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Characters

The Story Bible is your project's source of truth. Everything you define here — characters, settings, themes, and style rules — is automatically injected into every AI request as context. The Characters tab is the most important section: richly defined characters produce dramatically better AI output.

Creating a Character​

In the Story Bible (⌘3), open the Characters tab and click + Add Character. Fill in as many fields as you can:

FieldNotes
NameFull name as it appears in prose
RoleProtagonist, Antagonist, Supporting, Minor
GenderFreeform — e.g. "woman", "non-binary", "he/him". Used for pronoun consistency in AI output
Physical DescriptionAge, appearance, distinguishing features
PersonalityCore traits, temperament, how they come across
BackstoryRelevant history that shapes their behavior
GoalsWhat they want (surface desire)
FearsWhat they're running from or avoiding
ArcHow they change (or fail to change) over the story
VoiceHow they speak — vocabulary, rhythm, verbal tics
QuirksSpecific behaviors, habits, mannerisms
tip

The Voice and Quirks fields have the most impact on dialogue quality. Describe how a character speaks, not just who they are.

Rich text formatting

Long-form character fields (Physical Description, Personality, Backstory, Goals, Fears, Arc, Voice) support rich text editing — bold, italic, bullet lists, and numbered lists. Use the formatting toolbar above each field to structure your notes. Rich text is for your reference only; HTML tags are stripped before content is sent to the AI.

Character Relationships​

Add relationships between characters to give the AI richer context:

  1. Open a character profile.
  2. Scroll to the Relationships section.
  3. Click + Add Relationship and pick the related character and relationship type (e.g., "sibling of", "rival to", "mentor of").

Relationships are included in AI context and help the AI write character interactions consistently.

AI Character Generation​

Click Generate with AI when creating a character to have the AI fill in personality, backstory, goals, and arc based on the character's name, role, and your project's premise. You can then edit the result before saving.

How Character Context Works​

When you trigger any AI operation (Continue, Rewrite, Generate, etc.), the backend assembles your Story Bible into a structured prompt prefix using prompt caching. Characters are formatted as:

CHARACTER: Elena Marsh (Protagonist)
Physical: 34, dark auburn hair, perpetually tired eyes behind wire-rim glasses.
Personality: Methodical, emotionally guarded, quietly stubborn.
Voice: Speaks in short declarative sentences; avoids metaphor.
Arc: Learns to trust others after years of self-reliance.

The more detailed your entries, the more the AI behaves consistently with your vision. See Improving AI Output for more tips on writing effective Story Bible entries.

Next Steps​