Story Builder documentation

Modules

Modules are the tools inside a project: chapters, characters, maps, a timeline and more. You switch on the ones your novel needs, so a tight thriller can run on chapters and characters while a fantasy with centuries of history adds the timeline and the maps.

How do I turn a module on or off? #

Open the project's Settings and go to Modules. Each module has a switch; turn it on and the module appears in the project's sidebar.

Switching a module off only hides it. Nothing in it is deleted, and switching it back on brings every record back as it was. The one module that asks first is Books: if the project has more than one book, switching Books off leaves only the chapters of your first book visible. The other books and their chapters are kept, and return when you switch Books back on.

Changing the order of the sidebar #

The modules list in Settings is also the order of the sidebar. Drag a module by its handle to move it up or down, and the sidebar follows.

Why can't I switch a module on? #

Some modules build on another one, so their switch stays off until the other is on. The list shows Requires … next to them.

Module Requires
Books, Lens Chapters
Events, Gantt Timeline
Locations Map
Places Locations

Which modules can a project have? #

Module What it gives you
Dashboard A board of cards showing recent changes, where you left off and what is unfinished
Timeline Your world's calendar, eras and dates
Events Things that happened, each placed on the timeline (world entities)
Entries Anything the other types do not fit: magic systems, laws, recipes (world entities)
Books Several books in one project, each with its own chapters, published on its own
Chapters The manuscript itself, in order, with word counts and revisions (chapters)
Lens Reports that read a book's chapters and show them as text, on a map, in time, or as a list of things that do not add up
Characters People, with biographies, traits, images and relations (characters)
Bestiary Species and beasts, whether or not they talk (world entities)
Organizations Guilds, houses, armies and companies (world entities)
Map Maps: images with your world pinned to them, in layers
Locations Places in the world, nested as deeply as you like (world entities)
Places Specific spots inside a location: a room, a crossroads, a grave (world entities)
Graph Every relation in the project drawn as one graph you can explore
Users Invite people to the project, change their roles and remove them (roles and permissions)
Images Every image in the project in one place, with the storage they use
Publication Publish the story to the library, choose which chapters readers see, and follow its analytics
Gantt The timeline as a chart, with chapters, events, locations and plotline beats laid out across it
Plotlines One thread of the story, beat by beat: what is written and what comes next (plotlines)
Diagrams Node graphs you draw yourself, for anything easier drawn than written
Brainstorm A whiteboard with sticky notes, text and connections, for ideas that have no shape yet
Ideas An inbox for raw ideas: write one down from anywhere, review it later and turn it into records
Archive Deleted records, kept for thirty days so you can restore them
Capture AI capture: proposes characters, places and events from a passage you wrote, for you to accept or discard
Languages The sounds, naming rules and words of each language in your world, with a name generator and a check of the names that belong to it
World rules The facts your world must keep, such as how far a traveller walks in a day, shown on the records they apply to and beside the chapter you are writing

Settings is always on and cannot be switched off. A module added after your project was made, such as World rules, starts switched on; switch it off here if you do not need it. Collections are not a module: you make them in Settings → Collections, and each gets its own sidebar row. Capture is being switched on for accounts and projects gradually, so you may not see it yet.

Do modules affect work suggestions? #

Yes. The suggestion panel points out work that looks unfinished, such as a character with no description, a chapter with no details set, or an event with no date. It only makes suggestions for modules you have switched on, so a project without events is never asked about undated events.

Tips #

  • Switch on what you will use this month. You can add a module the day you need it.
  • A starter template switches on a sensible set for your kind of story; adjust it afterwards.
  • Put the modules you open every day at the top of the list in Settings, so they sit at the top of the sidebar.
  • If a module you expect is missing from the sidebar, check Settings under Modules for a Requires … note.