Story Generation Tips

How Interests Shape Stories

The interests you set in your child's profile directly influence the story. If your child lists dinosaurs and space, they might become a young palaeontologist who discovers dinosaur fossils on a distant moon. The more specific the interest, the more it drives the plot.

Tips for better stories through interests:

• Be specific. "Horses" produces better results than "animals." "Building robots" produces better results than "science."
• Mix themes. Pairing "cooking" with "mystery" might produce a story about a young chef who solves a mystery hidden in a recipe. Unexpected combinations often produce the most engaging stories.
• Update as your child changes. You can change interests at any time from Children → Edit Profile. Changes take effect on the next story — not the current one.
• Use up to 5 interests. More than 5 risks pulling in too many themes; 2–4 usually produces the most coherent stories.

Genre, Mood and Chapter Controls

On the Overview page, before you tap Generate Story, you can customise the story using three selectors:

Genre — Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery, STEM, Everyday Life, Animals, Humor, Seasonal. If you leave it on "Any," the AI picks based on interests.

Mood — Bedtime (calm, shorter sentences, gentle resolution), Energetic (faster pace, exciting problem), Educational (more vocabulary challenge), Funny (light and humorous), Calming (soothing and reassuring). Mood affects tone and pacing, not content.

Chapters — 2 to 8. Shorter stories (2–4 chapters) suit younger children or tired evenings. Longer stories (6–8 chapters) suit confident readers who want more time in the story. If you leave it on "Auto," the system picks based on age.

These controls are optional — leaving everything on Auto produces good results.

The Daily Story Limit

Paid plans include one new story per day per child. The counter resets at midnight UTC.

If you see "Story already generated today" when you tap Generate, it means today's story already exists in your child's library. Find it in Dashboard → Stories — it may be waiting to be read.

The daily limit is intentional: research supports daily 15–20 minute reading sessions more strongly than occasional longer sessions. The limit encourages habit over binge.

Generation Takes Too Long

Story generation normally takes 20–40 seconds. The estimated time shown on screen includes:

• Story text generation (5–15 seconds)
• Safety check (2–5 seconds)
• Illustration generation (10–20 seconds)
• Narration recording (5–15 seconds, paid plans only)

If the spinner runs for more than 3 minutes without updating, the generation may have timed out. Pull down to refresh on the library screen and try again. The daily limit is not affected by a timeout — you can retry immediately.

Generation Failed

If you see a "Generation failed" error:

1. Check your connection. Story generation requires a live internet connection throughout the process.
2. Try again. Temporary server issues resolve within a few minutes. Tap Generate again.
3. Simplify the request. If generation consistently fails with a specific genre/mood combination, try setting them to Auto.
4. Contact support. If generation fails more than 3 times in a row, email [email protected] with your child's name and we'll investigate.

Story Quality Issues

The story feels off-topic or doesn't match interests. This sometimes happens when interest combinations are very broad. Try updating the interests to be more specific (see above) and generate a new story.

The story seems too easy / too hard. Adjust the Lexile level in Children → Edit Profile. The change takes effect on the next story. See the Analytics Guide for how to set the right Lexile level.

Characters have the wrong name. The child's first name from their profile is used as the protagonist's name. If the name appears incorrectly spelled in the story, check the profile spelling in Children → Edit Profile.

Saving and Revisiting Stories

All generated stories are permanently saved in Dashboard → Stories. Your child can re-read any story at any time, even after generating a new one. Stories are not deleted when a new one is generated.

You can also print a story as a PDF from the story detail view — useful for a physical keepsake or for reading without a screen.