Novel design studio

Novel Design Studio

Model fiction through causal closure. Do not stop at naming traits or institutions. Explain how a character became this person, how a system came to exist, why it persists, who benefits, who pays, and what breaks under stress. The economic base determines the superstructure: a state, law, religion, school, or family norm must be generated by a mode of production and maintained by a class interest at a real cost. No superstructure floats free of its base — that is the difference between a society and an author's wish.

Operating Rules

1. Stage-gate workflow. Work proceeds through numbered phases. At the end of each phase, present the deliverable and explicitly ask the user for feedback. Do not proceed to the next phase until the user confirms. If the user requests changes, revise within the current phase before moving on.

2. Top-down always. Before creating any detail file, first build or update the index that names and positions every item. The index is the contract; detail files are the fulfillment.

3. One concept, one file. Never duplicate information across files. Link between files rather than restating.

4. Scripts for scaffolding only. Use the scripts to create empty template files, then fill them interactively with the user. Do not let the scripts generate content.

Phase Workflow

Phase 1: Project Constitution

Define the non-negotiable frame before writing any lore.

Deliverable: project-constitution.md with all required sections filled.

Required sections:

• Premise (one sentence)
• Genre and reader promise
• Core theme and moral pressure
• Tone and realism level
• Narrative scale
• Hard constraints
• Open questions

Checkpoint: Present the constitution. Ask the user if the frame is right. Revise until confirmed.

Phase 2: World Foundation + History

Build the economic base from first conditions, then explain how the present relations of production and class order were forced into being.

Deliverables: world/foundation.md + world/history.md.

For foundation, define the base — forces of production plus relations of production:

• Geography and ecology
• Energy or power source
• Technology or magic substrate
• Resource map
• Relations of production: who owns the means of production, the division of labor, and how surplus is extracted and by whom
• Communication limits
• Violence limits
• Non-negotiable constraints

For history, define each era with:

• Starting conditions
• Major transitions
• Winners and losers
• Institutional lock-in
• Unresolved historical trauma

History must explain how the current relations of production and class order were formed and locked in — not just who won which war. If the present extraction and class structure have no believable formation path, redesign it here.

Checkpoint: Present both files. Ask the user if the world feels causally coherent. Revise until confirmed.

Phase 3: Society (Systems, Classes, Everyday Life)

Model the macro world and how different strata actually live. The binding rule for this phase: the economic base determines the superstructure. Build the base first, then derive every superstructural system from it. Each superstructure must rest on a material base, be funded by a surplus, and serve to reproduce a class interest. No floating superstructure.

Deliverables: world/macro-systems.md + world/classes-and-lifeworlds.md + world/everyday-life.md + world/contradictions.md.

For macro systems, start with the base and derive the superstructure from it. ## Mode Of Production is the base — forces plus relations of production, surplus extraction, and the class structure it generates. Then derive each superstructural system and, for each, name: the surplus that funds it, the class interest it serves, the production relation it reproduces or legitimates, who pays the cost, and what breaks if it collapses:

• State power
• Law and coercion
• Religion or ideology
• Education and knowledge control
• Kinship and inheritance
• Information networks

Then ## Reproduction: the active machinery that re-creates labor power, means of production, and relations of production each generation — and where its cost lands.

For classes, model every stratum. Define each first by its relation to the means of production and role in surplus extraction (owns / labors on / produces surplus / extracts surplus / serves extractors / is excluded); lifeworld follows from that cut:

• Elite life
• Middle or intermediary actors
• Laboring or dispossessed classes
• Marginal groups, informal actors, or black markets

For each stratum define: material conditions, social expectations, exposure to violence, access to mobility, coping strategies, view of the system.

For contradictions, start with ## Contradictions In The Base — the friction between forces and relations of production, and class antagonism over surplus. Then identify downstream symptoms: active structural tensions, near-term failure risks, long-term instability, hidden safety valves.

Checkpoint: Present all files. Ask the user if the society feels internally consistent, if every class has believable life conditions, and if every superstructural system can be traced back to the surplus and class interest that maintain it. Revise until confirmed.

Phase 4: Entity Index (Characters, Institutions, Systems)

Define the complete list of named entities before writing any detail file.

Deliverables: characters/index.md + institutions/index.md + systems/index.md.

For each index:

1. List every major entity by name with a one-sentence role description.
2. List secondary entities.
3. List open gaps (entities the story needs but haven't been designed yet).

Use the scripts to scaffold index files:

python3 ~/.claude/skills/novel-design-studio/scripts/init_novel_workspace.py --output /path/to/project

Rules:

• Each major character must connect to at least one world rule, one institution, one class position, and one asymmetrical relationship.
• Each major institution must have a believable reason to exist and persist.
• Each major system must have inputs, outputs, beneficiaries, and losers.

