Quick Start

The fastest way to get a feel for how Throughline works.

Start from the demo, or start blank

A demo project sits in your Project Dashboard the first time you open Throughline: a complete story with Beats, Characters, Settings, and Arcs already built out. Edit it all you like; leaving or reloading it resets it to the original, so there’s nothing to break.

When you’re ready for your own story, click New Project on the Dashboard. Give it a title and, if you have one, a logline. That’s it, you’re in.

Drafting with Cards

You’ll land in the Draft Workspace, looking at an empty Throughline.

Open the Structure Decks panel on the right and pick a deck: 15 Beats, Hero’s Journey, Story Circle, and Three-Act Structure are built in. Drag a Structure Card onto the Throughline, or, our recommendation, hit Add All to deal the whole deck at once.

Add a Beat, cast a Character

Press N, or click the Throughline’s +, to drop a blank Beat Card onto the strip. Stack it on a Structure Card or leave it free. Click into it to give it a title and summary.

Now add a Character: click into the Character Row above the Throughline, name them, then drag their card down onto your Beat. They’re now cast onto that Beat. Do the same with a Setting Card for wherever the Beat takes place, and you’ve got a Beat with a Character and a Setting!

Switch Workspaces

Click through the tabs or hit the shortcut Cmd/Ctrl+1 through 4 to cycle through the four workspaces: Draft, Shape, Write, Deliver. The Shape Workspace needs at least two Beats before it shows you anything interesting, so a full deck gives it plenty to work with.

From here: Structure Decks for what else those decks can do, or Draft for the full rundown of the board.

Autosave

Everything saves as you go, with a status indicator: Saving, Saved, or Unsaved.