Book Arcs and Series Arcs
When you're writing a series (Writing a Series), the Arcs page grows to match: alongside each Book's own plot structure, you can chart the threads that run through the entire saga. The war, the romance, the long con.
Everything below lives on the Arcs page; open it by clicking Arcs in the sidebar while in Worldbuilding Mode.
The Arcs Page Gains a Third View
In a series, the switcher at the top of the Arcs page offers three views, left to right: Series Arcs, Book Arc (the Story Arcs you already know), and Character Arcs.
Book Arcs
A Book Arc is exactly the Story Arc you already know: main plot, subplots, keyframes (the story beats you place along an arc), the visual chart of your plot. It's just renamed to make clear it belongs to one Book. Each Book in your series has its own, and the Book Arc tab always shows the arc for whichever Book you're currently in. Switch Books and the tab switches with you. Everything in Story Arcs applies here unchanged.
Series Arcs
Series Arcs are for the storylines too big for any single volume. They span the whole series and stay visible no matter which Book you're working in, so you can draft Book 3 with the saga's shape still in view.
On the Series Arcs view, click + New Series Arc to create one. Templates are built for series-scale plotting; each one starts your arc with a few ready-made story beats you can rename or rearrange:
- Simple Arc: A minimal two-point structure spanning the whole series, for laying out the story beats yourself.
- Trilogy: One major beat per installment: Setup, Confrontation, Resolution.
- Epic Saga: A grand conflict building across many books, from Inciting Event to Final Reckoning.
- Overarching Mystery: A conspiracy threaded through the series, revealed book by book.
- Rise & Fall: A dynasty, empire, or character tracked from ascent to downfall.
Note: Templates are starting points, not constraints: rename, add, or remove points afterward. If you delete one, you'll be asked to confirm first, and only that point is removed; any chapters or scenes assigned to it are untouched. Series Arcs can have subplots of their own, just like Book Arcs.
Character Arcs Across the Series
A character's fortune curve (the line tracking a character's ups and downs across the series) isn't confined to one volume. Character Arcs run across the whole series, so you can chart Sherlock's rise and fall from Book 1 through Book 3 on a single curve. In the This Book view (This Book vs All Books), the chart zooms in on this Book's stretch of the curve, and in the keyframe list, keyframes from other Books gray out and step aside. Nothing is changed or deleted — switch back to All Books and the full curve returns exactly as it was.
Note: In the This Book view, characters whose arcs never touch the current Book are hidden from the sidebar. If that empties the list, you'll see "Switch to 'All Books' to see arcs from the rest of the series". Open the Book menu in the bar at the top of the window and uncheck "Show only this Book" to bring everyone back into sight.
Which Arc Goes Where?
- Story Arcs (Book Arcs): the plot of one volume: this Book's mystery, this Book's climax.
- Series Arcs: threads that outlive any single volume: the war, the prophecy, the slow-burn romance.
- Character Arcs: one character's emotional journey, wherever it takes them across the series.
Tip: Not sure where a thread belongs? Ask whether it resolves by the end of this Book. If it does, it's a Book Arc subplot. If it keeps burning into the next volume, give it a Series Arc.