Canon and the spoiler horizon

This is the part of Plotra that other writing tools don't have. It answers three questions that get harder with every book: what is actually true in this world, what has the audience been told so far, and who in the story knows it.

These tools belong to two modules, World bible and Releases & reveals. Novel and tabletop RPG projects start with both on. For other types, turn them on under "Project settings" in the command palette.

The world bibleCopy Anchor Link

Characters and locations are built in. For everything else, define your own entity types: a faction, an object, a species, a magic system, a legal case. Each type has its own fields. Plotra starts you with nine common ones.

Every entry is an ordinary note. It can be linked with [[, it has backlinks, and it appears in the graph. The Codex view (⌘⇧C) lists them by type.

Canon statusCopy Anchor Link

Every note has a canon status, set in the Story tab of the inspector.

Retcons keep their history. When you mark something as retconned, Plotra asks for the reason ("changed in Book 3 because the timeline didn't work") and saves the old text as a version. Later you can see what used to be true and why it changed.

One paragraph can differ from its note. Put the cursor in a block and press ⌘⌥T to tag just that block: its own canon status, its own reveal, or a knowledge layer. A character page can be canon while one line on it is still speculative.

ReleasesCopy Anchor Link

A release is whatever your story ships in: a book, a chapter of a web serial, an episode, a season, an issue, a game patch, a campaign session. Releases have an order.

Create them in the Release roadmap view. A release can point at a folder in the binder, "this folder is Book 2", and then everything in that folder belongs to it.

RevealsCopy Anchor Link

A reveal says when the audience learns something.

Set it in the Story tab under "Revealed to the audience". You can also record the channel: the chapter text, a trailer, an interview, a handout to your players. Channels are yours to define.

How Plotra decides when a note is revealed, nearest rule first:

1. The note's own reveal tag.
2. Otherwise, the closest folder above it that has a reveal tag or that a release ships. A scene inside the "Book 2" folder is revealed by Book 2.
3. Otherwise, it is not revealed. The audience hasn't been told.

A block inside a revealed note is revealed with it, unless the block has its own tag: a later release, or "never".

The roadmap view shows releases against channels, so you can see which reveal ships where.

The spoiler horizonCopy Anchor Link

Choose a release under World as of in the Release roadmap view. Plotra then shows the project as the audience knows it once that release is out:

• the binder dims notes that aren't revealed yet;
• the editor veils blocks that aren't revealed yet;
• the codex, graph, timeline and outline leave them out;
• the Read view and exports leave them out.

A label in the window shows that a horizon is on. Click it to see the whole world again.

What it is for:

• Writing a recap or a blurb for Book 2 without a detail from Book 4 slipping in.
• Writing the next book with a clear view of what the reader already knows.
• Running a tabletop campaign: set the horizon to the last session and you see what your players know. Build the wiki in the Publish view at that horizon and hand it to them: that is the player-safe version.
• A public wiki that only contains what has been revealed.

The horizon you chose is remembered in your browser. Your co-writers set their own.

Who knows whatCopy Anchor Link

The Secrets & setups view tracks knowledge inside the story.

• Knowledge layers. A fact can be the truth, or a false version that people are led to believe: a lie, propaganda, an unreliable narrator. Plotra keeps the two apart, alongside what the audience has been told.
• Who knows. For each secret, record which characters know it and the scene where they learned it. This is what catches "how does she know that?" in chapter 20.
• Setups and payoffs. Link a setup (the gun on the wall, a clue, a red herring) to its payoff. The view lists setups that are still open and how long they have been waiting.

Each character also gets a continuity sheet in the Continuity view: where they are, how old they are and what they know at each point in the timeline, built from properties and scene links.

Continuity checksCopy Anchor Link

The Continuity view runs a set of plain rules over the project. There is no AI in it, and nothing leaves your project. It warns when:

• a character appears in a scene after their death, or before their birth;
• a character's stated age doesn't match their birth date and the scene's date;
• a character is in two places at once;
• a plot thread that was resolved is used again;
• a character acts on something before the scene where they learn it;
• a payoff comes before its setup;
• a setup has no payoff;
• a canon scene links to something that is not canon;
• a story date can't be read.

The checks work from what you have recorded: story dates on scenes, birth and death dates on characters, points of view and locations, plot threads, and the who-knows-what entries. They can't find a problem in something you haven't written down, and they don't read your prose.

A warning can be dismissed. Dismissals are stored in your browser.

Things to knowCopy Anchor Link

• Block tags are indexed a few seconds after you stop typing, so the views lag slightly behind the editor.
• The tools on this page have been tested by the developer on sample projects, not yet by many writers. If a check is wrong or misses something obvious, open an issue.