# Getting started

> Your first book in Author: make a book, add parts and scenes, write, add an event for a character, ask for their state and run the continuity checks.

Source: https://author.geenius.io/docs/getting-started/

This walk-through takes about thirty minutes. You will make a book, write a scene, add two events and run the checks.

## Before you begin

Author is invite-only in early access. You need an account, which you get by [requesting access](/request-access/) and signing in once your place is ready. If you use Geenius OS you can sign in with that account.

## 1. Make a book

Open **Books** and create one. Give it a title and choose a form (short story, novella, novel, series book, screenplay or other), a language and a **calendar**: Gregorian if your story has real dates, relative if it does not ("Day 3, 14:05").

## 2. Add the shape

A book is a tree of **parts, chapters and scenes**. Add a chapter and two scenes. Each node has a title, a synopsis and a status (idea, outline, draft, revised, final). For a scene you can also set when it happens, where, whose point of view it is told from, and who is present. A scene is **present**, a **flashback**, a **dream** or a **memory**.

## 3. Write a scene

Open **Write** and write the scene in Markdown. The editor autosaves, and switching to another scene in the middle of a sentence keeps your text. Mention a character with `@[Name](profile:id)` once you have a cast.

## 4. Add your cast

Open **Bible**. Make a character, place, object, weather or organisation in Author, or link a profile from Geenius OS. Add two characters and two places for now.

## 5. Add two events

Open **Story**. Add a **strand** (the main plot). Then add events on it that change people. For example: "Ilse travels to the island" with the effect *location = the island*, and "Ilse learns who wrote the letter" with the effect *knows + who wrote it*. Anchor each event to a scene or give it a time. Read [Events and state](/docs/events-and-state/).

## 6. Ask for a state

Pick a character and a scene or a time. Author shows their state then: where they are, what they know, what has happened to them, and for each change the event that caused it.

## 7. Run the checks

Run the **continuity checks**. If your two scenes put a character in different places at the same time, or an event has them learn something after a scene that uses it, you will see an issue with the rule and a scene to jump to. See [Continuity checks](/docs/continuity-checks/).

## 8. Save a version

Open **Share** and save a **version**. It is the whole book at this moment, and you can go back to it. See [Versions and diffs](/docs/versions-and-diffs/).

> [!TIP]
> Do the first run with a short story you are not afraid of. It is quicker to see how events and checks work on ten scenes than on a novel.