Story Initialization

Story Initialization

Overview

Initialize a new story project with a structured markdown folder layout. Creates the story bible, registries, scene tracking, continuity state, glossary, worldbuilding folders, plot structure, and chapter tracker - all as cross-referenced markdown files with YAML frontmatter.

When to Use

• Starting a new story, book, or fiction project
• Setting up the folder structure for an existing story idea
• NOT for adding to an existing story project (use the domain-specific skills instead)
• NOT for a sequel, prequel, or companion to an existing book: use series-continuity, which links the projects and carries canon across
• NOT for converting an existing manuscript or chapter drafts: run story import <source> --title "{Title}" instead, then build out the bible from the entity candidates it prints

Workflow

1. Ask for basic story information:
   • Title
   • Genre and sub-genre
   • Brief synopsis (2-3 sentences)
   • Setting era/time period
   • Key themes (2-4)
   • POV style (first-person, third-person-limited, third-person-omniscient)
   • Tense (past, present, future, mixed)

If the Story CLI is available, prefer using it to create the starter project, then inspect and refine the generated files as needed:

story init "{Title}" --genre "{genre}" --sub-genre "{sub-genre}" --setting-era "{era}" --pov "{pov-style}" --tense "{tense}" --synopsis "{synopsis}" --theme "{theme-1}" --theme "{theme-2}"

The title must contain ASCII letters or digits, because the story id recorded in every registry is derived from it (--dir sets only the directory). init refuses an existing directory unless you pass --force; with --force it only creates missing starter files and never overwrites an existing story.md, registry, timeline, or continuity/state.md.

If story is not installed, use bun run story -- from the Story Skills repository checkout or the bundled fallback node ../story-maintenance/scripts/story.js with the same arguments, resolving the path relative to this skill folder:

node ../story-maintenance/scripts/story.js init "{Title}"

If neither command is available, create the files manually using the steps below.

2. Create the folder structure at the current working directory:

{story-title-kebab}/
├── story.md
├── style-sheet.md
├── characters/
│   └── _index.md
├── worldbuilding/
│   ├── _index.md
│   ├── locations/
│   ├── systems/
│   ├── factions/
│   └── artifacts/
├── plot/
│   ├── _index.md
│   ├── arcs/
│   └── timeline.md
├── scenes/
│   └── _index.md
├── continuity/
│   ├── state.md
│   ├── questions/
│   │   └── _index.md
│   ├── promises/
│   │   └── _index.md
│   └── clues/
│       └── _index.md
├── glossary/
│   ├── _index.md
│   └── terms/
└── chapters/
    └── _index.md

3. Populate story.md with the story bible:

---
title: "{Title}"
schema-version: 2
genre: {genre}
sub-genre: {sub-genre}
setting-era: {era}
status: planning
themes:
  - {theme-1}
  - {theme-2}
premise: "{One-sentence controlling idea: value + cause, e.g. justice triumphs because the hero outsmarts the system}"
counter-premise: "{The antagonist's embodied argument}"
pov: {pov-style}
tense: {tense}
---

Below the frontmatter, include sections:

• Synopsis - the 2-3 sentence synopsis provided
• Tone & Style - brief notes on the story's voice (derive from genre/themes)
• Notes - empty section for the user to fill in

4. Draft a working premise:

Fill in the premise: and counter-premise: fields as hypotheses, not commitments. The premise is a one-sentence controlling idea — value + cause, e.g. "justice triumphs because the hero outsmarts the system". The counter-premise is the antagonist's embodied argument: the story's opposing value, stated as the antagonist would believe it. Draft both early, alongside the synopsis, but do not force theme — a working premise is a guess to be audited, not a conclusion to be imposed. Revisit it during revision: the revision-continuity theme audit pass (see the theme-craft skill for the deep pass) checks whether the ending actually dramatizes the premise through consequence. If the draft argues a different premise, update the premise, not the draft.

