Chapters and scenes

Onwarder thinks of your book the way most novelists do: chapters made of scenes. You write one scene at a time, but you can see, plan and read the whole shape whenever you want.

The scene list

On a computer, the scene list down the left shows every chapter and its scenes in order. Select a scene to open it. On a phone, tap the scene’s title at the top of the page, or go to Book, Chapters and scenes. On a phone you can also type in Find a scene to filter by title.

Add a scene or chapter

• Choose Add scene or Add chapter in the scene list (on a phone, New scene or New chapter), type a title if you like, then Create scene or Create chapter.
• To add a scene to a particular chapter, open the … beside the chapter and choose New scene in this chapter.
• In the desktop app, Cmd+N (Ctrl+N) adds a scene and puts the caret in it.

Rename, move or delete

Every scene and chapter has a … button beside it (or right-click the row). It offers:

• Rename (or Rename chapter). You can also double-click the title or press F2. Press Enter to keep the new name.
• Move up and Move down. With the row selected, Option+↑ and Option+↓ on a Mac, or Alt+↑ and Alt+↓ elsewhere, do the same.
• Move to chapter, to send a scene to another chapter.
• Delete scene or Delete chapter. Deleted writing is not lost: it goes to Removed writing, where you can put it back.

Chapters number themselves. A chapter title is optional.

Split and merge scenes

• Split a scene where the caret is: open Page tools (or, in the desktop app, the Format menu) and choose Split scene here. Give the new scene a name and choose Split scene. Changed your mind? Undo split puts it back together.
• Merge the scene you are in with the next one: choose Merge with next scene, then Merge scenes. The scene that was merged in is kept in Removed writing in case you want it back.

Plan on Cards

Choose Cards above the scene list (in the desktop app, View, Cards, or Cmd+2 / Ctrl+2). Each scene is an index card with its summary.

• Drag a card to move the scene. The scene list and Rows follow.
• Double-click a card, or select it and press Enter, to open the scene and write.
• Choose Edit on a card to write its summary: what happens in this scene.

See it as Rows

Choose Rows (Cmd+3 / Ctrl+3) for an outline: one line per scene. Choose which columns to show: Viewpoint, Status, Words, Summary and Notes, and sort by any of them. Drag a row to reorder. Page (Cmd+1 / Ctrl+1) takes you back to writing.

The scene card

Each scene has a card on the desk to the right of the page. Open the desk and choose Card.

• Summary: what happens.
• Goal: what the viewpoint character wants, now.
• Turn: how it ends worse (or better).
• Status: planned, drafted, revised or final.

Cards and Rows show the same summary and status, so you can plan in whichever view suits you.

Read and write a whole chapter as one page

Choose a chapter in the scene list, or Whole chapter in the … menu above the page, to see every scene in that chapter stacked as one long page. On a phone, choose Whole chapter in the scene list. Cmd+Shift+↓ (Ctrl+Shift+↓) switches it on and off.

Each scene still has its own title and still saves on its own, exactly as when you open it alone. You can type anywhere, move between scenes with the arrow keys, and use Find, Focus and typewriter scrolling across the whole chapter.

Selections stay within one scene at a time. To move text between scenes, use Split scene here or Merge with next scene.

Move straight on to the next scene

At the end of each scene, Onwarder shows the start of the next one, faded, with Continue into and its title. Choose it to carry on writing there.

• Press ↓ on the last line of a scene to move into the next one, and ↑ on the first line to go back.
• Cmd+Option+↓ and Cmd+Option+↑ on a Mac, or Ctrl+Alt+↓ and Ctrl+Alt+↑ on Windows and Linux, jump to the next or previous scene. In the desktop app they are also under View, Next Scene and Previous Scene.
• On a phone, the … on the bar above the keyboard has Next scene.

On the last scene of the book, the link reads Add a scene.

Keep another scene beside the page

Sometimes you need to look at chapter two while you write chapter twenty. Open the … beside any scene and choose Open beside, or hold Option (Alt) and click the scene. It opens to the right of the page and stays there while you move around the book.

• It is for reading, so you cannot change it by accident. Choose Edit here if you do want to.
• Unpin gives the space back to the story bible.
• Cmd+Shift+B (Ctrl+Shift+B) shows and hides it.
• Tick Keep beside in focus to keep it while in Focus.

Book notes and passage notes can be opened beside the page in the same way. On a phone, the scene beside sits in a bar above the keyboard; tap it to raise it.