Fictional setting template in Markdown: one place, one file

Use this fictional setting template to describe an invented place in Markdown. You write a name and a brief description, followed by paragraphs about light, sounds, and objects. You keep the description to the place as it stands, with visible and audible details beneath their own headings.

Copy the placeholder paragraphs into your .md file, replacing bracketed phrases with descriptions. You can also read the ferry landing example before writing. For this setting description template, you write plain sentences about the place, without an account of something happening there.

Scope of the place description

A setting file here is a .md description of one invented place. You describe what a visitor could see, hear, and find there. You begin by naming the place and describing it in a sentence, then describe the light, the sounds, and the objects in separate parts.

You keep those parts about the same place. Beneath Light, you describe brightness and color. Beneath Sounds, you describe a sound and its tone. Beneath Objects, you describe things present in the place, including their material or wear. You write about their condition at one moment, with no event before or after that moment.

For a plain-text explanation and reading and editing options, read the .md file explanation. Here, you use ordinary paragraphs for the description, with Markdown heading marks for the title and the descriptive parts.

You can keep this place description beside other .md writing, including text from AI agents. In the setting file itself, you stay with the invented place. You put the place name in the title, and no person appears in the file.

Place description anatomy

Copy this post's Markdown setting template and replace the bracketed wording. Write the name after the title mark, then a sentence describing the place. Beneath the descriptive headings, substitute sentences about the same place for the placeholder paragraphs.

# [Place name]

[One sentence describing the place as it stands.]

## Light

[A sentence about the light and its color.]

[A sentence about brightness on a surface.]

## Sounds

[A sentence about a sound and its tone.]

## Objects

[A sentence naming an object and its material.]

[A sentence describing an object and its wear.]

Consider the title, opening sentence, and descriptive parts:

• Place name. Put the invented place's name after # on the title line. Use the sentence beneath it for a brief description of that place as it stands.
• Light. Describe the light's color, then its brightness on a surface. You have a color paragraph and a brightness paragraph in this template.
• Sounds. Describe a sound and its tone in a sentence. Keep that paragraph about what is audible in the place.
• Objects. Name an object and its material, then describe an object and its wear. You may describe the same object twice or choose different objects, as in the example.

For the gap between descriptive paragraphs, read the explanation of paragraph gaps, where you can compare single line breaks and blank lines between paragraphs. For optional emphasis on a word, read bold and italic, where you can find the marks for those styles.

You have three descriptive headings marked with ## in this template, apart from the title marked with #. You put five placeholder paragraph lines beneath those descriptive headings. Within Light and within Objects, you separate paragraphs with an empty line; you also leave an empty line between a heading and its paragraph.

The Doe Hollow example

Jane Doe and the Doe Hollow ferry landing are invented here. Jane Doe describes this invented place through its light, sound, and objects.

# Doe Hollow ferry landing

The ferry landing is a place of worn timber and dull iron.

## Light

Grey light lies on the timber.

Pale brightness rests on the iron rings.

## Sounds

A low hum hangs in the air.

## Objects

A bench is rough timber with iron bolts.

A rope is frayed and dark with damp.

Jane Doe uses the ferry landing's name as the title and describes the landing's timber and iron beneath that title. Under Light, Jane Doe describes color and brightness in separate paragraphs. Under Sounds, Jane Doe describes a low hum. Under Objects, Jane Doe names a bench and a rope, with material in one paragraph and wear in the other.

You have a sentence per descriptive paragraph in this example. You can also compare the brief description beneath the title with the details under Light, Sounds, and Objects. In the opening description, Jane Doe names timber and iron; in the descriptive parts, Jane Doe gives more specific details about surfaces, a bench, and a rope.

Brevity in descriptive paragraphs

For short descriptions of light, sound, and objects in this template, use these tips:

• Color in a short phrase. Write a color beside the light word. Jane Doe begins the timber sentence with grey light.
• A surface within the sentence. Name the surface alongside its brightness. Jane Doe describes pale brightness on iron rings in a single sentence, without another paragraph about the rings under Light.
• Tone beside sound. Keep the sound description to a sound and a brief tone word. Jane Doe uses a single sentence about a low hum beneath Sounds.
• Material with an object. Name the thing and its material together. Jane Doe describes the bench as rough timber with iron bolts, within a sentence beneath Objects.
• Wear within a sentence. Describe wear with a brief phrase attached to the object. Jane Doe uses frayed and dark with damp for the rope, without an account of how it became worn.

The setting filename

Give the place description its own .md file. For the ferry landing example, you could choose doe-hollow-landing.md. You use words from the invented place name, with hyphens between them, and keep the light, sound, and object descriptions inside that file.

For short names with hyphens and keeping a name unchanged, read Markdown file naming. You name this example's file after the place. You can keep that name while changing the descriptive paragraphs about the landing.

Where Sashmark fits

Sashmark, in development as a planned desktop Markdown reader that is also an editor, is intended for people keeping .md files, including writing from AI agents. It is not out. A folder of setting files beside other .md writing is within the planned scope for Sashmark.

See the planned features, the help pages and the roadmap for where each part stands.

Visit sashmark.com.