Quick Start
Get writing in five steps.
1
Create your manuscript
Click + New manuscript on the dashboard to start from scratch, or Upload Word doc to bring in an existing .docx file. Give it a title and you are in.
2
Add your first chapter
In the editor, click + Chapter in the carousel at the top or in the Chapters pane. Type a title, then start writing in the body. Add more chapters the same way.
3
Build your story notes
The narrow strip on the left edge of the editor is your navigation hub for story notes. Click a category name (Characters, Locations, Timeline, and so on) to open that panel. Click any item in the strip to open its card. Use the + button next to a category to add a new item, and the § button to add a group. The Planning Board sits alongside these panels and links to your notes automatically.
4
Organise as you go
Add chapter descriptions to keep track of how your story grows. Set writing goals to keep momentum. Hide the left side panel or use Focus mode when you need to concentrate. The tools are there when you want them and out of the way when you do not.
5
Export when you are ready
Click the export button in the top bar. Choose Word, PDF, or EPUB.
The Editor
The editor is the centre of Draftory Studio. Everything else supports it.
Title page
The first item in the Chapters strip is Title page. Click it to edit the book title, subtitle, and author name. A stats panel below the card shows the total count of chapters, characters, locations, timeline events, plot threads, and storylines for a quick project overview.
Chapters
Each manuscript is divided into chapters. Navigate between them using the carousel at the top of the screen. Click any chapter title to open it.
To add a chapter, click + Chapter in the carousel or at the top or bottom of the Chapters pane. To delete a chapter, hover over it in the Chapters pane and click the bin icon. Deleted chapters cannot be recovered. To rename a chapter, click the pencil icon in the pane, or edit the title field at the top of the editor. To reorder, use the arrows in the pane or drag by the grip handle.
Subheaders, bold and italic
Select any text in the chapter body and a small formatting toolbar appears just above your selection, with Heading, Subheading, Body, Quote, Bold, Italic and Highlight.
Heading and Subheading turn the whole line into a subheader, at two sizes, and Body turns it back into normal text. Use them to break a long chapter into titled sections. Bold, Italic and Highlight apply to just the words you selected, for emphasis, a character's thoughts, or a title; you can also use the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+B and Ctrl+I (Cmd on a Mac). Subheaders and formatting all carry through to your Word, PDF and EPUB exports, and to the clean reading view your beta readers see.
Subheaders always affect a whole line, so to make a few words stand out mid-sentence use bold or italic rather than a subheader. To change the reading font or size for the whole manuscript, use the ☰ Editor toolbar instead.
Quotes and verse
To set a passage apart, a poem, an epigraph, song lyrics, a letter, or a block quotation, select the lines and click Quote in the formatting toolbar. The block becomes a centered, narrower column with its line breaks kept, exactly what verse needs. Click Quote again on a set-apart block to turn it back into normal prose. Like subheaders, it carries through to your Word, PDF and EPUB exports and to the clean reading view your beta readers see.
Chapter descriptions
Each chapter has an optional description field. In the Chapters pane, click the menu icon on any chapter to expand it. Use it for a beat outline, a note to yourself, or a short scene summary. Descriptions do not appear in exports.
Chapter statuses
Each chapter card in the Chapters pane has a small status badge. When no status is set it appears as a subtle · dot next to the chapter title. Click it to cycle through Draft, Revised, and Final, then back to unset. Use it to track where each chapter is in your writing process at a glance.
Word count and reading time
The Chapters pane shows a live word count and estimated reading time for the whole manuscript at the top, and per-chapter word counts next to each entry.
Writing insights
Click the 📊 Insights button in the top bar, next to Version Snapshots, or run Manuscript insights from the command palette (Ctrl + K), to open a text analysis of your manuscript. It shows your most-used words (with common words filtered out), filler words that are easy to overuse, adverbs, and a bar chart of chapter lengths, alongside unique words, average sentence length, and vocabulary variety. Vocabulary variety is the share of your words that are unique; longer manuscripts naturally score lower, so watch how it changes over time rather than aiming for a set number. This is raw text analysis and is free on every plan. Common and filler words are filtered in fourteen languages (English, Estonian, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Turkish); the language is auto-detected, or set it yourself on the manuscript. Other languages show raw word counts. Adverb detection currently covers English (-ly) and Spanish, Italian and Portuguese (-mente).
