> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.mana.re/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Orbit > Kaori Yamada’s aerobatic grief novel in progress, and how a five-day retreat with two readers mapped Rin Okada’s world in Mana. Showcase pieces use **fictional titles, authors, and events** to illustrate real workflows in Mana. ## The setup **Kaori Yamada** blocked five days at a quiet airfield inn with two people who had already read the zero draft on paper: **Vik Deshmukh**, who used to certify airframes for a living, and **Elena Marín**, a line editor who cares about rhythm more than plot. Kaori’s rule was borrowed from other writers using Mana for retreats: **if it changes the book, it lives in the app**. No more “we fixed that over wine” with no trail for the next draft. ## The book ***Orbit*** is **literary fiction** with a **technical spine**. **Rin Okada** is an **aerobatic pilot** stepping back onto the competition circuit **thirteen months** after her wife **Mara Vance** died in a training accident. The manuscript is organized in **named maneuvers** (chandelle, loop, hesitation roll) as chapter titles: each section is a **loop** of memory, procedure, and self-accusation. **Logline:** Rin wants a clean season and a verdict from the investigation board. What she gets is **Mara’s old logbook**, a **rival** who will not stop being kind, and the slow understanding that **precision** in the cockpit and **precision** in love are not the same kind of truth. Vik guarded **physics and regulation** (what fails, what the NTSB would say). Elena guarded **sentence length and breath** (where Rin’s voice goes flat when she lies to herself). ## Scratches: radio calls and unsayable things Monday was **Scratches** first. Kaori collects **radio cadence** before she trusts dialogue: cleared calls, half-heard tower jokes, the specific way Rin abbreviates danger when Mara was still alive. She also keeps a Scratch titled **lines Rin will never say aloud**, not for insertion, but so those sentences stop **colonizing** real scenes in disguise. When a Scratch line survived (“**Mara liked the dangerous part of me until she didn’t**”), it graduated to **Atlas** under **Relationship: Rin / Mara** with a tag for **which draft it first became true**. ## Atlas: aircraft, airfields, ghosts Tuesday they built **structure** without turning the novel into a manual: * **Characters:** **Rin Okada** (competition number, superstitions, shoulder injury timeline); **Mara Vance** (present only in **flashback rules** Kaori pinned: never in present tense after chapter four); **Jules Okonkwo** (rival pilot, deliberately generous); **Tessa Hwang** (crew chief, carries institutional memory of the crash). * **Locations:** **Monroe Field** (home base), **Chenango Aerodrome** (first contest site), **the practice box** where Mara’s last flight is **blocked** as a location entry so continuity stays **one version** of the geometry. * **Lore:** **airworthiness directives** that matter to the plot, **scoring criteria** for the category Rin flies, **investigation status** as a living note that updates when Rin learns something new. Vik clicked from **Rin’s aircraft entry** to **maintenance notes** when Kaori wrote a line about **vibration**. Elena clicked from **Rin’s voice notes** to **Mara’s flashback cap** when a memory ran **too long** for the chapter’s maneuver. ## Character chat: Rin on the ground Wednesday they used **Character chat** with **Rin**, seeded from **Atlas only** (no hidden bible in email). Prompts were small: **preflight** when she slept badly; **press interview** when she smiles wrong; **parking next to Mara’s old hangar**. When Rin’s replies came back **too articulate**, Kaori tightened **shame** and **fatigue** in the character sheet. When a reply landed **meaner** than the draft, they asked whether the meanness was **true** or **performance** and split the difference in **motivation** links. Chat stayed **expendable**. The **Atlas** stayed what the next draft would **enforce**. ## One scene in the Editor Thursday they protected **one scene** for prose: **Rin’s first public flight after Mara**, **four minutes** from chock to shutdown, intercut with **three sentences** of investigation-board language she is pretending not to rehearse. In the **Editor**, **Rin**, **aircraft**, and **maneuver checklist** stayed in the **sidebar**. Every order Rin gave the airplane had to match **what she is allowed to know** about the failure that killed Mara at that point in the book. Vik caught a **torque** mistake. Elena caught a **comma** that made Rin sound **calm** when she was not. ## What stayed in the project By Friday checkout, *Orbit* was still **mid-draft**, but the Mana project carried **everything** the next month would need: Scratches for cadence and forbidden speech, Atlas for **machines, grief rules, and rivalries**, Character chat folded into **character truth**, and **one scene** that proved Rin’s head and the **technical world** could share a single page. If you write **precision under pressure** (whether in a cockpit, an OR, a kitchen, or a courtroom), the same layout applies: **Scratches** for what you are afraid to say, **Atlas** for what must not contradict, **Character chat** when voice needs **stress-testing**, **Editor** when the reader finally **rides along**.