Reference

Glossary

Every term in one place.

Every term used in these docs, in alphabetical order.

Term	Meaning
Achievement	A small reward, awarded when a reader reaches a scene or ending, optionally only if they made certain choices or the story remembers certain things. See Achievements.
Advanced expression	A calculation typed as a formula, like `strength * 10 + 2`, instead of built from the simple row. See Math and comparing values.
Arrival effect	A change to a remembered value that runs whenever a reader reaches a scene or fork, however they got there. The section is headed "When readers arrive here…".
Bridge scene	A short scene added so two routes can join without the shared scene assuming how the reader arrived. See Scenes readers reach from several routes.
Check	A test on a remembered value or on the story's history, used on a choice, a fork rule, a paragraph block or an achievement. Also called a condition. See Hiding choices and forking.
Choice	What the reader clicks at the end of a scene. Has words and a destination. See Choices.
Cover	The portrait image shown on the shelf, cropped to 512 by 800 pixels. See Story details and cover.
Draft	Your working copy. It saves automatically, and readers never see it until it is published.
Effect	A change to a remembered value, attached to a choice or an arrival. See A notebook the story keeps.
Ending	A node with no choices, where a path finishes. Has a type and a key. See Endings.
Ending key	The short internal label of an ending. Permanent once the story is published.
Ending type	Good, bad, neutral or secret. Sets the color a reader sees and their expectation.
Fork	An invisible step that checks the story's memory and sends the reader on. Never shown.
Graph view	The editor's map of your story, opened from the Write and Graph switch. See The story graph.
History check	A check on where the reader has been or what they chose. See Story history.
Hub	A scene the reader returns to repeatedly, with routes leading out and back.
List	A remembered value holding a growing collection of items. See Lists and inventory.
Loop	A choice that leads back to an earlier scene, or to its own.
Node	Any scene, ending or fork.
Otherwise	The destination a fork uses when none of its rules is true. Required.
Path	One route through the story from the start to an ending.
Placeholder	The grey hint shown inside an empty text field.
Preview	Playing your own draft as a reader would, without saving anything.
Remembered value	A named piece of information the story keeps: yes/no, a number, text or a list. Also called a variable.
Requirement	An extra condition on an achievement.
Reroll	In Preview, starting over with a new random seed.
Scene	Some prose followed by choices. The unit you write. See Scenes.
Scene break	A toolbar control that adds an extra gap between paragraphs inside a scene.
Secret ending	An ending reachable only through an unusual set of choices, shown as locked until found.
Seed	The number that fixes a playthrough's random results, so they repeat when the reader resumes.
Share link	A private link that lets anyone read your current draft without an account. See Preview, share and submit.
Shown-only-if paragraph	A block of text a reader sees only when its checks are true. See Showing values in the text.
Slug	The last part of a story's web address. You suggest one when you submit, and an editor decides the final one.
Start scene	The scene every reader begins with.
Story history	What the story already knows about the reader's path: scenes visited, choices made, choices so far.
Submit	Sending a draft to an editor for review.
Text field	A box in a scene the reader types an answer into. See Asking the reader for text.
Validation	The editor's automatic check of your story's structure. See Debugging your logic.
Variable	The developer word for a remembered value.