Chapters and scenes
How a project is organized, where a playthrough starts, and how to add, rename, reorder, and delete the pieces.
A project holds chapters. A chapter holds scenes. A scene holds a script of beats, and beats are the subject of Writing. This page is about the two levels above that: what they are for, and what actually happens when you move things around.
What a scene is
A scene is one node of the story graph. It carries three things: a name, a staging header (see Staging a scene), and a script. Play enters a scene at its first beat, runs the script, and then looks for an edge leaving the scene. If an edge matches, play continues in the target scene. If none does, the story stops there, which is why the studio wants that scene marked as an ending.
Scenes are where the reader's choices land. A choice option can route down an edge to another scene, or play an inline body and rejoin the same scene. Only the first kind draws an arrow on the map.
What a chapter is
A chapter is a container and a collaboration boundary. Each chapter is its own live document: its scenes, its edges between those scenes, and its entry points. Cast members and project-wide variables live on the project instead, so they are shared by every chapter.
The boundary is real. An edge can only target a scene in the same chapter. Sending play into another chapter goes through an entry point: a named door on a scene that any chapter can aim at. That is what the flow view's Branch to chapter button creates, and it is covered in the flow view.
Chapters are not acts and they are not pacing. Use them the way you would use files: whatever keeps a graph small enough to read.
Where a playthrough starts
The compiler picks the start scene with one rule, in this order:
- The first entry point named
start, scanning chapters in rail order. - Otherwise, the first scene of the first chapter.
If the project has no scenes at all, the compile fails with NO_START_SCENE.
The consequence is worth internalizing. If nothing is named start, the top
chapter's top scene is the beginning of your story, and dragging a different
scene to the top of the navigator silently changes where readers begin. Name a
start entry point once and the ordering stops mattering.
Order, and what it does not do
Scene order inside a chapter is authoring order. Play never falls from scene three into scene four because they are adjacent: the only way out of a scene is an edge. The one exception is the start fallback above.
Chapter order comes from creation order and is used for two things: the numbers
on the rail tiles, and the start scan. There is no drag-to-reorder for
chapters.
Working the rail and the navigator
The chapter rail is the narrow numbered column on the far left. The scene navigator is the column beside it, listing the open chapter's scenes.
Everything below needs the editor or owner role. Viewers see the same lists, without the controls. See Roles and invites.
Chapters
| Goal | Do this |
|---|---|
| Add a chapter | Click the + tile at the bottom of the rail, then name it |
| Open a chapter | Click its tile, or press Enter or Space on a focused tile |
| Rename | Double-click the tile, or press F2 on it |
| Delete | Hover the tile and click the small X, or press Delete on it |
| Move focus | ArrowUp and ArrowDown walk the rail |
Deleting a chapter takes its scenes with it, and it is the one destructive action here that Mod Z cannot bring back. The confirm dialog says so.
Scenes
| Goal | Do this |
|---|---|
| Add a scene | Click + Add scene at the bottom of the navigator, then name it |
| Open a scene | Click the row, or press Enter or Space on it |
| Rename | Row's pencil button, or F2 |
| Duplicate | Row's copy button, or Mod D. The copy lands under the original, named "... copy", with the same staging and script and fresh beat ids |
| Delete | Row's X button, or Delete |
| Reorder | Drag the row, or hold Alt and press ArrowUp or ArrowDown |
| Narrow the list | Type in the Filter field above it |
Reordering is disabled while the filter box has text in it. A filtered list is not in document order, so moving a row by one position would land somewhere you did not point at.
Deleting a scene also deletes the edges touching it. Both are undoable together with Mod Z, and the toast names what came back.
You can also create scenes from the map: double-click empty canvas in the flow view, or drag an edge out of a scene and drop it on empty canvas to get a new scene already wired up.
Getting around a big story
Press Mod K for the jump palette. It searches the open chapter's scenes and every chapter title, and it mixes in editor commands (Switch to flow view, Add chapter, and others). Picking a scene in a different chapter switches chapters and opens it.
A jump made while the flow view is open stays in the flow view: the graph pans to the scene instead of throwing you back to the script.