Learn the app

Three tours, from first chapter to finished series

Each tour moves you to the right screen and points at the real button. Prefer to read? Every stop is written out below. Start with Basic if this is your first day.

Basic · about 4 minutes

First steps

Everything you need for your first writing session. By the end you will have seen where the book lives, where the world lives, and how to get a manuscript out.

1
Your shelf
Every world is a book on this shelf. Click one and it opens where you last left off. The first time, that is the Writing desk.
2
The sidebar
Everything about this world is one click away. The Writing desk sits at the top because that is where most of your time goes. The Codex, the graph and the map come next.
3
One world, many books
A world can hold a whole series. Every book shares the same codex, maps and history, and has its own chapters, cover and word target. Add the next volume here.
4
Chapters
Your chapters, grouped by part. Click one to open it. New chapter adds one at the end. Point at a chapter to move it up or down, or merge it with the next. On an empty desk, Begin a book creates the book and its first chapter.
5
The page
Type and it saves itself, with a spare copy every 300 words. A line holding only *** starts a new scene. Type @ to pull in a character or a place by name. Ctrl+I sets italics.
6
At hand
Everyone and everywhere named in this chapter, with their facts and their age in the chapter's year. You stop leaving the page to look things up.
7
The codex
Every character, place, faction, ship and belief you invent lives here. New entry adds one. Open any entry to fill in its profile.
8
Connections
The graph shows how everything joins up. Connect links two entries with a relationship such as mentor of, enemy of or born in. Those links drive the family trees, the map and the continuity checks.
9
Find anything
Search looks through every entry, every chapter's text and every page. The shortcut is Ctrl+K, or Cmd+K on a Mac.
10
Get the manuscript out
When a draft is ready, export it from here: a print-ready Word file at your trim size, standard manuscript format for agents, EPUB, or Markdown. The Medium tour covers the world itself.

Medium · about 5 minutes

Build the world

How to give the world depth and keep it straight across a long book.

1
A full profile
Every entry has a profile shaped to its type. For a character that means want, need, wound, the lie they believe, voice and arc. The ring at the top shows how complete the entry is and what it still lacks.
2
Canon facts
Short statements a reader could check, such as "born in 593" or "lost two fingers at Caddis". The continuity checks read them. Double-click a fact to change it.
3
AI help, on your terms
Expand with AI reads the world and proposes backstory, facts and connections. Nothing is saved until you tick what you want to keep. It uses credits; typing it yourself is always free.
4
The map
The map is drawn from your codex. Places land where their kind belongs: ports on coasts, forts on ridges. This list holds every place on the map; click one to select it.
5
Endpapers
Export the map as an image for your endpapers, your website or a reader handout.
6
The chronicle
Your world's history in calendar years. Add ages and events. Give a character a birth year and the app works out their age in any chapter.
7
Plot threads
A thread is a storyline, like the heir's journey or the debt that has to be paid. Each thread runs as a lane across your events, in story order.
8
Continuity
Free checks run as you write: timeline slips, people acting after their death, names that look too alike. Run audit asks the AI to read everything for contradictions a rule cannot catch.
9
The world bible
A formatted Word document of the whole codex, the chronicle and the map. Hand it to an editor, a co-author or your future self.

Advanced · about 6 minutes

Series and publishing

The tools you reach for once the book is long, the world is large, or the series has more than one volume.

1
Atlas tools
Layers on top of the map: territories painted by faction, faith or language, roads and sea lanes, markers, and journeys a character takes chapter by chapter, with fog of war for a reader's map.
2
Maps inside maps
Any place, planet or star system can have its own map, from a galaxy down to a single city. Open the entry and choose Draw a map of this place. A breadcrumb above the map takes you back up.
3
Lineages
Family trees and chains of command, drawn from your connections labelled parent of, married to, serves and leads.
4
World settings
Your own entry types and profile fields, the voice notes and banned words every AI draft must respect, and naming rules for each culture.
5
Four views of the book
The page; a proof of the printed page at your trim size; a corkboard of chapter cards; and an outline with POV, place and year for every chapter.
6
Versions
A copy of the chapter is kept every 300 words and before every split, merge or replace. Restore any of them, and your current text is kept first.
7
The Loremaster
Ask about your own world while you write: how old is she in this chapter, who holds the fortress, how far is the coast. It answers from your codex.
8
Covers
Build a full print wrap with the spine worked out from your page count and paper, plus an e-book cover. Already have a designer's PDF? Upload it and the studio checks its size against your book.
9
World files
One file that carries the whole world: codex, connections, maps and manuscript. Use it as a backup, or to give a co-author a copy.
10
Open a world file
A world file opened here becomes a new book on your shelf. Nothing you already have is touched. That is the whole tour.

Shortcuts

Ctrl+K / Cmd+K: Search every entry, chapter and page
Ctrl+I: Italics on the page
Ctrl+Shift+Enter: Split the chapter at the cursor
Ctrl+Shift+F: Find and replace across the book
Ctrl+L: Lamp mode: everything but the page goes dark
@: Link a character or place while you type
*** on its own line: Start a new scene
Right-click on the graph: Create an entry already linked to the one under the pointer

Words the app uses

Entry: Anything in your world with a name: a character, a place, a faction, a ship, an event, a belief.
Codex: The list of every entry. Think of it as the notebook beside the manuscript.
Connection: A named link between two entries, read in both directions: mentor of and student of.
Canon fact: A short statement about an entry that must stay true, such as a birth year or a scar. The continuity checks read them.
Visual canon: The fixed description used every time a picture of the entry is painted, so a face stays the same face.
Developed: How much of an entry is filled in: summary, backstory, facts, profile, connections and a picture.
Series: Several books set in one world. They share the codex, the maps, the chronicle and the plot threads.
Book: One volume of the series, with its own chapters, cover, word target and exports. The Books page lists them in order.
Chronicle: History in calendar years: ages, events, births and deaths.
Plot & timeline: Your storylines (threads) and events in the order the reader meets them.
Starter world: An optional first draft of a world written by the AI from your answers, with gaps left on purpose for you.
Credits: What AI actions cost. Every paid action tells you its cost and asks first. Writing by hand is always free.