Novel Project Strategy

A Codex skill for longform fiction workflow, chapter-state tracking, reload discipline, and project recovery when a novel is too large to manage by reading the whole manuscript every session.

Why Use It

This skill is for novel projects that need governance, not just better prose.

It helps Codex:

• recover a longform fiction project in a fresh session
• decide what to load first and what to leave cold
• separate chapter-local truth from outline, setting, and timeline truth
• keep drafted, confirmed, and synced states distinct
• stop project facts from drifting across chat, files, and manuscript layers

Good Fit

Use this repo when the main problem is project structure:

• you need a workspace bootstrap for a novel project
• the manuscript is too large for full-text-first loading
• chapter-state or sync-state rules are unclear
• outline, timeline, setting, and prose are drifting apart
• you want stable cross-session recovery without losing context discipline

If your main problem is prose craft, chapter rhythm, or revision quality, use novel-writing alongside this skill.

Example Prompts

• Use novel-project-strategy. Design a reload order for this 250k-word novel workspace.
• Define chapter-state and sync-state rules so outline, timeline, and prose do not drift.
• Recover this fiction project in a new Codex session without loading the full manuscript first.

Install

Manual install:

git clone https://github.com/wgwtest/novel-project-strategy.git
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills
cp -R novel-project-strategy/novel-project-strategy ~/.codex/skills/novel-project-strategy

For local development with easy upgrades:

git clone https://github.com/wgwtest/novel-project-strategy.git
mkdir -p ~/.codex/skills
ln -s "$(pwd)/novel-project-strategy/novel-project-strategy" ~/.codex/skills/novel-project-strategy

Restart Codex after installing or updating the skill.

Installer-style inputs:

• repo: wgwtest/novel-project-strategy
• path: novel-project-strategy

Repository Layout

• novel-project-strategy/: installable skill package
• README.md: landing page for humans
• .github/: templates for issues and pull requests

The installable skill lives in a subdirectory so the repository root can hold public-facing files without leaking repo-specific metadata into the package.

Related Repos

• novel-writing: fiction planning, drafting, and revision
• project-engineering-strategy: engineering workflow governance for code projects

Contributing

If you want to improve the skill, start with CONTRIBUTING.md. The highest-value contributions are better state models, clearer reload patterns, and stronger examples that keep longform projects recoverable.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Maintainer Note

This public repository is synced from a separate source-of-truth workspace. Keep the root landing files and the installable package aligned in the same release.