5. Populate each _index.md with an empty registry:

characters/_index.md:

---
type: character-registry
story: {story-title-kebab}
---

# Characters

## Registry

| Name | Role | Status | File |
|------|------|--------|------|
| *No characters yet* | | | |

## Relationship Map

*No relationships defined yet.*

## Family Trees

*No family trees defined yet.*

worldbuilding/_index.md:

---
type: world-registry
story: {story-title-kebab}
---

# Worldbuilding

## World Overview

*Describe the world at a high level here.*

## Locations

| Name | Type | Region | File |
|------|------|--------|------|
| *No locations yet* | | | |

## Systems

| Name | Type | File |
|------|------|------|
| *No systems yet* | | |

## Factions

| Name | Type | Status | File |
|------|------|--------|------|
| *No factions yet* | | | |

## Artifacts

| Name | Type | Status | File |
|------|------|--------|------|
| *No artifacts yet* | | | |

plot/_index.md:

---
type: plot-registry
story: {story-title-kebab}
structure: three-act
---

# Plot Structure

## Story Structure

**Model:** Three-Act Structure (adjust as needed)

## Arcs

| Name | Type | Status | File |
|------|------|--------|------|
| *No arcs yet* | | | |

## Theme Tracking

| Theme | Arcs | Chapters |
|-------|------|----------|
| *No themes tracked yet* | | |

plot/timeline.md:

---
type: timeline
story: {story-title-kebab}
---

# Story Timeline

| When | Event | Arc | Chapter |
|------|-------|-----|---------|
| *No events yet* | | | |

chapters/_index.md:

---
type: chapter-registry
story: {story-title-kebab}
---

# Chapters

## Registry

| # | Title | POV | Status | Word Count | File |
|---|-------|-----|--------|------------|------|
| *No chapters yet* | | | | | |

## Total Word Count: 0

Also create the v2 support files. Every registry and continuity/state.md needs story: {story-title-kebab} in addition to its type, or story validate reports a missing story field:

• scenes/_index.md with frontmatter type: scene-registry and story: {story-title-kebab}
• continuity/state.md with frontmatter type: continuity-state, story: {story-title-kebab}, current-chapter: 0, and empty character-state, object-state, and knowledge-state lists
• continuity/questions/_index.md with frontmatter type: question-registry and story: {story-title-kebab}
• continuity/promises/_index.md with frontmatter type: promise-registry and story: {story-title-kebab}
• continuity/clues/_index.md with frontmatter type: clue-registry and story: {story-title-kebab}
• glossary/_index.md with frontmatter type: glossary-registry and story: {story-title-kebab}
• style-sheet.md (optional) with frontmatter type: style-sheet, dialect: unspecified, and empty preferred, watch-words, and allow-words lists, plus the body sections described in the voice-style skill

If manual initialization gets tedious, stop and ask the user to install or run the Story CLI rather than inventing a different project shape.

6. Present a summary of what was created and suggest next steps:

   • "Add your first character" (triggers character-management skill)
   • "Start worldbuilding" (triggers worldbuilding skill)
   • "Define your plot structure" (triggers plot-structure skill)
   • "Set up the style sheet" (triggers voice-style skill) once there is a writing sample
   • "Run story next ." to show deterministic next actions

7. When CLI access is available, run a final maintenance check:

story validate {story-title-kebab}

If story is not installed, use bun run story -- from the Story Skills repository checkout or the bundled fallback node ../story-maintenance/scripts/story.js with the same arguments, resolving the path relative to this skill folder.

Reference Files

• references/title-logline.md - Title craft (comps, hook phrasing, title as promise) and the logline recipe

Conventions

These conventions apply across ALL story skills:

• Kebab-case filenames for all entity files (e.g., sera-voss.md, ashen-citadel.md)
• YAML frontmatter on every file for structured metadata
• Schema version - story.md frontmatter includes schema-version: 2
• _index.md files are authoritative registries for each domain
• story.md is the top-level bible read by all skills for context
• style-sheet.md records voice and house style; skills that write or revise prose read it
• Bidirectional cross-links - when referencing another entity, update both files
• Character identifiers use the kebab-case filename without extension (e.g., sera-voss)
• Death tracking - when a character dies on the page, set status: deceased and died-in: chapter-{NN} so story continuity can flag posthumous appearances
• mentions vs characters - chapter and scene frontmatter lists characters present in-scene under characters; characters who are only referenced, remembered, recorded, or seen in flashback go under mentions
• Scene identifiers use chapter-{NN}-scene-{NN} and live in scenes/
• Continuity state lives in continuity/state.md, with open questions, promises, and clues tracked under continuity/questions/, continuity/promises/, and continuity/clues/
• Markdown-first artifacts - create and edit story content directly in the target .md files. Do not create project-local build scripts, generator scripts, or bulk writer scripts (for example build-*.js) to emit story files.
• CLI helpers stay external - the only JavaScript helper agents should run is the installed or bundled Story CLI (story, bun run story --, or story-maintenance/scripts/story.js) for deterministic maintenance. Do not copy it into the user's story project, and remove any unavoidable scratch helper before finishing.