Plan a novel or screenplay, from arc to scene.
Arcly is a planning workshop for long-form writers. Acts, plot lines, characters, places, and the sequence of scenes — cross-referenced in one view, with a scratch board for ideas you haven't committed to yet. Free, runs in your browser, no account required.
Everything touches everything.
Each thing Arcly tracks is reflected in the others. Define an act's intent once; every scene inside it inherits the context. Pin a character; their scenes and places appear on the character's page automatically.
- IdeasThe scratch board
A book-independent catch-all for scraps you haven't committed to a novel yet — moods, what-ifs, character seeds, half-lines — organised in folders or left unfiled.
Unfiled- Possible title: Pride and Prejudice
- Five sisters, not enough money
- A proud man who turns out to be kind
- Pride and prejudice as paired vices
Regency research- Entail laws — how the Bennet estate works
- Letters as a plot device — Austen’s rhythm
- ActsStructure with intent
Arc structure with stated intent: each act has a name, a description, and a setup-for-the-next-act field — so the hinge between sections is deliberate.
- Act one · Setup
- Act two · Confrontation
- Act three · Resolution
- ScenesThe core unit
Where and when the book happens — a POV, a status, a beat tag, and the characters and places present. Chapters group them; acts group chapters.
The Netherfield ballElizabeth and Darcy · Inciting Incident- POV
- Elizabeth
- Place
- Netherfield
- Status
- Draft
- Plot linesThe weave
Main, subplot, character arc, or theme — each coloured, ordered, and with its own track across the timeline, so the A-story and B-story read side by side.
- Elizabeth and DarcyMain plot
- Jane and BingleySubplot
- Elizabeth’s prejudiceCharacter arc
- CharactersThe cast
Tagged into a scene, they appear on the character's page automatically. Open a character, see every scene they're in.
- Elizabeth Bennet
- Protagonist
- Fitzwilliam Darcy
- Deuteragonist
- Jane Bennet
- Elizabeth’s elder sister
- Mr Bingley
- Jane’s love
- George Wickham
- Antagonist
- PlacesThe world
Named, described, nestable — a parsonage on the grounds of an estate, an estate in a county. Every scene points at a place, so you can trace a character through the book's geography.
- Longbourn
- Netherfield Park
- Rosings Park
- Hunsford Parsonageinside Rosings Park
- Pemberley
- NotesThe margin
Per-book long-form notes for themes, research, and reminders — kept beside the outline, not in another app.
Themes to hold on to What do first impressions cost — and what has to happen to revise one?
The whole project, at a glance.
The timeline is where the workshop meshes. Scenes sit at the intersection of chapter and plot line, each carrying a beat tag, a POV, a place, and a status badge that tracks how far the scene has moved from idea to finished prose. Read down a column to follow a single plot, across a row to see everything in a chapter, or over an act to see the arc's shape. Below: the first two acts of Pride and Prejudice.
Pick a scaffold, or skip it.
If you like structural scaffolding, Arcly bundles five story frameworks that seed your beat tags. Each beat ships with a short editor's note and real examples — the Mirror of Erised, Elizabeth at Pemberley, Luke learning Vader is his father. If you don't want them, leave the beat track empty and tag scenes freely.
- Three-Act Structure9 beatsThe baseline, genre-agnostic 9-beat arc. Start here if unsure.
- Save the Cat15 beatsBlake Snyder's 15 beats. The most popular template in commercial fiction.
- Hero's Journey (Vogler)12 beatsVogler's 12-stage adaptation of the monomyth. Classic for fantasy, adventure, epic.
- Seven-Point (Dan Wells)7 beatsA lightweight 7-beat arc — easy to plan; works well for short novels or single POV.
- Story Circle (Dan Harmon)8 steps8-step cycle. Great for episodic or character-driven stories.
Sit down to write.
No sign-up, no onboarding, no email required. Export to JSON or Markdown at any time; your work lives on your device unless you choose to back it up.