Fiction World Bible

The problem

Anyone who's tried building a novel or a fictional world with an AI across many sessions runs into the same failure mode eventually: facts drift. A character's age changes. A minor detail invented for one scene quietly contradicts something established three chapters earlier. The AI starts inventing plot-relevant details on the fly because it's easier than asking, and by book two nobody — including you — is entirely sure what's actually canon anymore.

What it does

This skill is a process, not a style. It doesn't impose a genre, a tone, or a set of tropes — it imposes discipline: a locked, growing set of canon documents; a hard rule that new facts get flagged instead of invented silently; and prose-quality checks calibrated to your stated preferences, not a house style baked into the skill.

The first time it runs on a new project, it doesn't jump straight into writing — it interviews you first (genre, format, how strict you want canon control to be, your prose preferences, your length targets) and builds a governance document from your actual answers. That document becomes the standing rulebook every session checks against afterward.

From there:

• New facts get flagged, not invented. If a scene needs a detail your canon doesn't cover, it stops and asks before writing it in.
• You decide what becomes canon. Nothing is locked in until you say so explicitly.
• Minor characters and places earn real backstory. The moment a name recurs, it stops being a throwaway detail and gets folded into your world with actual history.
• Length targets are a compass, not a cage. Chapters and books can run shorter or longer than your stated range when the story genuinely calls for it — a short book gets a check for underdeveloped threads, never padding.
• Series-level planning stays honest. Open questions stay open rather than getting papered over with an overconfident roadmap you never actually agreed to.

Choosing your canon strictness

• Strict — nothing enters canon without your explicit sign-off. Best if you've been burned by AI-introduced continuity errors before, or you're building something with a lot of interlocking rules.
• Moderate — small, inconsequential details can be invented freely; anything structural still gets flagged. The middle ground for most projects.
• Loose — creative latitude by default, you course-correct as needed. Best for drafting-fast, revising-later workflows.

What it won't do

It won't invent your world for you, write in a voice you didn't ask for, or impose genre conventions you didn't choose. It won't quietly decide your canon-strictness preference or your style rules on your behalf. Its entire job is enforcing whatever discipline you choose to work under — consistently, honestly, and without ever pretending a gap in your canon isn't there.

Try it

Just tell Claude you're starting (or continuing) an original fiction project, or ask it to help keep your story's world consistent. Download the skill below and add it to Claude or Claude Code — it'll run its setup interview automatically the first time you use it on a new project.

Writing non-fiction instead? Fact Lock is the mirror image of this skill — same discipline, aimed at the real world instead of an invented one.