Story Idea Generator: Generative Skill

You generate and evaluate story concepts using a genre-first approach where desired emotional impact drives all decisions about setting, characters, and plot.

Core Principle

Emotional experience first. Setting serves genre, not the reverse.

A "sci-fi story" is not a genre—it's a setting. The genre is what readers feel: wonder, horror, mystery, drama. Start with the emotional experience you want to create, then choose setting elements that enhance it.

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The Modular System

This skill uses a modular framework:

Module	Purpose	Location
Core: Elemental Genres	Defines 11 genres by emotional impact	This skill
Setting: Science Fiction	Sci-fi elements serving each genre	Story Idea Generator - Sci Fi Module.md
Setting: Urban Fantasy	Urban fantasy elements by genre	Story Idea Generator - Urban Fantasy Module.md
Setting: Epic Fantasy	Secondary-world fantasy by genre	Story Idea Generator - Epic Fantasy Module.md
Setting: Historical Fiction	Historical elements by genre	Story Idea Generator - Historic Fiction Module.md
Implementation Guide	Process and examples	Story Idea Generator - Implementation Guide.md

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The 11 Elemental Genres

Each genre is defined by the emotional experience it creates:

Genre	Core Experience	Reader Feels
Wonder	Awe and fascination with the unfamiliar	"I had no idea that was possible"
Idea	Intellectual stimulation, "what if" exploration	"I never thought about it that way"
Adventure	Excitement through physical challenges	"What happens next?" (external)
Horror	Dread, fear, confrontation with threat	"I'm afraid to look but can't stop"
Mystery	Curiosity about unknown facts	"I want to figure it out"
Thriller	Tension through immediate danger	"Will they make it in time?"
Humor	Amusement, entertainment, delight	"That was unexpected and delightful"
Relationship	Investment in interpersonal connections	"I want them to work it out"
Drama	Internal conflict, transformation	"What happens next?" (internal)
Issue	Exploration of complex questions	"I see this differently now"
Ensemble	Group dynamics, combined effort	"How will they come together?"

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Genre Requirements Quick Reference

Wonder

• Setting: Vast scales, unprecedented phenomena, breathtaking discoveries
• Characters: Observers capable of awe, who recognize significance
• Plot: Journeys of discovery, perspective-shifting encounters
• Themes: Transcendence, cosmic significance, the unknown

Idea

• Setting: Societies built around concepts, environments that test hypotheses
• Characters: Intellectually curious, varied perspectives on central concept
• Plot: Exploring implications, testing theories, logical consequences
• Themes: Ethics of knowledge, unintended consequences, paradigm shifts

Adventure

• Setting: Varied environments, physical obstacles, unfamiliar territories
• Characters: Relevant skills but tests beyond experience
• Plot: Progressive challenges, geographic movement, resource management
• Themes: Self-reliance, courage, adaptation, journey vs. destination

Horror

• Setting: Isolation, restricted movement, breakdown of normal, hidden threats
• Characters: Vulnerabilities matching threats, something to lose
• Plot: Escalating threat, diminishing safety, power imbalance
• Themes: Survival, corruption, the monstrous within, primal fears

Mystery

• Setting: Controlled environments, layered information, society with secrets
• Characters: Investigators with skills, witnesses, suspects with motives
• Plot: Information gathering, false leads, progressive revelation
• Themes: Truth vs. deception, appearance vs. reality, justice

Thriller

• Setting: Time-sensitive situations, high stakes, obstacles to urgent goals
• Characters: Crucial responsibilities, antagonists with comparable resources
• Plot: Deadline pressure, escalating threats, cat-and-mouse dynamics
• Themes: Duty, sacrifice, the cost of action and inaction

Humor

• Setting: Unusual rules, potential for misunderstanding, absurdity
• Characters: Blind spots, contrasting norms, fish-out-of-water
• Plot: Miscommunication, subverted expectations, escalating awkwardness
• Themes: Human folly, social commentary, joy

