Glossary

One-line definitions of the StoryCAD terms used across this documentation. Each links to the page that covers it in full, or to the StoryCAD user manual for concepts that belong to the application rather than the API.

Beat sheet

A story-structure framework, such as Three Act Structure, Hero’s Journey, or Save the Cat, that defines an ordered list of narrative beats. You apply a beat sheet to a Problem element and assign Scenes to its beats. See Beat Sheet Operations.

Dramatic situation

A writing-craft way of classifying the core conflict of a story or scene, drawn from classic catalogs such as Georges Polti’s 36 Dramatic Situations. It is a planning aid in the StoryCAD application, not a resource the API exposes; the API’s structural tools are beat sheets and master plots. See the StoryCAD user manual.

Element type

The kind of a story element, given by the StoryItemType enum. There are eleven: StoryOverview, Problem, Character, Setting, Scene, Folder, Section, Web, Notes, TrashCan, and StoryWorld. See Element Types and Properties.

Headless mode

Running StoryCADLib without its user interface, for console apps, web APIs, and batch tools. Enable it with BootStrapper.Initialise(headless: true) in C#, or by constructing StoryCAD(headless=True) in Python. See Quick Start.

Master plot

One of the twenty classic plot patterns from Ronald Tobias’s 20 Master Plots, such as Quest, Pursuit, or Revenge. Each carries descriptive notes and a scene breakdown, exposed as read-only reference data through GetMasterPlotNames. See Master Plots.

OperationResult

The wrapper every C# API method returns. Check IsSuccess before reading Payload, and read ErrorMessage on failure. The Python wrapper takes the opposite approach: it returns values directly and raises an exception on error. See OperationResult.

.stbx file

StoryCAD’s outline file format: a JSON document holding every story element and the flattened tree views. Written with WriteOutline and read with OpenOutline. See File Format.

Story element

A single node in an outline, such as a character, scene, problem, or setting. Every story element is a StoryElement subclass identified by a GUID, and elements reference each other by GUID rather than by object reference. See Element Types and Properties.

StoryModel

The root data structure for an outline. It holds a flat collection of all story elements plus three tree views: ExplorerView for authoring, NarratorView for reading order, and TrashView for deleted elements. Every API call reads from or writes to the StoryModel. See The Story Model.