storynote

Getting Started: Your First Story in Storynote

This guide takes you from an empty account to your first real coaching conversation in about five minutes. You will create a story, learn how cards and folders work, write a premise, and ask the coach its first question. By the end you will understand the core loop that the rest of Storynote builds on.

You do not need to prepare anything. A single sentence of an idea is enough to begin.

Step 1: Create a story

A story is the top level container for everything related to one project: your premise, characters, world, plot, and chapters. Most writers keep one story per book or screenplay.

From your dashboard, choose New story, give it a working title, and confirm. Do not overthink the title. It is easy to change later, and the title has nothing to do with how the coach helps you.

Once created, the story opens into your workspace. On the left is the folder tree, in the middle is your editor, and the coach is one click away.

Step 2: Understand the folder tree and cards

Storynote organizes work as cards inside a folder tree. A card is a single focused note, such as one character, one location, or one chapter. Folders group related cards so a large project stays navigable.

New stories start with a sensible default structure so you are not staring at nothing. You will typically see folders for your premise, characters, worldbuilding, and plot. You can rename, add, or rearrange any of it by dragging, but for your first five minutes, leave it as is.

The thing to internalize: you build your story as many small cards rather than one giant document. That is what lets Storynote show your work as a dashboard, graph, timeline, map, or canvas later on.

Step 3: Write your premise

Open the premise card. This is where your core idea lives, and it is the best place to start because everything else grows out of it.

Write one or two sentences capturing what your story is about. It does not have to be polished. Something like "A retired thief is blackmailed into one last heist, but the target is the daughter she gave up years ago" is plenty. The point is to give yourself, and the coach, something concrete to push on.

Your writing saves automatically as you go, so there is no save button to hunt for.

Step 4: Ask the coach your first question

Now open the coach. This is the heart of Storynote. The coach does not write prose for you. It asks questions that pull your own ideas into the open.

Start a session and tell it what you are working on, or simply ask where to begin. Because the coach can see your premise card, its questions will be specific to your story. Expect prompts like "What does your protagonist believe about herself at the start?" or "What is the worst possible person to send on this heist, and why is it her?"

Answer in your own words. Your replies are the raw material of your book, and you can move any insight straight into a card. This back and forth, question then answer then capture, is the loop you will return to again and again.

What to do next

You have now done the core thing Storynote is built around. From here, a few natural next steps:

That is it. Open the coach and ask your first question.