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Discovery Drafting

A pantser's drafting workflow: start from a one-paragraph story kernel, write forward, then reconcile each finished chapter back into the story bible.

Content & WritingIntermediate★ 401⑂ 61AI score 9/10Last updated: Nov 4, 2026

What it does

  • Helps you write a one-paragraph story kernel (character in a situation, a want, an obstacle, a tone signal) and records it in story.md with draft-mode: discovered.
  • Sets a sustainable session shape (re-read → write → next-session note) and keeps you writing forward by parking bible questions as inline [TODO: check bible].
  • Runs a reconcile loop after every chapter: extract new entity/promise candidates (with your approval) → reverse-outline into chapter and scene records → diff against the bible (new / contradiction / enrichment / dangling) → update the bible or revise the chapter, never neither.
  • Adds a batch review every 3–5 chapters to sweep dangling setups and cut dead ends — abandoned threads keep a logged reason (status: abandoned, status: cut) instead of being deleted.
  • Maintains the project with story reindex, story wordcount --write, and story check.

Who it's for

  • Novelists and screenwriters who draft by discovery rather than from an outline.
  • Writers starting from a character or situation instead of a plot structure.
  • Long-form authors who want freedom without continuity drift.
  • Not for clue-dependent genres like mystery (use chapter-writing) or for revising an existing draft (use revision-continuity).

Example uses

  1. "Just start chapter 1, no outline" → kernel drafted, then story add chapter 'Title' --number 1 --mode discovered and writing begins.
  2. After chapter 3 → extract the new characters and places that appeared, approve them, diff against the bible, and catch a contradiction (a character who died in chapter 2 reappears).
  3. At chapter 5 → batch review: list unpaid promises, cut an abandoned subplot with a recorded reason, then hand the batch to revision-continuity.

· · · Install guide · · ·

Try it now, no install

Paste this into Claude to use the skill without installing anything.

Read the instructions in this file and follow them to help me:
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/danjdewhurst/story-skills/HEAD/skills/discovery-drafting/SKILL.md

What I want: (describe your task here)

If Claude can't open the link, open it yourself and paste the contents instead.

↓ If it works for you, download the ZIP below and install it. Then it runs on its own — no pasting each time.

Install in the Claude app (no terminal)
  1. Download the ZIP with the button below.
  2. In Claude, open Settings → Capabilities and turn on 'Code execution and file creation'. (one time)
  3. Go to Customize → Skills → + → 'Upload a skill' and upload the ZIP.
↓ Download ZIP
Install in Claude Code

Let Claude do it — paste this into Claude Code

Install the skill I found on AI Skill Mart.
Copy the skills/discovery-drafting folder from the GitHub repo danjdewhurst/story-skills into my ~/.claude/skills/discovery-drafting/.
When it's done, tell me in one line what this skill can do.

Install with a command instead

git clone https://github.com/danjdewhurst/story-skills.git && mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && cp -r story-skills/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/

⚠ This is a third-party skill. Check the source repository before installing.

  1. Open a terminal.
  2. Clone the repository: git clone https://github.com/danjdewhurst/story-skills.git
  3. Create the skills folder: mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
  4. Copy the skills (copy all of them — this skill depends on companions): cp -r story-skills/skills/* ~/.claude/skills/
  5. Verify that ~/.claude/skills/discovery-drafting and ~/.claude/skills/story-maintenance exist.
  6. Check Node.js with node -v. If the Story CLI isn't installed, the bundled story-maintenance/scripts/story.js fallback is used.
  7. Restart Claude Code and try: "I want to discovery-draft chapter 1 — no outline."
View source on GitHub ↗License: MIT