In this guide, I’m going to show you how to use AI to write web novels and make some extra money in your spare time.
You don’t need a background in creative writing. As long as you can set aside a little time each day, you can give this a shot. As for how much you can actually earn, that comes down to your execution and how well your book performs on the platform.
Without further ado, let’s dive right in!
PART 1: Prepare Your Tools
First, we need an AI writing tool. I recommend two options below. You can pick either one, though using both in tandem yields the best results.
① Gemini
- Pros: Its conversational flow is very smooth. The prose it generates feels natural, and character dialogue reads organically.
- Cons: In long-form fiction, it isn’t always as consistent as ChatGPT when it comes to keeping track of massive amounts of earlier plot points and world-building details.
② ChatGPT
- Pros: Strong long-context handling. It excels at organizing world-building bibles, character sheets, plot outlines, and maintaining continuity across long-running serials.
- Cons: It tends to fall into a choppy, Q&A-style dialogue pattern, and its prose often breaks into annoying one-sentence paragraphs. However, these habits can easily be fixed with the right prompts.
PART 2: Find Benchmark Books to Model
Once your tools are ready, the next step is finding successful benchmark novels to study. Here are the two biggest platforms in China to look at:
① Fanqie Novel (ByteDance’s leading free web novel app, where authors earn mainly from ad-revenue sharing) https://fanqienovel.com/
② Qimao Novel (Another major free-to-read web fiction platform in China) https://www.qimao.com/
Head straight to the New Book Rankings (新书榜) and look for trending titles that are gaining traction right now.
For beginners, I strongly recommend sticking to genres like Urban High-Concept , High Martial Arts, Fantasy with a Cheat System / LitRPG , or Post-Apocalyptic. These genres have straightforward premises and clear “dopamine hits” (satisfying payoffs), making it much easier for AI to push the plot forward following an outline.
Once you spot a trending book, read its synopsis and the first three chapters. Pick one that hooks you, copy the text of those first three chapters, and get ready to feed them to the AI for analysis. You don’t need to rack your brain deconstructing it yourself—we’re going to let the AI break down the opening hook, the “Golden Finger” (the protagonist’s unique cheat/advantage), and the payoff beats, and then use that structure to design our own original novel.
PART 3: Have AI Deconstruct the Benchmark Novel
I usually hunt for benchmarks on Fanqie’s New Book Rankings—both Male-oriented and Female-oriented categories work fine, as long as the book is currently trending.
Once you have your target book, send the first three chapters to your AI along with the exact prompt below:
[AI Book-Deconstruction Prompt] You are a senior web novel editor at Fanqie Novel who knows the exact tropes and pacing formulas of trending male- and female-oriented web fiction inside out. Based on the first three chapters of the novel I’ve provided, please break down its plot structure chapter by chapter. Analyze the opening hook, core conflict, the “Golden Finger” (cheat ability) or core selling point, dopamine/payoff beats, plot progression, and cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. Focus heavily on the exact sequence of events in each chapter, and finally, extract a reusable “First 3 Chapters Opening Framework” tailored to this genre. Requirement: Retain the pacing and payoff mechanics worth learning from, but strip out all original character names, specific world settings, and exact plot details. [End of Prompt]
Once the AI finishes breaking down the framework, we can use that blueprint to start designing our own original book.
PART 4: Officially Designing Your New Book
Before we generate the book, let’s talk about where to publish. For beginners, I recommend Fanqie Novel. It runs on a free-to-read, ad-supported model, making the barrier to entry relatively low and very beginner-friendly.
- Fanqie Writer’s Portal: https://fanqienovel.com/writer
Right after the AI finishes deconstructing those three chapters, stay in the exact same chat window (no need to start a new thread) and tell the AI to pitch your new book:
[AI Book-Pitching Prompt] Now, referencing the 3-chapter opening structure we just broke down, help me design an original web novel suitable for publishing on Fanqie Novel. Requirements:
- Keep the same genre direction and target audience.
- Mirror the pacing, payoff timing, and opening structural beats of the first three chapters.
- Invent a brand-new protagonist, world setting, and Golden Finger (cheat system) or core selling point.