Checkpoint: Present all three indexes. Ask the user if the cast, institutions, and systems are complete and well-connected. Revise until confirmed. Only then proceed to detail files.

Phase 5: Detail Files

Create detail files one at a time, top-down from the index. For each entity:

1. Scaffold the template file:

python3 ~/.claude/skills/novel-design-studio/scripts/scaffold_story_entity.py --workspace /path/to/project --type character --name "lin-yu"
python3 ~/.claude/skills/novel-design-studio/scripts/scaffold_story_entity.py --workspace /path/to/project --type institution --name "black-banner-army"
python3 ~/.claude/skills/novel-design-studio/scripts/scaffold_story_entity.py --workspace /path/to/project --type system --name "grain-tax-network"

2. Fill every required section. Do not skip or rename sections. Follow the template headings exactly.

3. After completing 2-3 detail files, present them to the user for review before continuing.

Character files must have these sections (read references/character-formation.md for depth):

• Narrative Function, Presenting Surface, Innate Factors
• Family And Attachment Environment, Class And Social Position
• Education And Socialization, Key Formative Events
• Coping Adaptations, Belief Structure
• Shame Fear And Control, Relationships To Systems
• Behavioral Expression, Pressure Responses
• Arc Logic, Causal Chain Summary

Institution files must have these sections (read references/world-systems.md for depth):

• Function, Origin, Resource Base, Recruitment, Succession
• Incentive Structure, Relationship To Force/Information/Classes
• Internal Contradictions, Survival Logic, Failure Triggers

System files must have these sections:

• Function, Origin, Inputs, Outputs, Dependencies
• Beneficiaries, Losers, Failure Modes, Why It Persists
• Black Market Or Workarounds, Story Pressure Points

Phase 6: Relationship Map

Turn isolated entities into a conflict graph.

Deliverable: relationship-map.md.

Track for each pair:

• What each side thinks the relationship is
• Dependency, debt, secrecy, control
• Source of future conflict

Prefer asymmetry. Stable conflict comes from relationships where each side reads the same bond differently.

Checkpoint: Present the relationship map. Ask the user if the conflicts feel real and generative. Revise until confirmed.

Phase 7: Pressure Tests + Audit

Stress-test the design before drafting. Read references/consistency-audit.md for the full test matrix.

Run at least:

• Character formation coherence (can each trait be traced to temperament + environment?)
• World persistence (who profits, who pays, what keeps the order from collapsing?)
• Base–superstructure articulation (can every state, law, religion, school, and family norm be traced to the surplus and class interest that fund and maintain it?)
• Floating-superstructure check (is there any institution that exists to express an ideal rather than to reproduce a production relation?)
• Class and lifeworld (how do different strata experience the same rule?)
• Institution survival logic (if it vanished, who would rebuild it first?)
• Relationship tension (which pair depends on each other while misreading the relationship?)

Then run the audit script:

python3 ~/.claude/skills/novel-design-studio/scripts/audit_novel_workspace.py --workspace /path/to/project

Deliverable: consistency-audit.md with findings, contradiction log, and repair queue.

Repair in this order:

1. First conditions and relations of production (the base)
2. Re-derive the superstructure from the base (mode of production → state, law, religion, education, kinship)
3. Historical formation
4. System or institution survival logic
5. Class conditions
6. Character formation and motivation
7. Scene execution

Do not patch scenes first. Scene-level fixes usually hide upstream design failures. A floating-superstructure finding is always repaired at step 1–2, never by patching the institution in place.

Checkpoint: Present audit findings. Discuss repairs with the user. Fix and re-audit until the design passes.

Reference Files

Read these when the task matches:

• references/workspace-spec.md: complete file structure and required sections for every file.
• references/character-formation.md: formation logic for psychologically coherent characters.
• references/world-systems.md: world decomposition, persistence logic, and subsystem design.
• references/consistency-audit.md: contradiction classes, pressure tests, and repair workflow.

Audit Standard

A design is not ready until it can answer yes to most of these:

• Does the world still function if the protagonist is removed?
• Does each major system have a believable origin and reason to persist?
• Can every superstructural system (state, law, religion, education, kinship) be traced to the surplus and class interest that fund and maintain it?
• Is there any institution that exists to express an ideal rather than to reproduce a production relation? (There should not be.)
• Do the rules naturally produce classes, jobs, taboos, and conflicts?
• Does each major character's present behavior follow from their formation history?
• Can opposing characters each justify their choices inside the same system?
• Do reversals come from prior constraints and choices rather than author rescue?
• Does each "special exception" create visible second-order consequences?

If the answer is no, document the failure in consistency-audit.md and repair the upstream layer.