/chapter-writing

Chapter Writing

Overview

Write story chapters using an outline-first workflow. Gathers context from all other story elements (characters, world, plot) to maintain consistency, builds a beat-by-beat outline for approval, then writes full prose. After writing, updates all cross-references (chapter index, timeline, foreshadowing).

Prerequisites

A story project must already exist with at least:

• story.md (story bible)
• At least one character in characters/
• A plot structure in plot/_index.md (recommended but not required for first chapters)

Prose Pass and Companion Skill

The in-repo line-editing skill owns the prose-quality pass (line edit, voice differentiation, copyedit, read-aloud, proof). It ships with Story Skills, so it is always available: run it on a drafted chapter before marking it revised.

The external better-writing skill is an optional complement for general prose quality and anti-generic writing checks. Before drafting or revising chapter prose, check whether it is available in the active agent environment. Detect it by looking for its skill directory in the configured skills paths:

ls -d ~/.claude/skills/better-writing .claude/skills/better-writing ~/.agents/skills/better-writing .agents/skills/better-writing skills/better-writing 2>/dev/null

• If a better-writing directory exists (containing SKILL.md), use it for prose quality, voice calibration, anti-generic writing checks, and the final pre-flight pass before saving the chapter.
• If better-writing is not installed, point the user at forjd/better-writing and ask whether they want to install it; do not run any installer without explicit approval. Then continue with this skill's built-in writing guidelines (references/writing-guidelines.md) if the user does not install it.

Outline-First Workflow

1. Gather Context

If the chapter you are drafting already has a file with its pov and characters set (for example a planned chapter that story next names), start with its packed context:

story context chapter-{NN} --path .

It prints, within a token budget (--budget, default 6000), the chapter's outline and cast, the story.md essentials and style-sheet.md rules, the POV character's knowledge and state at that point, cards for the characters on the page and the chapter's locations (with their progressions applied at this chapter), open promises, clues, and questions, and summaries of the previous scenes. It includes nothing from later chapters, so it is safe to draft from. Add --json if you would rather read the items as data. Read the files it lists under "Left out to fit the budget" when you need them. For a new chapter, run it after step 2 instead.

Read what the packed context leaves out, as needed:

• story.md - genre, themes, POV, tense
• style-sheet.md, when present - voice, house spellings, dialogue punctuation, character voices, and watch words. If it is missing, draft normally and suggest the voice-style skill once a chapter exists
• chapters/_index.md - what's been written, current word count
• plot/_index.md - arc status, what needs to happen next
• plot/timeline.md - chronological position
• scenes/_index.md - scene state already recorded
• continuity/state.md - character, object, and knowledge state
• continuity/questions/_index.md and continuity/promises/_index.md - unresolved mysteries and setup/payoff commitments

If this isn't the first chapter, also read:

• The previous chapter file - for continuity (ending state, cliffhangers, emotional tone)
• Active arc files in plot/arcs/ - for upcoming plot beats

2. Determine Chapter Scope

Ask the user:

• What should this chapter cover? (or suggest based on plot arcs)
• Whose POV?
• Which location(s)?

If plot arcs exist, suggest the next logical beats to advance.

Once the scope is agreed, give the chapter its POV and cast so the packed context can include them: create a new chapter with story add chapter "Title" --pov <character-id> --character <character-id> --location <location-id>, or set pov, characters, and locations in an existing chapter's frontmatter. Then run story context chapter-{NN} --path . (or pass a scene id, chapter-{NN}-scene-{NN}, to draft one scene) and build the outline and prose from it.

3. Build the Outline

Create a beat-by-beat outline listing:

• Each scene/beat and what it accomplishes
• POV character and location for each beat
• Which arc plot points are advanced
• Any foreshadowing to plant or pay off
• Any machine-readable state changes the scene should record
• Each scene's intended outcome (yes, no, yes-but, no-and) and how the chapter ends (hook)

Load the POV character's file for voice reference. Load relevant location files for setting details.

Present the outline to the user for approval. Revise until approved.

