The STORI Method
The STORI Method: Scope, Thread, Originate, Reflect, Iterate. The five-step process Chronicle Makers use to turn research into finished family stories.
The STORI Method is the five-step writing process used inside Chronicle Makers to turn genealogy research into finished family history stories. It stands for Scope, Thread, Originate, Reflect, Iterate.
The method was built for family historians who have done the research and want to write — but keep getting stuck. Not because they lack discipline or material. Because they lack a process that moves from evidence to narrative in a clear sequence.
95% of participants who use this method in the 10-Day Chronicle Writing Sprint finish a complete chronicle.
The five steps
Scope
Define what this one story covers. Not the ancestor's entire life. One story, with boundaries.
You answer five questions: Which ancestor? What time period? What central question or theme? Who is the audience? Where does the story stop?
The output is a scope statement — two or three sentences that capture the subject, period, angle, and boundary. The scope statement gives you permission to save material for the next chronicle instead of trying to include everything.
A scope statement turns "I need to write about Great-Grandma's whole life" into "I'm writing about how Anna Miller kept the farm running after her husband died in 1918." The second version is a story you can finish.
Thread
Build the chronological foundation from your sources.
Take all the documents inside your scope and arrange the facts on a timeline — what the records say happened, what was happening in the community at the same time, and where the gaps are.
The gap identification is what separates a thread from a research summary. A thread shows you what you know, what you don't, and where the story's tension lives.
AI tools are useful here. Upload documents to Claude, ask for a chronological timeline with confidence levels. The structural work that takes hours by hand takes minutes.
Originate
Write the first draft. Not perfect prose — a rough draft, start to finish, that you can revise.
Choose your narrator approach: third-person omniscient, third-person limited, or first-person reflective. Use AI for scaffolding — outlines, transitions, opening options — that you rewrite in your own voice.
The output is a complete first draft. Imperfect. But finished from start to end.
Reflect
Structured revision, not open-ended rereading. Seven questions drive the revision: voice consistency, source integrity, gap honesty, context balance, narrative arc, reader experience, citation completeness.
Then share the draft with at least one other person for honest feedback. Inside Chronicle Makers, this happens in Sprint review sessions. Outside, share with a trusted reader.
The output is a polished second draft.
Inspire
Finish, share, and spark the next one.
Three questions close the loop: What material surfaced that deserves its own story? Which family members responded strongest? What research gaps, if filled, would produce the richest next chronicle?
The goal is not one story. It's a practice of chronicle-making.
Why the order matters
Every step depends on the one before it. Without Scope, the Thread is unmanageable. Without the Thread, the draft has no structure. Without a draft, there's nothing to revise. Without revision, the story doesn't reach its potential. Without Iterate, you finish one and never start the next.
The order is the method.
Where STORI lives
The 10-Day Chronicle Writing Sprint maps directly to the five steps. Day 1 is Scope. Days 2-4 are Thread. Days 5-7 are Originate. Days 8-9 are Reflect. Day 10 is Iterate. Members finish a complete chronicle in ten days.
Learn about the Sprint and the community →
The full STORI Method article walks through each step in detail with examples.
Read the full STORI Method guide →
Related frameworks
Chronicle Compass — How to know whether you have enough research to write about a specific ancestor.
The Full Pantry Problem — What happens when you have everything you need and still can't start.
The Finisher Framework — The identity shift from researcher to someone who finishes chronicles.
The STORI Method was created by Denyse Allen at Chronicle Makers. It is the methodology taught in every Sprint, every Lab, and every writing session inside the community.