Glossary

An architect, in the comparison George R. R. Martin has made, is a writer who plans a story’s structure in detail before drafting it.

An architect may know before chapter 1 that Captain Oren dies in chapter 9. Asten lets you confirm that as a fact early, then marks any later scene where he still acts.

See it in contextGardenerPlotter and pantserStory bible

Asten is a local-first writing app for creative writers that remembers the facts of your story and marks where a draft contradicts them, without writing a word.

Asten pairs a writing desk with a rule engine, the compiler, that checks your story against the canon you’ve confirmed. It is made by Verne, and its name is another name for Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing. Your words are black ink; Asten only ever writes in red.

See it in contextThothCanonDiagnosticLocal-first

Author override is a fact modality that labels a value as your deliberate ruling rather than something established in the text or inferred from it.

It records why a fact exists. Asten still compares it like any confirmed fact, so to retire the value it replaces, mark the old fact contested or deprecated.

See it in contextModalityContestedSuppressionCanon

The binder is Asten’s tree of everything in a project: the manuscript, its chapters and scenes, plus your notes and sources.

Chapter 3, the scene at the harbor at Veld, and your notes on its tides all sit in one binder, on your computer.

See it in contextSnapshotCompileTrack changes

Canon is the set of facts you have settled about your story; in Asten, confirmed facts are the canon your draft is checked against.

Settle in chapter 2 that Mira’s hair is auburn, and that becomes canon. Asten doesn’t decide what’s true in your world; it remembers what you confirmed and points out where a draft disagrees.

See it in contextFactConfirmed factStory bibleContinuity error

CANON-E013 is Asten’s attribute-contradiction rule: it marks two confirmed values for the same attribute, such as auburn and black for one character’s hair.

If Mira’s hair was settled as auburn in chapter 2 and a later confirmed fact, or the page itself, says black at the same story time with no change in between, the mark shows both sides in a numbered chain. The rule belongs to the Scribe pack and is always on.

See it in contextScribe packDiagnosticConfirmed factPredicate

CANON-E101 is Asten’s life-after-death rule: it marks a character who acts after their death has been confirmed.

Captain Oren dies in chapter 9. If a later scene in story time has him giving orders, Asten marks it; a scene placed earlier in story time (a flashback) is not marked. The rule belongs to the Lifecycle pack, which is on by default.

See it in contextLifecycle packDiagnosticConfirmed factEntity

CANON-E201 is Asten’s clocks rule: it marks story time stepping backward inside a run of scenes you declared continuous.

It belongs to the Clocks pack, which is on by default, and it stays silent until scenes are dated and placed in a run. A flashback outside a run is never marked, and a scene you take out of the run is no longer compared. Its siblings are CANON-E202, for dates that cannot all be true, and CANON-E203, for an effect seen before its cause.

See it in contextStory timeReading orderClocks packFlashback

A cartouche is the oval loop, tied at one end, that encloses a royal name in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.

The word is French for “cartridge,” which the shape resembles. Royal names in cartouches gave early decipherers a foothold in reading hieroglyphs. Asten’s brand borrows the shape to frame names: the wordmark, a character, a diagnostic code.

See it in contextRubricThothAsten

The Clocks pack is the Asten method pack that compares reading order with story time; it holds CANON-E201 and is on by default.

It holds CANON-E201, E202, and E203, and stays silent until scenes are dated, so if you never set story time, you never hear from it.

See it in contextMethod packCANON-E201Story timeReading order

To compile, in Asten, is to turn your project into a finished file: Markdown, plain text, Fountain, HTML, .docx, EPUB, or Final Draft (.fdx).

For a PDF, compile to HTML and print the page. Import reads the same family of formats except EPUB, with a conservative .docx extract.

See it in contextFountainBinderLocal-first

A confirmed fact is a fact you have settled as canon; in Asten, only confirmed facts can produce hard contradictions.

Mira · hair color · auburn, confirmed in chapter 2, is one. What Asten reads from the page is weighed against your facts but never becomes a fact by itself.

See it in contextFactProposed factDeprecated factCanon

Contested is the fact modality for a claim whose truth is in dispute inside the story, such as a rumor or an unreliable narrator’s account.