Manuscript settings
Click the ⚙️ Settings button in the top bar, next to Insights, or run Manuscript settings from the command palette (Ctrl + K), for a quick popover with three things. First, the manuscript's language (used by the AI and by Writing insights). Second, its project word goal, the total length you are aiming for in this manuscript, which is free on every plan and also shown on your dashboard and Progress page. Third, on Muse+ and up, your daily, weekly and monthly writing goals, which are about how much you write and apply across all your manuscripts, not just this one.
Focus mode
Click Focus mode in the top bar to hide all panels. Press Exit focus or Esc to return.
Read aloud
On Muse+ and above, click 🔊 Read in the editor top bar to have the current chapter read back to you. Hearing your prose is one of the best ways to catch clunky sentences, repeated words and missing beats that your eye skips over. A small bar appears with pause, stop, a speed control, and a voice picker; it defaults to a voice matching your manuscript's language where one is available. It uses your browser's built-in speech, so there is nothing to install and no daily limit. Formatting markers and scene breaks are skipped, so you hear clean prose.
The voices come from your device and browser, not from Draftory Studio, so which languages are available varies. Mac and iOS include voices for many languages; Windows ships only a few by default and lets you add more under Time & Language → Speech. Some smaller languages (Estonian, for example) may have no desktop voice at all. If your manuscript's language has no voice installed, read-aloud falls back to the default voice and tells you so.
Editor toolbar
Click the ☰ Editor button in the top bar to open the editor toolbar. It is hidden by default. From here you can set the font (Arial, Times New Roman, Calibri, Georgia and Courier New), size, line spacing, text alignment, and paragraph style (block or indented). In the Dark and Sepia themes it also offers a Paper choice: keep the theme's page colour, or switch to a plain white page (in Dark mode this gives a bright sheet against the dark surroundings). All settings are saved per device.
Auto-save
Draftory Studio saves your manuscript automatically as you write. After you stop typing, the editor waits a few seconds and then saves in the background. The top bar shows Autosaved with a timestamp when each save completes. You can also click the Save button at any time to save immediately. There is no need to save manually before closing the tab or navigating away.
Undo and redo
The ↩ Undo and ↪ Redo buttons sit in the top bar next to the Save button. You can also use the standard keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Z to undo and Ctrl+Y to redo.
Search and replace
Click the ⌕ button in the top bar, or press Ctrl+F while the editor is focused, to open the Find & Replace overlay. Type to find matches across all chapters and use ‹ › to navigate between them. Click ⇄ to reveal the replace row, then use Replace to swap the current match or All to replace every occurrence in the manuscript. Press Esc or click ✕ to close.
Highlighting text
Open the format bar, select any text, and click the H button to highlight it in yellow. Click H again with the cursor inside a highlight to remove it. Highlights are saved as part of the manuscript.
Annotating highlights
Click on any highlighted span (without dragging to select) to open a small note popover. Type your annotation and click Save. Annotated highlights show a dotted underline to distinguish them from plain yellow highlights. Hover to preview the note as a tooltip; click again to edit or remove it. Annotations are stored in the manuscript HTML and export-safe.
Themes
Use the Aa button in the top bar to switch between Classic, Dark, and Sepia themes. Saved per device.
Manuscript language
Set the language your manuscript is written in from the manuscript card menu (⋮) on the dashboard, or from the ⚙️ Settings button in the editor top bar. It drives two features: the AI analyses and responds in that language, and Writing insights uses it to filter out common and filler words (supported in fourteen languages, including English, Spanish, French, German and Estonian). Leave it on Auto-detect and the language is inferred from your prose. You can choose from 74 languages; AI features are fully supported in 18, see which languages are fully supported.
Version snapshots
A version snapshot is a saved copy of your entire manuscript at one moment in time. Think of them as your safety net and your milestones: take one before a big revision or a risky cut and you can always return to exactly what you had, and label the end of a draft so you can find it later. Snapshots are also how you share a stable version with beta readers, so your draft can keep changing without shifting under them (see Beta Readers).
Click the 🕐 button in the top bar to open the Version Snapshots panel. From here you can:
- Save a snapshot of your current manuscript with an optional label, for example "End of chapter 3 draft". Up to 10 snapshots are stored per manuscript; saving an eleventh removes the oldest, unless a beta reader link is pinned to it.
- Restore a snapshot to roll the entire manuscript back to that saved state. You are asked to confirm before anything is overwritten. Restoring does not delete the snapshot. Tip: save a fresh snapshot of your current text first, so you can also come forward again.
- Delete a snapshot you no longer need. A snapshot that a share link is pinned to cannot be deleted until you revoke those links or switch that manuscript back to sharing live.
A snapshot is also saved automatically before a Replace All operation, labelled with the search term, so you can recover from accidental bulk replacements.
Scenes & Scene Breaks
Within a chapter you can mark scene breaks, the points where time, place, or viewpoint shifts. Your prose stays one continuous flow; a scene break is simply a divider line in the text, so the way you write does not change. Scene breaks are entirely optional: use them in every chapter, a few, or none at all.
Adding a scene break
Put your cursor where you want the break and click + Scene break in the top bar, right next to + Chapter. A centred divider appears in the text. To remove a break, click its divider line in the editor; a tooltip confirms “Click to remove this scene break”.
Marker style
Beside the button is a small style selector: * * *, a dash —, or Blank. It sets how the divider looks in the editor and becomes the default scene-break style in the Export dialog. Whichever you choose, the break is stored in a standard way, so Word, PDF and EPUB exports and the reading view always render it correctly.
The scene list
In the Chapters pane, any chapter that contains breaks shows a scenes toggle. Expand it to see that chapter's scenes, numbered in order. Click a scene's number to jump straight to that point in the editor.
Scene descriptions
Each scene has a short description box, like a chapter description but one level down. Use it for a one-line note on what the scene does, for example “first time they meet” or “the betrayal”. Scene descriptions are written by you, save automatically, and do not appear in exports. Tip: insert breaks with the button rather than typing the marker by hand, so the description boxes stay aligned with their scenes.
Scenes and AI
AI analysis works at the chapter level, not the scene level. The “Generate chapter descriptions” tool and the other AI features treat each chapter as a whole and read scene breaks inside it as structure, never as separate chapters. Scene descriptions are always your own notes.
Word count
Scene-break markers do not count as words, so adding breaks never changes your word count or reading time.
Left Strip Navigation
The narrow strip on the left edge of the editor is your primary navigation tool for story notes. It lists every category and every item within them.
Opening panels
Click a category name (Characters, Locations, Timeline, Plot Threads, Storylines, Summary, Style) to open that panel. All cards load in compact, folded view. Click the fold toggle (▸) on any card to expand it.
Click a group heading in the strip to filter the panel to just that group's cards, also in folded view.
Click a specific item in the strip to open that single card in full.
Click the active category name again while the panel is open to return to the full list view. Click it once more to close the panel.
Adding items and groups
Click the + button next to a category to add a new item to that category. Click the § button to add a group. Type the group name directly in the strip input that appears. You can also edit the group name in the panel heading.
When you open a group, the group name appears as a label at the top of the panel with a × button beside it. Click × to remove the group heading. The items inside it stay; they simply become ungrouped.
Collapsing categories
Click the arrow (▸/▾) beside a category to collapse or expand its list. This keeps the strip tidy when you are focused on one area.
Resizing the strip
Hover over the right edge of the strip until the cursor changes to a resize arrow, then drag to make it wider or narrower. The width is saved automatically and restored the next time you open the editor.
Reordering
Drag any item or group in the strip by its grip handle (⠿) to reorder it. Groups move together with the items beneath them.
Cards in the main panel are also draggable. Every card in the Chapters, Characters, Locations, Timeline, and Plot Threads panes has a grip handle (⠿) in the top-left corner of the card header. Hover the card to reveal the handle, then drag it to a new position. Section and group cards can be dragged the same way.
AI tab availability
The AI tab is only visible when you are viewing a full category. It is not shown when you have drilled into a group or a single item. Click the category name in the strip to return to the full category view and access the AI tab.
Characters
The Characters pane is your cast list and character bible in one place.
Adding characters
Click + Add character at the top or bottom of the pane, or add a character card from the Planning Board. Fill in the name, choose a role, and add as much or as little as you like. Fields autosave as you type.
Character roles
Roles help you sort and find characters quickly: Protagonist, Deuteragonist, Antagonist, Supporting, Background. The role also controls the default sort order.
Profile fields
Each card holds: Aliases, Physical description, Personality, Motivation, and Arc. These are free-text fields. Use them however makes sense for your story.
Aliases and nicknames
The Aliases field lets you list the other names a character goes by, separated by commas, for example Liz, Lizzy for a character named Elizabeth. Aliases are recognised anywhere a character is mentioned: a Timeline event, a location's characters field, an import, the Story Bible cross-links and visuals, or a Planning Board card. When you write a nickname, the app quietly treats it as that character, so it links and imports correctly. Your text is left exactly as you wrote it, the nickname is never rewritten to the full name.
AI character extraction respects aliases too. If the AI finds a character by a nickname you have already listed as an alias, it merges the details into that existing character instead of creating a duplicate.
Adding unknown names to the cast
Whenever a character field mentions a name that is not in your cast and is not a known alias, a small + Add to cast button appears next to it. Click it to create that character instantly, or dismiss the prompt with the ✕ if the name is not really a character, such as a crowd or a group. This works the same whether the names were typed by you or filled in by the AI. It is an easy way to catch everyone who turns up in your Timeline or notes without leaving the pane you are in.
Relationships
Inside each character card, click + Add relationship to link two characters with a short description. This feeds into the relationship map.
Relationship map
Click Visual at the top of the pane to open an interactive relationship diagram. Every character is a node; every relationship is a line. Drag nodes to arrange the layout. The map is read-only; edit relationships from the card.
Groups
Click the § button next to Characters in the left strip to add a group. Type the group name in the strip input, or edit it in the panel heading. Drag groups in the strip to reorder them. Use groups to separate your cast by faction, act, POV, or any other organising principle.
Each character card shows a full-width group badge below the role selector. Click the badge to open a dropdown and move that character to a different group instantly. When groups exist, a filter bar appears above the card list. Click any group pill to show only that group's characters. Click All to return to the full list.
Locations
The Locations pane tracks every setting in your story.
Each card holds a name, time period, associated characters, a description, and a notes field. The time period field is especially useful for historical fiction or stories that revisit the same place in different eras.
Locations visual
Click Visual to see a diagram connecting each location to the characters associated with it. Useful for tracking who is where in complex scenes.
Groups
Click the § button next to Locations in the left strip to add a group. Type the name in the strip input. Use groups to organise locations by region, country, time period, or any other category.
Each location card shows a full-width group badge below the title. Click it to move that location to a different group. When groups exist, a filter bar appears above the card list so you can focus on one area at a time.
Timeline
The Timeline pane is a chronological log of events in your story.
Each entry has a Turning point (a date, time, or label), an Event description, associated Characters, and a Chapter reference. None of these fields are mandatory.
Groups
Click the § button next to Timeline in the left strip to add a group. Type the name in the strip input. Use groups to divide events by act, chapter, or time period.
Each timeline card shows a full-width group badge below the title. Click it to move that event to a different group without dragging.
Visual timeline
Click Visual to open a horizontal timeline view. Events are in columns; section headers span the events they group. Useful for spotting pacing gaps and act breaks at a glance.
Two-way link with the Planning Board
The Timeline and the Planning Board feed each other. Promote a scene card to a new Timeline event with one click, or import Timeline events and their characters onto the board. See Import existing notes onto the board in the Planning Board section for the full flow.
Autosave
Timeline changes autosave two seconds after you stop typing. Click Save at any time for a manual save.
Plot Threads & Storylines
Plot Threads
Track the open questions and unresolved tensions in your manuscript. Each thread has a title, a status, associated characters, and notes.
Plot thread status
Each plot thread card has a status badge in the top-right corner of its header. When no status is set it shows as a subtle · dot. Click it to cycle through Open, Resolved, and Dropped, then back to unset. It works the same way as chapter status and saves automatically on each click.
Storylines
Map character arcs and subplots. Each storyline has a title, associated characters, and notes. Use storylines to track the emotional journey of each major character alongside the main plot.
Both panels feed into the Story Bible and can be populated automatically using the AI extraction tools on Bard.
Planning Board
A visual space to plan your story alongside your draft. Access it from the icon strip on the right edge of the editor.
How it is laid out
The board covers your whole manuscript at once. Every chapter is a row, in order. Within each row, three columns group what belongs to that chapter: Scenes, Characters, and Locations. Read across a row to see everything in a chapter, or down a column to follow one kind of thing through the book.
A card sits in the chapter it belongs to; the same character across several chapters appears in each of those rows. Cards not yet assigned to a chapter gather in an Unplaced row at the top.
Threads & storylines
Plot threads and storylines are not tied to a single chapter, so they appear as boxes down the right side, each covering the chapters it runs through. Plot threads come first, then storylines. Hover a box to light up the chapters it spans.
Who appears where
Hover a character to see the scenes it appears in, or a scene to see its cast: the links light up and everything else dims. To create a link, click Connect, then click a character and a scene to join them. These character–scene links are saved and stay with your story.
Where the cards come from
The characters, locations and scenes on the board are the same entities as the ones in your Characters, Locations and Timeline panels, so editing in one place updates the other. Add them in those panels or bring them in with Import; they appear on the board in the chapters they belong to.
Notes
Notes live in their own Notes list rather than on the board, so the board stays focused on structure.
