The words Story Circle uses

Story Circle is an app where a community writes one book together, and it uses a small set of words for the mechanics of that: a chapter is one node of the book, a lock is the right to write an open chapter, and a branch is an alternative continuation under the same chapter. Every term below is defined on its own, in the order of the alphabet.

Appeal

A request for a human moderator to look again at a chapter that Story Circle’s automatic content review flagged. The author raises it from inside the app, a platform moderator reads the chapter, and the chapter is either published or stays unpublished with the verdict explained.

Book owner

The person who opened a book on Story Circle. The owner writes the first chapter and sets the frame every later author works inside — the premise, the story rules, the characters, how many chapters the book is aiming for, how long a chapter may be, how long a lock lasts, and whether the book branches. The owner does not approve each chapter: a chapter publishes on its own once it passes automatic content review.

Branch

An alternative continuation written under the same chapter. In branching books the reader chooses which way to go, and one book can have several different endings.

Branch limit

The largest number of alternative continuations that may be written under a single chapter of a branching Story Circle book. It is chosen when the book is opened and stays fixed, so writers who joined under one structure do not find it changed later. In a straight book the limit is one and the story runs as a single line.

Chapter

One node of a book. A single author writes it; once published, other authors attach their continuations underneath it.

Character guide

The list of characters a Story Circle book keeps so that authors writing different chapters describe the same people the same way. The book owner maintains it, and characters proposed by other authors appear once the owner approves them.

Coin

An in-app unit only. It is spent on creating a book, raising a book’s chapter target and exporting a book as a file; it is earned by publishing chapters, signing in daily and reading. It has no real-money value, cannot be bought, cannot be transferred and is not refundable.

Content review

The automatic check that every submitted chapter passes on Story Circle before it is published. The text is measured against the platform content policy. A chapter that does not pass is flagged instead of published, and no chapter goes live without passing.

Draft

Chapter text written in Story Circle but not yet submitted. Drafts are saved automatically while you write, and they stay with you if your lock runs out before you submit — so nothing you wrote is lost when the chapter opens to other writers again.

Ending

The chapter written in the last slot of a path in a Story Circle book. A path ends when it reaches the number of chapters the book is aiming for. A branching book has several paths, so it can have several different endings.

Flagged chapter

A chapter that Story Circle’s automatic content review did not pass. It is not published; the author sees the reason in the app and can either correct the text and submit it again or appeal for human review.

Lock

The right to write an open chapter. Whoever starts first takes the lock, and until it expires or they submit, that chapter is theirs alone. There is no queue and no turn order.

Main path

The route through a branching Story Circle book that its road map presents as the primary one: a continuous line of chapters running from the first chapter to an ending. Alternative paths branch off it, and a reader can leave it at any chapter that carries more than one continuation.

Open slot

A place in a Story Circle book where the next chapter can be written but nobody has started one yet. Any writer who can write in that book may lock an open slot and write it; slots are not assigned, reserved or handed out in turn.

Participation mode

The setting that decides who may write in a Story Circle book. In an open book any writer can lock an open chapter straight away; in an approval-required book the book owner approves a writer before they can take a lock.

Report

A complaint raised from inside the Story Circle app about a chapter, a comment, a book or a user. Reports are reviewed by platform moderators. A user can also block another user, which is separate from reporting them.

Revision

A change proposed to an already published chapter. Besides the automatic content review, it is also checked against whether it breaks the chapters that follow — and the book owner makes the final call.

Submission

A chapter that has been sent for publication on Story Circle. Submitting releases the writer’s lock and puts the chapter into automatic content review; it becomes a published chapter only if that review passes.

Target chapter count

The number of chapters a Story Circle book is aiming for along one path, set when the book is opened. The loop of locking, writing and publishing repeats until a path reaches that number, and the chapter written there ends the path.