Getting Started with SteamyForge

Your story deserves to be published. This guide takes you from first idea to finished, market-ready manuscript.
First Time Users · v4.0 · April 2026

We know what it's like to have a hundred stories burning inside you and not enough hours in the day to get them all out. We're romance authors. We've lived the grind. So we built SteamyForge — and it changed everything.

You bring the story, the characters, and the creative vision. SteamyForge plans your chapters, builds your series bible, and drafts each chapter under your direction. You review, revise, and approve every word before it goes into your manuscript.* Your vision, your decisions, your name on the cover.

You are the author
Everything SteamyForge creates is yours. Your name goes on the cover. You keep 100% of the royalties. You own the copyright. SteamyForge is the tool — you are the author.
The ✨ gold buttons are where the magic happens
Throughout SteamyForge, you'll see gold buttons like ✨ Generate Premise for Me ✨ and ✨ Write My Book For Me ✨. These are the one-click automation buttons — click one and SteamyForge handles everything. The rose-coloured buttons give you more manual control at each step.

What's Inside

Chapter 1

Creating Your Account & Getting Started

Getting started takes less than two minutes.
Step 1

Create your account

Go to app.steamyforge.com. Click Create Account. Enter your email address, choose a password, and enter the invite code if you have one. Click Sign In.

Step 2

Verify your email

Check your inbox for a verification email and click the link. SteamyForge needs a verified email to set up your account.

Step 3

Start your first book — free

Your first book comes with 10 free chapters. No payment required. SteamyForge walks you through the guided flow — choose your trope, setting, and heat level, write your premise, and start generating. You'll see your first chapters before spending a penny.

What do I get for free?
Your first 10 chapters — including premise generation, chapter planning, series bible, and 10 fully drafted chapters. When you're ready to unlock the rest of your book, a single $99 purchase gives you the complete manuscript.
Chapter 2

The Guided Flow — Writing Your First Book

What if your novel took days instead of years?

You provide the creative direction. SteamyForge handles the labour. What used to take months of writing sessions squeezed between school runs and bedtime can happen in a single focused weekend.

When you first sign in, SteamyForge opens in Guided View — a step-by-step card system that takes you from choosing your trope to downloading your finished manuscript. Each card is one step. You can't get lost.

The Guided Flow
Pick Trope
Pick Setting
Pick Heat
Premise
Plan
Review
Write
Export
✨ The fastest path: Write My Book For Me
You don't have to go through every step manually. At the Premise stage, click the gold ✨ Write My Book For Me ✨ button and SteamyForge generates your premise, plans every chapter, builds your series bible, and writes the entire book automatically. Come back when it's done. Review the output, request changes to any chapter, and export your finished manuscript.* This is push-button book generation — and it's the star feature of SteamyForge.

You can also move through these steps one at a time for more control. At any point, you can go back to a previous step to make changes. The flow remembers where you are.

Two ways to use SteamyForge
Guided View is perfect for first-time users. It holds your hand through every step.

Dashboard View is the advanced mode — it gives you direct access to the series bible, chapter planner, and individual chapter editing. You can switch between them at any time using the button in the top navigation bar. This guide covers the Guided View. See the Advanced Users Guide for Dashboard View.
Chapter 3

Choosing Your Trope, Setting & Heat Level

These three choices shape every word SteamyForge writes for you.

The first three cards in the guided flow ask you to pick one option from each category. Think of them as the DNA of your book — they determine the story structure, the world, and the intimacy level.

Tropes

Your trope is the emotional engine of the romance — the specific dynamic between your characters that creates tension, conflict, and ultimately, resolution. Pick the one that excites you most.

Enemies to Lovers

They can't stand each other. Then they can't stay away.

Friends to Lovers

They already have everything — except the courage to risk it.

Second Chance

They had their shot. They blew it. Now fate gives them another one.

Forced Proximity

They can't leave. They can't ignore each other.

Fake Dating / Fake Marriage

The lie is fake. The feelings aren't.

Grumpy / Sunshine

One is a thundercloud. The other is the sun.

Forbidden Love

Everything says they shouldn't. They do anyway.

Slow Burn

The match is struck in chapter 1. The fire catches when they're both consumed.

Love Triangle

Two people want them. They want both. Only one can win.

Reverse Harem / Why Choose

Why pick one when you can have them all?

Settings

Your setting is the world your characters live in. It determines the obstacles, the culture, the aesthetic, and the specific flavour of your romance.

Contemporary

Modern day, real world. Careers, technology, real life.

Paranormal

Shifters, vampires, fae, witches, supernatural bonds.

