Sundry Works Help · Story

Writing a story for a painting

Generate a written story for the painting and keep the best one.

What it's for

The Story tab writes a short fictional story for the open painting using Claude, then lets you keep, edit, and lock the version you like. It produces two pieces: the Story, which is what the printed card, the back label and the reel narration are all built from, and a Caption cut down from it for social posts.

Two buttons at the top of the page choose what you see: Story, for writing the story and its caption, and Social, for the captions for each platform. Switching halfway through writing loses nothing, and the tab remembers which one you were on. The three ticks that belong to this tab - Story, Caption and Social - each take you straight to their own part of it and switch the view for you. Click Story in the row under the painting's name and you land on the Story panel, with a brass outline round it for a second so you can see where you have been put. On a phone it switches to the Stories pane first.

If you do not write stories or captions

Plenty of artists never write either one. Configuration has a "Stories and captions" card with a switch for each - turn one off and everything built from it disappears here: its panel, its tick on the Paintings list, and the places it was offered on Post. Nothing already written is deleted, and switching it back on brings it all back exactly as it was.

Turn both off and an "About this art" box appears near the bottom of this page instead. Type a few sentences there and they fill the card, the back label, the reel, a post and your website page, and the social captions below are written from it too. With only one of the two switched on, that same box becomes what an older painting falls back to if it has no words of its own yet.

With both off, the row of ticks under the painting's name shows a single "Words" tick where Caption and Story used to be, and it reads that box - so the Card, Papers, Post and Reel steps have something you can see to be waiting on. The Paintings list's "Missing..." menu and the spreadsheet's story columns follow the same rule.

Under the box are two small links, "Back to Card" and "Back to Papers". Those two pages send you here to type, and these are the way back without going along the tab bar. Pressing one saves the box first.

Writing a story

1. Open a painting that has an image.
2. If the painting is of somebody real, type their name in "Who it's about" and press "Find the facts". Skip both if you are making the whole thing up.
3. Read the findings in "Facts to honour" and delete the lines you do not want. What is left is what the story is built on.
4. Choose a prompt from the Story prompts card (or write your own).
5. Press "Write the story". Claude sees the painting's image and your prompt, and writes it. This is the only piece written from the painting itself.
6. It comes back at the length set at the bottom of the left-hand column. If it lands outside that, a "Trim to..." or "Fill out to..." button appears beside it.
7. Once you have a story you like, use "Make it from the story" on the Caption panel to cut it down for social posts.

Starting out

Every setting on this tab already has a sensible value, and a fresh install writes a good story without you touching any of them. It arrives set to one paragraph, past tense, Fictional, all three of description, shape and ending on "Up to the prompt", Claude naming the character, and a story about a minute long. The Overall direction box starts empty, which is right: it is for the things you find you keep asking for, and on your first day you have not found them yet.

So the honest first-time answer is to change nothing. Open a painting that has an image, press "Write the story", and read what comes back. Nearly everything in the left-hand column exists to fix a problem somebody actually hit, and until you have hit one there is nothing there for you to fix.

1. Press "Write the story" and read it.
2. Press it again. The second press comes at the painting from a different angle and is shown the first story, so it is a fresh attempt rather than the same one reworded. Do this four or five times before you decide anything.
3. Keep the one you like with "Keep as the story one", then lock it so nothing overwrites it.
4. On the Caption panel, press "Make it from the story one" to cut it down for posts.

The one box worth filling in on your first painting is "Facts to honour", and only when there is something real the story has to get right - a name, a year, a place. Left empty, the story is invented from the painting, which is usually what you want.

The two panels

Each piece has its own panel, showing the text, word count, read time, and whether it's in range. From each panel you can:

• Edit - rewrite it by hand in a text editor.
• Trim / Fill out - if the word count is outside the target range, ask Claude to adjust it. The resize carries your whole brief - the prompt, the tense, the direction, the pickers - so it comes back as the same story at the new length, not a summary of it.
• Copy - copy the text to your clipboard.
• Keep / Save - file the story to the painting's record.
• Lock - freeze a version you're happy with so it won't be overwritten. Unlock to change it later.

Only one of these can run at a time. While Claude is working, every button on both panels goes dim, and the one you pressed reads "Working..." until it is done - so the panel wearing the label is the one being written.

Social captions

On the Social side, the left-hand column holds the settings and the right-hand column holds "Social captions", which turns your story into a caption for each of the eight places you post: Instagram Feed, Pinterest Pin, Facebook Post, Instagram Reel, Facebook Reel, X (Twitter), Threads, and Bluesky.

