Settings & Themes

Settings

Settings are the locations in your story. Each setting is included in AI context to help generate immersive, consistent scene descriptions.

Creating a Setting

Open the Settings tab in the Story Bible (⌘3) and click + Add Setting. Fill in:

Field	Notes
Name	The location name as it appears in prose
Description	What the place looks like, its layout, history
Atmosphere	The mood or feeling the place evokes
Sensory Details	Specific sights, sounds, smells, textures

Example Setting

Name: The Harwick Lighthouse
Description: A decommissioned lighthouse on a rocky promontory,
  three miles north of the town. The keeper's cottage is attached,
  now converted to a small residence.
Atmosphere: Isolated, liminal — a place between land and sea,
  between the living and the past.
Sensory Details: Salt wind, the groan of the iron lantern room
  door, weathered whitewash that comes off on your hands,
  the smell of old lamp oil that never fully leaves.

tip

Sensory details are the most useful field for scene generation. Specific details like "the smell of old lamp oil" appear organically in AI-generated prose. Generic descriptions like "it's a lighthouse" give the AI nothing to work with. See Improving AI Output for more guidance on writing effective Story Bible entries.

Assigning Settings to Scenes

Tag a setting to specific scenes in the Outline view so only relevant locations appear in AI context for each scene. You can also use the AI Canvas Populator to auto-assign settings based on your written prose.

Settings also appear as pins on the World Map canvas view.

Rich text formatting

The Description and Atmosphere fields for settings, and the Description field for themes, support rich text editing — bold, italic, bullet lists, and numbered lists. Use the formatting toolbar above each field to structure your notes. HTML tags are automatically stripped before content is sent to the AI.

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Themes

Themes define the core ideas and motifs woven through your story. Themes help the AI make subtle thematic references and maintain tonal consistency.

Creating a Theme

Open the Themes tab and click + Add Theme. Fill in:

Field	Notes
Theme	The core idea (e.g., "The weight of inherited secrets")
Motifs	Recurring symbols or images that reinforce this theme

Example Theme

Theme: The weight of inherited secrets
Motifs: Locked boxes, water (tide coming in), mirrors showing
  things slightly wrong, handwriting that resembles but isn't yours

The AI uses theme and motif definitions to:

• Subtly reference the theme in scene descriptions
• Choose imagery that reinforces your motifs
• Avoid tonal choices that conflict with your story's backbone

Theme vs. Beat

Themes are not plot — they're the ideas underneath the plot. Your beats say what happens; your themes say what it means. Both inform the AI simultaneously.

tip

Motifs are especially powerful. A motif like "locked boxes" will appear naturally in AI-generated prose — a character might notice a locked cabinet, a sealed letter, or a closed fist. The AI weaves these in without being heavy-handed.

Next Steps

• Characters — the most impactful Story Bible entries for AI quality
• Worldbuilding — factions, magic systems, and world rules
• Style Guide — POV, tense, tone, and voice samples