review-stories

What problem does it solve?

Editing biographical stories stored in _lives/ can be time-consuming and error-prone without a structured review process. This Skill provides a rigorous, phase-by-phase workflow to identify gaps, inconsistencies, and narrative issues, helping editors produce coherent and complete biographies.

Core Features & Use Cases

• Pass 1: Timeline Mapping — map ages and events and flag gaps longer than five years.
• Pass 2: Household Composition — document who lives with the protagonist, with explicit names/roles; resolve moving or remarriage.
• Pass 3: Sibling Introduction — list siblings, alive/dead status, and relationships; ensure early introduction and consistent ages.
• Pass 4: Character Tracking — capture first/last appearances for all named characters and minimize unexplained disappearances.
• Pass 5: Death Audit — compile a death log with relationship, year, purpose, and recommended action.
• Pass 6: Event Weight & Mechanism — evaluate plausibility and interest, generate questions and fill gaps.
• Pass 7: Paragraph Coherence — ensure each paragraph has a single theme and avoid mismatched transitions.
• Pass 8: Chronology & Time Markers — enforce forward chronology, varied time markers, and precise dates.
• Pass 9: Vague Language & Hedging — remove filler openings and ambiguous terms; answer work questions.
• Pass 10: Abstract Claims — demand concrete mechanisms behind significant moments; cut or replace vague phrasing.
• Pass 11: Anachronisms & Historical Grounding — verify period-appropriate tools, politics, culture, and geography.
• Pass 12: Jargon & Naming — avoid pseudo-sociological jargon; ensure diverse, clear names.
• Pass 13: Figurative Language & AI-Slop — replace metaphors and slop with plain prose.
• Pass 14: Final Read — summarize top issues and perform a last coherence pass.

Quick Start

Provide the target story file path under _lives/ (for example _lives/story.md) and run the 14-pass review to produce a cleaned, coherent narrative.