Reference · Steps

The Concept step — Book Seed

The Concept step is where a book begins. It opens as step 1 of a four-step setup wizard (Concept → Synopsis → World → Structure) and asks one question: what is your book about? You write a short seed — the smallest kernel of the plot — and the step expands it into a full synopsis you carry into the rest of setup.

The Concept step — a Book Seed field, genre and synopsis-size options, and an Expand to Synopsis button — The Concept step: write a seed, choose how it expands, and generate the synopsis.

What’s on this page

The four-step wizard header — Concept is step 1 (the StoryGraph editor is separate, so it isn’t one of these four).
A “Book Seed” field — your idea in 1–3 sentences.
Optional controls: a Genre select and a Synopsis-size choice (Brief / Medium / Detailed).
An “Expand to Synopsis” button with a quality-tier selector and a coin cost — or “I already have a synopsis — skip”.

How to use it

1Write the seed — a couple of vivid sentences about the world, who it follows, and what’s at stake.
2Optionally pin a genre and pick how detailed a synopsis you want.
3Press “Expand to Synopsis” to generate it — or skip, to paste a synopsis you already have.

Where this fits

Concept is step 1 of the setup wizard, and the shallowest of the three ways to set your plot. The seed is a tiny kernel; this step grows it into a synopsis (step 2). If you’d rather control the plot yourself, you can skip both and build it in StoryGraph — the seed and synopsis exist to give the rest of setup something to work from when you’d prefer to start from an idea rather than a full plot.

Book seed

Book seedseed · textarea

Your book’s core idea, in one to three sentences.

AffectsThe kernel the whole book grows from — it expands into the full synopsis, and everything later traces back to it. It’s saved as the project’s concept seed.

Use itTwo or three vivid sentences: the world, who the story follows, and what’s at stake. Keep it short — the detail belongs in the synopsis.

ExampleA world after nuclear war. Mech pilots search for a way home through dead cities.

Past about 500 words the counter turns red — the seed is meant to be a spark, not the synopsis.

Genre & synopsis size

The Genre select and the Synopsis-size toggle (Brief / Medium / Detailed) — Two optional controls: the genre, and how detailed a synopsis to generate.

Genre (optional)genre · select

The book’s genre.

AffectsSteers tone and conventions in the steps that follow. Left on “detect from seed”, it’s inferred automatically from what you wrote.

Options

Detect from seedthe default — inferred automatically from your seed
A specific genrepins it (sci-fi, fantasy, thriller, detective, romance, horror, historical, literary, dystopia, cyberpunk, steampunk, post-apocalyptic)

Use itLeave it to auto-detect unless the seed is ambiguous and you want to lock the genre in.

Synopsis sizesynopsisSize · select

How detailed a synopsis to generate from the seed.

AffectsSets the depth of the synopsis the next step produces.

Options

Brief100–200 words — a tight outline
Medium400–800 words — the default balance
Detailed1000–1500 words — a rich, fuller synopsis

Use itMedium suits most books; go Detailed for intricate plots, Brief for a quick sketch.

Expand to Synopsis

Expand to Synopsis turns your seed into a full synopsis and moves you to the next step. The pill row beside it picks the quality tier — Bronze · Silver · Gold, higher tiers being more capable — and the number of coins it costs is shown right there before you commit.

Prefer to write it yourself? “I already have a synopsis — skip” spends nothing and takes you straight to the Synopsis step, where you can paste or type your own.

Using your own AI key (BYOK)

The Your AI Key (BYOK) block — connect your own provider key — Connect your own key on your Profile — it then appears as an extra option here.

Alongside spending coins, you can bring your own AI key (BYOK): the step then runs on your own provider key instead of your coin balance — the tier selector shows it as an extra option and the cost reads “0 coins — my key”. You connect and manage the key on your Profile; once it’s connected it becomes available on every step like this one.

More on this soon. A dedicated API-usage page is on the way — it will cover connecting your own key, which providers and models are supported, and how costs work. Until then, this is the short version: your key, your balance, no coins spent.