Books · Drama
A personalized drama novel, written for you.
Drama lives in what people will not say. Tell StoryStepper who they are, what they are keeping from each other and how it should end, or let the writer decide. The book is planned in full, then written in one sitting.
Below is a real drama written with StoryStepper: the brief it started from, and the book that came back.
The brief
- Shape
- A life, closely watched
- Ending
- You decide
- Feel
- civil, tactical, love expressed as negotiation
- Language
- English
- Who and what it is about
- Divorced parents agreed years ago on a kind, false explanation for why one of them left. Their daughter, now nineteen, has found the documents that contradict it. Each parent expects the other to be the one who tells her, and each has a different reason for having kept the story going.
The book that came back
The Terms of Settlement
When Maya uncovers the secret settlement that split her parents—and shielded her uncle’s debts—she demands the truth. But her mother’s carefully built security depends on keeping her father silent.
- Delivered in 15 minutes
- 19,328 words
- 16 chapters
Contents
- The Ledger in the Desk
- Under the Glass
- Statute and Sentiment
- First Commonwealth
- Shear Lines
- The Rehearsal
- The Logistics Suite
- Promissory Notes
- No Further Notarization
- Liquidated Damages
- Dead Load
- The Ignition Key
- The Threshold
- Schedule B
- The Unvarnished Record
- Epilogue
From chapter one
"Maya," Eleanor called. Her cadence had the level, unhurried drop of a trust officer querying an associate over an incomplete manifest.
From the hallway, the sound of boots on the stair treads paused. A step descended, then two. Maya stood in the library doorway with her black canvas drafting portfolio slung across her shoulder, the nylon strap biting into the collar of her corduroy overshirt. She was nineteen, with Arthur’s long reach and Eleanor’s low, hard forehead, though she kept her hair cropped shorter than Eleanor had ever permitted herself.
"I asked you yesterday not to move the tax schedules," Eleanor said, keeping her hand rested flat upon the mahogany desktop. "The quarterly assessment arrived on Tuesday, and the filing deadline for the municipal adjustment is the thirty-first."
Maya did not shift her weight. Her left hand held a manila folder, heavy enough that the bottom edge bowed downward under the mass of stapled legal foolscap.
"The tax forms are behind the telephone directory," Maya said. Her delivery was flat, stripped of the rising inflection that usually marked her generation’s speech. "I didn't move them. I was looking for my birth certificate for the Berlin studio application."
"Your birth certificate is in the third folder from the left," Eleanor said. "The blue cardstock tab."
"The tab was empty."
"It isn't empty, Maya. I filed the certified copy from the state registry three weeks ago after the notarization."
"It was empty because you took it down to the safety-deposit box in June," Maya said. She stepped into the room, not toward the desk, but toward the round walnut table by the bay window where Eleanor kept her mended linen. "Along with the 2014 settlement schedule."
The name of the document lay between them like an uninventoried asset.
A real book from the StoryStepper library, written from this brief.
$2.99 your first month: two books like this a month, written for you.
Questions
Can the book be about a family like mine?
Your premise can describe any situation in your own words. The book is private to you.
What if I do not know how it should end?
Pick "You decide" and the writer chooses the ending that fits the book, planned from the start.
How much does a drama novel cost?
Books costs $2.99 for your first month and includes two complete books a month. A single book without a subscription is $5.99.
Your own book, within the hour.
Six answers, one complete novel, written for no one else.
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