Chapters & Scenes

Chapters

Chapters are the mid-level organizational unit between acts and scenes. Each chapter has:

• Title — shown in the sidebar and in exported table of contents
• Summary — a paragraph describing the chapter's role in the story arc (used as AI context)
• Order — drag to reorder within its act

Chapters appear as collapsible sections in the Outline view. Collapse chapters you're not working on to reduce visual noise.

Scenes

Scenes are the atomic writing unit in Proseweave. All prose lives inside scenes. Each scene has:

Field	Purpose
Title	Short label shown in sidebar and Manuscript headers
Beat	What needs to happen in this scene (AI generation instruction)
Status	outline → draft → revision → final
Content	The actual prose, written in the TipTap rich text editor
Word Count	Calculated live from content
Target Word Count	Optional per-scene length target for AI guidance
Version History	Snapshot history of all AI-rewritten versions — see Version History

Target Word Count

Each scene has an optional Target Word Count field that helps you plan scene length:

• Set a target by clicking on a scene in the Outline view and entering a number in the Target words field
• When set, the scene displays actual vs. target word count (e.g. 312w / 500w)
• The chapter header sums all scene targets and shows the total (e.g. 2,400w / 5,000w)
• When generating prose with AI, the target is passed as length guidance instead of the default range

tip

Setting targets helps you plan pacing across chapters. A chapter with five 500-word scenes will feel quick and punchy, while three 2,000-word scenes create a more immersive rhythm. Use the Timeline view to visually compare scene lengths across your story.

Assigning Characters, Settings, and Worldbuilding

Each scene can be tagged with characters, settings, and worldbuilding entries from your Story Bible. When tagged, only those specific entities are included in AI context for that scene — keeping generation focused and accurate.

To assign entities:

1. Click a scene in the Outline view to open the edit panel.
2. Use the Characters, Settings, and Worldbuilding multi-selects to tag relevant entities.

tip

Already written several scenes without tagging? Use the AI Canvas Populator to automatically assign entities based on what appears in your prose.

Navigating Between Scenes

In the Manuscript view, all scenes render in order on a single scrolling page. Use the scene navigator in the left sidebar to jump directly to a specific scene. You can also use ⌘F to find text across the full rendered manuscript.

Scene Limits

There is no hard limit on the number of scenes, acts, or chapters. Projects with 100+ scenes work well. The Manuscript view renders all scenes sequentially, so very large projects may take a moment to load.

tip

Give each scene a meaningful title (not just "Scene 1"). Titles appear in the Consistency report, Version History, and Find & Replace results, making it much easier to navigate a large project.

Next Steps

• Outline — create and organize your story structure
• Manuscript — write and edit prose for your scenes
• Version History — compare and revert scene versions