Prose editor

Pendraic's middle column. A rich-text writing surface purpose-built for long-form fiction, with the things off-the-shelf editors miss: in-prose entry highlights, structural break commands, and inline AI.

What it carries

  • Rich text, bold, italic, headings (H1-H3), block quotes, lists (bulleted and numbered), inline links, inline code.
  • Markdown shortcuts, type **bold**, # Heading, - list, etc. and the editor converts inline.
  • Format prefs, font family, font size, line height, max width. Per-writer settings; persist to local storage. Toolbar has a gear that opens the prefs panel.
  • Spellcheck, browser-native; respected.

In-prose entry highlights

Every Story Index and World Index entry name (and aliases) renders as a colored underlay in the prose, color-coded by the entry's type. Click any highlight to open the entry dialog inline (Story Index entries open an edit modal; World Index entries open the in-editor world dialog with a “Open in World Builder” footer link). Highlights stay anchored cleanly through edits without reflowing the prose.

Structure breaks

Slash commands at the start of a paragraph create new structural nodes:

  • /act, /chapter, /scene , create the matching node and move the cursor into it. Any prose typed below the slash command travels with the new chunk so a writer who types in flow never loses what they wrote.
  • /prologue , adds a prologue at the very top of the manuscript and pushes existing chapters down. Trailing prose seeds the prologue's first scene.
  • /epilogue , adds an epilogue at the end of the manuscript. Trailing prose seeds the epilogue's first scene so a closing passage typed mid-flow lands in the right place.
  • /interlude , drops an interlude right after the chapter you're working in. Useful for short between-chapter breaths or POV-shift bridges that don't fit the regular chapter ordering.
  • /beat , attaches a beat marker to the active scene so you can anchor a structural intent without leaving the prose.
  • /page , insert a visual page break (renders as * * *) that export composers translate into a hard page break in DOCX and EPUB.
  • /prompt:<shortcut> , fire a saved custom prompt against the active selection (or the trailing paragraph when nothing's selected).

You can also reach prologue, epilogue, and interlude from the Architect view's toolbar buttons if you'd rather click than type. Both paths land identical rows; pick whichever fits your writing flow.

Inline AI

When you select text, a small floating palette appears with five action buttons: Rewrite, Continue, Describe, Humanize, Brainstorm. Each fires the same one-shot AI pipeline; the result lands in a diff modal with accept / reject / retry. Voice Print conformance scores show inline so drift is visible before you commit. See AI action palette for the full keyboard map.

Autosave

Pendraic auto-saves on every change after a short debounce. The header pill reflects the live status. There is no manual Save button; the writer never has to remember it. On navigation away, any pending save flushes before the editor unmounts so nothing is lost.

What the editor does NOT carry

  • Tracked changes / comments. Manuscripts are single-author surfaces.
  • Inline images, covers + maps live in the cover surface and Worldbuilder respectively, not in prose.
  • Tables, fiction prose rarely needs them; we don't render them.
  • Footnotes, defer to export-time formatting.