Penpoint Help
Guides for novelists and worldbuilders.
How to build a world, outline a book, and write it. Every guide here is also inside Penpoint.
New to Penpoint
Start here.
Everything else
Browse by what you are doing.
Getting Started
Your first hour with Penpoint.
- Creating Your First Book Name it, pick a template, and start writing.
- Understanding Book Template Types Which starting structure fits the book you are writing.
- Managing Your Books Rename, duplicate, and organize your library.
Building Your World
Characters, locations, chapters, and the connections between them.
- Characters Profiles, traits, and everything your cast carries.
- Chapters Break the book into chapters and scenes.
- The Chapter Outline Plan the shape of the book before you draft it.
- Timeline See which characters appear in which chapters.
- Relationship Map Map who knows whom, and how.
- Arcs Track the threads running through the story.
Manuscript Mode
Write your prose, keep your drafts, and hold your world beside you.
- Chapters & Scenes How scenes sit inside chapters.
- Flowstate A timer that locks each sentence so you stop re-editing.
- Minipen Your worldbuilding, open beside the prose.
- Manuscript Snapshots Keep earlier versions of a chapter.
- Comparing Your Manuscript Drafts See what changed between two drafts.
- Chapter Scanner Find character and place names in your prose.
Searching & Connecting
Find anything in your book, and link it to everything else.
- Search Search every note, chapter, and character at once.
- @Mentions Link a character into your text by typing @.
- Compendium An index of your world, built as you write.
Writing a Series
Write several books in one file, sharing a cast and a world.
- Converting a Book to a Series Turn one book into a series sharing a cast.
- Book Arcs and Series Arcs Arcs that span one book, or all of them.
- Splitting a Series into Separate Books Separate a series back into standalone books.
Import & Export
Get your book in and out of Penpoint.
- Exporting Manuscripts Export to Word, PDF, EPUB, and more.
- Standard Submission Format The exact formatting agents expect, applied in one click.
- Exporting to Scrivener Turn your manuscript into a Scrivener 3 project, chapters and scenes intact.
- Importing Data Bring in a manuscript from another app.
- Exporting Worldbuilding Data Take your worldbuilding out as a document.
Settings
Backups, spellcheck, and calendars you invent yourself.
- Backup & Restore Automatic local backups, and how to restore one.
- Spellcheck & Autocorrect Teach it your character names so it stops underlining them.
- Custom Calendar Invent your own months, days, and years.
Penpoint Cloud
Back up your books online and keep them in step across computers.
- Setting Up Penpoint Cloud Create an account and choose a plan.
- Syncing and Restoring Keep a book in step across computers.
- Managing Your Devices Which computers are signed in.
- Your Password and Recovery Kit Your encryption password, and how to keep it safe.
- Managing Your Subscription Plans, switching, and canceling.