- Keep the pacing fast, the conflicts sharp, and make sure the payoffs deliver tangible rewards to the protagonist.
- Please provide 3 distinct book concepts first. Each concept must include a Title, Synopsis, Core Settings/Premise, and a Chapter-by-Chapter Outline for the first 3 chapters.
- Do not write the actual prose yet; wait until I pick a concept before we start drafting. [End of Prompt]
Review the three options the AI generates and pick the one that excites you most. If none of them hit the mark, ask it to regenerate new ones. Once you lock in a concept, the next step is generating the actual chapters.
PART 5: Generating the Prose (You MUST Hand-Polish the First 20,000 Words!)
Once you’ve locked in your opening concept, use this prompt to have the AI draft the chapters:
[AI Chapter-Drafting Prompt] Now, following the confirmed settings and the outline for the first three chapters, start writing Chapter 1. Requirements:
- Length: Around 2,000–2,500 Chinese characters (or equivalent word count) per chapter.
- Dive straight into the action from the opening line; cut out unnecessary exposition or slow build-ups.
- The protagonist must proactively drive the plot forward, with crystal-clear conflicts and satisfying payoffs.
- Keep character dialogue natural—avoid robotic, back-and-forth Q&A exchanges.
- Use standard web-novel paragraphing; avoid making every single sentence its own paragraph.
- Cut out the “AI summary tone,” repetitive explanations, and pointless internal monologues.
- Strictly follow the established settings and outline—do not improvise or alter the plot on your own. Write only one chapter at a time, and wait for my confirmation before moving on to the next. [End of Prompt]
⚠️ A Crucial Warning Here:Never rely 100% on raw, unedited AI output for your first 20,000 characters!
You must read through the early chapters yourself and heavily polish the opening hooks, dialogue, plot logic, and payoff moments—especially in the first three chapters.
Why? Because Fanqie’s algorithm and editorial system revolve around two critical milestones:
- ① 20,000 Characters: First Contract Application Once your book hits 20k characters, you can apply for an official publishing contract. Hitting the word count doesn’t guarantee approval—if you get rejected, you get two more chances at 50k and 80k characters.
- ② 80,000 Characters: Traffic Recommendation Application Once your book is contracted and reaches 80k characters (while meeting basic update criteria), you can apply for platform traffic testing. If approved, your book enters a 7-day initial traffic testing pool. Once it survives that test and hits 100k characters, the algorithm pushes it into the main recommendation stream.
That’s why early quality is everything! My rule of thumb is: Heavily hand-polish the first 20k characters, maintain solid quality from 20k to 80k, and only ramp up the ratio of raw AI generation after 80k.
Later on in the book, you can let the AI do the heavy lifting, but you still need to proofread every chapter at least once instead of blindly copy-pasting. Keep a sharp eye out for hallucinated character names, broken plot continuity, messed-up power scaling, and repetitive phrasing.
PART 6: Polish Early On, Let AI Auto-Continue Later
Once you’ve carefully polished the first 20,000 characters, the workflow gets much simpler. You can just instruct the AI to keep rolling based on your established story context:
[AI Continuation Prompt] Please continue writing the next chapter based on the existing plot, character sheets, and world-building, keeping the length around 2,000–2,500 characters per chapter. Maintain the established writing style, keep the plot seamless, deliver clear payoffs, do not repeat earlier scenes, and do not alter established settings without permission. Generate one chapter at a time and keep pushing the main storyline forward. [End of Prompt]
Let’s address the elephant in the room: The “AI Smell” (AI-sounding prose).
Honestly, since it’s written by AI, it’s nearly impossible to wipe out 100% of the AI flavor, even with heavy editing. And plenty of sharp readers nowadays can spot it.
However, in my experience, story and pacing matter far more than “AI prose.” As long as the premise is entertaining, the payoffs hit hard, and the cliffhangers keep readers turning the page, you will retain an audience.
Of course, some readers despise anything touched by AI—and that’s totally fine. There’s no need to lose sleep over every negative comment. Remember, our goal here is to leverage AI for speed and efficiency to make some side income, not to win a literary prize. Don’t overcomplicate the workflow: nail the opening, let AI carry the daily updates later on, and do a quick pass to catch obvious continuity glitches or loops. At the end of the day, whether you make money comes down to reader retention metrics and platform algorithms.
