StoryForge supports memoir as a second book category alongside fiction. Activate it by setting book_category: memoir in the book's README.md frontmatter when creating a new book.
Memoir was chosen as the first non-fiction subtype because it shares the most craft DNA with fiction: narrative arc, scene work, POV, voice. General non-fiction (how-to, academic, biography, history) remains out of scope for v1.
Memoir is not a watered-down fiction workflow. The branched skills, the structure types, the people-handling system, and the two memoir-only quality gates are purpose-built for the specific craft challenges of true-life narrative.
| Memoir | Fiction | |
|---|---|---|
book_category |
memoir |
fiction (default) |
| Cast | Real people (people/ directory) |
Invented characters (characters/) |
| Plot method | Structure type (4 options) | Plot method (8 options) |
| Pre-export gate | memoir-ethics-checker |
sensitivity-reader (optional) |
| Post-chapter gate | emotional-truth-prompt |
— |
| Typical length | 50,000–80,000 words | Varies by book type |
When creating a new book with /storyforge:new-book, select memoir when asked for the book category. This sets the following in README.md:
---
title: "My Memoir Title"
book_type: "novel"
book_category: "memoir"
author: "your-author-slug"
status: "Idea"
---
Every skill reads book_category from the book data at runtime and branches accordingly. Missing book_category defaults to fiction for backward compatibility.
Memoir structure is independent of the chronology of lived events. You pick the structure that serves the story you are telling, not the one that mirrors what happened.
Events told in the order they happened.
When it works:
When it fails:
Examples: The Year of Magical Thinking (Didion), When Breath Becomes Air (Kalanithi), Wild (Strayed)
Chapters organized by topic (Money, Faith, Bodies) rather than by timeline. The same period of life can recur across chapters from different angles.
When it works:
When it fails:
Examples: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Angelou), The Argonauts (Nelson), H is for Hawk (Macdonald)
Two or more parallel threads — typically then and now, or two narrative timelines — interwoven scene by scene.
When it works:
When it fails:
Examples: Negroland (Jefferson), The Liars' Club (Karr), Fun Home (Bechdel)
Short, self-contained scenes (3–8 pages each), loosely connected by theme or through-line rather than tight causal arc.
When it works:
When it fails:
Examples: Bluets (Nelson), The Chronology of Water (Yuknavitch), Brother, I'm Dying (Danticat)
| Ask yourself | If yes → consider |
|---|---|
| Is the period bounded and the causality tight? | Chronological |
| Is the central question conceptual, not temporal? | Thematic |
| Does the present-self vantage point add meaning to past events? | Braided |
| Is the lived experience fragmented or non-narrative by nature? | Vignette |
Earn hybrids. If you can't name your dominant structure in one word, you don't have a structure yet — you have a draft.
Memoir involves real people. StoryForge uses a separate people/ directory instead of characters/ to track them, with explicit consent management.
my-memoir/
├── people/
│ ├── INDEX.md # People roster
│ ├── mom.md # Individual person profiles
│ ├── ex-partner.md
│ └── old-friend.md
Each person profile has a YAML frontmatter block:
---
name: "Margaret"
slug: mom
real_name: "Margaret Hofmann" # if anonymized, the real name is confidential
person_category: private-living # see categories below
consent_status: granted # see statuses below
anonymized: false
appears_in_chapters: [01, 03, 07, 12]
---
| Category | Who | Consent approach |
|---|---|---|
public-figure |
Politicians, celebrities, executives with public roles | Reduced privacy expectation for public conduct; private life still protected |
private-living |
Family, friends, colleagues, former partners | Full privacy protection; consent strongly recommended |
deceased |
No longer living | Family sensitivities still apply; defamation rules still apply posthumously |
anonymized-composite |
Changed details + possible composite of multiple people | Must pass the "identifiable by close acquaintance" test |
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
granted |
Person has read the relevant passages and consented |
refused |
Person has refused consent — export blocked until anonymized or removed |
pending |
You have asked; awaiting response |
not-asked |
Deliberate choice not to ask (estranged, abusive, or otherwise not contactable) |
not-required |
Anonymized/composite — consent not applicable |
A
refusedconsent status is a hard export block. The only paths forward are full anonymization (must pass the "identifiable by close acquaintance" test) or removing the person from the narrative.
/storyforge:plot-architect-memoirMemoir-dedicated plot structure skill. Selects one of 4 memoir structure types and builds a chapter spine shaped by that type. Loads memoir craft references — not the fiction plot catalog.
Run: After /storyforge:book-conceptualizer, before /storyforge:character-creator.
Argument: <book-slug>
Prerequisite: book_category: memoir — refuses to run on fiction books.
| Structure Type | Best for |
|---|---|
| Chronological | Bounded period with tight causal sequence |
| Thematic | Central question is conceptual, not temporal |
| Braided | Past/present vantage adds meaning by juxtaposition |
| Vignette | Fragmented or non-narrative lived experience |
Output: Chapter spine per structure type — no antagonist phase. Internal conflict + external circumstances instead.
plot-architect(the fiction variant) refuses to run on memoir books. Useplot-architect-memoirfor memoir,plot-architectfor fiction.
/storyforge:emotional-truth-promptInteractive felt-sense interrogation for memoir chapter drafts. Finds where the draft has drifted toward plausible-feeling abstraction and asks targeted questions — only the author can answer from lived experience.
Run: After chapter draft, before /storyforge:chapter-reviewer.
