Story Builder documentation

Achievements and the Inkling

Achievements are small medals for what you do in Story Builder: words written, days you came back, worlds built, books published, projects looked after. They are yours alone, they start from zero, and nothing you did before they arrived counts. The Inkling is an optional little companion that sits in the chapter editor's header.

How do I earn an achievement? #

You earn them by writing and building, with nothing to switch on. There are seventy medals in ten groups, and each one stays hidden until you earn it, so the groups tell you where to look and not what you will find:

  • Volume: words, chapters, characters and world records, the longest chapter and the length of a whole book.
  • Rhythm: days you wrote, days in a row, early mornings and late nights, whole weekends, coming back after a break, and returning to old work.
  • In one sitting: the most words in a day, writing sprints and your daily word goal.
  • Revision: restoring from a chapter's history, cutting words, writing synopses, turning ideas into records and a large find and replace.
  • Coherence: records that pass their consistency checks, lifespans, calendars and dated events, family trees, world rules, and how your records connect.
  • Invention: names from a language you built, languages, generated maps and town plans.
  • Structure: plotlines across chapters, the order of your cast, books and brainstorm boards.
  • Together: collaborators, readers' comments and your replies, and publishing.
  • Stewardship: backups, copies and templates, the archive, tags, custom fields, exports, imports and saving results from a Capture.
  • Quirks: small surprises, the kinds of record you have tried, and how many medals you hold.

Medals that count something come in three levels: bronze, silver and gold. The ones that mark a first time are earned once.

Where do I see my achievements? #

Open your profile and select Achievements. The page lists only what you have earned, grouped as above with the newest first, each with its date and what you did for it. There are no totals, progress bars or locked slots: a medal appears when you earn it, and it is never taken away.

When you earn one in the builder, a small notice shows the medal and its name. It closes by itself, and you can dismiss it sooner. If several arrive together, it shows three and counts the rest.

Do achievements count my old work? #

No. Counting starts when the feature arrives, so everyone begins with an empty page, however much they have written. Words are counted on the day you write them, in your time zone, and one very large paste counts for only part of its length. They are added in small batches, so a medal for words can arrive up to half a minute after you stop typing.

How do I turn off the notices? #

In Settings, on the Workspace tab, turn off Achievement toasts. Medals are still earned and still appear on your profile.

What is the Inkling? #

The Inkling is a small creature in the header of the chapter editor, beside the word count. It is off by default; turn on Inkling in Settings, on the Workspace tab.

Its shape and colour follow the genre of the book you are writing: the first genre of the book, or of the project when the book has none. A book with no genre gets a plain green one.

It never covers your text or your cursor, takes no clicks, stays in place in focus mode, and holds still if your device asks for reduced motion.

Tips #

  • Check your profile after a long writing day: the medals for words and days add up quietly.
  • Switch notices off for a drafting sprint; nothing is lost, the medals wait on your profile.
  • Give a book a genre in its publication settings and its Inkling takes that form.