Your story’s memory
Story questions and Story Pulse
The questions a good editor would ask, and a read on the whole book.
What it is
After each session, CharmWriter generates editorial questions about what you have written — the things a developmental editor would raise. They arrive grouped by what they concern (characters, plot, world building, pacing) and ordered by priority. Separately, every third session it runs a Story Pulse: a whole-book analysis of pacing, characters who have gone absent, plot threads that have gone stale, and emotional progression. Questions are about the scene in front of you; the Pulse is about the book as a whole.
Where to find it: Workspace → right panel → Story Questions tab. On phones: More → Notes & questions. If you see neither, switch Story Questions on under Settings → General → experience mode — it is off for a new account.
What this covers
- Questions grouped by need: character, plot, world, pacing
- Priority ordering — critical first
- Answer inline, discuss in chat, or dismiss
- You are told where each answer was filed
- Discussion stays out of the book, never turned into prose
- CharmWriter notices when you have settled it and offers to save
- Wander off mid-discussion and it offers the answer back, not silence
- Dismiss with a reason, and undo
- Snoozed questions revive later
- Whole-book questions, separate from scene questions
- Your open question asked back when you return
- Filters: all, critical, this chapter, this session
- Answered history you can reopen
- Backlog from completed chapters
- Revision tasks parked for later
- Story Pulse every third session
- Pacing, absent characters, stale threads
How to use it
- 1
Look at the questions after analysing a session
The Story Questions tab carries a count badge. Questions appear grouped by editorial need, with the most critical first.
- 2
Answer the ones you know
Type a short answer inline. CharmWriter tells you where it landed — on a character's page in the Story Bible when the question was about someone it recognises, otherwise as a note for the current session. Either way it reaches the AI's context and shapes what is drafted next.
- 3
Discuss the ones you do not
Press Discuss and the question is carried into the chat, where you can think out loud about it. That exchange is marked "Working it out" and stays out of your book: it is never turned into prose and never added to your Story Bible, so you can think freely without it leaking into the manuscript. When you have settled it, press Mark answered on the banner: CharmWriter reads your discussion back, drafts the answer you arrived at, and shows it to you to edit before it is saved. You do not have to spot the moment yourself: once you have actually decided something, the banner says so and the button lights up. And if you drift off without pressing it, changing session or simply talking on, CharmWriter keeps the thread and offers to save the answer instead of dropping it quietly.
- 4
Dismiss what does not apply
Dismiss with a reason — addressed, not relevant, or snoozed. Snoozed questions come back after a few sessions; the others stay gone. You get an undo window either way.
- 5
Park the fixes for later
Answering a question about a problem in existing prose offers to create a revision task. Those appear in the Smart Editor when you next open that chapter, under "From your answers".
- 6
Read the Story Pulse
Every third session, the whole-book analysis refreshes. It is also what feeds "Whole book" questions — the arc-level ones about payoffs and dropped threads.
What it gives you
The gaps are found before they become problems
A question about why a character agreed to something is much cheaper to answer now than to patch in chapter fourteen when the plot depends on it.
Answering is never wasted work
An answer about a character or place is written onto their page in the Story Bible, where it stays permanently and comes back whenever that character matters again. Anything else is kept as a note for the session you are in. CharmWriter says which of the two happened, so you always know what stuck.
The volume is controlled
Questions are capped per chapter and per group, and the AI is told what it has already asked. You get a handful that matter, not a hundred that do not.
Nothing is silently dropped
Finish a chapter with open questions and they move to a backlog you can browse and revive, rather than disappearing.
Good to know
- Questions come from the post-session analysis. If you never press Analyze, none are generated.
- The Story Pulse runs on a cadence of every third session rather than continuously, so it lags your very latest work slightly.
- These are editorial prompts, not judgements of quality. For a scored assessment of prose, use the chapter review.
- Answering a question does not rewrite existing prose. It changes what gets written next, and can create a revision task for the old text.
Questions
Do I have to answer all of them?
No. Answer what you know, dismiss what does not apply, snooze what you are not ready for. The queue is deliberately capped so it stays a help rather than a chore.
What is the difference between a question and the Story Pulse?
Questions are about a specific scene or chapter. The Story Pulse is about the whole book — pacing across chapters, characters who have not appeared for a while, threads left hanging.
A question turned up as the first thing Charm said. Is that the same queue?
Yes. When you open a session on a book already under way, Charm works your highest-priority open question into its opening line rather than listing it separately. It is the same question, still in the panel, and answering it there marks it answered as usual.
A question is about something I already fixed. What now?
Dismiss it with the reason "addressed". It will not come back.
Can I see questions I have already answered?
Yes. There is a collapsible answered history at the bottom of the panel, and any answered question can be reopened.
Start your first chapter
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