Announcing the Universal Narrative Model: A New Era for Storytelling

Existential-risk-proof your stories where authorial intent reigns

We're incredibly excited to officially announce something we've been passionately working on for the past eight months—the Universal Narrative Model (UNM). Developed in collaboration with our partners at the Entertainment Technology Center at USC, this groundbreaking initiative marks the beginning of a new chapter for narrative storytelling.

If you've been part of the Narrative First community for some time, you'll recognize our firm stance against training AI models on raw storytelling data such as closed captions, transcripts, screenplays, or manuscripts. Not only is this practice ethically questionable, but it simply doesn't yield meaningful results for genuine narrative understanding. Stories are complex, nuanced, and deeply human—and they deserve more thoughtful treatment.

Enter the Universal Narrative Model. At its core, UNM is an open-source file format meticulously designed to honor and preserve authorial intent across every storytelling medium imaginable—films, novels, games, and beyond. The UNM ensures narrative choices remain portable, clearly traceable, and fully attributable back to their original creators. In essence, it's a revolutionary tool enabling human storytellers to outperform AI at its own game, safeguarding creative integrity.

We're thrilled to share the official UNM White Paper authored by narrative theorist and UNM contributor Hank Gerba. This document offers a deep dive into the vision and potential of the Universal Narrative Model, setting the stage for what we anticipate will be an impactful year ahead in narrative design and storytelling.

And there's even more good news: The entire Universal Narrative Model is now freely accessible on GitHub. The Entertainment Technology Center at USC has entrusted Narrative First to maintain, develop, and expand this open-source repository—and we're absolutely honored by their confidence. Our goal is to create a valuable educational resource that benefits everyone involved in storytelling. We'll continuously update and expand the repository with detailed definitions, clarifications of narrative terminology, practical examples, and comprehensive tutorials.

This is just the beginning—stay tuned for further updates throughout this week, including another exciting announcement tomorrow and a major reveal coming Thursday.

Thank you for being part of this exciting journey with us. Here's to the future of storytelling!