Dark Romance

Morally grey characters, intense power dynamics, edge.

Romantic Suspense

Danger, mystery, and thriller elements woven into the romance.

Historical

Regency, Victorian, Western, Medieval — the era drives the conflict.

Sports Romance

The game, the rivalry, the tension between career and heart.

Romantic Comedy

Humor-driven, witty banter, comedic situations.

Sci-Fi Romance

Space, other planets, futuristic worlds, alien civilizations.

Fantasy / Romantasy

Magic, kingdoms, quests, chosen ones, courts.

Mafia / Organized Crime

Crime families, power, loyalty, danger.

Small Town

Everyone knows everyone. The town is a character.

Billionaire / CEO

Extreme wealth, corporate power, luxury, social stratification.

Military

Active duty, veterans, deployment, homecoming.

College / New Adult

Campus life, first independence, first real love.

Heat Levels

Your heat level determines how explicit the intimate scenes will be. All three levels include on-page sex scenes — the difference is frequency, intensity, and how much page space they occupy.

Steamy

Open door. Explicit scenes with emotional grounding. 2–3 per book.

Scorching

Very explicit. Detailed, frequent, dual-POV. 4–6 per book.

Dark Heat

Intense, edgy, power-dynamic driven. Raw and unfiltered.

Any combination works
You can combine any trope with any setting and any heat level. Enemies to Lovers + Mafia + Dark Heat? Yes. Grumpy/Sunshine + Small Town + Steamy? Absolutely. Friends to Lovers + Romantasy + Scorching? Go for it. SteamyForge has dedicated genre DNA for every combination.
No limits on heat
Explicit content. Anatomical language. Dark romance. Reverse harem. Mafia. Whatever your story demands. No sanitising. No fading to black. No content policy standing between you and your readers. SteamyForge was built by romance authors who needed a tool that understood our genre — including the parts other platforms refuse to touch.
Chapter 4

Your Premise — The Heart of Your Book

You don't need to be a writer. You need to be a storyteller.

You've read hundreds of romance novels. You know what you love. You know what's missing from the shelves. You know your characters, your premise, the story you've been carrying around in your head. That's the hard part — and you've already done it. SteamyForge handles everything else.*

After choosing your trope, setting, and heat level, SteamyForge takes you to the Premise card. This is the most important step — your premise is the foundation that every chapter is built on. You have two paths:

Path 1 — One click, done

✨ Generate Premise for Me

The gold ✨ Generate Premise for Me ✨ button appears at the top of the premise screen and inside the story details section. Click it and SteamyForge creates a complete premise based on your trope + setting + heat level choices. No other input needed. Named characters, central conflict, romantic and external stakes — all generated for you. A title is also suggested automatically.

Want to shape it further? Optionally fill in the Hero, Heroine, Situation, and notes fields before clicking Generate — the engine incorporates your details into the premise.

OR
Path 2 — Write your own

Manual with AI assistance

Type your own premise directly into the premise box. Optionally fill in the character fields to add detail. Then click ✨ Optimize My Premise to have SteamyForge check it against your chosen trope and setting conventions and suggest improvements. The more specific your premise, the better your manuscript.

The character fields are optional
The Hero, Heroine, Situation, and "Anything else?" fields are there if you want to give SteamyForge more direction. But they're entirely optional for both paths. If you use Path 1, SteamyForge will create compelling characters on its own.* If you use Path 2, the fields help shape the optimization suggestions.

Once you're happy with your premise and title, click I'm happy with my premise and title ✓. The chapter count and word count fields appear along with your two options to proceed.

Chapter Count & Word Count

The default is 35 chapters targeting 90,000 words. These are good defaults for a commercial romance novel. You can adjust both — fewer chapters for a shorter book, more for a longer one. The word count is a target, not a guarantee.

Two ways to proceed

✨ Write My Book For Me — the gold button

This is the fully automated path and SteamyForge's signature feature. Click it and the engine generates the premise (if you haven't), creates the book, plans every chapter, builds your series bible, and drafts the entire manuscript automatically. A sparkle effect confirms the magic has started. Come back when it's done.

Review the output carefully — AI-generated drafts benefit from a human editorial pass.* You can reject any chapter with notes and get a revised draft.

Create Book & Generate Plan →

Creates your book, then generates a chapter-by-chapter plan for you to review and approve before any writing begins. Recommended if you want to review the structure before committing to a full draft.

Chapter 5

Chapter Planning & Your Series Bible

Your premise becomes a full chapter-by-chapter plan. You approve every detail before prose is generated.

