Template: templates/frame.premise.md

# Premise

## The Argument

_In a few sentences: what this book claims, or what story it tells. If you can't say it without a list, it isn't a premise yet._

## Why It Has To Exist

_What is wrong, missing, or misunderstood in the world without this book. The problem the reader has._

## The Shape of It

_How the whole book is built — parts, arc, the movement from the first page to the last. Not a table of contents; the logic behind one._

## What It Is Not

_The adjacent book you are deliberately not writing. This is where a book's scope is held._

Template: templates/frame.reader.md

# Reader

## Who They Are

_The specific person you are writing to. One or a few kinds; name them. "Everyone" is not a reader._

## What They Bring

_What they already know, already believe, and already tried. What vocabulary you can use without explaining it, and what you cannot._

## What Changes For Them

_What they can do, believe, or feel at the end that they couldn't at the start. The book's promise, stated from their side._

## Who It Is Not For

_The reader you will lose, and are choosing to lose. Naming them is what lets you write plainly to the ones you keep._

Template: templates/frame.voice.md

# Voice

## Person & Tense

_First, second, or third; past or present. Whether it varies, and where._

## Register

_How it sounds read aloud — plain, formal, wry, urgent. Two or three writers or books it stands near, and how it differs from each._

## Rules It Keeps

_The specific, checkable habits: sentence length, jargon policy, how sources are cited, whether it addresses the reader directly, what it never does. These are what an editor checks a draft against._

## Rules It Breaks, On Purpose

_Where the book deliberately departs from its own register, and what that departure is for._

Template: templates/frame.market.md

# Market

## The Shelf

_Where it sits in a shop or a store's category tree, and who it sits beside._

## Comparables

_Three or four books a reader would already own. For each: what it does well, and what this one does that it doesn't._

## How It Reaches Readers

_Publisher, self-published, serialized, a course, a newsletter first. The path from written to read._

## What Success Looks Like

_Copies, readers, citations, invitations, a changed mind. Say which, and roughly how much — a book with no stated bar can't be finished._

Template: templates/chapter.full.md

# {{title}}

## Intent

_Why this chapter exists — the work it does that no other chapter does. One or two paragraphs. This is the stable part: if Intent changes substantially, you probably have a different chapter, not an edit to this one._

### Assumptions

_What you're taking as given about the reader arriving here — what they already accept, what they've already read. Nested under Intent because they frame it. Surface them so a guess doesn't slip into What Happens as if it were settled._

## Open Questions

_Unresolved questions — what you don't yet know about this chapter and still need answered. Kept high, right after Intent, so uncertainty is seen rather than buried. When one is settled it graduates into an Assumption, a beat, or a Decision._

## What Happens

_The chapter's content as observable beats — the argument it makes or the events it covers, in order. Label each beat **B1:**, **B2:**, … (bold, unique within this chapter). Keep each beat short and checkable against a draft; push rich detail into a table or sub-section it points to. Evolves freely._

- **B1:** <!-- the first thing this chapter does to the reader -->

## What the Reader Leaves With

_The checkable outcome — what a reader can do, believe, or feel at the end that they couldn't at the start. If it isn't listed here, this chapter doesn't promise it._

## Out of Scope

_Explicit non-goals — what this chapter deliberately does not cover, and which chapter covers it instead. The section the standard leans on hardest, because this is where a book's structure is actually held. A chapter without it tends to sprawl into its neighbors._

## Dependencies

_What a reader must have read, or you must have written, before this chapter works: earlier chapters, a Frame, an interview, a permission. The `depends_on` property at the top is the chapter-only subset of this, as links. Reference other chapters as markdown links — never bare names._

## Notes & Decisions

_Two things under one header. **Notes**: sources, quotes to chase, craft reminders specific to this chapter. **Decisions**: an append-only log, one line each, with an optional but recommended date._

<!-- 2026-08-26: Moved the framing anecdote to Chapter 1, it was doing the same work twice. (Brenton) -->

Template: templates/chapter.sketch.md

# {{title}}

## Intent

_Why this chapter exists — the work it does that no other chapter does. A paragraph is plenty here._

## Open Questions

_What you don't yet know about this chapter. Honest holes beat invented certainty._

## What Happens

_The beats, in order, as far as you have them. Label each **B1:**, **B2:**, … Rough is fine; a sketch is allowed to be thin, but not vague._

- **B1:**

## Out of Scope

_What this chapter deliberately does not cover, and which chapter covers it instead. Even in a sketch, this is the section worth filling — it's what keeps neighboring chapters from eating each other._