Asten doesn’t raise contradictions from a contested fact, so you can record what the gossips at Veld believe without it fighting your canon.

See it in contextModalityAuthor overrideEstablishedInferred

A continuity error is a detail in a story that contradicts something established earlier, like a character’s eye color changing between chapters.

Long manuscripts make them easy to commit and hard to catch, because the original detail is hundreds of pages back. Asten’s compiler marks the kinds it can check today: attributes, lifecycle, the two clocks, travel, knowledge, relations, and rules you write yourself.

See it in contextCanonCANON-E013CANON-E101CANON-E201

A craft hint is an optional style note from an Asten method pack; it is never a canon error, and it is off by default.

Today the only craft hints come from Diction watch, which notes words like “very” and “really” (CRAFT-H001 and CRAFT-H002). Asten ships no craft doctrine as a default; you opt in.

See it in contextDiction watchMethod packDiagnostic

A deprecated fact is one you have retired from canon; Asten keeps it on record but no longer checks your draft against it.

Revision changes minds. If Mira was never a sailor after all, deprecating the fact retires it without erasing the decision.

See it in contextConfirmed factProposed factFact

A diagnostic is a red mark Asten places on a passage when a rule notices something; it names the rule and never rewrites your words.

Each one carries a code, such as CANON-E013, and points at the passage it concerns. What you do next is your call: revise the page, update canon, or suppress the mark.

See it in contextSuppressionCANON-E013Craft hint

Diction watch is an optional Asten method pack that notes filler words such as “very” and “really”; it is off by default.

Its notes are craft hints (CRAFT-H001 and CRAFT-H002), not canon errors. Turn it on for a revision pass and off again when you’d rather not hear it.

See it in contextCraft hintMethod pack

The Docs sidebar is Asten’s add-in for Google Docs: a panel that shows your local Asten projects and diagnostics beside the document you’re editing.

It can also file a selected passage into your local project. It talks to Asten’s local API on your own computer and is installed by sideloading; it isn’t in the Google Workspace Marketplace.

See it in contextWord task paneSideloadLocal API

An entity, in Asten, is anything in your story that facts can be about: a character, place, event, item, rule, source, or other.

Mira is an entity; so is the harbor at Veld. Entities can carry aliases, so “the Captain” and “Oren” point at the same person, plus notes of your own.

See it in contextFactPredicateCanon

Established is the fact modality for something your story states plainly as true, such as Mira’s auburn hair in chapter 2.

Most of a canon is established: what the text says outright. Compare inferred, for what the reader works out, and contested, for what’s in dispute.

See it in contextModalityInferredContestedAuthor override

Fabula and syuzhet are Russian Formalist terms for a story’s events in chronological order (fabula) and the order and way the telling presents them (syuzhet).

Asten’s two clocks follow the same idea: story time is roughly the fabula, and reading order is roughly the syuzhet. Keeping both lets you say when a scene happens separately from when it’s told.

See it in contextStory timeReading orderFlashback

A fact, in Asten, is one recorded truth about your story: an entity, a predicate, and a value, such as Mira · hair color · auburn.

Each fact also has a modality, a status, an optional stretch of story time when it holds (valid from, valid to), and an optional link to the passage it came from.

See it in contextEntityPredicateModalityConfirmed fact

A flashback is a scene that shows events from earlier in story time than the scenes around it.

Asten allows them and keeps story time and reading order as separate clocks. It argues only inside a run of scenes you declared continuous, and a flashback is simply a scene placed earlier in story time.

See it in contextStory timeReading orderCANON-E201Fabula and syuzhet

Fountain is a plain-text markup language for screenplays, readable as written and convertible into formatted scripts.

Asten can compile a project to Fountain or to Final Draft’s FDX, and import either.

See it in contextCompileBinder

A gardener, in the comparison George R. R. Martin has made, is a writer who plants an idea and discovers the story by writing it.

Asten doesn’t ask gardeners for a story bible first. The world views are optional, nothing on the wall is canon until you settle it, and a scene never waits on a wiki.

See it in contextArchitectPlotter and pantserSpark, sketched, settled

Inferred is the fact modality for something the story implies rather than states, a conclusion a careful reader would draw from the text.

If Mira never gives her age but remembers a storm that hit Veld forty years ago, her being over forty is inferred. Recording the modality keeps clear what the page said and what you worked out.

See it in contextModalityEstablishedContested

The Lifecycle pack is the Asten method pack that holds CANON-E101, which marks a character acting after a confirmed death; it is on by default.

Once Captain Oren’s death in chapter 9 is confirmed, the pack notices any later scene where he still acts. If a return is intended, you can suppress the mark.

See it in contextCANON-E101Method packScribe packSuppression

The local API is the HTTP interface Asten runs on your own computer, at 127.0.0.1:4317, which the Word and Google Docs add-ins use to reach your projects.

The address 127.0.0.1 means this machine, so the add-ins reach your projects without a cloud in between. It answers only to clients paired with a six-digit code. For tinkerers: it’s an Axum server written in Rust, and the desktop shell embeds it.

See it in contextWord task paneDocs sidebarLocal-firstSQLite

Local-first software keeps the primary copy of your data on your own device, so it works offline and doesn’t depend on a company’s server.

Asten is local-first: your project lives in SQLite on your computer, with no account, no sync, and no telemetry. Verne never receives your manuscript, and your files must stay usable without a subscription or a server.

See it in contextSQLiteLocal APISnapshot

Ma’at is the ancient Egyptian concept of truth, balance, and order, also personified as a goddess who wears an ostrich feather.

At the Weighing of the Heart, a person’s heart was weighed against her feather. Asten borrows the idea as a principle: a mark should show its evidence.

See it in contextWeighing of the HeartThothCanon

A method pack is a bundle of rules or hints added to Asten’s checks; packs mark your pages but never change your manuscript.

Today there are eight: Scribe (the core canon compiler, always on), Lifecycle, Clocks, Relations, Knowledge, Atlas, and Invariants (on by default), and Diction watch (off by default). No craft doctrine is a default.

See it in contextScribe packLifecycle packClocks packDiction watch

A modality, in Asten, says what kind of claim a fact is: established, inferred, contested, or author override.

Modality is separate from status. A fact can be confirmed and still contested, which is how you record a rumor that belongs in your canon as a rumor.

See it in contextEstablishedInferredContestedAuthor override

Plotter and pantser are writers’ shorthand for two habits: plotters outline before drafting, while pantsers write “by the seat of their pants” and discover the story.

Most writers mix the two. Asten works either way: you can settle facts before chapter 1 or after the draft, and nothing makes you fill in a form first.

See it in contextArchitectGardenerStory bible

A predicate is the attribute part of an Asten fact, the thing being said about an entity, such as hair color in Mira · hair color · auburn.

Two confirmed facts with the same entity and predicate but different values are exactly what CANON-E013 marks.

See it in contextFactEntityCANON-E013

A proposed fact is a fact waiting for your decision; Asten keeps it on file, but it can’t produce a hard contradiction until you confirm it.

You can add a fact as proposed to keep it on file: it can raise a warning at most, never an error, until you confirm it. Nothing becomes canon until you confirm it.

See it in contextConfirmed factDeprecated factFact

Reading order is the sequence in which a reader meets the events of a story, page by page, which may differ from story time.

It is one of Asten’s two clocks. If chapter 1 opens at the harbor at Veld and chapter 2 goes back ten years, reading order and story time run in different directions. That may be exactly what you meant; Asten’s job is to notice, and yours is to decide.

See it in contextStory timeFlashbackCANON-E201Fabula and syuzhet

A rubric is a heading or mark written in red ink; the word comes from Latin rubrica, red ochre, from ruber, red.

Manuscript makers wrote headings and instructions in red, and much earlier, Egyptian scribes used red ink for headings and marks in otherwise black text. Asten keeps the rule: your words are black ink, and Asten only ever writes in red.

See it in contextCartoucheDiagnosticThoth

The Scribe pack is Asten’s core canon compiler; it is locked on and holds CANON-E013, the attribute-contradiction rule.

It is the part of Asten that keeps the record. Other packs add rules alongside it, but the Scribe is always at the desk.

