adaptation

Files (7)

• SKILL.md
• audiobook.md · references/
• comics-script.md · references/
• fountain.md · references/
• interactive-fiction.md · references/
• picture-book.md · references/
• translation.md · references/

SKILL.md (first lines)

# 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
  edition (a linear book turned into Ink or Twine)
- 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 a book that branches from the start, such as a new
  choose-your-own-adventure story (use `interactive-fiction`)
- 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.

From danjdewhurst/story-skills, MIT.

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