Summary & Style
Summary
A freeform panel for capturing your premise, central conflict, resolution direction, themes, and notes that do not fit elsewhere. Think of it as a scratchpad for the big picture. On Bard, you can also generate a summary automatically from your manuscript using the AI.
Style
Record your style guide: POV, tense, tone, voice, genre, audience, and influences. This is a reference for yourself, not a setting that affects the editor.
On Bard, the AI can analyse your manuscript and fill these fields in for you, plus you get AI spell check and word repetition flagging in this pane.
The Style Check tab detects weak verbs, cliches, and passive voice line by line with no daily limit. It is available on all plans.
Story Bible
Click Story Bible at the bottom of the left panel to open an interactive encyclopedia of your manuscript. Every character, location, timeline event, plot thread, and storyline becomes a clickable entry. Each entry shows its full details and everything connected to it, all cross-linked.
Use the Story Bible to answer questions like: which characters are connected to this plot thread? Which timeline events involve this location? Which storylines does this character appear in? Everything links to everything else, so you can follow threads across your notes without switching between panes.
Series & Collections
A collection groups multiple manuscripts in reading order. Create one from the dashboard using + New collection, then assign manuscripts to it from their card menu.
Inside any manuscript that belongs to a collection, the Series tab gives you an overview of all books: word counts, character lists, and notes at a glance.
Copy notes between books
In the Series tab, use Copy notes to copy Characters, Locations, Timeline entries, Summary, Style, Plot Threads, or Storylines from one book to another. Only new items are added; nothing already in the target book is overwritten.
Appears in
On character and location cards, tick which books in the series each entry appears in. This keeps your series bible accurate as the cast and world grow across books.
AI Features
AI features are available on Bard and Oracle. All AI tools live in the AI tab at the top of the relevant panel. The AI tab is only visible when you are viewing a full category from the left strip. It is not shown when you have opened a single item or a group. Click the category name in the strip to return to the full category view. A daily usage counter in the top bar shows how many credits you have used.
All AI features respect the manuscript language you have set from the manuscript card menu (⋮) on the dashboard. Leave it on Auto-detect and the AI will infer the language from your prose. AI features are fully supported in 18 languages; see the FAQ for the full list.
Bard AI Tools Bard
Extract characters
Choose a scope (full manuscript, current chapter, or a selection), then run. The AI creates character cards for every named character it finds, including minor and background characters. Existing cards are never overwritten.
Extract locations
Identifies every significant setting and creates location cards with a description, time period, and associated characters.
Extract timeline
Creates a timeline entry for every distinct scene: where and when it takes place, what happens, and who is present. On full-text scope the AI works through each chapter separately and stamps the chapter label automatically.
Generate summary
In the Summary pane, generate a structured premise from your manuscript: premise, central conflict, resolution direction, themes, and notes. Useful for retroactively documenting a draft.
Chapter descriptions
In the Chapters pane, click Generate all descriptions with AI to write a short description for every chapter at once. Editable after the run.
Spell check
Select Current chapter or a highlighted selection, then run. Checks spelling and grammar with an understanding of fiction: skips character names, invented words, and stylistic choices. Does not run on full-manuscript scope.
Style and prose analysis
Analyses POV, tense, tone, voice, genre, target audience, and dialogue ratio. Available for full manuscript, current chapter, or a selection.
Word repetition flagging
Identifies overused words and repetitive phrases, with suggested alternatives for each.
Plot thread identification
Maps every major plot thread, tagging each as Open, Developing, or Resolved. Useful for surfacing threads you have forgotten and checking that nothing is left dangling.
Storyline mapping
Identifies character arcs and subplots, listing the characters involved and how each storyline progresses. A fast way to build out your Storylines panel from an existing draft.
Series continuity analysis
In the Series tab, select two to five books and run. Checks for character inconsistencies, timeline gaps, factual contradictions, and thematic threads across the whole series.
AI Writing Coach Oracle
Eight targeted tools for improving your prose at the chapter or passage level. Select a chapter or highlight a passage, then choose a tool. Results are saved in the AI log.
Show, don't tell
Flags tell-heavy passages and suggests rewrites using action, dialogue, or sensory detail.
Dialogue improvement
Spots unnatural lines, characters who sound too similar, and filler that could be cut.
Pacing and rhythm
Flags sentence and paragraph patterns that work against the scene's emotional tempo.
Sensory details
Highlights scenes where adding sensory detail would pull the reader deeper.
POV consistency
Flags point-of-view slips within scenes and shows how to fix them.
Style improvement
Concrete suggestions for sentence variety, word choice, clarity, and voice consistency.
Character name consistency
Catches the same character referred to by different spellings or names. Grammatical inflections are not flagged.
