Worldbuilding

The Worldbuilding section of Story Bible is the place to create and store all of the important details of your world—everything from settings, to items, to lore, and beyond. These building blocks help you stay organized, while giving the AI helpful context on your story world. Sudowrite uses the relevant context from your Worldbuilding cards when writing for you.

The Worldbuilding section is very open-ended. It provides a wide range of templates. No matter what you select, your Worldbuilding entry will be tracked on a collapsible, customizable card.

Each individual Worldbuilding entry gets a card of its own in the Worldbuilding section of your Story Bible.

Cards are how you keep track of each entry, meaning that a card may represent a clue, magic system, setting, or something else altogether. You can select from the card templates available, or create an entirely custom entry using + Custom when creating a card (or in the trait customization).

As with Characters, Worldbuilding entry cards can be collapsed using the arrow next to the element name, and dragged to your preferred order with the six-dot handle in the upper left.

The dropdown next to the card Title allows you to toggle the Worldbuilding entry Type from the available options. You can see previous versions of that card in the card history—accessed from the clock icon up top—and you can delete a Worldbuilding card using the three dots on the right.

You can create Worldbuilding entries with or without the AI’s help. If you click the purple + Add Element button, you’ll be able to select from Blank Element, Generate Element, or Surprise Me.

If you’d like to manually complete the card, just select Blank Element. Choose what type of Worldbuilding element you’re creating a card for, and then fill in the associated trait fields. Generate Element will let the AI do all the work—you just give a brief description of what it is you’re looking for and Sudowrite will get to work. This is a great option if you already have notes available, and you want the AI to structure and flesh out those notes. Surprise Me will instantly generate a random element that fits the vibe of your story, based on an analysis of the story you’re trying to tell and what you’ve already got documented.

Each type of Worldbuilding element has a slightly different set of default traits for you (or the AI) to complete. For example, the Clue template includes a Implications trait, whereas the Item template includes a Who owns this item trait. These traits offer a helpful starting point, but you can add to or change them as desired.

Individual traits can be added at the card level—say for example if you have a specific setting that needs to include HOA details—by clicking + Add Trait at the bottom of that card. Title the trait, and fill it it as desired.

If you’d prefer to add something that should exist across all Setting cards you create, you’ll want to update the Default Traits for all Setting elements by clicking the More menu (•••) in the Worldbuilding section header and choosing Customize Traits. The process is the same for all the element templates—just select a different element from the drop down.

As with Characters, traits are there both for your reference, and that of the AI. Traits inform how the AI will write about an entry when it is referenced (either directly, or using one of the defined “Other Names”). This is good to keep in mind when you’re titling and populating traits. A general rule is that if a junior writer or copy editor could make sense of your traits, the AI should be able to handle it well.

After adding new default traits to pre-existing Character cards or Worldbuilding elements, you may wind up with a bunch of empty trait fields. Traits can always be filled in manually, but sometimes you want the AI’s help with that, so you have the ability to generate traits individually as well.

When a trait field is empty, just put your cursor inside of the field and click Generate. You’ll have the option to provide custom instructions, but you can also just click Go. The AI will then populate that trait field with something contextually appropriate. The AI takes the rest of your Worldbuilding elements, and Story Bible context into consideration when generating those traits individually. You also have the option to Rewrite trait fields that you’re not satisfied with. Just click Rewrite from within the trait field, provide custom instructions (if desired), and click Go. The AI looks at the current version of the trait, then rewrites it either according to provide instructions or (if blank) its own intuition and context.

The smart import feature in Story Bible’s Worldbuilding section can be used to instantly create Worldbuilding elements from an existing text.

To use the smart import feature, navigate to the header of the Worldbuilding section of Story Bible, click the More menu (•••), and select Import. Doing so opens the Import window.

You have the option of importing Worldbuilding from text or a file. This might be a list of Worldbuilding ideas, a chapter of your work, or in some cases an entire manuscript.

The raw text pasted in or file uploaded should be no more than 60,000 words. Sudowrite will review that, identify, and import up to 30 elements at a time. Before doing so there is a brief validation step where you can tell Sudowrite not to bother bringing a worldbuilding element in.

Importing Worldbuilding does not use credits.

For "unstructured text" that you paste in or upload by file, Sudowrite will use AI to first identify the Worldbuilding elements, and then figure out how best to complete the defined default trait fields.

However, when uploading a CSV, you’re actually not subject to the limits outlined above—you could import more than 30 elements in one shot, if desired. That’s because Sudowrite skips AI if you upload structured data via CSV. It makes the following assumptions:

If you’d like complete control over the import, you can complete this CSV template manually:

https://editor.sudowrite.com/assets/sudowrite-worldbuilding-import-template.csv

While your Story Bible is not included during a typical project export, the Worldbuilding section of Story Bible has its own Export feature available, allowing you to download the entirety of the Worldbuilding section. That will include all of your Worldbuilding elements and their associated traits. Here’s how to use it.

Worldbuilding Export: