Individual skill

theme-craft

This skill should be used when the user asks about "theme", "controlling idea", "thematic argument", "moral argument", "thematic arc", "flat arc", "negative arc", "the lie", "antagonist design", "motif", "symbolism", "theme audit", or wants to plan, track, or revise the thematic layer of a story, including the lie, truth, ghost-wound, and arc-type fields of a character file. NOT for finding or testing a story premise (use premise-workshop), or a character's profile, relationships, or "character arc" record (use character-management).

plugins/danjdewhurst/story-skills/skills/theme-craft/SKILL.md

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Last checked
Nov 4, 2026

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1,532
Repository last updated
Nov 6, 2026
License
Apache-2.0

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# Theme Craft

## Overview

Plan and audit theme as a working mechanism, not decoration. Covers the
controlling idea (value + cause, in McKee's sense), the lie/truth machinery
and the three canonical arc types, antagonist design as the embodied
counter-argument, motif tracking, and a revision-time theme audit. Use at
story start (working premise), during character design (lie/truth/arc-type),
and after a complete draft (theme audit).

## Prerequisites

A story project must already exist (created via the story-init skill).