Continuation prompts
Generates five grounded scene prompts when you are stuck, rooted in your existing characters, setting, and plot.
AI daily allowance
Bard has two separate daily pools: one for all extractions and analysis, and one for spell check. Oracle adds a third pool for the Writing Coach. Full-text scope costs 2 credits; chapter or selection scope costs 1. All allowances reset at midnight UTC.
Export
Click the export button (the down-arrow icon) in the top bar. Three formats are available:
- Word (.docx). Exports the full manuscript with chapter titles and body text.
- PDF
- EPUB. Ready for e-readers and self-publishing platforms.
Chapter subheaders and inline formatting (bold, italic and highlight) carry through to all three formats, along with your chosen scene-break style.
Exports contain your prose only. Left-panel notes (characters, locations, timeline, etc.) are not included.
Writing Goals
Set daily, weekly, or monthly word count targets in the Goals section of your profile (click your name or the profile panel on the dashboard). Your progress appears as a chip in the editor top bar. Daily goals show a streak counter tracking how many consecutive days you have hit your target.
Writing sprints
On Muse+ and above, click ⏱ Sprint in the editor top bar to run a timed focus session. Pick a length (15, 30, 45 or 60 minutes, or your own) and an optional word target, then start writing. A small bar shows the time remaining and the words you have written so far, with pause and stop controls. When the timer ends, or you stop early, you get a summary: words written, your words per minute, and whether you reached your target. Each finished sprint is saved, so it is a simple way to build momentum and a daily writing habit.
Writing stats
On Muse+ and above, open Writing stats from the dashboard sidebar for a bird's-eye view of your writing over time: a calendar heatmap of the words you wrote each day over the past year, your current and longest streaks, total words, days written, your recent pace, and a summary of your writing sprints. It is a nice way to watch momentum build across weeks and months.
Weekly progress email
On Muse+ and above, Draftory Studio can send you a short weekly summary of what you wrote and how you tracked against your goals. It is optional: turn it on or off under Account → Email notifications in your dashboard, and every email carries a one-click unsubscribe link. If you have not set any goals, the email simply reports your word count for the week.
Workflows
Starting a novel from scratch
There is no single right place to begin. Some writers start in the editor and let the prose lead; others build their world in the left panel first; plotters go straight to the Planning Board to lay out the structure before writing a word. All three approaches work, so pick the one that suits how you think.
- Create a new manuscript and give it a working title.
- If you like to plan: open the Planning Board on the title page and add Scene or Character cards to sketch the shape of the story. Or use the left panel tabs to add Characters, a Timeline, and a Summary before you start drafting.
- If you prefer to write first: add your first chapter and start. Fill in the left panel as you go.
- Either way, a short entry in the Summary tab is worth doing early: what is the story about, and what is at stake? It does not need to be good. It just needs to exist.
Everything in the left panel can be updated as the story evolves. It is not a contract.
Importing a draft you have already written
- Use Upload Word doc on the dashboard. If your Word file has Heading 1 styles on chapter titles, chapters are detected automatically.
- If no chapters are detected, a warning appears with guidance on formatting. You can also add chapter breaks manually after import.
- Once chapters are loaded, run the AI extraction tools (Bard) to populate Characters, Locations, and Timeline from your existing prose. A retroactive story bible without retyping anything.
- Review the extracted entries and correct anything the AI misread. Character names are occasionally confused when a character is referred to by title or nickname only.
Planning before drafting (plotter workflow)
- Create your manuscript and write a premise in the Summary tab.
- Add your characters before writing any prose. Give each one a role, a motivation, and an arc direction.
- Build your Timeline with the major story beats, using sections to divide by act.
- Open the Planning Board on the title page (story level). Add Scene cards for each major beat and arrange them on the Map.
- Colour-code Scene cards by storyline, act, or POV character to make structural gaps visible.
- When the structure feels solid, start writing chapter by chapter. Switch to the chapter-level Planning Board to plan each chapter before drafting it.
Managing a series
- Create each book as a separate manuscript on the dashboard.
- Create a collection and add all books in reading order.
- Open the first book, go to the Series tab, and tick "Appears in" for each character and location.
- When starting a new book, use Copy notes in the Series tab to bring across relevant characters, locations, and timeline entries. Only new items are added.
- Before each new instalment, run AI series continuity analysis (Bard) to check for anything that contradicts a previous book.
Getting unstuck with AI
If you are stuck, the Continuation prompts tool (Oracle) generates five grounded scene ideas based on what you have written.
