Novelty Writer

Getting started

Novelty Writer is a workshop for novelists. Manuscripts live as plain markdown files on disk, the AI is a margin critic instead of a chat sidebar, and version history runs underneath without ever showing you a branch or a hash.

The five-minute tour

  1. Pick or create a project. Projects live under ~/Documents/Novelty Writer. Each project is a folder; everything inside is plain markdown and assets you can read in any editor.
  2. Add a chapter. Click the + in the appbar (or press Cmd+Alt+N) to create a new document. Manuscript chapters land under manuscript/.
  3. Write. The editor is markdown. Headings (#) become chapter titles, scene breaks (***) get an ornament, inline notes (%%note%%) are private. Words save automatically every few seconds.
  4. Try a critique. Select a paragraph, run AI - Rewrite from the floating toolbar. Tighten / Expand / Clarify / Register / Freeform — each is a structured pass, not a chat.
  5. Take a snapshot. Switch to Review mode (Cmd+4) for the timeline, or run Take labeled snapshot from the command palette (Cmd+K).

How a project is laid out

Projects start bare. Structure is added through presets:

  • manuscript/ — chapters and scenes, the prose itself
  • reference/ — characters, locations, objects with typed frontmatter
  • notes/ — ideas, research, the inbox
  • assets/ — images and binaries

Anything outside a preset is just a plain folder. Open the project in your filesystem and it reads like a normal repo. That is intentional: Claude Code and other tools can collaborate on your manuscript without translation.

What lives where

  • Sidebar (left) — project tree, reference, notes
  • Editor (center) — manuscript pane, document tabs, status strip
  • Inspector (right) — scene metadata, AI suggestions, analytics, sandbox, character chat
  • Terminal dock (bottom) — embedded shell when you need it (Cmd+T)

Two small icons in the top-right of the appbar — one for the left sidebar, one for the right panel — toggle each panel. They show filled when the panel is visible and hollow when it is hidden, so reading the topbar tells you the current shape of the workspace at a glance. Keyboard: Cmd+B toggles the left sidebar, Cmd+Shift+B toggles the right panel. The thin gutter between panels is a pure resize handle — drag it to widen or narrow.

Modes

Press Cmd+1-Cmd+5 to switch modes:

  • Workshop — three-panel everything-visible default
  • Focus — full-window editor, centered for reading and drafting
  • Plan — beat boards, lifelines, pinboard
  • Review — version timeline, snapshot, diff
  • Studio — variant explorer for continuations

Where to go next

  • Press ? for the keyboard shortcut reference
  • Press Cmd+K to browse every command
  • Press Cmd+, for Preferences (themes, AI keys, fonts, export defaults)