version: "1.0.1" name: story-init description: This skill should be used when the user asks to "start a new story", "initialize a story project", "create a story", "new book", "set up a story", or wants to begin a new fiction writing project from scratch.

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 finding the idea itself: when the user has only a vague notion ("something about lighthouses"), several competing ideas, or no premise yet, run the premise-workshop skill first, then return here with the chosen premise, form, and genre
• 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 (if a premise-workshop session produced a premise, logline, genre, and form, reuse them rather than asking again):

• Title
• Form: novel, novella, novelette, short-story, flash, serial, picture-book, or chapter-book. Without --form, story init writes no form and no target-words, so if the user doesn't choose, pass --form novel
• 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}" --form "{form}" --genre "{genre}" --sub-genre "{sub-genre}" --setting-era "{era}" --pov "{pov-style}" --tense "{tense}" --synopsis "{synopsis}" --theme "{theme-1}" --theme "{theme-2}"

--form records form in story.md and, when no target is given, sets a default target-words for the form (novel 80,000, novella 30,000, novelette 12,000, short story 5,000, flash 1,000, chapter book 10,000, picture book 500; serials get no book-level default). story validate then warns when target-words is outside the form's usual range. For short forms, point the user to references/short-story-form.md in the plot-structure skill.

Publishing metadata (isbn, publisher, publication-date, description, keywords, subjects, copyright, cover-alt, ai-disclosure, language) is optional and can wait until the book is ready to publish; the publishing skill fills it in. Do not ask for it at init.

The story id recorded in every registry is the kebab-case form of the title (--dir sets only the directory). A title with no ASCII letters or digits, such as Война и мир, needs --dir with an ASCII folder name, and the story id then comes from the folder name. 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.

1. 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

1. Populate story.md with the story bible:

---
title: "{Title}"
schema-version: 2
genre: {genre}
sub-genre: {sub-genre}
setting-era: {era}
status: planning
form: {form}
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

1. 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.

1. 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.

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

• "Workshop the premise" (triggers premise-workshop skill) if the premise is still a guess
• "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

1. 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.