Features
Everything you need to plan your next novel with ease.
Scryla is built for authors who want structure, clarity, and momentum, without rigid templates or overwhelming complexity. Plan and refine with confidence, so you can always see the bigger picture.
Install Scryla on desktop, phone, or tablet (or just use it in the browser) and keep your planning workspace with you wherever you go.
Want an app-like experience? Install Scryla.
Curious what’s coming next? View the roadmap.
Core Workspace
Project-based planning, with room to explore.
Create multiple writing projects, keep series organized, and archive safely so you never lose the ideas you’ll want later.
Project-based planning
- Create and manage multiple writing projects
- Optional series linking with reading order, book type, and series blurbs
- Archive projects safely; permanent deletion is explicit and confirmed
Board-based structure
- Visual board for chapters, scenes, notes, characters, beat sheets, and marketing copy
- Drag-and-drop ordering where it matters
- Per-project board background colors for quick visual separation
Archive-first philosophy
Scryla is designed to keep your work safe. Archive instead of delete by default, then restore when an idea becomes relevant again.
- Archive cards to keep drafts, alternates, and “maybe later” ideas
- Restore archived items when your story changes direction
- Permanent deletion is gated and intentional
Install anywhere
- Install on desktop, mobile, or tablet from your browser
- Launch Scryla like an app in its own window
- Sign in to access your projects wherever you are
Chapters & Scenes
Flexible chapter design. Clear scene-level progress.
Capture what you need, skip what you don’t. Scryla supports structure without forcing you into a single method.
- Chapters: titles, optional subtitles, and overviews—no forced numbering or rigid types
- Scenes: add, reorder, complete, archive, and restore with readable previews on the board
- Narrative signals (optional): Story Impact (Revelation, Confrontation, Fallout, etc.) and Intensity to track narrative weight
- Mobile-friendly: Drag and drop chapters and scenes even on smaller screens
Outline & Export
See the whole story at once. Export anytime.
When it’s time to review offline, share with an editor, or hand the outline to your drafting tool, exporting is one click away.
Continuous outline view
A clean, scrollable view that matches how writers actually review structure.
- Chapter titles & subtitles
- Chapter overviews
- Scene descriptions
Export as a clean document
Download your outline as a polished .docx for editors, collaborators, or agents.
- Consistent formatting
- Readable structure
- Great for offline review
Timeline View
Spot pacing, coverage, and structure issues in seconds.
The Timeline view brings chapters, narrative beats, character arcs, and notes into one visual map, so you can understand what's happening (and what's missing) without digging through cards.
- See story impact + intensity across the whole manuscript
- Layer narrative beats, character arcs, and notes for fast coverage checks
- Jump straight to a chapter when something looks off
Structure
Beat sheets that fit your framework (or none at all).
Use templates, remix them, or build your own. Keep everything in one place—and connect beats to chapters when it helps.
Multiple beat sheets per project
- Use templates or create your own
- Full Markdown formatting inside beats
- Optional beat → chapter mapping for coverage
Character-aware beats
- Tag characters directly in beats
- Track how each character moves through the story
- Build arcs alongside structure without splitting tools
Characters & Notes
Keep characters, research, and reminders connected.
Scryla keeps your planning context close—so you’re not switching between docs, spreadsheets, and sticky notes just to remember what you meant.
Character profiles
Notes, descriptions, and development space with full Markdown support.
- Fast, flexible character entries
- Clean previews when not editing
- Archive characters (and restore later)
Character arcs
Built-in 9-beat arc template (or fully custom). Rename beats, add your own, or remove what you don’t use.
- Track opening state → final transformation
- Customizable beats and labels
- Built to stay flexible across genres
Notes & cross-referencing
Worldbuilding, research, themes, reminders—kept close to the plot.
- Free-form notes with Markdown formatting
- Tag notes against chapters for instant recall
- Archive notes instead of deleting ideas
Writing-Friendly Editing
Markdown everywhere, with a cleaner reading mode.
Chapters, scenes, notes, characters, beats, and marketing copy all support Markdown—so your planning stays fast and expressive without messy formatting tools.
Comfortable editors
- Keyboard shortcuts for bold, italics, and links
- Preview mode when you’re not editing
- Autosave designed to avoid silent failures
Responsive UX
- Mobile, tablet, and desktop layouts
- Bottom navigation on mobile for one-handed use
- Modals that scroll correctly, even with long content
Distraction-free by default
- Inline editing where it helps
- Modals that don’t close accidentally while selecting text
- Clean previews instead of raw markup on boards
Safety & Control
Stability you can trust for long projects.
Novels and series evolve. Scryla is designed for real writing timelines—with safe defaults, clear states, and reliable tracking.
Reliable project tracking
- Archive-first actions so you don’t lose important work
- “Recently edited” reflects real activity, not just project creation
- Backend-driven timestamps for accuracy
Service transparency
Always know what’s going on.
- Live status page: System status
- Clear, deliberate actions for archival and deletion
- Built to be stable before it is flashy
What’s Next
Scryla is actively evolving.
Planned features build on what’s already here—scenes, beats, impact, intensity, and the outline—so you can get deeper insight without extra busywork.
Timeline View
Powered by scenes, beats, intensity, and story impact.
Deeper structural insights
Coverage, pacing, and story signals that help you revise with confidence.
Expanded exports
More formats, more control, and cleaner handoffs to drafting tools.