If you chose "Create Book & Generate Plan," SteamyForge builds a complete chapter-by-chapter plan using your premise. This typically takes 30–90 seconds.

Each chapter in the plan includes:

What's in each chapter plan

Title — a chapter title that hints at the content.
POV — which character's perspective this chapter is told from.
Summary — a one-sentence description of what happens.
Beats — the 4–5 key moments or events in the chapter.
Tone — the emotional register (e.g., "tense and yearning" or "playful banter").
Target words — the word count target for this chapter.

Reviewing your plan

The plan review screen gives you full control over every chapter. You can:

Edit any chapter — change the title, summary, POV, beats, or tone.
Approve individual chapters by clicking the checkmark.
Delete any chapter using the ✕ button — remove chapters that don't fit.
Approve All if you're happy with everything.
Regenerate with feedback — type what you want changed and click regenerate. SteamyForge revises the plan while keeping chapters you've approved.
Reject All & Regenerate — discard the entire plan and start fresh. Use this if the plan misses the mark entirely.
Start Over — go back to your premise to adjust settings. Your premise is preserved.

Adjusting chapter count and word count

The plan review screen includes editable Chapter Count and Word Count fields at the top. If the generated plan doesn't have the right number of chapters, adjust the count and click Reject All & Regenerate to get a new plan with your updated settings.

Nothing is written until you say so
Approving a chapter plan means you're satisfied with its direction. No prose is generated until chapters are approved and you click "Start Writing."

Your Series Bible

When you approve the plan, SteamyForge automatically generates a series bible — a database of characters, locations, voice notes, and world rules from your book. This bible is injected into each chapter generation to help maintain consistency across your manuscript.* Results may vary — reviewing your chapters for continuity is recommended.

You can view and edit the bible at any time through the Guided View's bible card or through Dashboard View.

Chapter 6

Writing Your Chapters

You provide the creative direction. The engine handles the labour.

Once chapters are approved, click ⚡ Approve All & Generate →. SteamyForge begins batch generation — drafting each chapter in sequence, one at a time.

How batch generation works

Each chapter is written with full context: the series bible, the plot notes and beats from your plan, and summaries of the previous chapters. This means chapter 20 knows everything that happened in chapters 1–19.

After each chapter is written, SteamyForge automatically generates a continuity summary. This summary feeds into the next chapter's context, keeping the story consistent.

You can navigate around the app while batch generation runs. The status bar at the bottom shows progress. Writing a full 35-chapter book typically takes 2–4 hours.

Draft slots

Each chapter has three draft slots. The first generation fills Draft 1. If you're not happy with a chapter, you can reject it with notes explaining what to fix, and SteamyForge generates a revised version in Draft 2. You can compare drafts side by side and keep the one you prefer.

Word count expectations

Each chapter targets approximately 3,000–3,500 words. In practice, chapters typically range from 2,000–4,000 words depending on the scene. If a chapter comes back under 3,000 words, SteamyForge flags it with a warning so you can regenerate for a fuller draft.

Chapter word counts will vary
The AI writes each chapter to serve the story. Some chapters will be longer (particularly intimate scenes and climactic moments) and some will be shorter (transitions, setup chapters). This variation is normal and produces a more natural-reading manuscript.
Chapter 7

Exporting Your Finished Manuscript

From SteamyForge to your bookshelf.

When all chapters are drafted, the Export card appears. You have three download options:

📦 Download Manuscript

Exports all drafted chapters as a single .docx file with chapter headings and page breaks. Ready for formatting in Atticus, Vellum, or direct upload to KDP.

📖 Download Series Bible

Exports your complete series bible as a .docx file — all characters, locations, voice notes, and world rules. Essential if you're writing a series and need continuity for your next book.

📋 Download Chapter Plan

Exports the chapter plan as a text file — titles, summaries, beats, and POV assignments for every chapter.

After exporting your manuscript, SteamyForge offers to generate a bible update — this captures any new characters, relationship changes, and a book summary for series continuity. Accept it and your bible is ready for Book 2.

Chapter 8

Lizzy Wizzy — Your Personal Guide

Your in-app guide for questions and tips.

Lizzy Wizzy is SteamyForge's built-in AI assistant. She appears as a 💄 icon in the bottom-right corner of the screen. Click her to open the chat panel.

Lizzy can help you with:

What Lizzy does

Brainstorming — "Help me come up with a premise for an enemies-to-lovers mafia romance"
Explaining features — "What does the series bible do?"
Next steps — "What should I do next?"
Writing advice — "How many sex scenes should a scorching romance have?"
Troubleshooting — "My chapter didn't generate, what happened?"