See it in contextMethod packCANON-E013Canon

A series bible is a story bible that spans several books, seasons, or episodes, recording the characters, places, rules, and timeline that must stay consistent.

A series bible usually grows out of the books themselves. In Asten, canon grows the same way: from facts you confirm as you write, not from a form filled in up front.

See it in contextStory bibleCanonContinuity error

To sideload an add-in is to install it manually rather than through an official store.

Asten’s Word task pane and Google Docs sidebar are sideload only. They aren’t in the Microsoft or Google stores.

See it in contextWord task paneDocs sidebarLocal API

A snapshot, in Asten, is a named record of your project at a moment in time, such as “Before cutting chapter 4.”

Snapshots sit alongside an append-only operation history, which records each change instead of overwriting the past.

See it in contextTrack changesBinderLocal-first

Spark, sketched, and settled are the three statuses of an Asten world entry, from a loose idea to a decided part of your world.

Pin “a harbor that only appears at dusk” as a spark, sketch it later, and settle it when you’re sure. Nothing on the wall is canon until you settle it, and settling an entry can mint a confirmed fact.

See it in contextWorld wall, atlas, and dossierConfirmed factGardener

SQLite is a widely used, self-contained database engine that stores a whole database in a single ordinary file.

Asten keeps your projects in SQLite on your computer. With the desktop shell, the file is asten.db in your system’s application-data folder, so a backup is a copy of a file.

See it in contextLocal-firstLocal APISnapshot

A story bible is a reference document recording a story’s characters, places, rules, and timeline so the writing stays consistent.

Some writers build one first; many never do. Asten doesn’t require one: the cast isn’t a mandatory character sheet, the world views are optional, and canon can grow from facts you confirm while you draft.

See it in contextSeries bibleCanonGardenerArchitect

Story time is when events happen in the world of the story, as opposed to reading order, which is when the reader meets them.

It is one of Asten’s two clocks. The great storm at Veld can happen years before chapter 1 in story time and still be told in chapter 20.

See it in contextReading orderFlashbackCANON-E201Fabula and syuzhet

A suppression silences a diagnostic you’ve decided to keep; in Asten, any rule can be suppressed, and suppressions are stored with your project.

Use one when the page is right on purpose, such as a narrator who lies about Mira’s hair. The mark goes quiet; your sentence stays exactly as you wrote it.

See it in contextDiagnosticAuthor overrideContested

Thoth is the ancient Egyptian god of writing, wisdom, the moon, and reckoning, often shown with the head of an ibis, and Asten is another of his names.

Scribe of the gods and credited in Egyptian tradition with inventing writing, he recorded the verdict at the Weighing of the Heart rather than deciding it. That is Asten’s job description: keep the record, weigh the page, leave the verdict to you.

See it in contextAstenWeighing of the HeartMa’atRubric

Track changes is a way of recording insertions and deletions as visible marks, so a writer or editor can review each edit.

Asten’s desk records insertions and deletions as track-change marks. It isn’t a full replacement for Word’s review workflow; compile to .docx when you need that.

See it in contextSnapshotCompileWord task pane

The Weighing of the Heart is the ancient Egyptian judgment scene in which a dead person’s heart is weighed against the feather of Ma’at.

In versions found in the Book of the Dead, Anubis tends the scales and Thoth records the result. Asten takes Thoth’s role: it weighs each page against your canon and records what doesn’t balance, but the verdict is yours.

See it in contextMa’atThothCanon

The Word task pane is Asten’s add-in for Microsoft Word: a side panel that shows your local Asten projects and diagnostics next to your document.

Select a passage and it can file it into your local project. It talks to Asten’s local API on your own computer and is installed by sideloading; it isn’t in Microsoft’s add-in store.

See it in contextDocs sidebarSideloadLocal API

The world wall, atlas, and dossier are Asten’s three optional views of your world: a board of loose cards, a rough map for places, and an organized list.

Pin the harbor at Veld to the wall as a scrap, drop it on the atlas once you know where it sits, and find it in the dossier grouped by kind. Declare a route with a travel time and the atlas checks can notice a journey that does not fit.

See it in contextSpark, sketched, settledEntityGardener