How to Use the Story Hub
The Story Hub is the structured reference space attached to every book. It's where you keep continuity straight: the rules of your world, your characters and their arcs, the geography of your places, your special vocabulary, and any notes, maps, or timeline events you want at hand while you write.
Robin reads the relevant Story Hub entries when it answers questions or offers suggestions, so the more you keep here, the more consistent its help becomes.
Opening the Story Hub
In Write, open Story Hub from the sidebar. In Research, click Open full Story Hub at the top of the Story Hub panel. You'll land on an overview showing each category as a card with a count of how many entries it holds.
The eight categories
| Category | What to store |
|---|---|
| Story World | Geography, culture, history, rules, and the systems that govern your setting |
| Characters | Names, roles, motivations, voice, and arcs |
| Places | Locations and the atmosphere they carry |
| Glossary | Terms and definitions for your story's vocabulary |
| Chapter Notes | Notes attached to a specific chapter or act |
| Free Notes | Anything that doesn't fit the other categories, with optional custom sections |
| Maps | An uploaded map image with pins you place and label |
| Timeline | Ordered story events arranged on tracks |
Creating an entry
Open any category, then click the + button. A new entry is created right away with a placeholder name (for example New Character). Rename it and fill in whatever fields matter for that category. Changes save as you type.
Next to a field label, the small info icon explains what the field is for, with an example and tips. On many fields, Ask Robin suggests content for that field based on what you've already written.
Entries can be edited or trashed at any time. Trashed entries move to the Trash section at the bottom of the Write sidebar, under Story Hub, where you can restore them.
Story Maps
The Maps category lets you attach a visual map to your book.
- Open Maps and upload a map image (a hand-drawn sketch, a rendered fantasy map, a floor plan, anything).
- Click on the map to drop a pin. Drag pins to reposition them.
- Give each pin a label and a color, and optionally link it to an entry in your Places so the two stay connected.
Maps are useful for keeping geography consistent: where the capital sits relative to the border, which room the confrontation happens in, how far the characters have to travel.
Uploading a map image requires an internet connection.
Story Timeline
The Timeline category arranges your story's events in order across one or more tracks (lanes).
- Add an event with a title, an optional date label, a beat, and an optional link to the chapter it belongs to.
- Group events onto tracks to separate, for example, a main plot from a subplot, or one point-of-view character from another.
- Move events between tracks and reorder them to reflect how your story actually unfolds.
The timeline is a planning and continuity tool. It doesn't change your manuscript; it just gives you a clear view of what happens when.
Scope: book, series, or workspace
Every Story Hub entry has a scope that controls where it appears:
- Book - the entry belongs to this book only (the default).
- Series - the entry is shared across every book in the same series. Use this for facts that hold across a trilogy or saga, like a recurring character or a world rule.
- Workspace - the entry is shared across every book in your workspace.
Change an entry's scope from the scope control on the entry: This book, This series, or Workspace. When you open a book, the Story Hub shows entries from all three scopes together, so series- and workspace-level facts appear alongside the book's own entries.
See also: Book Series
Sync from Book
The Sync from Book button on the Story Hub overview asks Robin to read your manuscript and update your existing Story Hub entries to match what's actually written: filling in details, catching drift, and keeping your reference in step with the prose.
Sync runs as a review step: the assistant proposes changes, you see exactly what it wants to add or update, and you tick the ones you want before clicking Apply. After a sync is applied, a message offers Undo for a short time if you change your mind.
Draft from Book
Draft from Book works the other way from an empty slate: instead of updating what you have, Robin reads your manuscript and proposes new entries you haven't created yet.
The Draft from Book button appears in these categories:
- Story World, Characters, Places, and Glossary: proposes new entries.
- Maps: proposes map pins for locations mentioned in the text (requires a map image).
- Timeline: proposes timeline events for the moments in your story.
Every draft flow is a review: you get a checklist of proposals, tick the ones you want, and apply them. Nothing is added without your confirmation. After a draft is applied, a message offers Undo for a short time.
How Robin uses the Story Hub
When you chat with the assistant or ask for feedback, the relevant Story Hub entries are included as context automatically. Ask "where is the capital of the empire?" and the answer draws from your Places and Story World entries; ask for plot suggestions and the assistant respects the characters, factions, and rules you've established.
This is the single biggest lever you have for consistent Robin help. A well-kept Story Hub keeps every suggestion grounded in your story.
See also: Book Settings | Chat with Robin | Book Series