Find your way around Skeleton Draft.

Short, plain answers for the parts of the app that trip people up most: structure, Storypads, Drafts, writing tools, Edgar, sync, exports, and recovery.

Each section stands on its own, so jump to whatever you came for. If you are new, start with the first two: Structure, Storypads, and the Drafts workspace explain the ideas that make the rest of the app click.

Understand the app

Structure, Beats, and Storypads

Project Home shows the whole story at a glance. Open an Act to see its Chapters, a Chapter to see its Scenes, and a Scene to work with the Beats that move it forward.

Each Scene has a Storypad for writing prose beside its Beat cards. Add as many Storypad Pages as the Scene needs; those Pages remain attached to that Scene and save as you write.

Use Layers to move between the current card and the All Acts, All Chapters, All Scenes, or All Beats views. Changing the view never changes the structure underneath it.

Prose, Tandem, and Script

Drafts opens the writing workspace in three views: Prose, Tandem, and Script.

Prose assembles every Scene's Storypad Pages into one continuous manuscript. Edit there or return to the Scene when you want the surrounding Beats beside the writing.

Tandem places Prose and Script side by side on wider screens. The center Convert control adapts selected Prose scenes into a Fountain screenplay foundation while preserving existing Script versions and writer edits.

Script is the unified Fountain screenplay. Format repairs technical screenplay structure; it does not invent scenes, dialogue, or story material.

Writing tools and authorship

Writing tools are optional and run only when you choose an action. Distill condenses material into a structural logline. Seed proposes child loglines. Refine cleans selected prose while preserving its meaning and dialogue. Story Render assembles a treatment from the structure. Convert adapts Prose into Script, and Format repairs Fountain layout.

The app protects the source before a writing action is applied. Dialogue must remain verbatim, writer-edited Script scenes require confirmation before replacement, and previous versions remain available in Version History.

Authorship export records the difference between writer-authored and generated material. Skeleton Draft will never train AI on your writing.

Séance with Edgar Allan Bones

Séance has three focused modes. Help explains how to use Skeleton Draft. Research answers factual questions with cited sources. Notes opens Ed's Desk, where Edgar can retrieve project notes and file your exact words into the note library.

Edgar does not critique, rewrite, or develop your story. You can move, minimize, or hide the Séance launcher, and manage its visibility in Settings.

Find, manage, export, and recover

Project Search finds words and phrases across structural cards, Storypads, Drafts, and project notes. Project Manager keeps projects and notebooks together in one library.

Export offers five portable outputs: Skeleton, Prose, Script, Draft, and Authorship. Use the format that matches what you need to read, share, archive, or audit.

Backups creates and restores portable project snapshots. Version History returns writing to an earlier saved state. Recycle Bin holds archived cards and writing so they can be recovered before permanent removal.

Account, billing, and recovery

Sync and backups

When you are signed in, project names and writing sync automatically between devices. Edits to different fields combine. If the same text was edited on two devices, the later recorded edit stays in the editor and both versions are retained as Sync recovery snapshots in Version History. When edit times are unavailable, the saved cloud version stays in the editor and the alternate is still preserved.

A focused editor keeps your text steady while you type. Incoming changes apply when you leave that field. Offline edits remain saved on the device and retry when the connection returns.

Cloud sync is one layer of protection. Keep portable exports and JSON backups before a major revision, at milestones, and on whatever schedule lets you sleep.

Plans and AI

Free includes three projects, cloud sync, Acts, Chapters, Scenes, Beats, Storypads, backups, exports, and every writing tool when you bring your own OpenAI or Anthropic key.

Pro adds unlimited projects and included AI for Distill, Refine, Seed, Render, and Format. Your own key and model remain optional.

Every confirmed new account starts with seven days of Pro and 100 included AI actions (optional). No card is required and there is no automatic charge. When the trial ends, subscribe or continue on Free.

Troubleshooting

Device storage is full? Saving pauses when your device cannot store an edit. Keep unsaved text open. You can still read and export writing already saved on the device. Free space in your device settings without clearing Chrome, Safari, or Skeleton Draft site data, then choose Check Again in the storage notice to resume saving.

App looks stale after an update? Hard refresh the page, then reopen the app. That reloads the app without touching your work. If it still looks wrong, export a backup first, then contact support before clearing any browser data. Do not clear cookies or site data for Skeleton Draft unless you have an export in hand.

Sign-in redirect acting strange? Once sign-in finishes and you are back on Skeleton Draft, use the Open App link.

A project or card looks missing? Check Project Manager, Project Search, and Recycle Bin first, then your backups and export files. Missing material is often out of view or archived, not gone.

Account or billing problem? Head to the contact page with your account email and a note on what you are seeing.

Still stuck? Contact Skeleton Draft.