Book planning
Book planning is the bridge between an idea and a draft. The problem is that most writers plan in one tool — a spreadsheet, a notes app, a wall of sticky notes — and write in another, so the plan goes stale the moment the first chapter takes on a life of its own. Myra Create puts planning and writing in one place, so your outline, characters, world and notes stay connected to the manuscript they serve.
The five stages of planning a book in Myra Create
1.Premise
Capture your one-line premise and thematic questions in The Nook's project notes, saved as you type. This is the seed everything grows from.
2.Outline
Sketch chapters in The Desk's outline panel — titles, order, purpose. Drag to restructure. The outline lives beside the manuscript, not in a separate file.
3.Cast and world
Build characters, locations, magic and politics in The Attic with images and structured fields. Each entry surfaces in the editor when its name is typed.
4.Draft
Write in The Desk with autosave, a 6 by 9 page view, custom fonts and continuity detection. The plan is always a glance away in the sidebar.
5.Revise
Use the Continuity tab to check where each character and world detail was last mentioned. Restore earlier versions from the 3-minute version history snapshots.
Why a connected plan matters
When your plan lives in a separate app, it drifts. You add a character in chapter 8 and forget to update the spreadsheet. You reorder chapters and the outline no longer matches the draft. Myra Create keeps everything in one workspace: reorder a chapter and the outline updates, type a character's name and their profile appears, change a world detail and it is there the next time you need it. The plan grows with the book, not away from it.
Common questions
- How do I plan a book?
- Start with a premise in The Nook's project notes, sketch your chapters in The Desk's outline, build your cast and world in The Attic, then write. Myra Create keeps the plan and the manuscript in one place, so your outline, characters and world details stay in sync as the story evolves.
- What should a book plan include?
- A premise or logline, a chapter-by-chapter outline, character profiles with goals and arcs, a world overview (settings, magic, politics) and open plot threads. Myra Create's Attic and Nook give you structured fields for each of these, and The Desk connects them to the actual pages you write.
- Can I reorganise my plan as I write?
- Yes. Chapters can be created, renamed and drag-reordered in the outline at any time. Plot threads in The Attic have a status field so you can track what is resolved. Version history lets you restore an earlier draft if a restructuring does not work out.
- Is book planning free in Myra Create?
- Project notes and story planning in The Nook are free, along with book tracking in The Library and up to 3 projects. The Attic (characters, world, plot) and The Desk (manuscript editor with chapters) are Pro at $10 a month with a 7 day free trial.
- Does Myra Create help with story structure?
- The chapter outline lets you map any structure — three-act, save-the-cat, five-act — by ordering and labelling chapters. Plot threads track each arc separately so you can see at a glance what is building, resolved or abandoned.
Also see: book writing software, story planner, world building tool, novel writing software