Muse Basics
The Muse Workspace is your creative hub for asking questions, exploring ideas, and developing your story at any stage. Whether you’re in the early brainstorming phase or refining a detailed Storyform, Muse is there to guide and support your writing process.
Ask Any Questions
You can interact with Muse as you would with a creative partner. Ask Muse about storytelling principles, get feedback on your ideas, or request suggestions for plot developments, character arcs, or thematic elements. Muse adapts to your needs and offers meaningful insights based on your story’s context.
How can I keep the 2nd act engaging?
Drawing Upon Examples
Muse is equipped to pull from a library of examples to inspire your process. If you’re unsure how to move forward with a scene, character arc, or thematic structure, you can ask Muse for examples from well-known stories. This feature can guide you in shaping your own narrative by demonstrating how similar situations have been handled in successful works.
What are examples of stories with a Story Outcome of Failure and a Story Judgment of Good?
Starting New Stories
In Muse, beginning a new story is as simple as opening a conversation. You can outline ideas, characters, or themes, and Muse will help shape these into a cohesive narrative. The flexibility in Muse allows you to explore without limitations, so whether you start with a single character idea or a thematic concept, Muse helps you organically develop your story.
Let’s start a new story. Call it "The End of the Road"
Navigating the Story and Storyform Hub
When working in the Muse Workspace, tapping on the Story or Storyform context takes you to a central Hub designed to help you manage and navigate everything related to your narrative.
In the Story Hub, you can:
- Update the Title of your Story.
- Access a Navigation List containing key areas like:
- Narrative Aspects: Saved story elements like Overviews, Storypoints, and Storybeats.
- Conversations: Linked discussions that provide insights or build on your story’s development.
- Documents: Related notes or drafts that belong to this story context.
The Storyform Hub includes all of the above, plus:
- A complete listing of the Storyform—a detailed map of the narrative structure you’re developing.
- A Develop button that lets you seamlessly transition into the Develop Workspace for deeper exploration and refinement of your Storyform.
This central hub ensures that all key elements of your Story or Storyform are just a tap away, streamlining your creative process and keeping everything organized as your ideas grow.
Attaching Conversations to Stories or Storyforms
Each conversation you have with Muse can be linked directly to the Story or Storyform you’re working on. This keeps your creative process organized and allows you to track how your ideas have evolved over time. By attaching conversations, you can revisit past insights and build upon earlier discussions.
Can you attach this conversation to my Storyform titled "The Road Form A"?
When you attach a conversation to a Story or Storyform, Muse remembers the key elements of your Story or Storyform as you work. This includes major plot points, thematic ideas, and the characters you’ve developed. Specific details can be recalled in future sessions, so you never lose track of your narrative progress.
For more information on how to work with conversations within Muse, please visit Managing Conversations. For more on what it means to attach a conversation to a Story or Storyform, please Muse Context.
Saving and Updating Narrative Aspects
As you discuss ideas with Muse, you can save and update important story elements, such as Overviews, Storypoints, and Storybeats. This ensures that your creative progress is captured and stored, making it easy to revisit and refine your ideas as your story evolves.
“Please save the above Main Character Progressions we just worked out to this Storyform.”
In the meantime, when saving Narrative Aspects, be sure to specify whether you want them saved or updated in your current Story or Storyform. Muse will do its best to interpret your intent, but being explicit in your commands can help streamline the process.
If this is a new Narrative Aspect, Muse will first confirm that you want to create the new item. If the aspect already exists within the context you specify, Muse will ask if you want to overwrite the existing information, blend in your new input with the old, or simply cancel the request.
Chat with Muse as if Talking to a Writing Partner
While you can ask Muse to explain certain parts of Dramatica theory or how to do something in Subtxt, you'll get more out of your experience if you dialogue with her and work out loud your thoughts in developing your story.
Muse Knows Everything Published on Narrative First
Feel free to use Muse as a search interaction instead of the oft-requested search feature on Narrative First. Going forward, everything will be published to Muse instead of the blog.
There Is No "Right" Way to Ask Muse Questions
The questions that work are the ones that come from you and your particular view of the world. Muse will be there to bounce ideas off of, but everyone's experience will be different, unique, and wonderful.
The Importance of Specificity
When working on your story using Subtxt Muse, it's essential to be clear and specific about your intended focus. The AI is designed to respond to your input, so if you aren't explicit about what you want to work on, you may not get the desired outcome. It's important not to assume that any discrepancies are due to a problem with the application or memory management in the background. Instead, refine your inquiry to improve the AI's understanding of your request.
Muse Extension Menu
The Muse Extension Menu is a handy pop-up located in the lower-left corner of the Muse input box. Simply look for the circle with three dots (•••), tap it, and you'll discover a range of powerful features to enhance your creative process. These include Inspire, Upload, Persona, Muse Mode, and Model Selection. Each option offers a unique way to interact with Muse and your storytelling journey.
Inspire
Feeling stuck or uncertain? The Inspire feature is here to help. When you select this option from the Muse Extension Menu, Muse will intelligently read your current conversation and provide ideas that fit the flow. These may include prompts, suggestions, or fresh concepts designed to get you past any creative blocks.
Whether you're crafting characters, plotting twists, or simply in need of a creative boost, the Inspire feature offers tailored ideas to keep you moving forward. For users working within a Storyform context, Inspire will also scan your Storyform for unillustrated Storypoints, offering suggestions that specifically address those gaps.
