Plot threads · Mythforge

Follow subplots and character arcs through the book, and see where one goes missing.

A novel is several stories at once: the heist, the romance, one character's road to redemption. Plot threads let you name each one, mark the scenes that move it forward, and see at a glance where it runs through the book, and where you've left it alone for too long.

Add a thread

In a manuscript, choose … (Manuscript actions), then Threads…. Choose + Thread, then give it:

Field	What it's for
Name	What you call it: "The heist", "Mara's redemption".
Colour	The colour its dots and markers are drawn in.
Description	What it's about, and where it should end up. Optional.
Lore	The lorebook pages it belongs to, such as the characters whose arc it is. Optional.

Choose Add. Back in the list, select a thread to rename, recolour or describe it, and use the arrows to put the threads in the order you want them listed. Each row says how many scenes advance it.

The Threads sheet: each thread with its colour and scene count — Threads… lists the book's threads, in the order they're shown

Each manuscript has threads of its own. In a series, give each book the threads it carries.

Mark the scenes that advance it

Open a scene and choose … (Scene details); on a wide window the same fields are in the details panel beside the editor. Under Plot threads, select a thread to mark the scene, and select it again to unmark it. See all threads below the chips opens the threads view. (While a book has no threads, the same place offers Add a thread.)

When a whole chapter carries a thread, mark the chapter instead: choose Edit on the chapter and pick its Plot threads. Every scene in the chapter then advances it, and its details show the chapter's threads with a dashed outline. A scene adds its own threads to its chapter's.

A scene's plot threads: the dashed one comes from its chapter — In the prologue, Wren and her mother is carried by the chapter, so it's dashed

The threads view

Choose Plot threads on the manuscript's page (it appears once the book has a thread), or Show the threads view in the Threads sheet. Chapters run across the top, with a column for each of their scenes, and each thread has a row:

● a scene you marked,
○ a scene whose chapter carries the thread,
shading where a thread is missing for three chapters or more, so a subplot you dropped half way stands out.

Select a dot to open its scene. Below the grid, each thread's card says how many chapters it appears in (such as "In 3 of 6 chapters"), where it goes missing, and which lore entries it belongs to; choose Edit to change it. Manage at the top opens the Threads sheet.

The threads view: a row for each thread, with the chapters it's missing from shaded — A subplot dropped half way: Wren and her mother is missing from Chapter 1 to Chapter 4

Filter the outline by a thread

In a manuscript, choose a thread from the All threads menu (Filter by plot thread) beside the point-of-view and status filters. It's there once the book has a thread. The list, the cards and the planner then show only the scenes that advance it. Scenes on every view carry small dots in their threads' colours.

Delete a thread

Open the thread from Threads… and choose Delete thread. It goes to Recently deleted with the scenes it was marked on, so restoring it puts everything back. Deleting a thread never changes your scenes.

Good to know

Threads are saved with the manuscript, in a file of their own, so they back up and sync like everything else. A thread changed on two devices at once keeps the scenes marked on both.
Threads are for planning: compiling and exporting the book leaves them out.