/premise-workshop

name: premise-workshop
description: This skill should be used when the user asks to "brainstorm a story idea", "I have an idea for a story", "what if", "develop a premise", "is this idea strong enough", "workshop my logline", "premise", "story concept", "what should I write", "short story or novel", "novella or novel", "name my book", "title ideas", or has a spark (an image, a character, a setting, a question) and wants to turn it into a tested premise before starting a story project. NOT for the controlling idea or theme of an existing story (use theme-craft).

Premise Workshop

Overview

Turn a spark into a premise that can carry a book, before `story init` builds the project. The workshop generates what-ifs from the spark, tests them as loglines, drafts the controlling idea and its counter-argument (`premise` and `counter-premise` in `story.md`), names the stakes, chooses a form (the `form` field), brainstorms titles, sanity-checks the idea against comparable books, and hands a filled-in brief to the `story-init` skill. The author owns the idea: offer options and tests, never decide for them.

Prerequisites

None. The workshop usually runs before a project exists. If the user wants the work saved before `story init`, keep it in one `premise-notes.md` file in the current directory (outside the future project folder) and move the kept material into `story.md` after init.

When to Use

• The user has a spark but no premise, or several ideas and cannot choose
• The user has a premise and wants to know whether it holds up
• Choosing between short story, novella, novel, serial, or a children's form
• Brainstorming a title, or checking a working title against the cast
• NOT for creating the project folder (use `story-init`; this skill hands off to it)
• NOT for refining the controlling idea of a drafted book, arc types, or the lie/truth machinery (use `theme-craft`)
• NOT for outlining once the premise is settled (use `plot-structure`, or `discovery-drafting` for pantsers)
• NOT for comp titles, pitch, or blurb for submission (use `submission`)

Workflow

1. Capture the spark

Ask what the user has, in their words, and do not improve it yet. Ask which language the book will be written in if it is not clear, and workshop in that language: what-ifs, loglines, and titles are drafted in it, and comps come from the market that reads it. Sort it: an **image** (a drowned bell tower), a **what-if** (what if grief could be sold), a **character** (a lighthouse keeper who has never left the rock), a **setting** (a city that moves every winter), or a **feeling** they want a reader to have. Ask what drew them to it. The answer is often the book's real subject and should survive every later change.

2. Generate what-ifs

Following `references/what-if-generation.md`, produce 8-12 short what-ifs from the spark across different angles (invert it, raise the cost, move it in time or place, give it to the wrong person). Present them as a numbered list and ask the user to pick one to three, or to combine. Do not rank them for the user unless asked; do say which ones already imply conflict.

3. Workshop the logline

For each chosen what-if, draft a logline with the recipe in `../story-init/references/title-logline.md` (protagonist + want + obstacle

• stakes). Then run every logline stress test in

`references/premise-tests.md`. Report each test as pass, weak, or fail with one sentence of why, and offer one revision per weak or failed test.

4. Draft premise and counter-premise

`story.md`'s `premise` field is the controlling idea (value + cause), not the logline. Draft it and the `counter-premise` as working hypotheses using `../theme-craft/references/controlling-idea.md`. If the user wants to discover theme in the draft, record `premise: tbd-discovery` and move on. Keep the logline for the Synopsis section.

5. Name the stakes

Write the stakes on three levels (see `references/premise-tests.md`): external (what is lost in the world), relational (who is lost or betrayed), and internal (what the protagonist becomes if they fail). At least two levels must be concrete and personal.

6. Choose the form

Use `references/form-choice.md` to match the idea's scope to a form: `novel`, `novella`, `novelette`, `short-story`, `flash`, `serial`, `picture-book`, or `chapter-book`. Count the idea's moving parts (POV characters, threads, locations, time span) and recommend the form they fit, with the trade-offs. The user decides.

7. Brainstorm titles

Follow `references/title-and-comps.md`: generate titles across the families listed there, cut to a shortlist of five, and test each against the logline and the genre shelf. The title craft principles live in `../story-init/references/title-logline.md`; do not repeat them to the user, apply them.

Once a project exists, check title words and new names against the story's entities before adopting them:

story names 'Bell Tower' Bell 'Maren' --path .

An exact clash exits 1 and must be resolved; look-alike warnings and a shared initial with a major character are the user's call. Multi-word names are only checked for exact clashes, so pass a multi-word title's distinctive word separately, as `Bell` is above. The "Check names against the project" section of `references/title-and-comps.md` says what each finding means and how to resolve a clash.

8. Sanity-check against comparable books

Ask the user for two or three recent books the idea sits beside. Use `references/title-and-comps.md` to check whether the premise is distinct from them and whether it fits the shelf they imply. Never invent titles, authors, or sales claims; if web search is available, verify that each named book exists and note what you checked. If not, mark the list unverified.

9. Hand off to story-init

Present a one-screen brief: working title, logline, premise, counter-premise, stakes, form, genre and sub-genre, POV and tense if known, themes, th