Update Character State

Overview

Use this skill to update the continuity record for character state after a chapter becomes stable enough to trust. It should capture dynamic, story-relevant state changes without duplicating the full character bible.

When To Use

Use this skill when:

• a chapter draft or rewrite has settled enough to become reference material;
• character goals, knowledge, location, wounds, or emotional state have changed;
• future chapters risk using stale character assumptions;
• the continuity layer needs to reflect recent narrative developments.

Do not use this skill to write or redesign character biographies. Use create-character-bible for foundational character design.

Required Inputs

Gather or infer these inputs:

• story.yaml metadata;
• the chapter or chapter range being stabilized;
• current character bible files;
• 07_continuity/entities.yaml;
• review and continuity notes if they affect state certainty.

Ask questions only when the scope of the update is genuinely unclear.

Files To Read

Always read:

• story.yaml
• target chapter or chapters in 05_draft/
• 07_continuity/entities.yaml

Read these when present and relevant:

• 03_characters/*
• 06_review/chapter_XX.review.md
• 06_review/chapter_XX.revision.md
• 06_review/manuscript.review.md
• 07_continuity/canon_facts.yaml
• 07_continuity/unresolved_threads.yaml

Files To Write

Write or update:

• 07_continuity/entities.yaml

State Schema

For materially active characters, entities.yaml should support these dynamic fields in addition to any existing static fields:

• status
• current_location
• current_goal
• emotional_state
• last_updated_in
• knowledge_changes

Use short, operational values. Preserve any existing fields that the project already uses.

Language Rules

This skill depends on story.yaml as the source of truth for project metadata.

• Read story.language before interpreting project content.
• Keep YAML keys in English.
• Write human-readable YAML values in the selected story language.
• Use correct orthography, accents, and normal Unicode for that language.
• If the project already uses another explicit continuity-value convention, preserve it consistently instead of mixing styles.

Procedure

1. Read the stabilized chapter and extract character changes that are explicit on the page.
2. Compare those changes with the existing character-state entries.
3. Update only the fields that changed materially:
   • where the character is;
   • what the character wants now;
   • what emotional condition dominates;
   • what the character newly knows or stops believing;
   • whether the character is missing, injured, dead, exposed, hiding, or otherwise status-shifted.
4. Preserve static identity information from earlier character files.
5. Do not guess future development from foreshadowing alone.
6. If a change is ambiguous, keep the entry conservative and let continuity-check or later chapters resolve it.

Output Requirements

The update should make it easy to answer for each major active character:

• where they are now;
• what they are trying to do now;
• what emotional state they carry into the next chapter;
• what they newly know or still do not know;
• which chapter last established that state.

Output

After running the skill, provide:

• a short summary of which characters were updated;
• the most important state changes recorded;
• any ambiguous state changes intentionally left unresolved;
• the recommended next step, usually update-timeline or sync-story-bible.

Definition Of Done

This skill is done when:

• 07_continuity/entities.yaml reflects the latest stable chapter state;
• dynamic state is clearly separated from static character-bible content;
• ambiguous facts were not over-asserted;
• later drafting can rely on the updated state with less guesswork.

Restrictions

• Do not rewrite the character bible files unless explicitly asked.
• Do not record future assumptions as current fact.
• Do not erase useful existing fields just to enforce a smaller schema.
• Do not update character state from rejected or unimplemented review feedback.

Example Invocation

Use $update-character-state to persist the post-revision state of the main cast after chapter 2.