4. Write the Chapter

With the approved outline, write the full prose:

• Follow the POV and tense from story.md
• Use the POV character's voice and speech patterns from their profile
• Ground scenes in location details from worldbuilding files
• Consult references/writing-guidelines.md for quick prose craft guidance. For the deep reference — the Scene/Sequel unit, dialogue subtext and voice-differentiation, deep POV and psychic distance — use the scene-craft skill.
• Give each speaker their recorded voice, using voice-words and avoiding voice-avoid from their character file
• When available, apply the better-writing skill before finalizing prose; the line-editing skill handles the fuller prose pass afterwards
• To check a drafted scene before saving it, pipe it to story prose - (style sheet, filter words, echoes) and story voices - (voice-avoid words) from the project folder
• Use the chapter template from references/chapter-template.md
• Include the approved outline in the file above ## Chapter Text (for reference). CLI word counts start at that heading, so an outline kept above it never inflates word-count: run story wordcount . --write after writing to record counts.

Save to chapters/chapter-{NN}.md with appropriate frontmatter.

Create or update a matching scene file in scenes/chapter-{NN}-scene-{NN}.md for each scene. Scene frontmatter should include title, chapter, scene, pov, location, characters, mentions, arcs-advanced, status, date, time, and state-changes so continuity survives beyond prose. Set date (YYYY-MM-DD) and time ("HH:MM" or dawn, morning, midday, afternoon, evening, night) on every scene as its moment settles, and travel-hours (a number) when the POV character had to travel since the previous scene: undated scenes silently switch off the clock and route checks in story continuity, and story timeline lists them as undated. Set outcome on each goal-driven scene record to what actually happened on the page (yes, no, yes-but, no-and), and set the chapter's hook to how it actually ends (cliffhanger, question, revelation, reversal, decision, emotional, resolution).

Write chapter prose directly into the chapter markdown file. Do not stage prose in project-local build scripts, generator scripts, or bulk writer scripts (for example build-*.js) to emit chapters. If a temporary helper is truly unavoidable for mechanical file operations, keep it outside the story project and remove it before finishing.

5. Post-Write Updates

After the chapter is written:

1. Update chapters/_index.md - add chapter to registry, update total word count

2. Update plot/timeline.md - add events from this chapter in chronological order

3. Update arc files - mark advanced plot points with chapter reference

4. Update scene records - make sure every scene has a corresponding scenes/ file

5. Update continuity - carry forward character state, object ownership, knowledge, open questions, and promises/payoffs. The CLI reads the frontmatter of continuity/state.md, not its body tables (those are optional notes), so record state there:

   current-chapter: 3
   character-state:
     - character: mara-quill
       location: port-kestrel
       physical: bruised ribs
       emotional: wary
   object-state:
     - artifact: brass-key
       owner: mara-quill
       status: active
       since: chapter-03
   knowledge-state:
     - character: mara-quill
       knows: The ledger was forged
       learned-in: chapter-03

   story continuity checks these entries and story knowledge <id> --at <chapter> reads knowledge-state. When story.md links other books through follows or precedes, give reveals the series depends on a stable fact id in knowledge-state (see series-continuity)

6. Update foreshadowing - mark any items as planted or paid-off with chapter reference

7. Note character changes - if a character's status changed (injury, revelation, relationship shift), flag for the user to update the character file

8. Run CLI maintenance when available:

story wordcount . --write
story reindex .
story links .
story validate .
story next .
story pacing .
story progress . --log

story pacing . shows the new chapter's words, scene outcomes, and hook alongside the rest of the book, and warns about runs of yes outcomes, missing sequels, length outliers, or a missing hook.

story progress . --log records the session in progress.md and reports words against target-words, the deadline, and chapter target-words; skip the --log flag when the user does not keep a log.

Present a summary of all updates made.

Scene Breaks

Within a chapter, separate scenes with ---. Each scene should have a clear POV character (even if the same as the previous scene) and location.

Revision Handoff

When asked to revise or continuity-check an existing chapter, use the revision-continuity skill; for line edits, copyedits, and proofing, use the line-editing skill. This skill owns new drafting and chapter creation; revision-continuity owns targeted edits, continuity audits, and post-draft cleanup.

CLI Maintenance

Use the Story CLI when it is available. 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. If no CLI is available, perform the registry, backlink, and word-count checks manually.

Reference Files

• references/chapter-template.md - Frontmatter and structure template for chapter files
• references/scene-template.md - Machine-readable continuity template for scenes
• references/writing-guidelines.md - Quick-reference prose craft: show-don't-tell, POV, dialogue, pacing, scene structure, continuity. For the deep reference — the Scene/Sequel unit, dialogue subtext and voice-differentiation, deep POV and psychic distance — use the scene-craft skill.