Manuscript editor

The writing surface. A three-column layout when fully open: the outline tree on the left, the prose editor in the middle, the contextual right rail on the right. The middle column never collapses; either side can be hidden via the panel rail or the keyboard.

Two top-level views

  • Compose, three-column writing surface. What you spend most of your time in.
  • Architect, drag-and-drop board. Acts, chapters, and scenes as columns and cards. Use this when you want to see the whole shape and reorder. See Architect view.

Both views read the same manuscript tree, so a reorder in one shows up in the other on the next render.

Three columns

  • Left, outline sidebar. The full manuscript tree (acts → chapters → scenes → beats), color-coded by section, drag-droppable, with rename + meta-edit context menus. See Outline tree.
  • Middle, prose editor. Rich text with autosave on every change. Slash commands, structure breaks, inline AI edits. See Prose editor.
  • Right, contextual dock. Mode-driven panels: Plan, Write, Review, AI, Story, World, Beat, Voice, Threads. The mode preset bar on the panel rail flips between coherent layouts in one click.

Mode presets

Four named layouts, picked from the panel rail above the editor:

  • Drafting, outline visible, dock off. For heads-down prose.
  • Planning, outline visible, dock on Beat. For when you're working the structural spine.
  • Context, outline visible, dock on Story (registry entries in scene). For continuity passes.
  • Focus, both sides hidden. Just prose.

Header

The workspace header carries (left to right): a Bookshelf back-link, the project title and series chip, the Compose / Architect tabs, then the right cluster, active model chip, save status, word count, structure preset picker, Export menu, Project meta button, Story overview button.

Save model

Autosave is the only persistence path. The Save status pill in the header shows idle / dirty / saving / saved / error. A failed save flips to error and stops further auto-saves until the next keystroke; this prevents hammering a broken endpoint. Scenes save on debounce; the editor flushes any pending save before swapping to a different scene so nothing is lost on navigation.

Cross-references