Story Builder documentation

Templates

Ways to start a project that is not empty: a starter template at creation, or a template made from a project you have already shaped.

Starter templates

Creating a project offers four shapes, each of which is a set of modules and a genre rather than any content:

Template Turns on
Contemporary novel Chapters, characters, entries, plans, publication
Secondary-world fantasy The above plus locations, places, maps, organizations, creatures, timeline, events, graph
TTRPG campaign Characters, creatures, locations, places, maps, organizations, entries, events, timeline, images
Screenplay Chapters, characters, plans, events, publication

None of them is a commitment. Every module can be turned on or off afterwards, and nothing is deleted by turning one off — the template only decides what the project looks like on the first day.

Starting empty is also an option, and a reasonable one: chapters and characters, and the rest added when you reach for it.

Templates from your own projects

Once a project is set up the way you like — the modules you use, your custom fields, your vocabularies, your calendar — you can save that arrangement as a template and start the next project from it.

What travels is the shape: modules, custom fields, custom values, and the timeline configuration. What does not travel is the content — no chapters, no characters, no maps. A template is a room laid out, not a room with somebody's things in it.

Templates are saved to your account, so every project you start afterwards can begin from the same conventions.

Duplicating a project

Copying a whole project, content included, is a different operation and lives in project settings. Use a template to reuse a way of working; use a duplicate to branch a story — a second draft you want to take apart without losing the first.

Duplication is limited to a few per hour, because copying a large project is heavy work.