Outliner
Chapters, scenes, intentions, and live planning material in one persistent view beside your manuscript.
Open Outliner from its button in the main toolbar when you want to plan and write at the same time. It occupies the left side of the writing canvas while the active chapter remains in the centre. Unlike the temporary Chapter Outline drawer, it stays open while you work and adds scenes, logical sections, narrative intentions, completion, and links to the rest of your planning.
Outliner beside the manuscript
- 1Open a book, then click the Outliner button in the toolbar, or run Outliner from the command palette.
- 2Expand a primary chapter to see its Main Plot synopsis, variants, scenes, and intentions.
- 3Add an intention to a chapter, scene, logical section, or the book-level Inbox.
- 4Describe what the passage should achieve, add purpose tags, and link every other place where it matters.
- 5Check the intention off when the prose has absorbed it; show or hide completed work whenever you like.
One Structure, Not a Copy
The Outliner reads the same records used by the rest of ChapterMuse. A chapter title or order changed here changes in the Chapter Outline drawer. The chapter's Main Plot synopsis is the same cell shown in Plot Grid. Scene titles, synopses, status, and order belong to Scene Designer. Character beats, notes, snippets, research, and Mind Map cards remain live in their own tools.
- Front matter, body chapters, back matter, and chapter variants use the manuscript's real structure
- Variants sit in a collapsible group beneath their primary chapter, carry a Variant label, and expose only their Notes section
- Drag body chapters to reorder them; numbering updates everywhere
- Drag scenes within a chapter or into another chapter; Scene Designer and Chronos follow the change
- Edit a chapter's Main Plot synopsis without creating a second synopsis field
- Planned Plot Grid rows appear separately and become real chapters only when you choose Create chapter
Intentions & Logical Sections
- Intentions are TODOs for narrative work: a reveal, emotional turn, piece of foreshadowing, thematic echo, or anything else the prose must accomplish
- Logical sections organise planning without becoming manuscript documents; deleting one preserves its children in the parent level
- Each intention has one home, but can link to many chapters, scenes, paragraphs, plot threads, arc beats, characters, places, factions, items, notes, snippets, or research files
- Status supports To do, In progress, Done, and Deferred; completion never deletes the intention or its source material
- If a chapter or scene is deleted, its intentions move safely to the book Inbox instead of disappearing
Connected Material
Choose Add material to place a live reference from Chapter Notes, Mind Map, Snippets, Character Arcs, Scene Designer shots, Research, or universe notes. A live reference follows its source as that source changes. Convert it to an intention only when you want separate completion and planning detail while retaining a source link.
- The default tree stays quiet: chapters, scenes, and unfinished intentions
- Filters reveal plot threads, character-arc beats, Chapter Notes, scene shots, and pinned research when you need them
- Current chapter mode narrows a large manuscript without changing any data
- Story Recall searches intention titles, details, and purpose tags and opens the exact Outliner entry
- Expansion, filters, selected entry, and panel width are remembered per book on this computer
Moving & Editing
- Drop an intention onto a chapter or scene to make that its new home
- Drop an intention onto a logical section to nest it, or choose Home in the inspector for an exact move
- Use Also serves / appears in for repeated effects instead of copying an intention
- Open a live source or link to return to its authoritative tool
- On a narrow window the same Outliner becomes an overlay, so none of its controls disappear
Think of an intention as a promise to the reader, not a spare document. Let several effects meet in the same passage, link the intention everywhere it matters, and check it off once the writing has genuinely absorbed it.