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

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 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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

story validate {story-title-kebab}

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.

story-init