Write first
Open a chapter and write.
No outline to fill in, no setup. The page waits under a soft light; formatting appears only when you select text, and the rest of the app stays out of your way.
Plot Device: a calm writing studio for novelists
Write the novel. Keep the files.
A calm desk for your chapters, a clear view of your story, and a folder of plain Markdown files that stays yours.
Early versions for Linux and Windows · macOS later
See the story
The shape of the book, at a glance.
Plan in outlines that are simply Markdown lists: on a board, as a list, or as text. Drag a card, link it to a chapter or a character, and your prose stays exactly as you wrote it.
Every storyline
Who was where, while it happened.
Give each storyline an outline of its own, and see them all side by side on the timeline. Drag a moment onto another to say they happen at the same time; everything else falls into place. It's still your outlines, in your files: nothing is drawn by hand.
Keep them close
Your characters, beside the page.
Characters, places and notes, or whatever your book needs, such as factions or ships, sit beside the page while you write. Search, pin the ones you need, and never lose your place in the chapter.
Hebrew and English
The interface in your language. The book in its own.
Write a Hebrew novel with English names, or an English one in a Hebrew interface. Every paragraph runs the right way, and punctuation lands where it belongs.
Your files
A folder of plain Markdown. Yours, for good.
Every chapter is a Markdown file, the book's order is a readable list, and outlines are ordinary lists. Open the same folder in Obsidian, any text editor or git: Plot Device is a lens on your files, not a place that locks them in.
Directorythe-salt-orchard/
Directorycharacters/
- bea.md
- ilka.md
- noel.md
Directorymanuscript/
- a-scene-for-later.md
- epilogue.md
- frost.md
- prologue.md
- the-crossing.md
- the-ledger.md
- the-orchard-gate.md
- what-the-trees-gave.md
Directorynotes/
- loose-ideas.md
- salt-research.md
- timeline.md
Directoryoutlines/
- beas-path.md
- main-story.md
- the-arc-of-ilka.md
Directoryplaces/
- ferry-landing.md
- marrow.md
- salt-orchard.md
- CONTENTS.md
- project.md
---title: The Crossingid: ch-d3m0c2---The ferry left Szeged an hour late. [Ilka](../characters/ilka.md) held the will on her knees, as if it might blow away, though there was no wind at all.
The river was wide and brown and slow. On the far bank a woman in a green coat stood very still at [the landing](../places/ferry-landing.md), one hand raised, not waving.
* * *
"You're thinner than your photograph," said [Aunt Bea](../characters/bea.md), and took the suitcase without asking.
Ilka had prepared a speech on the crossing. She found she had forgotten all of it.Yours
No account. No cloud. No claim on your work.
Plot Device runs on your computer and sends nothing anywhere. If you want, it keeps a backup of the book each day, in a folder you choose. What you write belongs to you, under your own copyright.
Whenever you're ready to write.
Plot Device is made by one person. If it helps your writing, you can support it.