn it on. Ask for it and the assistant says what it allows and waits for your yes before switching it; turning it off needs no yes. With it on, the assistant still decides each time: a small fix you asked for goes straight into the text, and a rewrite or an alternative still goes into a Draft. It tells you which it did, and Tabularia takes a Snapshot before its first direct change in any hour, marked in History as the assistant's so you can clear those out together.

8. Comments and notes

“Leave a comment on each place the pacing drops, but don't change anything.”
“Mark the scenes that could be cut, with a comment saying why.”
“What did my editor say in the comments on chapter five?”

A comment is anchored to the words it is about and follows them as you edit. Asking for comments only is the way to get a read with nothing to accept or reject.

9. Sheets and Timelines

“Make a Sheet for every named character, with what the book says about them.”
“Add Mira's eye color and her mother's name to her Sheet.”
“What does Tomas's Sheet say, and does the book agree?”
“Build a Timeline of every scene set in the lighthouse.”
“Make a Timeline following the letter from when it's written to when it's read.”

Sheets are written directly, since they sit beside the book rather than in it. Asking twice for the same character updates the Sheet already there. A Timeline is built by searching the manuscript and marking each passage it finds.

10. Pictures

“Find a public-domain photo of a harbor at dusk for the chapter nine opener.”
“Make a map of the island and put it at the start of part two.”
“Which pictures are in the book, and where?”
“Make the map half as wide.”
“Move the harbor photo down to the next paragraph.”
“Set the compass rose behind the text of the first page.”
“Give the portrait more room on the left.”
“Take the second photo off the page.”

A found picture comes from Wikimedia Commons, Unsplash, or Flickr; one the assistant makes is uploaded straight to Tabularia. Either way it lands in your Images, and placing it is offered for you to accept, unless you have let it place pictures. Resizing keeps the picture's shape unless you give both sizes. Taking one off the page leaves it in your Images to use again. More on how pictures sit on the page is in Assets and decorations.

11. Drop caps and ornaments

“Which chapters open with a drop cap?”
“Give chapter four a drop cap like the one in chapter one.”
“Make every drop cap a little taller.”
“Take the drop cap off the prologue.”
“Make the divider after the storm scene narrower, with less space above it.”
“Put a divider after the letter in chapter six.”
“Move that ornament down past the next paragraph.”

A drop cap goes on a paragraph that opens with a letter. Resizing a drop cap or an ornament lands wherever the assistant's edits do: its Draft, or the text itself when you have direct edits on. In a Draft, each one is a difference of its own when you merge, so you can take the new drop cap and leave the narrower divider. Adding, moving, or removing an ornament needs direct edits. An ornament stays in the front, body, or back matter it started in.

12. Manuscripts and imports

“Start a new manuscript called Low Water.”
“Rename Untitled to The Fathom.”
“Put away the old short story draft.”
“Add the scene we just wrote to the end of chapter eleven.”
“Take a Snapshot before you change anything.”

Putting a manuscript away takes it out of your Files list on every device and deletes nothing, and your assistant can bring it back. Wording brought in from the conversation arrives as an insertion to accept, in paragraphs; add the Chapter breaks yourself once it is in.

13. What is waiting

“Where did I leave off?”
“What's still waiting for me to review?”
“Which of my editor's suggestions can I deal with in one pass?”

The answer is a place to start and what can be done together, not a list of everything outstanding. Studio already shows you that.

14. Putting them together

The assistant can chain these in one request, which is where most of the time is saved.

“Check chapter three for continuity against the Sheets, fix the names that are wrong, and leave a comment on anything you're unsure of.”
“Measure the prose in the chapter I'm worried about and one I'm happy with, then tell me the three things that differ most.”
“Read the whole book, make a Sheet for each place, and build a Timeline for the storm.”
“Take a Snapshot, then rewrite the ending in a Draft and tell me what you changed.”
“Start a manuscript called Notes on the Fathom and put your summary of each chapter in it.”
“Find three pictures of old lighthouses, add them to my Images, and place the best one at the start of chapter one.”

15. What it will say no to

Some asks are refused on purpose, and the assistant will tell you so rather than try. Each of these stays in Tabularia, where you can see it happen:

accepting or merging anything, its own suggestions included;
rejecting a suggestion that is not its own;
deleting anything: a chapter, a Draft, a Timeline, a Sheet, or a manuscript;
adding or moving a Chapter, Act, or Scene;
sending an invitation or publishing a page;
knowing where you are reading or what you have selected right now.

For the last one, name the passage instead: “the paragraph that starts The tide was out” finds it as well as a selection would.