App
Skein: Story Planner
Novel Writing, Scene Timeline
Skein is a story planner for novelists. Jot an idea, connect it to the characters and places it involves, put the scenes in order, and read the result as a manuscript.
It works offline, keeps your project on your iPhone and iPad, and syncs through your own iCloud. No account, no subscription, no AI.
LOOSE IDEAS FIRST
Tap Write an idea and write. The idea waits in your inbox, unsorted, for as long as you like. When you know what it is, tap To Graph. You can also add ideas with the Add Idea shortcut, the Skein widget, the Control Center control, or Save to Skein in any app's share sheet.
A MAP OF YOUR STORY
Scenes, characters and places sit on one canvas and pull together where you connect them. Drag a node to pin it, pinch to zoom, long-press to open it. Label connections in your own words: "betrays", "grew up here", anything.
SCENES ON INDEX CARDS
The timeline lays your scenes out as cards. Drag one by its grip to move it. Each card shows who is in the scene and how many words it has.
FOLLOW A CHARACTER
Pick a character or place and Skein draws their thread through the timeline: a knot on every scene they are in, a dashed line where they are offstage. You can see at a glance where someone drops out of the story.
THE MANUSCRIPT, ASSEMBLED
Scene text is set in order as a book page, with a word count per scene and in total. With Skein Pro, export it to Word (.docx) or Markdown and send it anywhere from the share sheet.
YOURS, ON YOUR DEVICES
Everything is stored on your device. With iCloud on, your iPhone and iPad stay in step. Edits to different scenes are combined, so work on one device doesn't replace work on the other. If the same scene changes on both, the newer edit is kept. Back up to a file whenever you want.
ONE PROJECT PER BOOK
With Skein Pro, keep each book in its own project and switch from the project name at the top. A deleted project stays in Recently Deleted for 30 days.
Search everything with ⌘K, capture with ⌘J on an iPad keyboard. Paper and Ink themes.
Free to plan one project. Skein Pro, a one-time purchase, adds more projects and Word and Markdown export.