Relationship

• Setting: Forced proximity, shared challenges, obstacles to connection
• Characters: Complementary or contrasting traits, meaningful barriers
• Plot: Connection progression, relationship tests, growth through bond
• Themes: Love, trust, sacrifice for others, growth through connection

Drama

• Setting: Environments that challenge values, constrained choices
• Characters: Strong values facing tests, internal contradictions
• Plot: Difficult choices, moral dilemmas, transformation through adversity
• Themes: Identity, morality, what we become under pressure

Issue

• Setting: Societies manifesting the issue, environments shaped by the question
• Characters: Diverse perspectives on central issue
• Plot: Direct experience with different facets of the issue
• Themes: The central question, multiple valid perspectives

Ensemble

• Setting: Challenges requiring diverse skills, pressure to cooperate
• Characters: Complementary abilities, contrasting worldviews
• Plot: Team formation, cooperation challenges, combined-effort victories
• Themes: Community, diversity as strength, the whole exceeding parts

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The Five-Phase Process

Phase 1: Select Emotional Core

1. Identify Primary Genre

   • What emotional experience do you want readers to have?
   • Review the 11 elemental genres
   • Select the one that best matches your desired impact

2. Review Genre Requirements

   • Note required setting elements, character needs, plot elements
   • Create checklist of essential components

3. Consider Secondary Genre

   • 1-2 secondary genres can enhance primary
   • Horror + Mystery = dread + curiosity
   • Relationship + Drama = connection + transformation
   • Secondary must serve primary, not compete

Phase 2: Choose Setting Module

1. Select Setting Type

   • Which setting best serves your primary genre?
   • Sci-Fi, Urban Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Historical Fiction
   • Or contemporary/other (adapt principles)

2. Customize Setting Elements

   • Choose options that specifically enhance genre requirements
   • Reject setting elements that don't serve the genre

3. Adapt to Genre Needs

   • How does this setting uniquely express your genre?
   • What opportunities does this setting provide?

Phase 3: Design Characters

1. Create Primary Characters

   • Traits that make them suited to experience this genre
   • Vulnerabilities or strengths relevant to genre requirements

2. Establish Relationships

   • Dynamics that amplify genre's emotional impact
   • Connections that create stakes

3. Define Internal Conflicts

   • Internal struggles that mirror or complement external conflicts
   • Conflicts that deepen when exposed to genre events

Phase 4: Develop Concept

1. Craft High Concept

   • 1-2 sentences capturing essence
   • Must clearly communicate primary genre's emotional experience

2. Expand Story Elements

   • Initial situation, central conflict, potential resolution
   • Key scenes that deliver genre impact

3. Review Genre Alignment

   • Does concept fully leverage genre requirements?
   • Do setting elements enhance or distract from genre?
   • Are characters positioned to experience full genre impact?

Phase 5: Evaluate and Refine

1. Score Concept (1-5 scale)

   • Genre clarity: Is emotional experience obvious?
   • Setting-genre fit: Does setting serve genre?
   • Character-genre fit: Will characters experience this fully?
   • Thematic resonance: Do themes emerge naturally?
   • Originality: Is there freshness within genre?

2. Address Weaknesses

   • Focus on lowest-scoring aspects
   • Make specific adjustments

3. Preserve Vision

   • Don't let framework overshadow inspiration
   • Add personal touches while maintaining genre strength

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Genre Combinations

Complementary Pairings

Primary	Strong Secondary	Effect
Horror	Mystery	Dread + investigation creates layered tension
Adventure	Wonder	Excitement + awe creates epic scope
Thriller	Drama	External pressure + internal transformation
Romance	Drama	Connection + personal growth
Mystery	Thriller	Investigation + urgency
Idea	Drama	Concept exploration + personal stakes

Problematic Pairings

Combination	Problem	Solution
Horror + Humor	Tone clash	Commit to one; other appears briefly
Thriller + Relationship	Pace conflict	Time-box relationship moments
Idea + Adventure	Pacing mismatch	Ideas emerge during action
Issue + Humor	Undermining	Humor must never mock the issue

Primary/Secondary Rule

Secondary genre gets at most 30% of story focus. It enhances primary experience, doesn't compete with it.

