Planning your book with the Outline, Corkboard and Plot board
Planning in Studio
Studio has three workspaces for planning your book's structure: Outline, Corkboard and Plot. All three work from the same chapters. Click a workspace name in the top bar to switch to it.
Use the Outline to see every chapter as a row, the Corkboard to arrange chapters as cards, and the Plot board to follow each thread of the story through the chapters.
Outline: the whole book in a table
Outline shows each chapter as a row. The columns are:
- CHAPTER AND WHAT HAPPENS
- STATUS
- LABEL
- POINT OF VIEW
- LOCATION
- WORDS
- TARGET
Click any cell to change it in place. Click Open on a row to go to that chapter in Write.
Use the status filter at the top to show only chapters with one status, such as Draft or Revising. Front matter, back matter and sections you've left out of the book are marked as such.
To keep a copy outside Studio, click Save as Spreadsheet…. It saves a .csv file that opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets.
Corkboard: chapters as index cards
Corkboard shows one index card for each chapter, grouped by part. Each card has the chapter's title and a line about what happens in it.
- Click the card's text to change it.
- Drag a card by its top edge to move that chapter in the manuscript.
- Double-click the card's top edge to open the chapter in Write.
Each card shows its label colour as a stripe along the top, its status, and its word count against the target you've set.
Moving cards is off while the view shows only some chapters. Choose All in the status filter to move cards again.
Status, targets and labels
Each chapter has a status: Draft, Revising, Revised or Final. You can also set a word target, which is how long you want that chapter to be. Both are under the chapter's notes in Write, and both can be changed in the Outline. In Write, the chapter list shows a coloured dot beside any chapter marked Revising, Revised or Final.
Labels are coloured tags for chapters, such as "Flashback" or "Needs research". Each chapter can have one label.
To create a label:
- - 1. In the Outline, click Labels….
- - 2. Type a new label and click Add.
- - 3. Click the label's colour dot to choose one of eight colours.
- - 4. Click Done.
To apply a label, choose it in the Outline's LABEL column, or under Label in the chapter's notes.
Plot: threads through the chapters
Plot follows each thread of the story from chapter to chapter. Each plot line is a row, and each chapter is a column.
To start, click Add the Main Plot, or click + Plot Line. Add subplots and character arcs as more rows.
A beat is a moment in a plot line. To add one:
- - 1. Click the square where the plot line meets the chapter, or click + Beat.
- - 2. Type What happens in a few words, and add any Notes.
- - 3. Click Save.
A chapter can hold several beats. To change their order, open a beat and click ↑ Earlier or ↓ Later. To delete a beat, open it and click Remove This Beat. Beats move with their chapter when you move it on the Corkboard or in the Outline. Double-click a chapter's heading on the board to write that chapter.
To rename, recolour or remove a plot line, click its name. You can also set its Kind: Main plot, Subplot or Character arc. Delete This Line… removes the line and everything written on it, so check the line's beats first.
Checking for quiet stretches
Under the board, QUIET STRETCHES lists any plot line that goes missing for three chapters or more. Use it to spot a thread you may have dropped. A long gap isn't always a mistake, but it's worth a look.
A simple way to use all three
You don't have to use all three workspaces in any set order. One approach:
- Use the Outline to write what happens in each chapter, and set a status and word target for each.
- Use the Corkboard to drag chapters into the order you want, and check the cards' word counts.
- Use the Plot board to add a beat for each thread in each chapter, then check QUIET STRETCHES for gaps.
Return to the Outline at any point to see how the status and word counts have changed.