Shape your book

A story's shape is as important as its scenes. In this lesson you'll add a prologue and an epilogue, group chapters into acts, and move chapters and scenes around until the order works.

What you'll do

• Add a prologue, an interlude or an epilogue.
• Put a new chapter exactly where it belongs.
• Group chapters into acts, each with its own colour.
• Reorder chapters and scenes.

1. Know your chapter kinds

A chapter can be a Prologue, a Chapter, an Interlude or an Epilogue. Each kind is numbered on its own, from its place in the book, so you never type a number:

Prologue
Chapter 1: The Salt Road
Chapter 2: Hollowgate
Interlude 1: Ashes
Chapter 3: What the Choir Keeps
Interlude 2
Epilogue

A book's only prologue, interlude or epilogue isn't numbered. Titles are optional and come after the label: an untitled chapter is simply Chapter 3.

2. Add a chapter where it belongs

Tap + Chapter on the manuscript.

• Kind: Prologue, Chapter, Interlude or Epilogue.
• Title and Synopsis: both optional.
• Goes after: where it goes. It starts where its kind belongs: a prologue after any opening prologues, an epilogue at the very end, anything else before the closing epilogues. Choose any chapter, or The start of the book.
• Act: which act it's in (more below).

To change any of this later, including moving the chapter, open it in the list and tap Edit.

3. Group chapters into acts

Acts are optional, and you can use them for anything that divides a book: acts, parts, books within a book. Choose an Act when you add or edit a chapter, or New act… to start one. A new chapter joins the act of the chapter it goes after, unless you choose another.

Each act has a colour. The chapters list shows a heading where each act starts and a thin coloured edge down its chapters:

The planner uses the same colours above each chapter, so you can see your structure at a glance.

To rename, recolour or remove acts, open the manuscript's … (Manuscript details) and edit them under Acts. Removing an act never removes its chapters.

4. Reorder

Stories change shape as you write them. Tap Reorder above the chapters list:

• The arrows beside a chapter move it up or down. Chapters renumber as they move.
• The arrows beside a scene move it within its chapter, and past the first or last scene into the next chapter.
• Move to another chapter sends a scene anywhere in the book.

Tap Done when you're finished. On a computer you can also drag cards on the corkboard.

Try it

Next

Next you'll give your world a calendar and put its history and your scenes in order: Time and history.

Go deeper: Writing a manuscript · Planning and the corkboard