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Plot Threads
Plot Threads track subplots — The Ring's Journey, Pursuit of the Nazgûl, the poisoning at court.
Define named threads, give each a colour, and tag the events that advance them.
- Define threads on the Dashboard's Plot Threads panel, each with a colour.
- Tag a thread onto an event from the event's card in the chapter detail.
- Create threads inline while tagging with the + New thread button.
The dashboard widget draws a cadence strip per thread across your chapters and flags trouble:
| Flag | Meaning |
|---|---|
| goes quiet for N chapters | A thread that disappears mid-story |
| dangling | A thread that was raised and then never resolved |
Once you have threads, the Timeline page (in Narrative view) shows a filter row of thread pills above the chapters.
Click a thread to focus the timeline on that subplot: only chapters that advance it are listed, each expanded to show just the scenes tagged with it, so you can read a subplot end-to-end without the surrounding story.
Click All threads to clear the filter.
The Character Arc grid has a Threads row type: one lane per thread across your chapters (or events), each cell naming the scene that carries it.
Where a lane goes blank, the subplot is off-stage — the fastest way to see a thread's rhythm across the whole book.
The same cadence analysis is reported as findings under Plot threads in the Continuity Checker, so they are actionable rather than just visible:
| Finding | Condition |
|---|---|
| left dangling | Raised, then quiet for the last three chapters or more |
| goes quiet mid-story | A run of three or more chapters with no beat |
| has no scenes | A thread that exists but was never tagged onto an event |
Each finding links to the chapter where the thread was last (or first) seen, and can be suppressed with a note like any other continuity issue.
Hidden while reading
Thread names give away where a subplot ends up, so reading mode holds a thread back until the first scene that takes it up, and hides the dashboard panel entirely.
- Motifs & Themes — the same machinery, for symbolism
- Character Arc Grid · Continuity Checker · Timeline & Events