On Bard, there are still useful approaches:
- Run Extract timeline on the current chapter. Reading the AI summary of events so far often clarifies what needs to happen next.
- Run Style analysis on a recent chapter. Identifying what is weak in the prose often reveals why a scene is not landing.
- Open the Story Bible and read the full entry for your protagonist. Their profile, arc, and connections sometimes surface an obvious next beat.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Press Ctrl + K (Cmd + K on Mac) to open the command palette: a searchable launcher to jump to any chapter or panel and run actions like focus mode, version snapshots and export. Type to filter, move with the arrow keys, and press Enter.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|
| Command palette | Ctrl + K (Cmd on Mac) |
| Save | Ctrl + S (Cmd on Mac) |
| Focus mode | F11 |
| Search in manuscript | Ctrl + F |
| Next chapter | Ctrl + ] |
| Previous chapter | Ctrl + [ |
Beta Readers
Share your manuscript with readers and collect their feedback, all without leaving Draftory Studio. There are two ways to share, and you can use both at the same time.
Two ways to share
Public link. Create a link that anyone can open in their browser. No account is needed. Reviewers type their name to leave feedback. Good for friends, a beta group, or anyone outside Draftory Studio.
Beta reader network. Share with readers inside Draftory Studio who are matched to your genre and language. Their feedback is signed with their username automatically. You need to join the network to use this.
Both options collect per-chapter notes and an overall comment.
Joining the beta reader network
You can join straight from Beta Readers: click Join the network in Share your work or in the Network directory (or use the Network membership toggle under Account). Joining lets you share your work with matched readers, invite specific readers, and appear in the member directory. Your profile is visible only to other logged-in members and is never public on the web.
Reading for other writers is a separate opt-in. If you want to read, turn on Available as beta reader under Beta Readers → Read for others and choose your genres and languages. So joining to get feedback never signs you up to read, and turning on read-availability makes you a member automatically. You can add an optional profile pitch, and an Instagram handle if you are 18 or over, under Account, and leave any time from the same places. Without joining you can still create public links.
Creating a public link
Go to Beta Readers in your dashboard sidebar and open Share your work. Select a manuscript using the tab bar at the top. Under step 3, enter an optional label (for example, beta round 1) so you can tell your links apart, then click Create link. The link is copied to your clipboard automatically. To share only specific chapters, set the scope under step 2 first.
Finding readers in the network
In step 3 of Share your work, the beta reader network panel gives you two options. Turn on Open to all matching readers to list the manuscript in Discover for every reader whose genre and language match, who can then start reading on their own. Or use invite specific readers to send a direct invitation to a chosen reader. Set the manuscript genre under step 1 so the network can match you.
Reading for other writers
Open Beta Readers and the Read for others tab. Choose the genres and languages you read in. The Discover tab lists manuscripts open to the network that match your preferences, the Invitations tab shows direct invitations you can accept or decline, and Reading history tracks what you are reading along with your reading and reviewed counts.
The Network directory
The Network tab under Beta Readers lists other members so you can discover writers and readers by role, genre, language, and name. It is visible only to members who have joined. Reader cards include an Invite to read button so you can invite them to one of your manuscripts.
What readers see
The link opens a clean reading view with the manuscript text only and no editor controls. A Leave a note button stays in the lower-right corner so readers can add a note on the chapter they are reading, and an Overall thoughts box at the end collects a general comment. Network readers are signed in automatically. Public readers are asked for their name before their first note.
Live manuscript or a fixed version
Under step 2, What readers see, you choose whether links share your live manuscript or a fixed version:
- Live manuscript (the default): readers always see your latest text, including edits you make after sending the link. Good for an ongoing look while you write.
- A fixed version: readers see a snapshot frozen at the moment you chose it, so you can keep revising without the text shifting under them mid-read. Choose A fixed version, then pick an existing version snapshot from the list or click Save current draft as a version to freeze the current text.
The choice applies to new links and invitations. Links you already created keep the version they were made with, so you can give one group a fixed "round 1" version and later share a newer version with a second group without disturbing the first.
Reading the feedback you receive
All feedback appears together under step 4, Feedback, of Share your work, with each entry tagged as a public link or a beta reader. The summary at the top shows total views and notes, and how many readers are currently reading, finished, or did not finish.
Managing links and access
Use Copy link to copy a public URL again at any time. Use Revoke to cut off access immediately; the link stays in your list so you keep the notes left by readers. Delete removes a link permanently along with every reader note and view record attached to it, and cannot be undone.
FAQ
Does the app autosave?
