AI caddy
The AI Caddy: What It Helps With and Where It Stops
Questions, drafts and checks you can throw away, sitting beside your chapters and writing inside them only when you press the button
WriterCaddy Team · October 17, 2026 · updated October 21, 2026 · 6 min read
Marcus has rewritten the opening of his thriller nine times. He does not want software to write chapter one for him; he wants someone to ask the awkward question his writing group keeps dodging, and he wants a back-cover paragraph he can tear apart. He is also wary of any tool that pastes its own sentences into his manuscript while he is not looking.
That is the shape of the AI caddy on the WriterDesk. Each tool sits on the step where it is useful, reads only the text that tool needs from this book, and answers under the button. Nothing it says goes into the book until you press a button under the answer, such as "Use as back blurb". You copy what you want, use what fits, and ignore the rest.
What the caddy is, and what it is not
A caddy carries the bag; the golfer swings. The About page explains the name, and the tools follow it. The caddy runs on a large language model, and every task it is given starts from the same instruction: it is a caddy for a writer, not the author, it must never claim your voice, and it must never rewrite a whole chapter.
So the tools ask questions, flag problems and offer drafts labelled as drafts. They do not invent an ISBN, a citation, a quotation's source or a page number. When a tool needs material you have not written yet, the desk says so before anything is sent. Try "Brainstorm the idea" on an empty intent and it replies: "Write the intent first. The caddy should not invent what the book is for."
The tools that run today
The desk shows each tool by name with a one-line description. These are the live ones and where they sit:
| Step | Tool | What comes back | What you can put in the book |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intent or Story | Brainstorm the idea | Questions and a shape, not a book | Copy only |
| Intent or Story | Suggest impactful titles | Title, subtitle and chapter-name options | "Use as title", "Use as subtitle", "Use these chapter names" |
| Intent | Hold a series together | Questions about names, ages and what this volume assumes | Copy only |
| House | Check print, size, and ISBN | Fit questions about the path, trim and an ISBN you own | Copy only |
| House | Convert to another house | What changes at each other house | Copy only |
| Chapters | Format the chapter | Grammar, spelling, tone and length notes, line by line | "Apply this wording", one line at a time |
| Chapters | Comprehend the chapter | A draft summary, and questions with answers | "Add … to the end of the chapter" |
| Chapters | Keep the thread | What a reader might lose between chapters | Copy only |
| Chapters | Suggest the flow | Whether the chapter order holds, and where a gap sits | Copy only |
| Chapters | Bring the sources | Which claims would need a source | Copy only |
| Chapters | Describe a picture | Words for a reader who cannot see the image | "Use as alt text for picture 1" |
| Chapters | Fit a figure | Sizes for a figure or table at this trim | Copy only |
| Chapters | Draft the pages | Rough pages from your notes | "Insert draft below my notes" |
| Matter | Build the finder (contents, index, appendix) | Draft lists with no invented page numbers | "Use as the index", "Use as the appendix" |
| Cover | Draft the back cover | About 120 words and a headline | "Use as back blurb", "Use as headline" |
| Cover | Write the pitch | A synopsis and the opening of a query | Copy only |
| Cover | About the author | A short bio from your own notes | "Use as About the author" |
| Facts | What a submission still needs | The facts still thin, with no invented ISBN | Copy only |
| Facts | Book Category Suggestion | Five plain shelves a shop might use | "Use as category" |
| Check | Clear the preflight | The smallest change that would clear each open line | Copy only |
The audiobook and read-aloud steps carry a few more. "Say the names" can add names to How to say the names, "Opening and closing" can fill the credits, "Write the spoken line" and "Describe a picture" look at your page pictures and can fill each page, "Order the pages" can reorder them, and "Pace the pages" can set how long each page holds in the video.
When a button would replace something you already wrote, the desk shows what is there now and asks first. After it writes, Undo takes it back.
How one ask works
- Start a book of your own. On the sample, or when signed out, the tools are greyed with the note "These open after you start a book."
- Go to the step whose text you want read, and fill it in first.
- Click the tool's name. A panel opens: "Optional. Nothing goes into the book unless you press a button below the answer."
- The first time in a session, tick "I agree to use the AI tools".
- Press "Ask". The button reads "Reading… up to a minute" while the answer is on its way.
- Read the answer under the button. Press "Copy", or a button under "Put it in the book", then "Close".
Each ask sends only what that tool needs. The chapter tools send the open chapter in full, up to about 4,000 words; for a longer chapter the panel says how many words were read. Whole-book tools, like the back cover, the pitch and the finder, read the chapter titles, how each chapter opens, and the names found across the book. Tools for pictures send the page art too. Each account has a daily number of asks; when it is reached the desk says so and the book stays as it is. If the answer fails, the message confirms the book was not touched.
What using the caddy costs
Every verified account can try the caddy free, once: 5 questions, 1 picture and a 30-second voice sample of the first paragraph, with no card. A free question reads up to about 1,500 words, so on a long chapter the answer notes that it read only the start. The AI panel counts the free questions down, and at zero its button reads "Activate AI to continue".
After the taste, the tools run on the AI plan, $29.99 a month on top of the WriterCaddy plan. Each month includes about 150,000 words of answers, 60 pictures and 5 hours of narration; at a limit the panel says the date it resets. Using the caddy never changes how a book's clean file is handled. The pricing page has both plans, and the guide to previews and the plan covers what the trial does and does not open.
Common mistakes with the caddy
- Asking before writing. The tool reads the step, not your intentions. An empty Intent gets a request for the intent, not a guess.
- Expecting a rewrite. "Format the chapter" names the line and the problem and offers shorter wording only for lines it flags. The rest of the prose is yours to change.
- Sending a whole novel at once. The chapter tools read one chapter at a time, and only its first 4,000 words or so. Work chapter by chapter, starting with the one you are stuck on.
- Treating a draft blurb as finished. "Draft the back cover" labels its answer a draft. Read it as a sparring partner, then write your own.
- Spending the free questions on easy chapters. Five questions go quickly. Point them at the chapter you are most stuck on.
Try it on one chapter
Open the WriterDesk, start a book, and run "Keep the thread" on the chapter you trust least. The questions it raises are often the ones a first reader would have asked. Then use the Listen button to hear whether your fix reads the way you meant.
Which part of your manuscript would you most like a second pair of eyes on? Write to us at [email protected].
Try it on your own book
The sample books on the desk show every step before you start one of your own.
