Story Builder documentation

Modules

A project shows only the modules you turn on. A tight thriller needs chapters and characters; a fantasy with three centuries of history needs the timeline and the maps as well.

Turning them on and off

Modules are set per project, in project settings, and the choice is reversible. Turning one off hides it — nothing in it is deleted, and turning it back on brings the records back untouched.

Turn on what you will use this month. An empty module in the sidebar is a small reproach every time you open the project, and you can add it the day you need it.

What each one is for

Module Use it for
Chapters The manuscript itself, in order, with word counts and revisions
Characters People, with biographies, traits, images and relations
Locations Places in the world, nested as deeply as you like
Places Specific spots inside a location — a room, a crossroads, a grave
Organizations Guilds, houses, armies, companies
Creatures Species and beasts, whether or not they talk
Events Things that happened, placed on the timeline
Entries Anything the other types do not fit — magic systems, languages, recipes
Timeline Dates and eras, and what happened when
Maps Images with pinned locations, layered
Plans Outlines and structure work
Diagrams Node graphs for anything that is easier drawn than written
Brainstorm A whiteboard for thinking before it is organised
Custom values Your own vocabularies — house colours, magic schools, ranks

Suggestions

Several modules feed the suggestion panel, which points out work that looks unfinished: a character with no biography, a chapter with no scene, an event with no date. They are prompts rather than errors, and they respect which modules you have on — a project without a timeline is never asked about dates.

Read next: chapters, characters, or world entities for the rest of the record types.