Your first project

Your first Arc project should be small, reviewable, and tied to one clear manuscript scope.

Choose the right scope

A good first project is not “everything I have ever written.” It is usually one of these:

• the first three to five chapters of a novel;
• one completed short story;
• a single arc from a serial;
• one book from a larger series.

The goal is to learn how Arc interprets your material before you scale up.

Prepare the source files

Use clean, stable chapter files. Prefer Markdown or plain text during preview. Each file should contain one chapter or one clearly named section.

Recommended conventions:

• keep filenames ordered and stable;
• include chapter headings in the document;
• avoid mixing notes, discarded scenes, and final manuscript in the same file;
• keep a copy of the original source files outside Arc.

What to review first

After ingestion, review in this order:

1. Project status: confirm the run completed or completed with understandable warnings.
2. Entities: look for duplicates, missing characters, and alias problems.
3. Relationships: inspect important links between people, places, events, and objects.
4. Evidence: verify that key claims point back to source material.
5. Review Queue: resolve or defer uncertain items instead of accepting everything.

Keep decisions explicit

If you merge two entities, reject a claim, or decide that a relationship is canon, treat that as an editorial decision. Arc is most useful when author decisions remain visible rather than hidden inside an opaque AI response.

When to create another project

Create a separate project when the source material changes substantially:

• a different book;
• a different draft lineage;
• a spin-off with overlapping but independent canon;
• a test import that should not pollute the main project.

Smaller projects are easier to audit. You can scale later once the workflow feels reliable.