theme-craft

# 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). Character files (character-management) and a plot structure (plot-structure) should exist or be in progress. ## Workflow 1. **Draft the working premise.** Read `story.md` for genre and themes. Consult `references/controlling-idea.md` and write a one-sentence premise (value + cause) and counter-premise. Store them in `story.md` frontmatter: ```yaml premise: "{Value} triumphs because {cause}." counter-premise: "{Opposing value} triumphs because {opposing cause}." ``` If the user prefers discovering theme in the draft, record `premise: tbd-discovery` and skip to step 3. 2. **Build the lie/truth machinery.** For the protagonist and antagonist (and any significant supporting character whose arc touches the theme), consult `references/lie-truth.md` and add to their character files: `arc-type` is one of `change-positive`, `change-negative`, or `flat`. Do not put that list in an inline comment. The frontmatter parser keeps...