Private beta · for writers

Where your story
takes shape.

Plot-on is a visual plotting app for writers. Move scenes like cards on a kanban board, then read those same scenes back as a manuscript. Plotlines, plot beats, characters and tags all travel with each scene — so you can stop juggling tabs and just keep writing.

Request beta access See how it works
  • Currently in private beta
  • Web-based, light & dark mode
  • Built by writers, for writers
Switch views, anytime

One story. Many ways to see it.

Plot-on lets you change how you look at your story without changing what it is. Toggle between views in one click — every scene keeps its plotline, beat, characters and tags no matter how you're looking at it. Today there's a kanban board and a document view. More are on the way.

KANBAN VIEW

Move scenes like cards on a wall.

Every chapter is a column. Every scene is a card. Grab a card and drop it anywhere — across chapters, before the opening, three beats earlier, into the Scenes panel for later. The card carries everything with it.

  • Drag scenes between chapters with one hand
  • Reorder chapters from the column rail
  • Filter the board by plotline, character or tag
  • Park unplaced scenes in the Scenes panel until they have a home
Opening3
Hook

A cold seal in the chapter-house.

K✦ Magic
Setup

The bell that should not have rung.

★ Pivotal
Rising4
Catalyst

Elira finds him in the library.

KE♥ Romance
Debate

"You will ruin your eyes."

E
Midpoint2
Reveal

Vance's name on the wrong ledger.

V✕ Betrayal
DOCUMENT VIEW

Read what you've built, like a book.

The same scenes, threaded into a manuscript. Drop caps, scene breaks, beat ribbons in the margin. A plotline rail down the side shows how the threads weave through every page.

  • Read top-to-bottom, scene by scene
  • Plotline rail shows color threads at a glance
  • Rich-text scenes with the same content as the cards
  • Light & dark mode for late-night plotting
CHAPTER ONE · THE COLD SEAL

The chapter-house, before the bell

Inciting incident

The seal ran cold under Kael's palm. That should have been impossible. The runes had drawn warmth from the bones of three kingdoms for six hundred years, and the stone beneath the chapter-house had not been cool to the touch in any winter he could remember.

He pressed harder, half expecting the chill to be a trick of the lamp-oil or his own fingers. It was not. A faint frost was crawling out from the carved circle in slow, deliberate spirals, like ink finding the grain of a page.

Catalyst  ·  Romance plotline

She found him by lamp-light, three books open at once and his good hand still gloved. He did not hear her come in, which was its own kind of answer.

Drag & drop, everywhere it matters

Pick it up. Put it down.
Your story moves when you do.

Drag a scene from Chapter 3 to Chapter 1. Drag a chapter to the front. Plot-on doesn't care what order you discover the story in — it just keeps up.

01

Scenes between chapters

Grab any scene card and drop it in any column. The beat, characters and tags travel with it.

02

Chapters in any order

Reorder the spine of your book from the column rail. Document view restitches itself live.

03

The Scenes panel

Park scenes you haven't placed yet. They wait, patiently, in the Scenes panel until you know where they belong.

Plotlines & beats

The threads, and the moments that hold them up.

A plotline is a thread — the romance, the betrayal, the main arc. Each plotline gets a name, a color, and its own list of beats: the moments it can't live without. No prescribed framework. You name your beats, drag them into order, and assign them to scenes. Change your mind anytime.

  • One color per thread Pick a plotline color from the swatch. It propagates everywhere that plotline appears — scene cards, document rail, filter chips.
  • Beats live inside plotlines Each thread has its own beats. The romance's "All is lost" isn't the same moment as the main arc's — they each get to mean something different.
  • Drag to reorder Reorder beats inside a plotline. Promote, demote, rename, delete.
  • Assign beats to scenes Drop a beat onto any scene. The beat shows up as a colored ribbon on the card and in the document margin.

No prescribed framework. No 15-beat sheet shoved in your face on day one. You write the beats your story needs, in the language you'd use to talk about your own book.

Characters

Know who was in the room.

Add a character once. Give them a name, a color and a quick description. Drop their avatar onto any scene they appear in — they show up as a chip on the card and the cast list keeps itself current.

K

Kael

Warden of the Hollow Kingdom · POV

A man who has spent his life guarding a thing he didn't choose. The cold seal is the first thing he can't explain.

Main Arc Romance
E

Elira

Librarian, last of the Reading Order

Catalogues the texts the council pretends not to own. Knows where Kael will be before he does.

Romance Mentor
V

Vance

Council scribe · antagonist (suspected)

Has the patience of a man who has already won. Refuses to look up from his ledger.

Main Arc The Betrayal
+

Add a character

Mira · the unnamed merchant · whoever's next

Tags

Track anything else
the story needs to remember.

Foreshadowing. Red herrings. Recurring motifs. Inside jokes you'll regret if you forget. Make a tag for anything you need to keep an eye on — give it a color and a glyph — then drop it onto the scenes it touches. Filter the board by tag any time.

  • ⚑ Foreshadowing

    Mark every setup. See, at a glance, which ones you've planted.

  • ★ Red herring

    Flag every fake clue so you can keep track of the misdirection.

  • ✦ The locket

    Motifs and recurring symbols — filter the board to see every mention.

  • ◆ Anything else

    Make up your own. Pick a color, pick a glyph, drag it onto the scenes it touches.

A day with Plot-on

From blank page to outline.

  1. 1

    Sketch the spine

    Make a plot. Add the first three chapters. Drop in the scenes you already know.

  2. 2

    Cast it

    Add your protagonists, antagonists, ghosts and walk-ons. Drop their avatars onto the scenes they're in.

  3. 3

    Weave the threads

    Add plotlines for the romance, the betrayal, the world-building. Color-code each one.

  4. 4

    Name your beats

    Whatever structure fits — Hero's Journey, three-act, your own. Assign beats to scenes.

  5. 5

    Read it as a book

    Flip to document view. Read top-to-bottom. Notice the gaps. Drag things around. Repeat.

PRIVATE BETA

Currently invitation-only. Want one?

Plot-on is in private beta with novelists, screenwriters, and a few brave short-story writers. Tell us what you're working on and we'll add you to the next wave.

Or just email us directly at hello@plot-on.com.

Things people ask

A few quick answers.

How do I get access?

Plot-on is in private beta. Email hello@plot-on.com and tell us what you're writing — we'll add you to the next wave of invites.

What does Plot-on do, in one sentence?

It's a visual plotting app: drag scenes between chapters on a kanban board, then flip to document view to read them as a manuscript — with plotlines, beats, characters and tags attached to every scene.

What kinds of stories does it support?

Novels, novellas, short stories, series, screenplays, and graphic novels. Genres include fantasy, sci-fi, horror, mystery, romance, thriller, historical, adventure, comedy, literary, paranormal and dark fantasy.

Does it lock me into a beat sheet?

No. You define your own beats per plot — call them whatever you want, in whatever order you want. Plot-on has no opinion about how stories should be structured.

Do I own my words?

Yes. Your manuscript is yours. We don't train models on your prose.

Is there a desktop app?

Not yet. Plot-on runs in the browser today, with light and dark modes. A native app is on the wishlist after beta.