Prepare a long-form article plan

The plan is the first content stage of the long-form post builder. It turns your prompt, target length, writing style, selected business context and optional research into the structure used by every later stage.

The complete workflow is described in Create a long-form post.

What the plan contains

The structured plan supplies:

• a working post title;
• an ordered list of article sections;
• a heading and writing brief for every section;
• target lengths distributed across those sections;
• image positions and image instructions when automatic images are enabled.

The tool saves this plan inside the persistent generation state. The progress panel exposes the section order and status, while the full plan remains an internal generation contract rather than an editable intermediate screen.

Steer the plan from the prompt

Shape the prompt around decisions the plan must make.

Name required coverage. For example: "Must cover price, implementation time, common risks and how to select a supplier."

Name exclusions. For example: "Do not include a history section or compare named competitors."

State the reader's position. A reader comparing suppliers needs a different structure from someone discovering the category.

Choose depth over breadth when needed. Ask for fewer, deeper sections when the subject should not become a shallow list.

Explain reference material. If you paste an article, state whether it is a tone, structure or formatting example. Do not leave the model to infer whether its facts are reusable.

Set image expectations in the main brief. You cannot edit individual image prompts. Explain the desired visual character, subjects to avoid and any brand restrictions in the article prompt or business profile. The planner then creates image instructions only where a visual adds value, up to the selected maximum.

Research before planning

Pro + internet runs a separate research operation before the plan. Use it for changing facts, supplied URLs or topics where current sources materially affect the article. The research result is saved and becomes an input to planning and section generation.

Standard and Pro skip this stage. Choosing a higher profile does not remove your responsibility to verify claims before publication.

How length affects the plan

The target is for the entire article. The planner divides it across sections, so a larger target can produce more sections, longer sections or both. Every section becomes its own generation request.

The Estimate first step action cannot price the complete plan-dependent workflow in advance. It estimates research or planning only. Once the plan exists, the progress panel can show the real number of section and image operations.

If the plan is not suitable

The current interface does not pause for plan editing. If the finished draft has the wrong coverage, improve the original prompt and start a new generation after dealing with the existing draft. Small structural changes are usually faster in the WordPress editor.

For future runs, translate the problem into an explicit prompt constraint:

Continue with Generate and review long-form sections.