How to Write a Novel with AI & Avoid Truncated Text
Z
Zack Saadioui
8/14/2025
Here’s the thing about writing a novel with an AI like Gemini 2.5 Pro: it feels like you’ve been handed the keys to a spaceship. The sheer power is intoxicating. You can generate worlds, craft characters, & explore plotlines at the speed of thought. But then, just as you’re about to make that jump to hyperspace, the engine cuts out. The message just… stops. Truncated. Incomplete.
It's a MASSIVELY frustrating experience, & if you’ve been trying to write anything longer than a few pages, I’m willing to bet you’ve slammed your laptop shut more than once.
I’ve been there. I’ve spent countless hours working with these models, pushing them to their limits, & figuring out the little quirks & tricks to get them to cooperate on long-form projects. The good news is, getting truncated messages isn't a life sentence. It’s a solvable problem. You just have to understand why it’s happening & how to work with the machine, not against it.
So, let's get into the nitty-gritty. This is my deep-dive guide on how to actually use Gemini 2.5 Pro for story writing & avoid those dreaded truncated outputs.
The "Why": Understanding the Tech Behind the Truncation
First off, it’s not you, it’s the tech. But honestly, understanding the tech makes you a better writer in this new landscape.
The core of the issue comes down to two numbers: the context window & the output token limit.
Context Window: This is the AI’s short-term memory. It’s all the information you can feed it in a single prompt. For Gemini 2.5 Pro, this is a GIGANTIC 1 million tokens. That's roughly 750,000 words or 1,500 pages of text. This means you can give it your entire novel-in-progress as context for what you want it to write next. Pretty cool, right?
Output Token Limit: This is the maximum amount of text the AI can generate in a single response. And here’s the catch: for Gemini 2.5 Pro, the maximum output is currently around 65,535 tokens. That's still a lot of text, but it's not infinite.
So, when your story gets cut off mid-sentence, it's not because Gemini got bored or lost its train of thought. It’s because it literally hit its output limit. It wrote as much as it was allowed to in that single burst & then had to stop. The frustration comes from the platform not always giving a clear "hey, I hit my limit!" warning. It just stops.
Recognizing this is the first step. The AI isn’t failing; you're just asking it to do a marathon in a single sprint. The solution? Break the marathon into a series of manageable sprints.
The Core Strategy: Writing Your Novel in "Chunks"
If you take one thing away from this article, let it be this: don’t ask the AI to write your whole novel at once. Don't even ask it to write a whole 10,000-word chapter at once. The secret to long-form story generation is to work iteratively, piece by piece, or "chunk by chunk."
This sounds more tedious than it is. Once you get a rhythm going, it’s actually a more controlled & rewarding way to write. Here's how you do it.
Step 1: The Master Outline is Your North Star
Before you write a single word of prose, you need a map. Working with an AI without an outline is like trying to build a house without blueprints. You’ll get something, but it probably won’t be structurally sound.
Your outline doesn’t have to be super detailed, but it should cover the major plot points, character arcs, & key scenes for each chapter. You can even use Gemini to help you brainstorm this.
Prompt Example:
> "Brainstorm a chapter-by-chapter outline for a dark fantasy novel about a disgraced royal cartographer who discovers a hidden, malevolent city on an ancient map. Include a major plot twist in the middle & a tragic but hopeful ending."
You’ll feed this outline, or parts of it, into your prompts later. It’s the source of truth for your story.
Step 2: The "Continue" Prompt & The Magic of Context
This is where the magic happens. To write your story in chunks, you'll provide the AI with the context of what’s already been written, & then give it a clear instruction for the next chunk.
Here’s the structure of a good "continue" prompt:
Role & Style Instruction: Tell the AI how to write.
Story Context: Provide a brief summary of the overall plot.
Previously Written Text: This is crucial. Paste in the last chapter or scene. This is how the AI maintains consistency in tone & plot.
The New Instruction: Clearly state what you want it to write next.
Prompt Example:
[Role & Style]
You are a master storyteller, writing in a style that is gritty, immersive, & fast-paced, similar to authors like Joe Abercrombie. Use visceral descriptions & focus on the character's internal thoughts & fears.
[Story Context]
Here is the overall plot summary: [Paste your 1-2 paragraph story summary here].
[Previously Written Text]
Here is the previous chapter, Chapter 3:
[Paste the entire text of Chapter 3 here].
[New Instruction]
Now, write Chapter 4. In this chapter, the main character, Kaelen, must escape the city guard through the flooded under-sewers. He should lose the heirloom map given to him by his father, but in its place find a strange, water-logged journal that hints at the malevolent city's true nature. He should be injured during the escape & end the chapter by passing out in a hidden drainage tunnel.
By providing the previous chapter, you're using Gemini 2.5 Pro's massive context window to its full advantage. The AI can "read" what just happened & create a seamless continuation. You repeat this process for every chapter, building your novel piece by piece.
Step 3: Maintaining Consistency with a "Story Bible"
When you're writing a long story, especially in chunks, consistency is KEY. It’s easy to forget a character's eye color, the name of a city, or a specific plot detail you introduced ten chapters ago. This is where a "Story Bible" comes in.
