The plotline grid

See the whole story at once: each thread across the book’s chapters, where it runs, where it goes quiet, and which chapters carry what.

The Tree | Grid switch at the top of the Outline turns the outline into a grid. Each row is a thread of the story; each column is a chapter, in the book’s order, under its part, followed by Not yet written. A thread’s beats appear as cards, in its colour, in the chapters whose scenes tell them, with those scenes named on the card. A beat told across two chapters appears in both.

Nothing extra is kept: the grid is worked out from the outline’s links and the book every time, so when you move a scene, its beats move with it.

Moving beats

Drag a card to another chapter, and pick which of that chapter’s scenes tells it now, or New Scene Here. Drop it on Not yet written to unlink it from its chapter, or in another row to move it to another thread. Click a card to open its outline item, or a scene’s name on it to open the scene.