Story Arcs
Story Arcs let you map the structural backbone of your narrative: the main plot, its subplots, and the keyframes that mark each major turning point. Think of them as the architectural blueprint of your story.
The Arc Hierarchy
Every book has one main story arc at the top, with subplots nested beneath it. The sidebar on the left shows this hierarchy as a tree. Click any arc to select it and see its details.
Subplots are anchored to specific keyframes on their parent arc. For example, a romance subplot might span from your story's "Midpoint" keyframe to its "Climax," showing exactly where that thread weaves through the main plot.
Note: In a series, Story Arcs are called Book Arcs (same tool, one per Book), and series-spanning storylines get their own tab. See Book Arcs and Series Arcs.
The Visualizer
The visualizer shows your arcs as curves. The main arc sits on top as a broad sweep, with subplots branching below it. Diamond markers along each curve represent keyframes: the major beats of your story.
Click any keyframe diamond to select it and view its details in the panel below. Click a subplot curve to expand it and see its own keyframes.
Tip: Hover over arcs in the sidebar to highlight them in the visualizer, and vice versa. This makes it easy to orient yourself in complex stories with many subplots.
Visualizer Settings
The gear icon in the top-right of the visualizer opens settings that control what's visible. Toggle Always show labels off when your arcs feel crowded. With it off, labels stay hidden until you hover over (or click) a specific keyframe, giving you a cleaner view of the curves themselves.
Tip: Click any empty space on the canvas to deselect the current keyframe and let its label fade away.
Keyframes
Keyframes are the turning points of your arc. Each keyframe has:
- Label: A short name for the beat (e.g., "Thornfield," "The Revelation").
- Type: An optional literary classification such as Inciting Incident, Midpoint, Climax, or Resolution. Tagging keyframes with a type helps you see at a glance whether your story hits the structural beats your chosen framework calls for.
- Brief Description: A one-line summary of what happens at this beat.
- Plot Details: A rich text field for longer notes, scene outlines, or draft prose.
- Chapter Assignments: Link keyframes to specific chapters so you can track where each beat falls in your manuscript.
In Edit mode, you can add new keyframes, delete existing ones, and drag to reorder them. Keyframes automatically space themselves evenly along the arc curve.
Arc Presets
When creating a new arc, you choose a preset that determines the starting keyframes. Presets give you a narrative scaffold to build on:
- Three-Act Structure: Setup, Confrontation, Resolution. The classic.
- Five-Act Structure: Shakespearean dramatic structure with five distinct phases.
- Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell's 12-stage monomyth.
- Save The Cat!: Blake Snyder's detailed 15-beat screenplay structure.
- Romance Arc: Meeting, Attraction, Obstacle, Resolution.
- Mystery Arc: Discovery, Investigation, Revelation.
- Character Growth: Flaw Introduced, Challenge, Growth Moment, Transformation.
- Simple Arc: Just a Beginning and End. Good for subplots you want to fill in manually.
- Custom: Two blank keyframes to shape however you like.
Note: Presets are starting points, not constraints. After creating your arc, you can rename, add, remove, or reorder any keyframes.
Creating Subplots
To create a subplot, hover over any arc in the sidebar and click the + button. You'll be asked to:
- Name the subplot
- Choose a preset
- Pick a color
- Select a Start Anchor and End Anchor: keyframes on the parent arc that define where this subplot begins and ends
The start anchor must come before the end anchor in the parent's keyframe sequence. Subplots can themselves have sub-subplots, allowing you to model complex narrative structures.
Note: The parent arc must have at least 2 keyframes before you can create a subplot beneath it. If it doesn't, the + button won't appear.
Reordering Arcs
In Edit mode, you can drag and drop arcs in the sidebar to reorder them among their siblings. Grab an arc by the drag handle and move it up or down; a drop indicator shows where it will land. This lets you arrange subplots in whatever order makes sense for your story.
Note: Drag handles only appear when an arc has at least one sibling at the same level. The main arc cannot be dragged since it's always at the top of the hierarchy.
Chapters & Story Arcs
When you assign chapters to keyframes, a mini arc visualizer appears on each chapter's detail page showing all your story arcs and highlighting the assigned plot points. Click any keyframe in the mini visualizer to jump back to the Arcs page. See Editing Chapter and Scene Details for more about the chapter-side view.
Deleting Arcs
In Edit mode, every arc (including the main story arc) has a Delete button at the bottom of the details panel. What you see depends on the arc:
- Main arc: Deleting the main arc is a full reset. It removes the main arc, every subplot beneath it, and all their keyframes. Afterward, the page returns to its empty state and you can create a new story arc from scratch.
- Subplot with no children: A simple confirmation. The subplot and all its keyframes are removed.
- Subplot with children: You choose between Delete All (removes the subplot and every nested subplot beneath it) or Keep Subplots (removes only this subplot and promotes its children up one level in the hierarchy).
Tip: "Keep Subplots" is useful when you want to restructure your hierarchy without losing the detailed work you've put into child arcs.