Your story bible is a separate document where you keep track of:
Character sheets (names, descriptions, motivations, backstories)
This is another area where modern AI can be a game-changer. Keeping all this information organized & accessible can be a challenge. You could just have a massive document, but that gets unwieldy. Honestly, this is where you can get creative with tools.
For instance, think about how businesses use AI to manage their knowledge bases. They use platforms to build custom chatbots trained on their specific data, so their teams can ask questions & get instant, accurate answers. As a writer, you can do the same for your novel. This is where a tool like Arsturn could be incredibly powerful. It’s designed to help businesses create custom AI chatbots for customer service & engagement, but the underlying technology is perfect for a writer. You could feed it all your story bible documents—character bios, plot points, world lore—& create a personalized lore-keeper. Imagine being on chapter 20 & asking your own private chatbot, "What was the prophecy given to Elara in Chapter 2?" or "Remind me of the physical description of the port city of Veridia." Arsturn helps businesses build these no-code AI chatbots trained on their own data to boost conversions, but for a novelist, it's a way to provide instant, 24/7 access to your own story's canon, ensuring you never contradict yourself again. It’s about using business automation tools for creative ends.
Advanced Prompting Techniques for Better Storytelling
Okay, so you’ve got the chunking method down. Now let’s elevate the quality of the prose you’re getting. Basic prompts get you basic results. Advanced prompts unlock the AI’s true potential.
Chain-of-Thought (CoT) Prompting for Plotting
This is a powerful technique to make the AI "think" before it writes. Instead of just asking it to write a scene, ask it to break down its reasoning first. This forces a more logical & creative output.
Prompt Example:
"Before you write the next scene where Lyra confronts the king, I want you to use Chain-of-Thought. First, outline the key emotional beats of the conversation. Second, decide on the king's primary motivation for his betrayal. Third, identify three potential ways the conversation could end. Fourth, choose the most dramatic ending & explain why it's the best choice. Finally, write the scene incorporating this reasoning."
This makes the AI a co-plotter, not just a ghostwriter. The results are almost always more nuanced & compelling.
Expert Prompting for Style
This is one of my favorites. You assign the AI a "persona" or an "expert" role. This dramatically influences the style, tone, & vocabulary of the output.
Prompt Example:
"You are a Nebula Award-winning science fiction author, famous for your hard sci-fi concepts, minimalist prose, & morally ambiguous characters. Your style is reminiscent of Alastair Reynolds. In that voice, write the opening scene of a story about a lone engineer waking up on a derelict generation ship, millions of light-years from any known star."
By telling it who to be, you give it a much richer well of stylistic patterns to draw from.
Few-Shot Prompting for Voice
If you want the AI to sound more like you, you need to give it examples of your own writing. This is called "few-shot" prompting.
Prompt Example:
"I'm going to give you two examples of my writing style.
Example 1: [Paste a 300-word sample of your writing]
Example 2: [Paste another 300-word sample of your writing]
Now, using that style as a guide, write a scene where a young thief tries to pickpocket a powerful mage in a crowded marketplace & fails spectacularly."
This is the best way to get the AI to adapt to your unique voice, making the collaboration feel more seamless.
Choosing Your Weapon: Gemini Advanced vs. Google AI Studio
Where you interact with Gemini matters. A lot of users experiencing frustration are using the standard Gemini Advanced web interface. It’s great, it’s user-friendly, but it's not designed for heavy-duty, complex projects.
If you're serious about writing a novel with Gemini, you should STRONGLY consider using Google AI Studio.
Gemini Advanced: This is the consumer-facing version. It's fantastic for quick questions, brainstorming, & shorter tasks. But some users have reported that it can be more prone to truncation & might not always leverage the full context window as effectively.
Google AI Studio: This is the developer-focused platform. Don't let the "developer" tag scare you. It’s a free-to-use interface that gives you much more granular control over the model. You can adjust settings like "temperature" (creativity vs. predictability) & you get a clearer view of token usage. For long-form writing & using the advanced prompting techniques we’ve discussed, AI Studio is hands-down the superior choice. It’s built for the kind of serious work a novelist needs to do.
Remember: You Are the Author
I want to end on this point, because it's the most important one. AI is a tool. It's an incredibly powerful collaborator, maybe the most powerful creative tool ever invented. But it is not the author. You are.
The output you get from Gemini is a first draft. A very, very fast first draft. Your job is to be the editor, the creative director, & the soul of the story. You need to:
Edit ruthlessly: Cut the weird AI phrases, fix the pacing, & correct the factual errors (yes, it will make them up).
Inject your voice: Rewrite sentences to sound like you. Add the personal touches, the specific metaphors, the human element that only you can provide.
Guide the narrative: The AI doesn't have a grand vision. You do. Use the AI to execute on your vision, not to create one for you.
Treating the AI as a junior writing partner instead of a magic novel-writing machine is the key to success. It takes the pressure off the AI to be perfect & puts the creative control back where it belongs: with you.
So yeah, Gemini 2.5 Pro can be an absolute beast for story writing. The truncation issue is real, but it’s entirely manageable once you understand the mechanics & adopt a chunk-based workflow. By combining that with advanced prompting & the right platform like AI Studio, you can move past the technical roadblocks & focus on what really matters: telling a great story.
Hope this was helpful. Now go write something amazing. Let me know what you think.