Who can do this?
Owners and co-authors with write access to the chapter assign phases. The templates themselves are fixed. The “Story templates” module is switched on by people who may change the module settings.
Structure templates
A structure template lays a narrative structure over the chapters of your book as a guide.
What is it for?
A structure template is a reference that you lay as an overlay over the chapter structure of a book. Illumentis comes with four templates: the Hero’s Journey, the three-act structure, Save the Cat and the 7-point structure. You assign each chapter at most one phase of the chosen template.
This lets you see at a glance where a chapter sits in the chosen narrative structure. The template is a pure guide and not a forced structure. It changes neither chapters nor text, and an assignment can be removed again.
You maintain the assignment on the book page or in the editor. There, the “Structure position” widget shows the template and the phase of the open chapter. The “Story templates” module has to be switched on in the project.
How it works
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In the project settings, under “Modules”, switch on the “Story templates” module.
What you see afterwards: The structure template is available on the book page.
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On the book page, open the “Structure template” under “Tools & Analysis” and choose a structure in the “Template” field.
What you see afterwards: The chapter list shows a selection field per chapter.
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For each chapter, choose a phase or “— no phase —”.
What you see afterwards: The assignment is saved.
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Open a chapter in the editor and look at “Structure position” in the context panel.
What you see afterwards: The widget shows template and phase; there you can change it or release it with “— remove template —”.
Your data
Only which phase of a template is assigned to which chapter is saved. The assignment belongs to the project and is backed up with it. You can remove it again.
Limits
The four templates cannot be changed, and there are currently no custom templates. A chapter has at most one phase per template. The templates do not trigger any Illuminatio Engine checks. If the book has no chapters, it says “This book has no chapters yet.”
Frequently asked questions
Which templates are there?
The Hero’s Journey, the three-act structure, Save the Cat and the 7-point structure. You choose one of them per assignment.
Why don’t I see the structure template?
The “Story templates” module is switched off in new projects. Switch it on in the project settings. Without the module, Illumentis rejects the request for the templates.
Does the template change my text?
No. It is only a guide above the chapter list and does not trigger any checks.