I just thought I would share my experiences using local models with WordCrafter Pro. First a bit of my setup I run a Mac Studio M4 with 128GB RAM. So overkill for most things but large enough to run some larger size LLMs. With WordCrafter Pro I originally tried Ollama. I was able to see my local models without a problem however if I tried to connect with any of them, even setting context length, I kept getting 504 errors (if I remember correctly). So I moved over to LM Studio and tried with Gemma 4 31B with 128K context window. Again I could see my models but in case I could actually connect. I started with BrainStorm and threw it a silly throw away idea. Working through the BrainStorm process it was able to take this more or less random prompt and help craft it into something actual workable. I was able to take this and go through Story Dev then Character Creator. It seemed to more or less keep the conversation coherent and not drift too much from what we worked out. I did cause some direction changes, but much less than I normally would when working through a project, and it seemed to handle these changes fine. In this case I simply wanted evidence that it could work with the model then a finished project I would work on. Finally, I had it create the first chapter. The prose was more or less the standard AI generated I would expect but it generally kept to the story I wanted to create. In the process I did have a few cases where the prompt would process up to 100% on my side within LM Studio (i.e. finished) but then get disconnected and nothing showed up within WordCrafter Pro. Some of these might be some of the errors @Michael Culp was mentioning about in his post. Not sure who was at fault. However, asking it to 'continue' within the application seemed to work and allow it to finish the process as expected. Though I was starting to get the impression that the more context included within a prompt to the local model, the more likely it would run into problems and/or not be able to process at all.

I’m working on becoming a better and more consistent writer, and one of the reasons I joined this community was to connect with other authors who are figuring things out too. I’m interested in sharing ideas, talking about what’s working, being honest about the parts that are difficult, and learning from each other along the way. I just enjoy conversations about writing and the process behind it. What’s something you’ve been struggling with in your writing lately?

TL;dr: Thinking of changing the Tiers in Skool to match the tiers in WorCrafter.Pro that will go in effect next month and tie the two together for extra value and better algorithm visibility on Skool. Payments to be made through Skool instead of WCP. This is not a done deal. ****** Skool just added Reviews, but only paying users can leave reviews under the About button, And Discovery is based on an algorithm that includes income from the skool (which a primarily free skool doesn't make). The recommendation from several other Skool owners that do make good money from their channels is to change at least a minimal rate for everyone to have access. $2-$5 a month. This does a couple good things and a couple bad in my mind. The Good: Adds value to the site, makes us higher in the algorithm and Discovery will give us more free advertising. And we lose lurkers that have forgotten they are even here 8) The Bad: This is intended as free support for the software. And we lose our lurkers that are getting some value. And wil be a gateway for some new folks and I'll lose some folks here that just don't want another monthly fee And I truly want to help folks. So no. The free tier remains and will remain. But the upper two tiers.... So my Idea. At the end of the month I intend to tier the price of Wordcrafter.pro so different plugins will be available to users at the different levels. At the basic level you will get everything you need to write a book with a few extras. The PWS Skillroooms, custom prompting, basic graphics The pro level will give access to advanced graphics, the layout tools and the basic marketing reports. The Studio level is everything else, Audiobooks, path crafter, Merchandising, advancedmarketing and everything as it gets released. Founders will all be at the studio level. Everyone using it at the time will be set to the Studio level and have all access to all of the plugins and the new ones as they get released, as long as they stay members. I'll start sending out warning emails in advance, so if you have been thinking of giving it a try now is the time. First two weeks are free to check everything out. the advanced imaging and hopefully marketing tools will be released within the next week.

Do we need to have a class on book covers in WCP? There are a couple ways to do it and I'm sure I'm not doing it the best way yet, but I'm glad to share what i know in a Q&A format. I just need to know a good day/time for the most folks to participate and we'll record it for the rest. I'm getting pretty good results from the ones I show you all with very little effort. I'm working on a way to give more/easier control over type by using layers, and image under the type. These are really low effort below. They all could use some touchups.

Yes it can be done. Instead of deleting a single video in a youtube playlist I deleted the entire playlist. All 3600+ videos I had squirreled for a rainy day. Research, ideas, a couple of years worth of unsorted. Gone. Poof! The only way to somewhat "recover" is to scroll back through my history, but most of those I just saved for later and do not have an inkling what they were. So i'm in emotional and mental upheaval right now trying to take the high road and think, well if i don't know what they were I can't miss them right? Nope Nope Nope. My data pits: Youtube, Recall, Notes, Notion, Raindrop, etc.. are my first searches for things I know I know but cannot remember. Lesson in loss here I suppose. Or.....a notebooklm style rag database of all of my data pits to find.... nope nope nope. not going there either. time for a cry and then get back to life again