---
name: story-blueprint
description: "Guides a writer interactively through building a story from the inside out using the Story Genius blueprinting method: from raw idea through What If premise, protagonist, misbelief, origin scene, escalating backstory, opening, ending, and scene-by-scene blueprint. Use this skill whenever the user says 'help me plan my story', 'help me build my story', 'story blueprint', 'blueprinting', 'I have an idea for a story', 'I have an idea for a novel', 'develop my story concept', 'where do I start with my novel', 'I'm stuck on my story', or asks for help building a story from scratch or developing a concept into a workable narrative. Also use when a writer has a premise but doesn't know how to turn it into a story with an internal engine."
---

# Story Blueprint

This skill walks a writer through building a story from the inside out. The process starts with the protagonist's internal struggle — not the plot. Plot is built later, as the external gauntlet designed to force the internal story to happen.

The blueprint is not a traditional outline. It is built iteratively alongside drafting. Stories grow in spirals — each pass deepens the story rather than merely extending it.

## The Blueprinting Process

Guide the writer through these steps in order. At each step, ask questions, offer the relevant exercise, and help them develop their material before moving to the next step. Do not rush through steps — the depth of excavation at each stage determines the quality of everything that follows.

### Step 1: The What If

Help the writer find their story-worthy premise. A What If must contain three elements:
- **Context** — the specific world, circumstances, and relationships
- **Conflict** — the seed of internal struggle (not just external obstacle)
- **A point** — the thematic question the story will interrogate

Test: A neutral What If ("What if a man lost his job?") is not story-worthy. Push for specificity until the premise implies the collision between a character's inner world and outer reality.

**Exercise**: Write a concise, specific What If that includes context, conflict, and a hint of thematic point.

### Step 2: The Protagonist

Help identify whose internal change the story is about. The protagonist is not simply whoever the story happens to — it's the person whose internal transformation *is* the story.

Key questions to explore:
- Who has the most to lose internally?
- What is their misbelief — the false conclusion about the world that governs their behaviour?
- What do they want that the misbelief prevents them from achieving?
- What will the What If threaten or challenge about their inner world?

**Exercise**: Write a brief protagonist bio focused on internal life — their want, their misbelief, their emotional state as the novel begins.

### Step 3: The Misbelief and Desire

Help the writer excavate the protagonist's misbelief and desire in depth. These must be specific, concrete, and in permanent conflict with each other.

The misbelief:
- Is a coping strategy that once made sense
- Was formed in response to a specific past experience
- Is actively shaping present decisions and relationships
- Feels like truth to the protagonist — being wrong feels exactly like being right

The desire:
- Is something the protagonist has wanted, perhaps for years
- Is directly blocked by the misbelief
- The tension between desire and misbelief creates the internal urgency that carries the reader

**Exercise**: Write several pages exploring the conflict between desire and misbelief. What does the protagonist most fear? What is the worst version of what might happen?

### Step 4: The Origin Scene

Help the writer find and write the specific moment when the misbelief formed. This is not backstory filler — it is the foundation of the story.

The origin scene should be:
- A full scene, not a summary
- Written in the protagonist's subjective POV
- Showing the specific experience that created the misbelief
- Making the misbelief feel like a reasonable conclusion at the time

**Exercise**: Write the origin scene as a complete scene.

### Step 5: Escalating Backstory

Help develop 3-5 scenes from the protagonist's past showing the misbelief deepening over time. Each scene should:
- Show a specific moment where the misbelief was reinforced or tested
- Tie external events to their internal emotional meaning
- Escalate — each one making the misbelief more entrenched

These scenes are the causal chain explaining who the protagonist is on page one.

**Exercise**: Write 3-5 escalating scenes from the protagonist's past.

### Step 6: The Opening

Help determine where the novel begins. The answer: at the last possible moment — the point at which the protagonist can no longer avoid confronting the thing their misbelief has kept them from confronting.

The opening scene must:
- Establish the protagonist's internal state (desire, misbelief, the world they believe they're in)
- Introduce the unavoidable external problem
- Plant seeds of all major internal conflicts
- Have a ticking clock

**Exercise**: Write a first-layer version of the opening scene.

### Step 7: The Ending (The Aha! Moment)

Help determine the story's internal climax — the moment the protagonist confronts and dismantles (or fails to dismantle) their misbelief.

The Aha moment must be:
- **Earned** — the protagonist has been pushed to the absolute edge
- **Specific** — a precise scene-level moment, not a general realization
- **Tied to the third rail** — causally connected to everything the plot has put them through

The ending you write now will likely change. That is fine — any change will come from a story reason, which means you'll have learned something true about the story.

**Exercise**: Write a first-layer version of the Aha moment.

### Step 8: Building the Scene Cards

With the opening and ending bookended, help build the Scene Cards connecting them. For each scene:

| Element | Content |
|---------|---------|
| **External event** | What happens |
| **Internal meaning** | How it forces the internal struggle forward |
| **Urgency hook** | What question it raises for the reader |
| **Cause** | What scene triggered this one |
| **Effect** | What this scene triggers next |

Use **TK** ("to come") as a placeholder for anything that must be there but isn't yet known. TKs are honest markers, not failures.

### Step 9: Writing Forward

Remind the writer: stories grow in spirals. Draft and blueprint simultaneously. Each scene written may reveal something about the past that wasn't known, which revises earlier scenes, which reveals something about the future. This is normal. Trust the cards. When lost in a scene, return to the Scene Card: what is the internal meaning of this moment?

## Guiding Principles

- **Never rush past excavation.** The depth of internal work determines the quality of everything built on top of it.
- **Ask "Why?" relentlessly.** For every uncertain element, ask "Why would this character do this?" until the answer is a specific past experience that makes the action inevitable.
- **Plot is the servant of story.** External events exist to force the internal story. Build the internal story first.
- **Nothing is coincidence.** Every event must have a cause rooted in character.
- **Expect revision.** First versions of every element will change. That is the process working.

## When to Read Reference Files

- **For the full blueprinting process in detail** — read `references/blueprinting-process.md`
- **For exercises at each stage** — read `references/blueprinting-exercises.md`
