Novelty Writer

Glossary

Terms

Project — a folder containing one writing effort. Lives under ~/Documents/Novelty Writer by default.

Preset — a structured subfolder with app affordances (Manuscript, Reference, Notes). Adding a preset gives that folder a special icon and unlocks tab-aware UI; without a preset, every folder is just a folder.

Manuscript — the prose itself. Chapters and scenes as markdown files under manuscript/.

Reference — typed entities (characters, locations, objects) under reference/. Frontmatter captures structured fields; the body is free prose.

Codex — the index view of every reference entity. Cmd+Shift+C to open.

Beat — a single planned event in a Plan board. Can be linked to a manuscript scene.

Snapshot — a labeled point in version history. Annotated git tag underneath; you never see the git.

Sandbox — a scratchpad where AI continuations live until you decide whether to keep them. Variants do not touch your manuscript until you commit them.

Embody — a chat mode where you play one character and the AI plays another. Useful for dialogue exploration.

Critique pass — an AI pass that produces margin comments for a section of prose. Each comment has Apply / Revise / Dismiss.

Line edit pass — a fine-grained Sonnet/Opus edit pass that produces inline suggestions, not margin comments. Squiggle-style underlines mark the spans.

File markers

%%note%% — inline private note. Visible in the editor with a muted treatment, omitted from exports unless you opt in.

*** — scene break. Renders as a centered ornament.

[[link]] — wiki link to another document in the project.

Modes

  • Workshop (Cmd+1) — three-panel everything-visible default
  • Focus (Cmd+2) — chrome hidden, just the editor
  • Plan (Cmd+3) — beat boards
  • Review (Cmd+4) — version timeline + snapshot
  • Studio (Cmd+5) — variant explorer

Models

  • Haiku (claude-haiku-4-5) — fast, cheap, used for analytics
  • Sonnet (claude-sonnet-4-6) — line and copy edits
  • Opus (claude-opus-4-7) — developmental passes, continuity

All routed through OpenRouter (BYOK). You can paste any OpenRouter model id into Preferences - AI; unknown ids fall back to a zero-cost placeholder so user-pasted ids round-trip.