Characters

Characters are the heart of your stories in Storywright. Every character you create is a detailed card — complete with personality, appearance, backstory, and dialogue examples — that the AI reads during generation to produce writing that stays true to each character's voice and behavior.

Characters are global: you create them once in your library and reuse them across as many stories as you like. This means you can build up a rich cast over time and drop them into new stories without re-entering anything.

The Characters Library

Open Library → Characters to see all your characters. Each one appears as a card showing the avatar, name, and tags. From here you can:

• Search and filter by name to find characters quickly.
• Create a new character from scratch.
• Import a character from a SillyTavern-compatible PNG or JSON file.
• Click any card to open it in the character editor.

Creating a Character

Click "+ New Character" to open the character editor. The editor has two tabs:

1. Card — core character data (name, description, personality, dialogue examples, etc.)
2. World Info — character-specific lorebook entries (keyword-triggered context snippets)

Fill in as much detail as you can. The more the AI knows about a character, the better it writes them.

Character Fields (Card Tab)

Field	What It Does
Name	The character's display name, shown in the library and story workspace.
Description	Physical appearance, background, and key traits. This is the main block of context the AI sees for this character — make it detailed.
Personality	Personality traits, behavioral patterns, and speech style. Helps the AI capture how this character thinks and acts.
First Message	An example of how the character speaks and acts. This is powerful — it shows the AI the character's voice by example.
Scenario	The situation or setting this character is typically found in.
Message Examples	Additional dialogue examples demonstrating the character's voice, mannerisms, and speech patterns.
System Prompt	Optional per-character system instructions that are included when this character is active.
Creator Notes	Private notes for your own reference. These are not sent to the AI.
Tags	Labels for organization — for example, "villain", "sci-fi", "fantasy", "side-character".

Avatars

Each character can have an avatar image:

• Upload an image from your device using the avatar button in the editor.
• Crop dialog — after uploading, a crop dialog lets you select which portion of the image to use as the avatar.
• View full-size — click the avatar thumbnail in the editor or library to see the full image. Press Escape or click outside the overlay to dismiss it.
• Replace — upload a new image at any time to replace the current avatar.

Avatars appear in the character library, the story workspace character panel, and the character editor.

Importing Characters

Storywright supports the SillyTavern V2/V3 character card format, so you can bring in characters from other tools.

From PNG Files

SillyTavern-compatible PNG files embed character data in the image's metadata (the tEXt chunk). When you import one:

• All character fields are extracted automatically.
• The image itself becomes the character's avatar.
• Any lorebook entries attached to the card are imported too.

To import: go to Characters library → Import button, or drag and drop a PNG file onto the library.

From JSON Files

You can also import standard SillyTavern character card JSON files. The same fields are read and populated in the editor.

Assigning Characters to Stories

Characters live in your library, but you assign them to individual stories to use them:

1. Open a story and go to the Story Workspace.
2. In the Character Panel (left sidebar), click "+ Add Character".
3. A picker shows your full character library — select the character you want.
4. Assign a role to each character:
5. Protagonist — the main character
6. Antagonist — the primary opposing force
7. Supporting — secondary characters
8. Mentor — a guiding figure
9. Love Interest — a romantic connection
10. Toggle Narrator if this character narrates the story.

The AI sees the full cards of all assigned characters during generation, so their personalities, descriptions, and dialogue examples all influence the output.

Character Lorebooks

Each character can have their own lorebook entries, managed in the World Info tab of the character editor. These are keyword-triggered context snippets that are specific to this character.

For example, a character's lorebook might include entries for:

• Their home city — triggered when the city name appears in the scene.
• Their signature weapon — triggered when "sword" or the weapon's name comes up.
• A backstory reveal — triggered when certain plot-relevant keywords appear.

When the keywords match text in the current scene context, the lorebook entry is injected into the AI's prompt automatically. This keeps the AI informed without bloating every prompt with every detail.

See the Lorebooks Guide for full details on creating entries, setting keywords, and how injection works.

Quality Inspection

Click the shield icon (🛡) on a character card in the library, or inside the character editor, to run the quality inspector. It analyzes your character card and flags potential issues:

• Missing or very short fields — for example, a one-word description.
• Missing personality description — the AI needs this to capture the character's voice.
• Empty lorebook entries — entries with no content won't help the AI.
• Duplicate lorebook keywords — can cause unexpected behavior during generation.

Each finding shows a severity level, a description of the issue, and a suggestion for fixing it.

Use the "Go to field" button on any finding to jump directly to the problematic field in the editor. Fix the flagged issues to improve the quality of AI-generated scenes featuring this character.

Exporting Characters

You can export characters to share them or use them in other tools:

• Export as PNG — produces a SillyTavern-compatible PNG with all character data embedded in the image metadata. The avatar is the image itself.
• Export as JSON — produces a standard SillyTavern V2 character card JSON file.

Any app that supports the SillyTavern V2 character card format can import these files.

Tips

• Be detailed. Rich descriptions and personality fields produce noticeably better AI output. Don't skimp — a few extra sentences make a real difference.
• Use First Message. It's one of the most powerful fields. A well-written first message shows the AI exactly how this character talks, thinks, and acts.
• Leverage lorebook entries for backstory and world details that should only appear when relevant. Keyword triggering keeps prompts focused.
• Run quality inspection before you start generating scenes with a new character. It catches common issues early.
• Use tags to organize large character libraries — filter by genre, role, story, or whatever works for you.

Related Guides

• Getting Started — first story walkthrough
• Stories — creating stories and using characters in them
• Lorebooks — keyword-triggered world info, including character-specific lorebooks
• Generation — how character cards are assembled into the AI's context