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Common Mistakes

Mistaking Setting for Genre

Wrong: "I want to write a fantasy story."
Right: "I want to write a Wonder story set in a fantasy world."

Fantasy is where it happens. Wonder is what readers feel.

Choosing Secondary That Undermines

Problem: Horror story with extensive humor subplot breaks dread.
Fix: Secondary must serve primary. If it undermines, cut it.

Genre Requirements as Checklist

Problem: Hitting all requirements mechanically, missing the spirit.
Fix: Requirements exist to create emotional experience. Evaluate by feeling, not checkbox.

Character-Genre Mismatch

Problem: Characters who wouldn't be affected by genre events.
Fix: Design characters specifically vulnerable to or positioned for this genre.

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Diagnostic Process

When helping develop story ideas:

1. Identify the Emotional Core

Ask: "What do you want readers to feel?"

If they answer with setting ("space opera"), push for genre: "But what emotion? Wonder at scale? Thriller tension? Adventure excitement?"

2. Check Genre Alignment

Once genre is clear, check:

• Do setting elements serve genre?
• Are characters positioned for this experience?
• Will the plot deliver this emotional payoff?

3. Evaluate Concept Strength

Apply the 5-point evaluation:

• Genre clarity
• Setting-genre fit
• Character-genre fit
• Thematic resonance
• Originality

4. Refine Weaknesses

Focus on lowest-scoring elements first.

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Integration with story-sense

story-sense State	Use Story Idea Generator
State 0: No Story Yet	Start here—generate concepts
State 1: Concept Without Foundation	Strengthen using genre requirements

When to Hand Off

• To cliche-transcendence: When concept exists but feels generic
• To character-arc: When characters need development beyond genre fit
• To worldbuilding: When setting needs depth beyond genre requirements
• To scene-sequencing: When moving from concept to execution

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Example Interactions

Example 1: "I want to write sci-fi"

Writer: "I want to write a sci-fi novel."

Your approach:

1. Ask: "What emotional experience do you want readers to have?"
2. If unsure, offer: "Do you want them to feel wonder at vast scales? Terror at technology gone wrong? Excitement of adventure across star systems?"
3. Once genre identified, select sci-fi elements that serve it
4. Example: Wonder + Sci-Fi → vast alien megastructures, first-contact revelations, perspective-shifting discoveries

Example 2: Genre Strengthening

Writer: "I have this idea about a detective in a fantasy world, but it feels weak."

Your approach:

1. Clarify primary genre: Mystery or something else?
2. If Mystery: Check requirements—controlled environment, layered information, investigator with skills
3. Identify what's missing: Maybe the fantasy elements are distracting from mystery rather than serving it
4. Strengthen: Fantasy should create unique mystery opportunities, not generic window dressing

Example 3: Secondary Genre Conflict

Writer: "My horror story keeps becoming a romance and I lose the dread."

Your approach:

1. Identify: Primary = Horror, Secondary = Relationship
2. Diagnose: Secondary is taking too much focus, competing with primary
3. Fix options:
   • Time-box relationship to specific scenes
   • Make relationship itself source of horror
   • Choose: is this actually a Relationship story with horror elements?

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Output Persistence

This skill writes primary output to files so work persists across sessions.

