Write the narrative

Goal: turn the graph into a story you can read and publish. This is the Narrative tab. The narrative is the graph read as prose — chapters that anchor to epochs and activities, with embeds that stay live references to the record.

It scaffolds itself

Open the Narrative tab on a study with epochs and EMStudio builds a first draft of the structure: an Introduction chapter and one chapter per epoch, each with a live matrix embed of that epoch’s units. You start from a skeleton, not a blank page.

The Narrative tab — the auto-scaffolded narrative of Templu Mare with a live matrix embed

Turn on writing

The narrative opens read-only. Click the pencil (✎) in the toolbar to enter write mode: now each chapter shows its controls (move, delete, author) and the authoring affordances appear.

The narrative in write mode — the palette with + Chapter and draggable views, chapter controls, and + prose

  • Add a chapter with + Chapter in the left palette.

  • Add prose with + prose under a chapter; type into the paragraph.

  • Add an embed by dragging a view from the palette — matrix, us, rm, document, source, paradata, timeline, table, scene3d, map — onto a chapter. Embeds are references: a matrix embed of an epoch stays in sync with the graph.

Draft with AI, then sign it

The IA menu can draft the prose of the current chapter from its scope (the epoch, its units, the paradata). First set the provider, model and key in the AI data panel (the key lives only in the local bridge for the session, never in the document). The draft arrives labelled as an AI draft; you read it, edit it, and validate it — the act of a human taking responsibility for the text. Whoever validates is credited among those responsible, and the byline reads “with the assistance of the model”.

Note

A window that has lost focus keeps its content and scroll position, and a secondary narrative window is read-only — the editable narrative is the one you are focused on. See Export the narrative for getting the story out.