Novelcrafter

Persona or Preset?

When to use personas and when to use presets in Novelcrafter.

1 min read Last updated Apr 30, 2025

When you first start editing prompts, you may wonder when you should use a persona, and when a preset will apply better to your workflow.

Use a persona when…

  1. You want to share the information across multiple prompt types (i.e. in both your text replacement and scene beat completion prompts)
  2. The same information will be useful/used for multiple projects/series

Examples for personas include:

  • Pen name details/preferences
  • Style guides

Use a preset when…

  1. You have a favorite version of a prompt (but want to be able to tweak it at will)
  2. You have an AI model that you always use with a prompt
  3. You only want to use the instructions for one or two specific prompts (rather than across all chat prompts, for instance)

Examples for presets include:

  • A specific persona for your beta reader prompt
  • Style guide, word count, and other settings for scene beat completion prompts
  • Specific instructions for an expansion or rephrase prompt