7 dimensions checked:
| Code | Dimension | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
| ET1 | Implicit Feeling | Abstract emotion-naming ("she felt sad"), emotional blank spots |
| ET2 | Retrospective Vantage Drift | Past-self given knowledge she didn't have; condescension toward past-self |
| ET3 | Memory Contradiction | Suspiciously clean memory; missing ambivalence |
| ET4 | Avoidance Hedge | "what happened", "the incident" — vague references to undramatized charged content |
| ET5 | Thoroughness Trap | Inventory lists without felt-sense function |
| ET6 | Scene/Summary Mode Error | Hinge moments in summary instead of scene |
| ET7 | "I Was Wrong" Rendering | Penance porn, tidy redemption arcs, under-rendered wrongness |
Output: Targeted questions and revision directions. Never prose rewrites — the felt-sense work comes from the author.
Verdict: PASS → proceed to chapter-reviewer | DEEPEN → address gaps first | REWRITE → structural rework needed
/storyforge:memoir-ethics-checkerConsent gate and defamation-risk scanner. Mandatory export prerequisite for memoir books.
Run: Before export (called automatically by export-engineer), and manually after adding/changing person profiles.
Two-part check:
Part 1 — Consent scan: Reads all person profiles in people/, checks consent_status. Returns PASS / WARN / FAIL per person with required actions.
Part 2 — Defamation-risk prose scan: Scans chapter drafts for 4 risk patterns:
| Code | Pattern | Example |
|---|---|---|
| D1 | Compressed-time assertion | "He drank too much." (needs temporal scope: "that year, he drank too much") |
| D2 | Reconstructed defamatory dialogue | Attributed speech the real person never said, stated as fact |
| D3 | Unframed mind-reading | "She hated me" (needs framing: "I felt that she hated me") |
| D4 | Per-se-defamatory imputation | Direct/near-direct assertions of crime, incompetence, sexual misconduct |
Verdict: EXPORT CLEAR / RESOLVE BEFORE EXPORT / EXPORT BLOCKED
These existing skills automatically switch to memoir mode when book_category: memoir:
chapter-writer (memoir mode)consent_status for named living people before drafting any scenecharacter-creator (memoir mode → people handler)people/ directory instead of characters/consent_status, person_category, anonymized statusbook-conceptualizer (memoir mode)manuscript-checker (memoir mode)voice-checker (memoir mode)memoir-anti-ai-patterns.md in addition to standard anti-AI catalog1. /storyforge:create-author
→ Author profile with memoir-appropriate voice settings
2. /storyforge:new-book
→ Title, book_category: memoir, structure type selection
3. /storyforge:book-conceptualizer my-memoir
→ Phase 1: Premise (what slice of life, what central question)
→ Phase 2: Narrator (who you are in this story)
→ Phase 3: Scope (what period, what is included/excluded and why)
→ Phase 4: Theme (what does this memoir say about the lived experience)
→ Phase 5: Pitch (memoir-format back cover blurb)
4. /storyforge:plot-architect-memoir my-memoir
→ Choose structure type (chronological / thematic / braided / vignette)
→ Build chapter spine per structure type
→ No "antagonist" — internal conflict + external circumstances
5. /storyforge:character-creator my-memoir
→ Creates person profiles with consent_status tracking
→ One profile per significant person in the narrative
6. /storyforge:world-builder my-memoir
→ Real places and eras (factual research, not invention)
→ Travel matrix for real locations still useful
→ period-specific research notes
7. /storyforge:chapter-writer my-memoir 01
→ Memoir mode: loads scene-vs-summary, emotional-truth, anti-AI patterns
→ Scene-by-scene mode recommended
8. /storyforge:emotional-truth-prompt my-memoir 01
→ 7-dimension felt-sense interrogation (memoir-only gate)
→ Before chapter-reviewer, not after
9. /storyforge:chapter-reviewer my-memoir 01
→ 28-point check (fiction + memoir-adjusted criteria)
10. (Repeat 7–9 for all chapters)
11. /storyforge:continuity-checker my-memoir
→ Timeline, real-place travel matrix, canon log
12. /storyforge:manuscript-checker my-memoir
→ Cross-chapter cleanup including memoir-specific patterns
13. /storyforge:memoir-ethics-checker my-memoir
→ Consent check + defamation-risk scan — MANDATORY before export
14. /storyforge:voice-checker my-memoir
→ Full-book scan with memoir AI-tells included
15. /storyforge:export-engineer my-memoir --format epub
→ memoir-ethics-checker runs automatically as pre-flight gate
create-author → new-book (memoir) → book-conceptualizer (minimal scope) →
character-creator (core people) →
[rolling-planner → chapter-writer → emotional-truth-prompt → chapter-reviewer] (repeat) →
continuity-checker (every 3–5 chapters) →
manuscript-checker → memoir-ethics-checker → voice-checker → export-engineer
StoryForge ships 5 memoir-specific craft documents under book_categories/memoir/craft/:
| File | Content |
|---|---|
memoir-structure-types.md |
Deep dive into all 4 structure types with examples and failure modes |
scene-vs-summary.md |
When to dramatize vs. reflect in memoir (different calculus than fiction) |
emotional-truth.md |
The taxonomy of emotional-truth failure modes (ET1–ET7 framework) |
real-people-ethics.md |
Consent model, four-category classification, anonymization patterns, defamation patterns D1–D4 |
memoir-anti-ai-patterns.md |
Memoir-specific AI-tells: reflective platitudes, retrospective hinges, tidy lessons, avoided-moment markers |
These are loaded automatically by the memoir-aware skills. You can also read them directly for craft guidance.
These are explicitly deferred. Path E in issue #49 discusses the decision to start with memoir as the only non-fiction subtype.
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