🧵 Topics, Threads and Series
A topic is a starting point readers can follow, and it is either a thread of stories joined by choices or a series of dated entries. This page will guide you through creating a topic, planning what comes next in a thread, linking across with crossroads, and running a dated series.
Creating a topic
- Open "Topics" from the navigation and press "New topic".
- Type a "Topic name", such as "Sustainable Cities", and press "Create topic".
- Write the opening story. The Studio takes you straight to it. Readers start the topic there.
Each topic appears as a card showing whether it is live, how many stories are published, planned and in draft, and a trail of its main path. Press "Open structure" for the topic's structure, or "Edit intro" to edit its opening story.
Choosing thread or series
On the topic's opening story, the "Topic type" section in the settings panel has two choices, "Thread" and "Dated series". Switching keeps every story and choice, and you save to apply it.
- Thread: readers follow stories one choice after another, with steps along the main path.
- Dated series: readers get the latest entry first and an archive, newest first, ordered by each story's covers date. Stories show previous and next day instead of choices.
Planning what comes next in a thread
In the story editor, the "What comes next" section holds the story's choices. A story can have up to three, and the panel counts how many choices are left. Readers see these at the end of the story, and the first story you add is the main path.
Add a choice with one of three buttons:
- Plan a new story: type a "Title of the story to plan" and an optional "Short reason to read it". The new story starts as a planned story with a title and teaser only.
- Use a planned story: pick one from "Planned stories" that you have already jotted down.
- Link to any story on the site: a crossroad. See below.
Each choice can be dragged, or moved with the up and down buttons, to change the order, and removed with the cross button. A choice labelled "Main path" is the suggested route, and the others are "Side path". Removing a choice does not delete the story it led to.
Crossroads
A crossroad is a choice that leads to a published story somewhere else, including another topic's opening story. In the picker, "Link to any story on the site", search by title or topic and press a result. Stories that come before the current story are shown but cannot be picked, so a path never loops back. Readers see a crossroad as a "Take a side road" card.
While a topic is still unpublished, a crossroad can also lead to a draft story in the same topic. This lets you build side roads that rejoin the main path, and publish the whole thread together. Readers never see a link to a story that is not published yet.
Story structure
"Story structure" shows how readers move through a topic. Pick a topic from the menu at the top and you see a tree of its stories, with a count of those on the main path, on side paths and planned. Turn on "Show only main path" to simplify it. Press a story to open a panel where you can see "What comes next", press "Open story", or add a planned story under it with "Plan this story". Stories no choice leads to are listed under "Not connected yet".
Running a dated series
For a series, press "New entry" on the topic's card. The Studio creates a draft titled with the topic name and today's date, with that date as its covers date, and opens it. Write the entry and publish it. Entries need no choices.
- Covers date: set it on each entry to the day it reports on. The site shows it instead of the publish date, and the series is ordered by it.
- Without a covers date, an entry is ordered by the day it was published.
Best Practices
- Keep three choices at most: the editor stops you adding more, and a short fork is easier to read.
- Plan before you write: planned stories show as "Coming soon" cards, so readers can see where a path is heading.
- Check the structure view before publishing a thread: stories under "Not connected yet" have no way in.