Narrative Mode
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Narrative Mode is your primary manuscript-order workspace. It displays all scenes from all subplots on the outer ring, organized by act divisions (default 3 acts, configurable in Settings → Acts). Each act spans an equal segment of the 360° circle. This view emphasizes Narrative time (the order readers will experience the story).
- Structure: Scenes are distributed across Act 1..Act N (based on your Settings → Acts → Act count).
- Subplot Colors: The outer ring segments are colored by their subplot. This lets you quickly visualize which plot threads are dominant in each section of the book.
- Story Beats: Displays story beats (like Save the Cat) along the timeline, helping you pace your narrative structure.
- Interactive Reordering: You can drag scenes on the outer ring to reorder them. See How-to#reorder-scenes for details.
When a scene belongs to multiple subplots, the outer All Scenes ring must choose one color. You control which subplot wins:
- Click a scene: Sets its dominant subplot. That subplot's color is used for the scene on the outer ring, taking precedence over all others.
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Folded corner indicator: Each subplot ring shows a small folded corner motif at its start. The corner has three states:
- Missing — the subplot is not assigned to this scene.
- Gray — the subplot is assigned but is not dominant.
- Darker hue of the subplot ring color — this subplot is dominant and expressed on the outer ring above all others.
- Reset: Use Settings → Core → Configuration → Reset subplot color precedence to clear all manually assigned dominance.
This mode hides status and progress stage overlays to keep the focus on story structure and the weaving of subplots.