adaptation

# Adaptation ## Overview Turn a story project into another form: an audiobook narration script, a screenplay in Fountain, a picture-book pagination plan, a comics script, an interactive-fiction branch map, or an edition in another language. The story project stays the source of truth. Adaptation files live in `adaptations/` inside the project, except translations, which become their own project folder with the same ids. ## Prerequisites A story project with `story.md` in the root and chapters drafted far enough to adapt. Read `story.md` (`title`, `form`, `language`, `status`), the chapter and scene records, and the character, location, and glossary files the adaptation touches. Adapting a draft that is still changing means redoing the adaptation; say so if `status` is not `revising` or `complete`. ## When to Use - Producing an audiobook: narration script, runtime estimate, pronunciation guide, narrator and production checklist - Adapting the story to a screenplay, comics script, or interactive fiction - Planning or drafting a picture book (`form: picture-book`) - Translating the book, or preparing a glossary and style sheet for a translator - NOT for publishing metadata, print, ebook, launch, or rights deals (use `publishing`); audio and film rights one-sheets live there - NOT for query letters or agent submission (use `submission`) - NOT for new prose in the source book (use `chapter-writing`) - NOT for writing or scanning verse, including rhyming picture-book text (use `verse-craft`) - Nonfiction and poetry collections are outside the story project model. The CLI checks fiction entities (characters, chapters, scenes, continuity); do not force a poetry collection or nonfiction book into it. A short-story collection does fit: see `docs/series.md`, Short-story collections and anthologies. ## Hard Rules - Never change the source manuscript to suit an adaptation without the author's approval. Adaptation choices live in `adaptations/`. - Do not put adaptation `.md` files in the project root: any root `.md` other than `story.md`, `style-sheet.md`, and `progress.md` is reported as a stray file. Use `adaptations/` or a non-`.md` extension such as `.fountain`. - Never invent a pronunciation for a real place, person, or language. Ask the author or cite a source. - Retailer and audio-platform specs change. Give the working figures and tell the author to check the platform's current spec. - Contracts and royalty terms for narrators, illustrators, and translators are not legal advice; point to the `publishing` skill's contract checklist and a professional. ## Workflow ### 1. Audiobook Follow `references/audiobook.md`. 1. Add `pronunciation` to every character, location, faction, artifact, and glossary term a narrator could say wrong (`pronunciation: SEER-sha`). Respell for the narrator's language, not always English. Ask the author for any they have not decided. 2. Build the script: ```shell story build . --format narration --out adaptations/audiobook/narration-script.md ``` It opens with the pronunciation guide table, then each chapter with its estimated finished runtime, scene breaks as `[pause]`, and the total runtime. The rate comes from the book's `language` (155 words per minute in English; the script's first line names it), and the credits are in that language; time a sample chapter and rescale (see `references/audiobook.md`). `--out` never replaces an existing file under `adaptations/`, so delete the old script before a rebuild. 3. Review the script for what reads badly aloud: long dialogue runs without tags, visual-only jokes, footnotes, maps, letters and texts, tables. Record fixes as narrator notes in `adaptations/audiobook/production.md`; change the manuscript only with the author's approval. 4. Draft the production checklist from the reference: route (ACX, Findaway Voices by Spotify, other), narrator audition script, retail sample, chapter file list, credits, and AI narration disclosure. ### 2. Screenplay (Fountain) Follow `references/fountain.md`. 1. Add `setting: interior`, `exterior`, or `both` to each location the scenes use, and to any scene whose place differs from its location's (on the harbor wall, not in the harbor office). Ask the author when the prose does not settle it. Run `story validate .`. 2. Build the scene list from scene records (reading order, or `story timeline .` for story-time order). Each scene becomes one or more sluglines from its `location`, `setting`, `time`, and `characters`. 3. Mark each scene keep, merge, cut, or externalize (interior moments that need an action or line). Save it as `adaptations/screenplay/scene-list.md`. 4. Start the script from the scene records: ```shell story build . --format fountain --out adaptations/screenplay/{story-id}.fountain ``` It writes a title page, a `##` section per chapter, and one scene heading per scene record with the source scene id, cast, and scene notes as unprinted `[[...]]` notes. It carries no prose: the build cannot adapt, so every line of action and dialogue is yours to write. A forced heading (`.LAMP ROOM - DUSK`) means the scene and its location have no `setting`; fix the record or the heading. `--out` never replaces an existing file under `adaptations/`, so once the script is drafted, build to `dist/` instead to compare a new skeleton with it. 5. Apply the scene list's decisions to the skeleton, then draft act by act and check length at about one page per minute. Keep each scene's `[[Source: ...]]` note. ### 3. Picture book Follow `references/picture-book.md`. 1. Set `form: picture-book` in `story.md`, or start a new project with `story init "Title" --form picture-book` (target 500 words). 2. Make the pagination plan in `adaptations/picture-book/pagination.md`: 32 pages, 14 spreads of story, a page-turn beat on each spread. 