A novel is hundreds of decisions across months. Canvas treats chapters and scenes as blocks with save points for daily work, draft lines for “what if Act 2 went darker”, and AI skills that propose block-level diffs — not whole-chapter rewrites in a chat window. Markdown round-trips losslessly when you need git or another editor.
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Block types for long-form
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Lossless markdown export
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Months of forks on draft lines
On working with constraints
Constraints don't fight a draft — they give it edges. The hardest part of any long document is deciding what it isn't.
Working hypothesis: the more open the canvas, the longer the first paragraph takes.
Outline section 2 · Confirm three quotes · Draft conclusion
const audience = readers.filter(r => r.cares_about(topic))Source · Year · Quoted on page
Twenty-four plus block types: chapter headings, callouts, tables, citations, research sidebars. Structure-check skills flag when your outline and your draft diverge — before your editor does.
Major plot forks should not mean duplicate Scrivener projects or terrifying undo chains. Save point before the rewrite; draft line for the alternate beat sheet; diff against main before you commit the structural change your agent will ask about.
# On working with constraints
Constraints don't fight a draft — they
give it **edges**. The hardest part of
any long document is deciding what
it _isn't_.
> Working hypothesis: the more open
> the canvas, the longer the first
> paragraph takes.
- [ ] Outline section 2
- [ ] Confirm three quotes
- [x] Draft conclusionOn working with constraints
Constraints don't fight a draft — they give it edges. The hardest part of any long document is deciding what it isn't.
Working hypothesis: the more open the canvas, the longer the first paragraph takes.
Write for months in Canvas; export standard markdown when you need git, a collaborator on another tool, or a backup you control. Import existing markdown without losing heading structure — the same save-point history applies from day one.
Canvas — a novel is hundreds of structural decisions — Canvas keeps each fork diffable before you commit the rewrite your agent will ask about.
The three primitives that do the heavy lifting in this workflow.
Outline → draft, structure check, and tone pass propose edits at block granularity — you see what changed and accept piecemeal. No whole-chapter regeneration you cannot trust.
Citation and research blocks live in the document tree next to the chapters they inform — not a separate folder of PDFs you manually reconcile.
Save point before workshop submission; diff after critique for your revision letter — exact structural change, not “I changed a lot.”
Skills and diffs run on your draft — nothing lands until you accept it. Every accepted change can become a save point.
The fork every novelist hits — explored safely, merged deliberately.
“Pre–Act 2 rewrite” freezes the manuscript you might need to return to.
Write the darker beat sheet on a parallel line; main stays untouched.
Block-level changes show which chapters move, which scenes change voice or plot.
Pull winning scenes to main; keep the branch if your editor wants to see what you tried.
Migration, granularity, pricing, and feature status — the concrete questions buyers raise before they switch.
Canvas is in early access for Pro and Team subscribers — join from the Canvas product page. It shares save points, draft lines, and the AI skill engine with Plot — extended for long-form block documents rather than screenplay element types.
Import via markdown or structured paste where headings map to blocks. Complex Scrivener binder metadata may need manual cleanup once — after that, chapters and research blocks live in one Canvas document with version history.
Skills propose diffs at block granularity — a paragraph, a scene break, a callout — not a full-document replace. You accept or reject each suggestion; the manuscript does not change until you confirm.
Standard markdown export with heading structure preserved. Save-point history is Inkwell-specific — export snapshots you need as markdown files before canceling if you want offline archives of milestones.
Canvas brings save points, draft lines, and reviewable AI to long-form documents — join the waitlist and we'll bring you into early access as capacity opens.
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