Lizzy also leaves contextual tips as you move through the guided flow. You can turn her on or off with the toggle on the welcome screen.

Chapter 9

Pricing & Book Codes

Simple, transparent, no subscriptions.

SteamyForge uses a pay-per-book model. No monthly subscriptions. No recurring charges. You pay once per book.

WhatPriceDetails
Free trialFreeYour first 10 chapters on your first book. No payment required.
Full book$99Per book. One-time purchase unlocks all chapters and features for that book.

Your first book starts with 10 free chapters — enough to see the full quality of the engine and decide if it's right for you. When you're ready to complete your book, a single $99 purchase unlocks everything. Every book after your first is $99.

14-day refund policy
If you're not satisfied, you can request a full refund within 14 days of purchase. No questions asked.
Chapter 10

Tips for the Best Results

Small things that make a big difference.

1. Spend time on your premise

The more specific your premise, the better your manuscript. A vague premise produces vague chapters. A detailed premise with named characters, clear stakes, and specific conflicts produces a focused, compelling book.

2. Review your chapter plan

Don't just approve everything blindly. Read each chapter's summary and beats. If something doesn't fit, edit it. The plan is your blueprint — the better the blueprint, the better the building.

3. Use the Optimize feature

After writing or generating your premise, click "Optimize My Premise." SteamyForge checks it against your chosen trope and setting conventions and flags any issues — contradictions, vague elements, missing genre requirements. It's like having a developmental editor review your concept before you start.

4. Your manuscript is a first draft

SteamyForge produces a complete first draft. Like any first draft, it benefits from a human editing pass. Read through it, adjust dialogue, fix names if needed, smooth transitions, and add your personal voice. The best published books are collaborations between the writer and the tools they use.

5. Back up your work

Use the 💾 Backup button to export a JSON file of your entire project. Do this regularly. You can also export your series bible separately.

6. Character names may vary

SteamyForge uses curated name pools drawn from real-world data to produce authentic, market-appropriate character names. Occasionally the AI may select names outside these pools. If you want specific character names, include them in your premise — the engine will generally use names you've specified, though occasional variations may occur.*

Reference

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to write a full book?
A 35-chapter book typically takes 2–4 hours of generation time. You don't need to watch it — batch generation runs in the background while you do other things.
Can I edit the generated text?
Yes. Every chapter draft is fully editable. You can change any word, sentence, or paragraph directly in the app before exporting.
What if I don't like a chapter?
Reject it with notes explaining what to fix, and SteamyForge generates a revised version in the next draft slot. Each chapter has three draft slots so you can compare versions.
Can I write a series?
Yes. SteamyForge is built for series. Your series bible carries over from book to book, and after each book, a bible update captures new characters and relationship changes for continuity.
What AI model does SteamyForge use?
SteamyForge uses a proprietary AI engine optimised for commercial fiction. The engine handles prose generation, chapter planning, and bible extraction automatically.
Is my data private?
Your manuscripts are stored securely on our servers. We do not use your work to train any AI model. For details on third-party data handling, see our privacy policy.
Can I publish the books I create?
Absolutely. You own everything SteamyForge generates. Your name goes on the cover. You keep 100% of the royalties. Publish on Amazon KDP, other retailers, or sell direct — it's your book.
What file format does the manuscript export as?
.docx (Microsoft Word format). This is compatible with Atticus, Vellum, Reedsy, KDP direct upload, and virtually every publishing tool.
What's the difference between Guided View and Dashboard View?
Guided View walks you through the process step by step with cards. Dashboard View gives you direct access to all features — series bible, chapter planner, individual chapter editing, batch generation, and more. First-time users should start with Guided View. Switch to Dashboard when you're comfortable with the workflow.
What if I want to change my trope or setting after I've started?
Create a new book within your series. Each book has its own trope, setting, and heat level. Your series bible carries over, but the genre DNA is set per book.
* AI Disclaimer

SteamyForge is powered by AI technology. While the engine is designed to produce high-quality, consistent output, AI-generated content is inherently unpredictable. Results may vary between generations, and the engine may occasionally produce output that deviates from your instructions — including incorrect character names, inconsistent plot details, unexpected chapter lengths, or content that doesn't match your specified trope, setting, or heat level.

All AI-generated content should be reviewed and edited by the user before publishing. SteamyForge is a drafting tool, not a finished-manuscript generator. The user is responsible for the final quality of any published work.

Generation caps, pricing, features, and AI behaviour are subject to change. Empathy Tech Solutions LLC makes no guarantees regarding the specific output, quality, or consistency of AI-generated content.