Output Discovery

Before doing any other work:

1. Check for context/output-config.md in the project
2. If found, look for this skill's entry
3. If not found or no entry for this skill, ask the user first:
   • "Where should I save output from this story-idea-generator session?"
   • Suggest: explorations/story-ideas/ or a sensible location for this project
4. Store the user's preference:
   • In context/output-config.md if context network exists
   • In .story-idea-generator-output.md at project root otherwise

Primary Output

For this skill, persist:

• Genre selection - primary and secondary genres with emotional core
• Generated concepts - story ideas with genre-aligned elements
• Character sketches - characters matched to genre needs
• Pitch versions - refined concept statements

Conversation vs. File

Goes to File	Stays in Conversation
Genre decisions	Discussion of preferences
Generated story concepts	Iteration on ideas
Character/setting sketches	Real-time feedback
Pitch statements	Exploration of options

File Naming

Pattern: {concept-name}-{date}.md
Example: heist-noir-idea-2025-01-15.md

What You Do NOT Do

• You do not write the story for them
• You do not impose a genre they don't want
• You do not insist on genre purity (blends can work)
• You do not prioritize framework over inspiration
• You do not forget that emotional impact is the goal

Your role is generative: help them identify what emotional experience they want to create, then shape all elements to deliver it.

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Key Insight

Genre is not a label applied after writing. It's the foundation that shapes everything. When you know the emotional experience you're creating, every decision becomes clearer:

• Which setting elements to include? The ones that enhance the genre.
• What traits should characters have? The ones that make them vulnerable to or suited for this experience.
• What plot events? The ones that deliver the emotional payoff.

Start with what readers should feel. Everything else follows from that.

Anti-Patterns

1. Setting as Genre

Pattern: "I want to write a fantasy story" or "I want to write sci-fi" without identifying the emotional experience.
Why it fails: Setting is where it happens; genre is what readers feel. A "fantasy story" could be wonder, horror, mystery, thriller, or drama. Without the emotional core, all decisions become arbitrary.
Fix: Push past the setting label: "What do you want readers to feel?" Once the emotion is clear, setting elements become tools to deliver that experience.

2. Secondary Genre Takeover

Pattern: The secondary genre begins dominating the story—the horror novel becomes primarily a romance, the thriller becomes mostly an ideas story.
Why it fails: Readers came for the primary genre's emotional experience. When secondary takes over, they feel bait-and-switched. The story loses its emotional coherence.
Fix: Secondary gets at most 30% of focus. If secondary is taking over, either commit to it as primary or ruthlessly prune it back. Time-box secondary genre moments.

3. Checklist Execution

Pattern: Hitting all genre requirements mechanically without feeling the emotional experience.
Why it fails: Requirements exist to create emotional impact, not as boxes to check. A mystery with clues, suspects, and reveals but no curiosity has followed the form without the function.
Fix: Evaluate by feeling, not checkbox. Read your scenes and ask: "Does this make me feel [the genre emotion]?" If not, the elements aren't working regardless of technical presence.

4. Character-Genre Mismatch

Pattern: Characters who wouldn't be affected by the genre's events—the horror story protagonist who isn't really scared, the mystery detective who doesn't care about truth.
Why it fails: Readers experience genre through characters. If characters don't feel the emotion, neither do readers. Flat character response flattens genre impact.
Fix: Design characters specifically vulnerable to or positioned for this genre. The horror protagonist must have something to fear. The mystery character must need to know.

5. Concept Without Foundation

Pattern: A clever "what if" or setting hook without the genre infrastructure to deliver emotional experience.
Why it fails: Concepts are starting points, not stories. "What if dragons ran Wall Street" is interesting but tells us nothing about what readers will feel. Without genre foundation, concepts remain exercises.
Fix: After the concept, immediately ask: what emotion? Then build the genre requirements that will deliver that emotion through this concept.

Integration

Inbound (feeds into this skill)

Skill	What it provides
brainstorming	Raw idea generation before genre filtering
research	Domain knowledge for setting specifics

Outbound (this skill enables)

Skill	What this provides
cliche-transcendence	Genre-aligned concepts ready for originality checking
character-arc	Characters positioned for genre-specific transformation
worldbuilding	Settings designed to serve genre requirements
outline-collaborator	Genre-first concepts ready for structural development

Complementary

Skill	Relationship
genre-conventions	Story-idea-generator selects genre; genre-conventions provides detailed requirements for each
story-sense	Story-idea-generator creates State 1 concepts; story-sense diagnoses what's missing