The settings are three numbered cards, one for each part of a caption, in the order a caption reads: 1 Opening (the friendly note on top), 2 Body (the caption about the painting), 3 Hashtags. The settings are dialled in once and kept for every painting; the note and the captions are written fresh for each one, which is why they sit on the right.

All eight boxes sit at the bottom of the captions card all the time, in the same order, whether they've been written or not. Nothing to tick on or off first.

If some are locked, the top button only writes the ones that aren't, and says how many that is. If all eight are locked it does nothing.

• "Write all 8 captions" fills every box in one pass. Once they're written the button reads "Rewrite all 8" and replaces the lot. A rewrite gives you a fresh set rather than the old one reshuffled: the app shows Claude the captions this painting already has, and each run leads from a different part of the story.
• Each box has its own Write / Rewrite button, so you can redo just the one you're not happy with and leave the other seven alone.
• Every caption is a plain text box you can type in. Your edits save themselves.
• Lock - once you're happy with a caption, lock it. A locked caption cannot be changed by anything: not the "Write all 8 captions" button, not its own Write button, not typing in the box. Unlock it to change it again.
• "Lock them all" sits under the write button and does the lot in one press, saying how many are still to go. Once they are away it turns into "Unlock them all". An empty box is skipped rather than locked - locking one would say eight captions are settled on a painting that only has seven.
• Copy appears next to any box that has text in it.

The Social tick in the row under the painting's name counts these for you: red until the first one is written, green with a dash while some are, green with a tick once all eight are, and boxed once all eight are locked. Hover it and it says how many, as in "Started - 2 of 8 written". Click it and you land here.

What shapes the captions

Each of the three cards has its own Close button. Closed, a card shrinks to one line saying what it is set to - as in "Oil painter · friendly note, warm, greets the time of day" - so with all three folded you can still read the whole recipe down the column.

1 Opening holds what you do (who is talking, and what steers the discovery hashtags) and "Open with a friendly note". Tick that and every caption starts with one short, casual line, then a blank line, then the caption itself. It is asked for on top of the caption rather than out of it, so even the short reel and X captions keep their full length and simply gain a brief hello.

Once it is ticked, the note's own settings appear under it in the Opening card, and the box for the note's words appears on the right, above the captions - the words belong to the painting, so they sit with its captions. Leave it unticked and the right-hand side just says there is no note.

• Note tone - a row of buttons for how the hello itself sounds: Same as captions, Warm, Whimsical, Professional, Mysterious, Casual, Deadpan. It starts on "Same as captions", which is how it used to work. Pick anything else and the two come apart, so a set of mysterious captions can open with a casual hello instead of a mysterious one.
• Deadpan is the dry one - funny with a straight face, no exclamation marks, no winking, no explaining the joke. It's on the Mood row in the Body card as well.
• "Greet the time of day" - on to begin with. The note is told the real day and hour off your computer, so "Morning all" only turns up in the morning and "Happy Friday" only on a Friday. The line under the box says what it thinks, as in "Your computer says it is Saturday afternoon". Turn it off and the note says hello without naming the time at all, which is what you want if you write notes now and post them days later.
• Type your note straight into the box, or press "Write one for me" and one is written from this painting's story. Press it again and you get a genuinely different one rather than the same note reworded - the app remembers the notes this painting has already had and asks for a different kind each press: a plain hello, a remark about making it, something about the weather, a question for people to answer underneath, a thank you, and so on.
• Lock holds the note you have. The write button greys out and the box goes read-only, the same as a locked caption. Unlock it to change it again.
• Your note goes on the front of every caption word for word. It is put on afterwards rather than asked for in the writing, so it is never reworded or shortened - what is in the box is what posts.
• "Give each platform its own version" - tick this and your note becomes the seed instead. The eight captions each open with the same thing said a different way, so a set written in one press does not read as copy and paste. Your note in the box stays exactly as it is.
• "Your own instructions for the note" is under the "More" button at the foot of the Opening card - it opens by itself whenever there is anything written in it - and it outranks everything above it. Write down whatever you keep having to fix by hand - "one sentence, never two", "never open with the word Hope", "say folks, not everyone", "don't ask questions" - and it is sent with every note from then on. It is a setting rather than something belonging to one painting, so you write it once and it carries to every piece and every session after it. The rows above it are the app's questions; this is your answer, and the model is told plainly that it wins wherever the two disagree - over the tone, over the angle, over the lot. It is sent to the reworded per-platform versions as well, so ticking "give each platform its own version" does not quietly drop it from the lines that actually get published.
• "Show the prompt" is the button under that box, behind the same "More". It prints, word for word, what goes out when you press "Write one for me" - the tone, the angle this press has reached, the time of day, the notes it is steering clear of, and your own instructions at the bottom where they win. It is built by asking for the real prompt rather than a copy kept in step by hand, so it cannot drift out of date. Change the box, look at the prompt, press the button: that is the whole loop, and it is meant to take the guesswork out of tuning a note.
• 2 Body is the caption itself: the mood, the length, and the voice slider between personal and just-the-art.
• 3 Hashtags has two lists. "Always" is for the tags you want on every painting - your name, your brand, your shop - and is kept across the catalogue. "This painting" is for its series, or anything true of it alone, and is kept with the painting, so the next one starts with none. Both go into every caption that uses hashtags, alongside the discovery and medium tags picked for you. Pinterest takes no hashtags, and Threads and Bluesky take one at most, so not every tag turns up on every platform.