3. Keep the text in chapters, one chapter per spread, and the illustration briefs and art notes in the plan, not the prose (text in a chapter is counted and ships in every build). Give each spread one scene record and a `hook` for its page-turn beat, and set `story.md` to `status: revising` once all spreads are drafted; see "Spreads And The CLI Checks" in the reference for the warnings this clears. ### 4. Comics or graphic novel script Follow `references/comics-script.md`. Break the story into pages (`adaptations/comics/page-plan.md`), then write the full script with pages, panels, captions, balloons, and SFX in `adaptations/comics/{issue-or-part}.md`. ### 5. Interactive fiction Follow `references/interactive-fiction.md`. Map the linear scenes to nodes, choose a branching structure with the author, and record the branch map in `adaptations/interactive/branch-map.md`. Once the interactive edition project exists, draft and revise its chapters with the `interactive-fiction` skill. - **Twine:** make the interactive edition its own project (copy the source project without `dist/`, as for a translation), one chapter per passage, with `choices` frontmatter (`text` and `to`) on each chapter that branches. Check and build it: ```shell story validate . story links . story build . --format twee --out adaptations/interactive/{story-id}.twee ``` Fix every `links` warning about a chapter no choice path reaches. `--out` never replaces an existing file under `adaptations/`, so delete the old `.twee` before a rebuild. - **Ink:** set up the interactive edition project the same way, check it with the same commands, and build it: ```shell story build . --format ink --out adaptations/interactive/{story-id}.ink ``` Open the `.ink` file in Inky, or compile it with `inklecate`. The build escapes ink syntax in chapter prose, so write ink state (`VAR`, `~`, `{ }`) by hand in the built file, and only once the branch structure is settled: `--out` never replaces an existing file, and a rebuild after changing `choices` means deleting the old `.ink` and carrying the hand-written logic into the new one. Ask the author before deleting a file that has hand-written logic in it. ### 6. Translation Follow `references/translation.md`. 1. Prepare the term base: add a `## Translations` section to each glossary term, and `pronunciation` where it helps. Check new translated names with `story names`. 2. Copy the source project to a new folder (without `dist/`), set `language`, remove `series`, `book-number`, `follows`, and `precedes` from the copied `story.md`, and keep every id as the English kebab-case id. 3. Write a style sheet for the target language in the new project. 4. After translation, run the checks in both projects and compare the chapter sets: ```shell story validate ../book-es story links ../book-es story continuity ../book-es story compare ../book-es --against . ``` ## Conventions - Adaptation files: `adaptations/audiobook/`, `adaptations/screenplay/`, `adaptations/picture-book/`, `adaptations/comics/`, `adaptations/interactive/`. The CLI does not validate them and builds never include them. - Markdown planning files carry frontmatter with a `type` (`audiobook-production`, `scene-list`, `pagination-plan`, `page-plan`, `branch-map`, `translation-notes`) and `updated: YYYY-MM-DD`. - Scenes, characters, and locations keep their story ids in every adaptation file, so each adapted scene traces back to its source. - `pronunciation` is plain respelling in capitals for the stressed syllable (`SEER-sha`, `kah-LEE-na`), not IPA, unless the narrator asks for IPA. - A translated edition is a separate story project with the same ids and its own `language`, `isbn`, and metadata. Its `story.md` has no `series`, `book-number`, `follows`, or `precedes`; those are for different books, and copied values break `story links` and `story series`. - When the source manuscript changes, list the adaptation files the change affects and update them. ## CLI Maintenance Use the Story CLI when it is available. If `story` is not installed, use `bun run story --` from the Story Skills repository checkout or the bundled fallback `node ../story-maintenance/scripts/story.js` with the same arguments, resolving the path relative to this skill folder. If no CLI is available, write the narration script and scene lists by hand from the chapter and scene files. After adding `pronunciation`, `setting`, or glossary translations, or setting `form` or `language`: ```shell story reindex . story links . story validate . ``` After changing chapters in a picture-book, translated, or interactive project, also run `story wordcount . --write`. After adding, retargeting, or removing `choices`, run `story links .` and rebuild the Twee or ink file. `story move` and `story remove` keep `choices` targets in step. ## Reference Files - **`references/audiobook.md`** - Narration script review, pronunciation, runtime, production routes, narrator auditions, audio file checklist, and AI narration disclosure - **`references/fountain.md`** - Scene-list-from-scene-records method, novel-to-screen choices, and Fountain syntax - **`references/picture-book.md`** - 32-page and 14-spread pagination, page-turn beats, text and illustration interplay, spread brief template, and art notes - **`references/comics-script.md`** - Page and panel script format, pacing per page, balloon limits, and page-turn reveals - **`references/interactive-fiction.md`** - Branch maps from scenes, branching structures, state, chapter `choices` and the Twee and ink builds, and Ink and Twine syntax - **`references/translation.md`** - Glossary as term base, per-language style sheets, name decisions, and continuity across language editions ## Shared Conventions Every story skill follows the shared conventions in [`../story-maintenance/references/conventions.md`](../story-maintenance/references/conventions.md), resolved relative to this skill folder. Read it before creating, renaming, or linking story files. If that file is missing because this skill was installed without `story-maintenance`, the essentials are: kebab-case ids and filenames, YAML frontmatter on every story-project file, `_index.md` files as the authoritative registries, bidirectional links between entities, `characters` for who is on the page and `mentions` for who is only referred to, `status: deceased` plus `died-in: chapter-{NN}` for deaths, and no project-local generator or build scripts (run only the installed or bundled Story CLI).