PART 7: Understanding Traffic & Earnings on Fanqie
Traffic on Fanqie fluctuates wildly. One day your views might skyrocket, and the next day they might fall off a cliff—that’s completely normal on algorithm-driven platforms.
Take one of my own books as an example: on the 26th of the month, my daily revenue was barely over 2 RMB (~$0.30); two days later on the 28th, it shot straight up to 177 RMB (~$25/day).
So as long as your book is still showing signs of life in the data, stick with it. Don’t abandon a book just because traffic dipped for a day or two.
For newcomers, my advice is to read trending books voraciously, study what tropes are hot, and launch multiple test books. Once you want to scale up, you can look into running multiple books across compliant multiple accounts to filter out the winners with breakout potential.
Also worth noting: this October, Fanqie updated its Monthly Attendance Bonus (a bonus paid to authors who update every single day), raising the daily word count targets and minimum ad-revenue thresholds for certain tiers.
This is actually where AI shines. Typing out 4,000 words a day by hand is a grind, but generating tens of thousands of words a day with AI is effortless. Of course, pumping out words fast doesn’t automatically hand you the attendance bonus—your book still has to hit the required quality and audio/reading revenue benchmarks.
Ultimately, the biggest advantage of writing web novels with AI is speed and near-zero trial-and-error cost. Test lots of ideas early on, spot the book that catches algorithmic traction, and pour your energy into updating that winner. Since we’re just trying to make some side cash in our spare time, keep it lean and practical.
PART 8: 4 Final Takeaways from Experience
① Right now, stick to formulaic, high-concept “Dopamine Fiction” . Especially in your first three chapters, make sure you hit these beats:
- Drop the reader straight into a crisis in Scene 1—skip the slow background lore.
- Introduce the “Golden Finger” (cheat ability) immediately, and make sure it pays off right away—whether that’s stats popping up on a system screen or tangible loot in the protagonist’s hands.
- Sum up the world-building in a single sentence if possible.
- Make the protagonist proactive—they should solve problems themselves, not wait around to be rescued.
- Deliver immediate gratification early on, while constantly planting new hooks and expectations for the future. If you check all these boxes, you’re guaranteed to have a punchy, readable opening.
② The “High-Concept Premise” is king. Stop rehashing tired, clichés tropes that have been beaten to death. Ask the AI to mash up different genres, cheat systems, and settings to brainstorm fresh, weird hooks. Sometimes, one killer premise will do more for your book than spending weeks polishing 50,000 words of mediocre plot.
③ Take lots of shots on goal—don’t marry your first book. Fanqie’s contract review process can be pretty baffling at times. The exact same manuscript—word for word—might get rejected on one account and approved on another. Getting rejected once doesn’t necessarily mean your book is trash (though I don’t recommend spamming the exact same draft repeatedly just to gamble with reviewers). Run one book all the way through the pipeline to learn the ropes, then keep launching fresh concepts across different sub-genres.
④ Trust your own gut as a reader. If you enjoy reading web novels yourself, you already have built-in editorial instincts. When you read a chapter back, you can immediately tell where it drags, where the logic falls apart, or whether the protagonist’s comeback feels satisfying enough. Whenever a scene feels flat, tell the AI to rewrite it—you’re the director, not the AI.
Final Thoughts
Personally, I’m very bullish on AI-assisted web fiction. As AI models continue to evolve, their storytelling capabilities are only going to get stronger.
Everyday people no longer need years of literary training to tell a story. If you have fun ideas, a willingness to experiment, and AI as your co-pilot, you have a real shot at creating stories that thousands of people love to read.
Read more, brainstorm wilder hooks, test relentlessly, and don’t overcomplicate the process. The barrier to entry for AI web fiction is low enough that anyone curious can jump in today. Does using AI guarantee you’ll land a contract and print money? No—success still relies heavily on your own taste, judgment, and execution.
At the end of the day, AI is just the brush; you’re still the one calling the shots.
