Plan

The Plan tab shows the book up to three ways. Pick one with the switch beside the title: Corkboard, Outline, or Threads. The tab opens on the corkboard, and after that on the one you used last in this book. The title and the switch stay where they are as you change views.

New installs start simple, so Threads is not in the switch until Show more tools is on in Settings, or until the book has a thread. See Every setting.

Adding a chapter#

Press + Chapter at the top of the Plan tab, in any of the views. Type a name, or leave it blank and the chapter shows its number, such as “Chapter Two,” until you name it. Then press Add chapter. The chapter goes after the last one in the story. It is a real chapter: it is in Write straight away, ready for its first scene, and it is a new column on the Threads board. To add a part, a prologue, or another section type, use the arrow beside New chapter in Write.

The Threads board#

The Threads view is a board for what happens, before it is written.

A row is a thread: a line running through the book. The main plot is one. A subplot is another. So is one character’s arc, or a promise you owe the reader and have to pay off. A new book starts with none. Press + Thread to add the first, then rename and recolor it, add more, and delete the ones you have no use for.

A column is a section of your book, in the order it is read, with its word count under the title. Click a section title to open it in Write. Only sections that tell the story get a column. A part, a dedication, and the like have none, because they hold no beats.

A beat is one thing that happens. It sits where a thread crosses a section. Reading along a row is one thread’s shape from beginning to end. Reading down a column is everything that section has to carry.

Working the board#

Hover a cell and press the plus to add a beat there. A beat has a line saying what happens and room underneath for anything more you want to remember about it. Close a new beat with nothing written in it and it goes away again. Click a beat to open it. A beat you open can be deleted from its dialog; a new one has no Delete, since closing it already discards it.

Drag a beat to move it: to another section, to another thread, or above another beat to change the order inside a cell. You can move a beat with the keyboard as well: press space to pick it up, use the arrow keys to move it, press space to drop it, and press escape to cancel.

The check mark on the right of a beat marks it written. A written beat fades rather than disappearing, so the row still reads as the shape of the whole thread.

Not placed yet#

The strip under the board, Not placed yet, holds beats with no section, and beats with no thread. Press + Beat there to write one down when you know it happens but not where, then drag it into place later.

A beat also waits here if the section it was in has been archived, or its thread has been deleted, so nothing you planned can go missing.

Threads#

Click a thread’s name to rename it. The menu beside it sets its color, which is the stripe down the side of every beat on that row. The colors are None, Blue, Violet, Green, Amber, Rose, and Red. Press + Thread at the top of the board to add a row of your own.

Deleting a thread asks where its beats go first, and moves them there. The last thread can be deleted too: its beats go to Not placed yet, and the board shows a calm “No threads yet.” Press + Thread at the top to add one.

Suggest beats#

This button only shows when Enable AI features is on in Settings.

Press Suggest beats at the top of the board. Pick a thread, a section, and how many beats you want. Add a few words to steer it if you like, then press Suggest.

The AI reads the notes it may read, the story so far, your Library, and what is already on the board. It gives back a list. Uncheck the beats you do not want, then press Add beats. Nothing goes on the board until you do.

Outline#

The Outline is the whole book as one list: every section in reading order, with its scenes under it. Each scene shows its number, its subtitle, whose point of view it is, its word count, and its summary. A scene with no summary shows its first words instead, in italics.

• Click a scene to open it in Write, scrolled to that scene. Click a chapter’s title to open the chapter.
• The arrow beside a chapter collapses its scenes, and the same arrow expands them again. FoxQuill remembers what you collapsed.
• Press + Scene under a chapter to add a scene at the end of it.
• Drag a scene by the grip that appears on its left. Drop it above or below another scene, in the same chapter or another one. Drop it on a chapter’s heading to make it that chapter’s first scene. A line shows where it will land.
• Drag a chapter by its grip to move it among the other chapters. A chapter stays in its own group: it does not drag into the front or back matter. Use the sidebar in Write for that.

Moving a scene takes its notes and its history with it, because they belong to the scene. It joins the active draft of the section you drop it in.

Words by section#

The thin bar at the top of the Outline is the book drawn by length. Each chapter is a segment as wide as its words, so a long chapter is a wide segment and an empty one does not show. Sections around the story, like a prologue, are drawn paler, and a part is a small mark between them. Hover a segment to see which chapter it is.

When one chapter is far longer or shorter than most of the others, a short note under the bar says so, and that chapter’s segment is drawn stronger. It shows once four chapters have words and a typical chapter has 500 words or more. Press the small cross to dismiss the note.

Corkboard#

The Corkboard puts every scene on a wall as an index card: its title, its word count, and its summary.

• By chapter is the wall as it opens. It shows each chapter’s cards under its name, with whose scene it is above a card’s title when the scene has a point of view. Press + Scene under a chapter to add a scene at the end of it. Drag a card in front of another card to move the scene there, in its chapter or another one. Drop a card after a chapter’s last card, or anywhere in an empty chapter, to put it at the end of that chapter.
• By point of view shows each person’s scenes together, in the order they come in the book, so you can see who carries which part of the story. Each card says where it sits, such as “Chapter I · Scene 2.” Cards do not move in this grouping. To change whose scene it is, change its POV in Write.
• When the scenes have more than one point of view, the chips along the top narrow the wall to one person’s scenes, or to the scenes with no point of view.

By point of view and the chips belong to the point of view tool, one of the tools behind Show more tools. Without that tool the wall is by chapter alone.

Click a card to open that scene in Write.

Beats and the book#

Nothing on the Threads board is part of the book. It is not counted, exported, or shared. The AI only reads the board when you press Suggest beats. Deleting a beat takes nothing written with it.