Frequently Asked Questions

Outline Analyzer is designed to help you judge whether a story outline is working before you draft the manuscript. It analyzes plot strength, intensity, conflict, character arc, originality, act structure, and chapter-by-chapter story strength.

Outline Analyzer is for authors and screenwriters who want to pressure-test a story before drafting. It is especially useful for writers who like to plan in advance, often called "plotters", and who want to revise and strengthen structure early rather than discovering major plot or pacing problems after large sections have already been written.

It is a strong fit for people working on novels, series planning, film treatments, episodic outlines, or chapter-by-chapter story maps who want feedback on tension, conflict, arc movement, originality, and whether each chapter is carrying enough dramatic weight.

No. Outline Analyzer is designed for outline analysis. It works best with chapter-by-chapter outline summaries, scene summaries, spreadsheet rows, or structured planning notes.

Click Add Outline, then either paste outline text into the helper or add rows manually in the chapter table. The app works well with plain text from a document as well as tab-separated spreadsheet rows.

For the cleanest results, include only the chapter number, a summary or description, and an optional act number.

Story type and genre change what "good" looks like. A film is judged differently from a novel, and a romance has different promises than a thriller, mystery, or fantasy. Those choices help the analysis judge your outline by the right standard.

If your project does not fit a standard genre, choose Other (specify) and add the genre detail you want the model to use.

Run Analysis sends your outline, story type, genre, and related project context to the app's backend AI service. It then generates the act structure view, the outline assessment, the report, character analysis, and the chapter-by-chapter grading.

Projects are stored in your account in the cloud and autosave while you work. Browser storage is only a local fallback cache and should not be treated as the main backup.

You can also export a project file or a text summary from the header menu whenever you want an extra copy.

Snapshots are manual restore points for the current project. They let you save a moment in time before a big change, then reopen an earlier version later if needed.

The chapter grades are editorial outline judgments. They estimate how strong a chapter is likely to work as a story unit when written, based on its implied dramatic value, tension, conflict, and payoff rather than sentence-level prose quality.

AI models can vary slightly from run to run. Outline Analyzer reduces that with a consistent backend model and structured prompting, but small variation is still possible.

AnalyzerGPT first identifies the cast automatically. After analysis, you can review names in the Character HUD, merge duplicates, exclude non-characters, or add missed names.

If you make character corrections, the app can prompt you to rerun the analysis so those corrections are applied across the report.

No. The app now uses a backend-managed AI setup, so you do not need to paste your own OpenAI API key into the interface.

The clearest results usually come from one chapter per row or one chapter per paragraph, with a clear chapter number and a concise summary of what happens, what changes, and what conflict, revelation, or turning point occurs.

Yes. After analysis, you can use Chat with AnalyzerGPT to ask follow-up questions about plot holes, pacing, arcs, tension, reveals, or revisions. The app also supports multiple chat threads per project.

Use Open/Manage Projects in the header menu to search, open, rename, duplicate, or delete projects. You can also click the current project name in the header to open the project manager.

Yes. You can import a project JSON file from the header menu, and you can export either a full project file or a text summary.