QEDNovel Visual Studio
A writing IDE for dialogue-driven fiction. Overview and map of the docs.
Novel Visual Studio
You write the scenes. An engine in the sidebar holds the plot, so your head does not have to.
Novel Visual Studio is a desktop writing IDE for dialogue-driven work: fiction, screenplays, visual novels, podcasts, interviews. You write Markdown scenes, and an in-process engine reads them and keeps narrative ledgers beside your work: plot threads, cast presence, coherence findings, who knows what and when.
Your story always stays as plain files. Analysis lives co-located in a .nvs/ folder next to the manuscript,
the way .git does, so a project is portable, shareable, and never locked inside the app.
Three guides, three questions
The docs are split by what you are actually asking at the time.
User Guide
How do I start writing? Install, first scene, and the few ideas the app is built on.
App Guide
What is this panel? The interface: layout, configuration, and the AI surfaces.
Content Guide
What should I write where? Scenes, world pages, custody, and the planning surfaces.
If you are new, read in this order
- How to start writing gets a scene on screen.
- Scene explains the one file type your audience actually reads.
- Basics for a writer explains what the engine is doing while you type.
Everything else can wait until you have a manuscript worth asking questions about.
In a hurry? The Cheatsheet is the whole format on one screen: the Fountain dialect, the slash palette, and the shortcuts.
What your audience reads
A useful frame for the Content Guide, because these surfaces are not equally important to a reader.
| Surface | Who reads it |
|---|---|
| Scenes | Everyone. This is the manuscript |
| World pages | The curious minority who go looking for the wiki |
| Custody | Almost nobody, and that is fine. It is for you, to keep the mystery honest |