Yes, in all panels. The editor autosaves after every pause in typing. Timeline and Locations autosave two seconds after you stop typing. Characters, Plot Threads, and Storylines autosave field by field. The Save button in each panel is there for a manual save if you prefer to be certain.
What is included in each plan?
Muse (free): unlimited manuscripts, with the full editor (unlimited chapters and scene breaks), Characters, Locations, Timeline, Summary, Style guide and style detection, and Word, PDF and EPUB export.
Muse+ (€4.99/month or €49/year): everything in Muse, plus the Planning Board and visual Story Map, Story Bible, Plot Threads, Storylines, Series and collections, and daily word goals with streak tracking. No AI.
Bard: everything in Muse+, plus all AI extraction and analysis tools: extract characters, locations, timeline, summaries, and chapter descriptions; AI spell check; word repetition flagging; prose style analysis; plot thread identification; storyline mapping; and series continuity analysis.
Oracle: everything in Bard, plus the AI Writing Coach (eight tools).
What happens to my work if I cancel my subscription?
Your manuscripts are never deleted. Your account reverts to free Muse at the end of your billing period, and you keep full read and export access to every manuscript you have created. You can export any manuscript as Word, PDF or EPUB at any time.
Can I import from Scrivener?
Not directly. Export your Scrivener project to a Word file first, then upload that to Draftory Studio. Most structure carries over cleanly if you use Word Heading styles for chapter titles.
How does the daily AI allowance work?
Bard has two daily pools: one for extractions and analysis, and one for spell check. Oracle adds a third pool for the Writing Coach. Full-text scope costs 2 credits; chapter or selection scope costs 1. All allowances reset at midnight UTC.
The AI extracted the wrong character name. Can I fix it?
Yes. Every extracted entry is fully editable. The AI is good at finding characters but occasionally confuses names for characters referred to by title, nickname, or pronoun only. Just edit the card directly.
Which languages are supported?
You can set your manuscript language to any of 74 languages from the card menu (⋮) on your dashboard, or from the ⚙️ Settings button in the editor. Two features use that language, with different coverage:
Writing insights filters common and filler words in 14 languages: English, Estonian, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish and Turkish. Adverb detection covers English (-ly) plus Spanish, Italian and Portuguese (-mente). Other languages still get insights, but with raw word counts and no filler or adverb list.
The AI is fully supported in 18 languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean, Estonian, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Dutch, Polish and Turkish. It analyses and responds in your manuscript's language; for other languages it will still try to help, but quality may vary.
What happens when I delete a share link?
Deleting a link is permanent. It removes the link itself, every reader note left on it, and the full view history. Readers who try to open the link afterwards will see an error. If you only want to stop new readers from accessing the link while keeping your notes, use Revoke instead.
Can I share my manuscript with beta readers?
Yes. Open Beta Readers in your dashboard sidebar, select a manuscript, and click Create link. You can share the full manuscript or specific chapters. Readers open a clean reading view in their browser and can leave per-chapter notes and an overall comment. No account is needed on their end. See the Beta Readers guide for full details.
What is the beta reader network and how do I join?
The beta reader network is a community of writers and readers inside Draftory Studio. As a member you can share your work with readers matched to your genre and language, read and review other writers' work, and appear in a member directory that other members can browse by role, genre, and language. To join, click Join the network in Beta Readers (Share your work or the Network directory), or use the Network membership toggle under Account. Membership lets you share and be discovered; reading for others is a separate opt-in (Available as beta reader under Read for others), so you are never signed up to read just by joining. Your profile is shown only to other logged-in members and is never public on the web. You can leave at any time, and you can still create public share links without joining. See the Beta Readers guide for how matching, invitations, and the directory work.
If I change my reading genres, do I keep what I am already reading?
Yes. Changing your genres only affects what the Discover tab suggests next. Anything you have already started stays in your Reading history with your notes intact, and any invitations you have received remain. Discover updates to your new genres the next time you open it.
Can I use Draftory Studio on mobile?
The app works in mobile browsers but is optimised for desktop. We recommend a laptop or desktop for longer writing sessions.
Is my writing stored securely?
Yes. All manuscripts are stored in a managed PostgreSQL database hosted by DigitalOcean. Data is encrypted at rest with LUKS and in transit with SSL. We do not read your content. See our Privacy Policy for full details.
Can multiple people work on the same manuscript?
Not currently. Draftory Studio is designed for solo writers. Collaboration is on the long-term roadmap.
Is there a word count limit per manuscript?
No. Write as long as you need. Very long manuscripts (roughly over 60,000 words) may be processed in sections by the AI extraction tools; any truncation is noted in the results.