Documentation
Learn how to use Bookshaper to write, organize, analyze, and publish your manuscript.
Workflows
Detailed documentation for each area of Bookshaper.
Manuscript management
- Creating a project
- Each manuscript is a project. Create a new project or import an existing manuscript file to get started.
- Chapters and scenes
- Manuscripts are organized into chapters, each containing one or more scenes. Use the sidebar to navigate between chapters and scenes.
- Parts
- For longer works, chapters can be grouped into parts. Parts are optional and can be added from the Structure section.
- Front and back matter
- Add title pages, dedications, acknowledgments, and other front or back matter items from the Structure section.
Writing and editing
- The editor
- The writing environment supports rich text editing with standard formatting: bold, italic, headings, block quotes, and lists. Write one scene at a time for focused editing.
- Scene metadata
- Each scene can track point of view, location, characters present, purpose tags, timeline type, and tension level. This metadata powers the analysis engines and visual dashboards.
- Manuscript preview
- Use the preview pane to see the full chapter rendered as continuous prose. Toggle the preview with Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P.
- Find and replace
- Cmd+F to find, Cmd+H to find and replace, Cmd+Shift+F for project-wide search. Preserve-case replacement maps character name casing automatically. Structural operators let you search by chapter title, scene, character, location, or tag. Filter by formatting (bold, italic, underline), save searches for reuse, and undo project-wide replacements with Cmd+Z.
- Quick Open
- Press Cmd+P or click the search box in the toolbar to jump to any scene, chapter, character, or location in your project. Results update as you type with fuzzy matching.
Organization views
- Cards
- A visual card-based view of your scenes, grouped by chapter. Drag and drop cards to rearrange your story’s structure.
- Outline
- A hierarchical view of parts, chapters, and scenes with word counts. Quickly see the shape of your manuscript.
- Timeline
- A horizontal visual timeline showing scene nodes sized by word count and colored by POV. See how your story flows across the narrative.
AI analysis
- Running an analysis
- Click the AI button in the sidebar to run a narrative analysis on your manuscript. You’ll get a prioritized coaching report covering structure, characters, pacing, themes, dialogue, emotional cadence, and continuity—with specific guidance for every finding.
- Analysis results
- Results appear in the Insights section of the sidebar as a prioritized report card. Findings are ranked by importance, and each one includes actionable guidance. Interactive charts provide the evidence behind every finding.
- Your creative control
- All analysis is optional and informational. Bookshaper shows you what it finds and lets you decide what to do. No changes are ever made to your manuscript without your explicit action.
AI rewrite and editing
- Scene rewrite
- Open the Rewrite panel (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + R) to rewrite a scene across six dimensions: voice, tone, diction, syntax, figurative language, and structural style. Choose from meaning-preserving, continuity-preserving, or suggestions-only modes. Review changes in a side-by-side diff before applying.
- Line edit
- Run a line edit (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + E) for sentence-level refinements. Each micro-edit is shown individually so you can accept or reject changes one at a time.
- Expansion
- Expand thin scenes with AI-generated content that follows your established beats. Review the expanded text in a diff view before applying.
- Dialogue harmonization
- Analyze dialogue across an entire chapter to ensure consistent character voices. The AI identifies dialogue patterns and suggests adjustments grouped by character.
- Undo and redo
- Every applied rewrite is tracked in a history stack. Undo and redo rewrite operations at any time without affecting your regular editing history.
Style profiles
- Generating a style profile (ESP)
- Generate an Extracted Style Profile from your manuscript to capture your voice signature—characteristic patterns of diction, syntax, and tone. Access style profiles from the Style section in the sidebar.
- Drift detection
- Compare new writing against your style profile to detect when your prose diverges from your established voice. Drift levels are reported as minor, moderate, or major.
- Freezing and presets
- Freeze a profile to lock it in as your reference. Manage preset stacks with additive, override, strict, or merge-hybrid stacking modes for layered style configurations.
Consistency checking
- Running a consistency check
- Run a manuscript-wide consistency check from the AI section or the Insights sidebar. The analysis identifies timeline violations, character inconsistencies, terminology drift, and world-building contradictions.
- Issue management
- Review issues in the Consistency Dashboard with filtering by severity (critical, major, minor, info), status (open, accepted, rejected, deferred), and check type. Accept, reject, or defer each issue individually.
- Batch operations
- Apply all accepted fixes at once with the batch apply action. If something goes wrong, rollback reverses the entire batch.
Dashboards and evidence views
- Health summary
- An overview of your manuscript’s key metrics: word counts, scene distribution, POV balance, dialogue ratios, and structural composition. Provides the evidence behind your coaching findings.
- Character presence
- A matrix view showing which characters appear in each scene. Toggle appearances on and off to track character threads across your story.
- Tension plot
- A chart showing tension levels across your entire manuscript, so you can see your story’s dramatic shape at a glance.
- Pacing heatmap
- See your story’s rhythm visualized as a color-coded heatmap. Identify slow stretches and high-intensity sequences.
- Themes and motifs
- Track how themes, motifs, and symbols evolve across chapters and scenes.
- Continuity
- Identify timeline inconsistencies, character continuity gaps, and world-building contradictions.
Characters and locations
- Character profiles
- Create and manage character profiles with descriptions, aliases, and AI-inferred summaries. Track who appears where across your manuscript.
- Location management
- Define locations and link them to scenes. See which locations appear throughout your story.
Notebook
- Research and notes
- The Notebook provides a space for research notes, character backstories, world-building details, and other reference material. Notes are organized into folders and can be tagged for quick retrieval.
- Scene linking
- Link notebook entries to specific scenes for contextual reference while writing.
Styling and export
- Style editor
- Customize the visual presentation of your book using dozens of style targets across front matter, body, back matter, page layout, and inline elements. Control fonts, sizes, spacing, margins, running headers, ornamental decorations, and hyperlink appearance.
- Templates
- Start from one of 60 built-in templates organized into 9 genre / era categories — Modern Literary Fiction, Commercial Thriller, Contemporary Romance, Epic Fantasy, Cozy Mystery, YA / Crossover, Victorian Classic Reprint, Mid-Century Pulp / Noir, and Memoir & Narrative Nonfiction — plus submission and accessibility formats (Shunn-style manuscript, Large Print, ARC). Browse with the side-by-side comparison preview, clone any template to customize, or build your own from scratch. Preview in real time for both print and ebook formats.
- Marketing blurb generator
- Generate AI-powered marketing blurbs—back-cover copy, retailer descriptions, and taglines—from your chapter synopses and character data. Edit the results to match your voice, then run the built-in analysis for scoring and actionable suggestions.
- Cover Studio
- Design front covers, back covers, and spines in one integrated workspace. Start from AI-generated concepts or bring your own artwork. Customize text, backgrounds, and layout for each surface, then export print-ready images.
- EPUB export
- Export your manuscript as a reflowable EPUB with CSS styling and font embedding.
- PDF export
- Export a print-ready PDF with margins, bleed, gutter settings, and full typographic control.