Import a manuscript

Bring in a draft from Scrivener, Word, markdown or plain text, split into chapters and scenes.

Already writing somewhere else? Bring a manuscript into Mythforge from Scrivener, Word, markdown or plain text. It's split into chapters and scenes for you, and you see a preview before anything is added.

Open a world's Manuscripts tab and choose Import…, beside New series. In a world with no manuscripts yet, choose Import from Scrivener, Word or Markdown….
Pick your file:
- a Word document (.docx),
- a markdown file (.md) or text file (.txt),
- a .zip of markdown or text files, one chapter per file, in name order,
- a Scrivener project, zipped (see From Scrivener).
Check the preview (see below) and choose Import (it says how many chapters, such as Import 24 chapters).

The new manuscript appears on the shelf, ready to write in.

The preview

Before anything is added, Mythforge shows what it found: the chapters, each with its scenes and word count. You can change:

Title: taken from the document when it has one.
Form: novel, novella or short story, guessed from the length.
Series: add it to one of the world's series, or leave it Standalone.
New chapter at: where chapters start. Each choice shows how many chapters it would make.
- Automatic: Mythforge's best guess.
- Heading 1 or Heading 2: your document's headings.
- "Chapter" lines: lines such as Chapter 12, CHAPTER TWELVE, Chapter Twenty-One: The Gate, XII, Prologue or Part Two.
- Each file: for a .zip, each file is a chapter.
- Don't split: one chapter.
New scene at scene breaks: splits chapters into scenes at lines such as #, * * * or a single symbol on its own line.
Link lore names: shown when your text uses the names of lore entries in this world, with how many it found. Turn it on to make every one a lore mention, as Link all does in an entry's Unlinked mentions. A name that two entries share is left alone.

What comes across

Bold and italics are kept. So are paragraphs and smart quotes.
Footnotes and endnotes are numbered and added at the end of their scene.
Text before the first chapter is kept as a prologue titled Front matter, so your chapters keep their numbers. Choose Edit on it to change its kind or title. A closing "THE END" is dropped.
Chapters headed "Prologue", "Interlude" or "Epilogue" (with or without a title after them, as in "Epilogue: After the Fire") become that kind of chapter, numbered by position. A heading such as "Chapter 3: The Road" keeps just "The Road" as its title, since the number comes from its place.
Scenes are called "Scene 1", "Scene 2" and so on, unless a heading under the chapter names them.
Tracked deletions, page numbers, tables of contents, text boxes and images are left out.

Imported words don't count towards today's daily goal or your writing stats. They weren't written today, after all.

From Scrivener

Mythforge opens Scrivener projects directly, so your binder, synopses and comments come with you, not just the text. New to Mythforge? Moving from Scrivener shows where your Scrivener tools live here.

A Scrivener project is a folder (on a Mac, Finder shows it as one file, such as My Novel.scriv). Zip it first:

Mac: in Finder, right-click the project and choose Compress.
Windows: right-click the project folder and choose Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder (on Windows 11, Compress to ZIP file).
iPhone or iPad: in the Files app, touch and hold the project and tap Compress.
Or in Scrivener: File → Back Up → Back Up To… with Back up as ZIP file ticked.

Close the project in Scrivener first, so everything is saved. Then import the .zip as above.

What comes across:

The Draft (or Manuscript) folder becomes the manuscript. Folders of documents become chapters, each document a scene. Folders that hold chapter folders become the manuscript's parts. A document on its own, with no folder around it, becomes a chapter with one scene.
Synopses (the index cards) become the scenes' and chapters' synopses.
Statuses come across by name: To Do as Outline, First Draft as Draft, Revised Draft as Revised, Final Draft and Done as Final. The preview lists yours and what each becomes. Others are left as drafts.
Comments become comments on the same passage. Inline annotations become comments on their paragraph.
Footnotes are numbered and added at the end of their scene.
Document notes become a comment on the scene, headed "Document notes from Scrivener".
Keywords become scene tags. A document split at scene breaks gives its keywords to each of its scenes. Keywords on a folder stay behind, unless the folder holds text of its own.
Snapshots come across as named snapshots of their scene, dated when you took them in Scrivener.
Bold and italics are kept, and so are headings, block quotes and lists.
Links between documents become lore mentions when the document they point at becomes a lore entry, and plain text otherwise.
Empty folders are left out.
Research, Characters and Places become lore entries (see Your research and characters).
Labels that name your characters or places can become each scene's Point of view or Location.
Scene titles Scrivener filled in for you, such as "Scene" or "Untitled Document", are left blank, so your scenes are named by their opening words.

The preview has some extra choices:

New scene at scene breaks also splits documents that hold more than one scene, at lines such as #.
Leave out what isn't compiled skips documents with Include in Compile turned off. It's off at first, as these are often scenes in progress.
Lorebook lists the folders that become lore entries, with a switch for each (see below).
Labels are: shown when your labels name characters or places in the lorebook (or ones this import adds). Many writers colour-code scenes by viewpoint character, so a label such as Kaela can set the Point of view of every scene with it. Pick Location if your labels are places, or Nothing to leave them behind.

Your research and characters

Documents in your Research folder, and in folders such as Characters and Places (where Scrivener's fiction templates put them), become lore entries in the world you're importing into:

Folders of folders, such as a Worldbuilding folder holding People, Places and Factions, are opened up, so each folder inside is offered on its own.
Each folder is matched to one of your lorebook's categories by name: Characters or Cast to Character, Places, Locations or Settings to Place, and so on. Folders that match a category start switched on. The rest would become plain Pages, so they start off: switch on any you want.
Each document becomes an entry named after it. Its synopsis becomes the entry's summary, its text the entry's notes and its keywords its tags.
Character and setting sketches come across tidied up. The sketch's headings, such as Role in Story or Background, stay as headings in the notes, and the ones you left unanswered are dropped. Lines such as Age: 19 become the entry's details (filling in the category's own Age and Role, where it has them).
Family lines in a sketch, such as Father: Aldric, Siblings: Bran, Cael or Children: with links to their documents, become real family ties for the family tree. Links find the person they point at, and plain names find an entry by that name. Father, Sister and the like also set that person's gender, if it isn't set. Ties already in your lorebook are left as they are, and a name that matches no one stays as a detail line. The name at the top of the sketch isn't repeated in the notes.
Names already in your lorebook are left as they are, so importing twice, or into a world you've already built, doesn't make doubles.
Template Sheets, Front Matter, the Trash, pictures and PDFs are left out.

With Link lore names on, the new entries are linked in your scenes too.

Not yet: project targets and pictures. They stay in your Scrivener project, which the import never changes.