Upload
With the Upload feature, you can integrate external documents—such as story drafts, outlines, or notes—directly into your creative workflow. Muse will analyze your uploaded material, providing feedback and suggestions to enhance or refine your work.
After uploading, Muse performs a quick moderation check to ensure the content aligns with the Content Generation Policy. If the document passes, Muse generates a summary to capture its essence, which can later be referenced within your workspace.
For more information, check out Uploading Documents.
Muse Personas
Muse can adopt different personas to suit your unique creative style, and you can access these options through the Muse Persona feature in the Extension Menu. Whether you need a casual brainstorming partner, a deep-dive theorist, or a focused narrative guide, Muse adjusts its tone and approach accordingly.
Each persona brings a fresh perspective to your story, helping you approach storytelling challenges in the way that best fits your current needs. Explore different personas to find the one that works for your specific process.
For further customization, check out more details about Muse Personas.
Muse Mode
By default, Muse operates in Muse Mode, a balanced, adaptive mode that dynamically switches between different focuses—such as creative brainstorming, narrative theory, and storyforming—to offer the most helpful input at any given moment.
However, you can also choose specific modes for more targeted assistance:
- Muse Mode: The default setting, which adjusts between theory, storyforming, and creative brainstorming.
- Theory Mode: Delivers detailed explanations of storytelling principles, helping you better understand narrative theory.
- Storyforming Mode: Guides you through building and refining a Storyform, ensuring your story's structure and thematic argument are on point (available to Subtxt Infinite subscribers only).
Switch between these modes depending on your focus, or stay in Muse Mode for a balanced experience that adapts to your evolving needs.
Intern Mode
Subtxt relies on an external API service (provided by OpenAI) to provide its narrative intelligence. Occasionally, this service may be temporarily unavailable or limited as it undergoes upgrades and maintenance. Think of it as if your "expert writing partner" is taking some time to recharge, so they can come back even better! When this happens, Subtxt smoothly rolls back Muse to "Intern Mode"—a simplified version that still supports essential functions, allowing you to continue your story development without constant interruptions.
In Intern Mode, while you might temporarily lose access to some advanced features—such as saving Narrative Aspects, referencing examples from various films, or checking your Storyform’s integrity in-depth—you’ll still have access to the core functionality needed to keep moving forward. It’s almost like working with an enthusiastic intern who may not yet have the depth of experience but can still help with foundational tasks.
When the API service is restored, Muse Mode will become available again, restoring the full feature set to support your creative process.
Model Selection
With the Model Selection option, you can switch between different narrative models as you develop your story. This flexibility allows you to explore various storytelling frameworks, helping you adapt your story to different narrative theories or structures.
This feature is perfect for those looking to experiment with alternative story designs or trying to fit their work into a particular narrative framework.
For a detailed look into the different AI models available to Subtxt and Muse, check out The Role of Models in Storytelling.
Building Storyforms
Once you’ve developed enough material in the Muse Workspace, you can begin crafting a Storyform. Muse helps guide you through this process by asking key questions about your story’s theme, characters, and plot structure. This step is crucial for transforming a general story idea into a structured narrative with a clear thematic argument.
“Can you help me build a new Storyform for this story?”
Dramatica Theory Experts and Muse
For those with a deep understanding of Dramatica theory, using Muse might sometimes bring up structural elements that don’t align perfectly with Dramatica conventions. If Muse presents conflicting domains or concerns, keep in mind that:
- Reflection of Your Story Input: Muse is designed to interpret and structure your story based on the details you provide, even if they don’t entirely fit traditional Dramatica patterns. If the story information you’ve given includes some inherent conflicts or mixed signals, Muse may set, for instance, the OS in Physics and the MC in Psychology as the best possible fit.
- Requesting a Dramatica-Aligned Structure: If you recognize that Muse’s storyform isn’t aligned with Dramatica standards, you can ask it for a more rigorous check. Specific prompts like “check the storyform,” “align the storyform,” or “check the integrity of the storyform” tell Muse to engage its more advanced model, aimed at reinforcing structural consistency according to Dramatica principles.
With these targeted prompts, Muse can better align its suggestions to meet the needs of Dramatica-savvy users.
Navigating Between Muse Workspace and Story Central
The Muse Workspace serves as your creative hub within Subtxt, where you can ask questions, explore ideas, and develop your story at any stage. Whether you're brainstorming or refining a detailed Storyform, Muse is designed to support your writing journey.
However, knowing how to navigate back to Story Central—the starting point for managing your stories—is essential for fluid movement between creative exploration and story management.
Global Muse Navigation
The button located in the upper-left corner of any Muse screen plays a key role in transitioning between Workspaces and Subtxt. Here's how it works based on your current context:
- If you're actively working within a specific Story or Storyform, clicking the quill icon will clear out the current story context and take you back to a fresh, clean Muse Workspace. This is useful when you want to continue brainstorming or developing without any previous story settings in place.
- If you are already on an empty Muse Workspace (i.e., you have no active Story or Storyform selected), the quill icon will be replaced with a classic "home" icon. Clicking it will return you to Story Central, where you can select or create a new story.
By understanding these navigation options, you can easily shift between your creative flow in the Muse Workspace and managing your stories in Story Central.