Story Builder documentation

Chapters

The Chapters module is the manuscript: the text itself, in order, with the tools you need while writing rather than after.

Chapter 12 · The crossing saved 14:02 2,140 words 25:00 Chapters 10 · Low water 11 · The offer 12 · The crossing 13 · Ash
The chapter screen. The indicator beside the title is the only report you get that a change was stored — there is nothing to press.

The editor

A rich-text editor with the formatting a manuscript actually uses — emphasis, headings, block quotes, scene breaks. It is not a word processor and does not pretend to be one; there is no page layout, because a manuscript is not paginated until it is exported.

There is no save button. Edits are written as you make them. The indicator in the header tells you what is happening:

It says It means
saved, with a time Everything is stored
saving A change is in flight
saving live The chapter is open as a shared document and edits stream as you type
not synced You are offline; edits are held and sent when the connection returns
save failed Something went wrong, with a retry button

Order, and the chapter list

Chapters carry a number and can be reordered by dragging. The number is display order, not an identity — reordering does not break anything pointing at a chapter.

Word counts and goals

Each chapter tracks its own word count, and the project totals them. You can set a goal and watch progress against it; the sprint timer in the header is for when you want a fixed stretch of writing rather than a target.

Revisions

Saving a chapter does not overwrite its history. Earlier versions are kept for a retention window and can be read or restored. A restore replaces the current text with the older version, and is itself a revision — so restoring the wrong one is undoable.

Revisions are per chapter and are not a backup of the project. For that, see backup and export.

Publishing a chapter

A chapter can be published on its own once the story is published, which is how a serial works: readers see the chapters you have released and nothing else. See publishing.

Working with somebody else

When collaboration is on, two people can write in the same chapter at once, and the indicator reads saving live. Edits merge rather than overwrite.