Guides/Feature Workflows

How to Outline in Bookshaper

Build your structure in Outline or Beat Cards; let the AI read it back as Beats

Outlining is free — top-down in Outline, bottom-up in Beat Cards

There are two ways to build your structure under Structure in the sidebar, and they suit different working styles. Outline is one editable tree — parts, chapters, scenes, and beats — that you shape from the top down; it's the natural home for plotters who plan the shape before drafting. Beat Cards is the bottom-up companion: capture loose beats first and spin them up into scenes, the way pantsers tend to work. Both are on every plan — outlining your manuscript never requires a subscription.

Open Outline from the Structure section to add parts, chapters, scenes, and beats and drag them into the order you want, with each level collapsible so a long manuscript stays scannable. Reach for Beat Cards when you're working from the beats up — drop a loose beat into an existing scene, or create a new scene (or a whole new chapter and scene) right from the beat card. Whichever you start in, the same structure shows up in both.

  • Add parts, chapters, scenes, and beats, and give each a synopsis
  • Drag to reorder and to move items between parents — across every level
  • Split, merge, and delete — with snapshots so nothing is lost

Let the AI read your structure back: Beats

Once you've run analysis, Beats (in the Analysis section) gives you a top-down, AI-derived read of the manuscript you built. It's a Pro feature, and it's read-only by design — it reports the shape your writing takes rather than being a place to edit structure.

You get a per-chapter read of pacing, the narrative beats detected across its scenes, and peak tension — plus notes on structural gaps such as incomplete coverage. Each chapter's own summary lives on the chapter itself — expand a chapter in Outline to read it. Re-run analysis after revising and the beats refresh to match.

Build and rearrange in Outline or Beat Cards (every plan); use Beats (Pro) to see what your structure actually delivers. To change anything Beats surfaces, head back to Outline.

Which one should I use?

  • Planning or reshaping your story top-down → Outline. The whole manuscript as one editable tree, and it's free.
  • Composing from loose beats up → Beat Cards. Capture beats and spin them into scenes; also free.
  • Checking whether your structure holds up after a draft or revision → Beats, alongside the Structural Analysis facets in Analyze.

Related guides

Reading Analyze

The two measured groups, the Copy Editor's Read, and where each finding leads

The Revision Workflow

A complete start-to-finish revision process

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