Leave the box empty and press "Write all 8 captions", and one is written for you first - straight into the box, where you can see it. The note belongs to the painting it was written for, so opening a different piece gives you an empty box and coming back brings yours home again. The settings above it, your own instructions included, are remembered across the catalogue, like the mood and your "Always" hashtags. If the eight versions ever come back identical, the app asks again, and tells you in the corner if it still could not vary them.

How the tab is laid out

The left-hand column is marked with two lines. "This painting" is the top card - the title, the facts to honour, and the button that writes the story. "Every story" is everything under it: the prompts, the mode, tense, paragraphs, description, shape and ending settings, and how long each version runs. Those are kept and carried from one painting to the next.

The naming settings and "Include the painting title in the prompt" are the exception - they sit in the Settings card but stay with the painting on screen, and a line at the foot of that card says so.

Settings

• Paragraphs - 1, 2 or 3. Every version comes out with exactly that many, the trim included. The count is settled by the app rather than left to Claude, so asking for one paragraph gives you one solid block and asking for three gives you three.
• How much description - from none at all (every sentence reports something that happened) through a trace to some. "Up to the prompt" adds nothing and leaves it to your prompt.
• What shape it takes - one moment with nothing resolved, a small arc, or a whole life told as a biographical entry. "Up to the prompt" leaves it to your prompt.
• Character naming - what to do when "Who it's about" is empty: let Claude name the character, or ask for no name at all. Saved per painting, and greyed out while that box has a name in it, because a name you typed decides on its own.

How long each version runs

The two sliders at the bottom - one for the story, one for the caption - set the target length by read time. You can also type exact word ranges into the boxes - those win until you move the slider again. Set your reading pace so the times match how fast you narrate aloud.

You need a story provider chosen and its API key set on the Configuration tab before this tab can write anything. The painting needs an image too: both services look at it to write the story, which is the whole point of writing it here rather than anywhere else.

The rest of the Help

Start here

• Getting started with Sundry Works - What Sundry Works does and how the tabs fit together.
• Using Sundry Works on your phone - Setting up the phone, whether or not there is a computer as well.

Your catalogue

• What's due and what's unfinished - The first tab: what's coming up, what's still to do, what's unfinished.
• Cataloguing your paintings - Your catalog - add paintings and open the one you're working on.
• Reviewing everything one painting makes - Everything the open painting makes, on one page, with the one decision each needs.
• How to price a painting consistently - Work out a consistent price for the open painting.
• Tracking what sold and who bought it - What sold, who took it home, and what it brought in.
• Printing show labels and a portfolio - More than one at a time: a whole show's labels, or a portfolio to send.

Making things from a painting

• Writing a story for a painting - Generate a written story for the painting and keep the best one.
• Making a printed card for a painting - Lay out the printed card for the painting.
• How to make a certificate of authenticity - A painting's two printed documents: its certificate, and the label for its back.
• Web-sized copies of a painting's photo - Export web-sized copies of the painting's photo.
• Branded posts of your paintings - Branded static posts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.
• Making a reel of a painting - Build the vertical reel frame and video for social media.
• Designing an artist's business card - The card you hand out, laid out down to the last millimetre.

Running the business

• Setting up your artist brand - Set up once: your identity, brand assets, colours, and AI key.
• An address book for galleries and collectors - A simple address book for galleries, collectors, suppliers, and more.
• Checklists for shows and studio jobs - Reusable checklists for shows, errands, and anything you repeat.
• A calendar for shows and deadlines - Shows, deadlines, and events, with a countdown to each one.
• All your post comments in one list - What people said on your posts, from every platform, in one list.

Connections and setup

• Posting to Instagram and Facebook - Connect your accounts so you can post directly from Sundry Works.
• Posting your paintings to Threads - A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.
• Posting your paintings to Bluesky - The easiest connection of the four - a handle and an app password.
• Scheduling posts to go out later - Line a post up now and let it go out later, with the computer off.
• Configuring Sundry Works - Where everything plugs in: your social accounts, your website, your AI service, and where the catalogue lives.