Start with the right kind of project
Choose a novel, short story, screenplay, series, or article during setup. A book can belong to a series; a standalone story does not need one. Give it a working title and write a rough premise. You can begin drafting immediately.
Open the project overview from your manuscript’s project-title link. Story overview holds your logline, genre, synopsis, and chapter excerpts. Characters and the optional visual notebook sit alongside it. The editor stays focused on the draft itself.
Write a premise that contains a choice
In the one-sentence story field, name the protagonist, the disruption, and the difficult choice. For example: When the sea returns her missing father’s suitcase, a cartographer must decide whether to reopen the life she put away. This is a working question, not a promise to follow a rigid formula.
Use the full synopsis for the sequence of events, including the ending when you know it. A private synopsis is different from a book blurb: it should explain the turns you need to remember. Do not hide the answer from yourself for the sake of marketing suspense.
Give your protagonist a want and a contradiction
Open Characters and add a name, role, and short summary. Record the desire driving the story and the belief that makes change difficult. Keep appearance in Traits & appearance, and the emotional obstacle in Inner conflict. Add a portrait only if a visual reference helps you.
An established story fact and an idea are different things. Mark a character as an established fact when the details are settled. Leave exploratory notes as drafts while you test the opening. For a short story, one protagonist and one meaningful relationship may be enough.
Draft a scene, then let the outline respond
Open your manuscript and write the smallest scene that puts your premise under pressure. Use the formatting toolbar for headings, emphasis, lists, and scene breaks. Type a slash on an empty line to open block choices. Undo and redo work with the familiar keyboard shortcuts.
Return to Story overview after a writing session. Expand a chapter to read the opening excerpt from its selected version, then update your synopsis with what actually changed. These excerpts are not an AI summary. For a full narrative summary, write the connective tissue yourself. Export brief downloads the synopsis, character summaries, shot notes, and selected draft as a Markdown file.
A little reading. A little making.
Use this checklist as you try the workflow. Your notes stay in this browser, separate from your account.