# Try a draft line

> Open a parallel version of the whole script, rewrite freely, switch back and forth, and bring the better version home when you decide.

[Try it in Plot](https://app.inkwell.software/projects)

A draft line is a complete parallel version of your script. The original keeps going as it was; the draft line takes the rewrite. Nothing you do on one touches the other until you decide to bring changes across.

1. **Open the History tab**

   In the right sidebar, choose **History**. The draft-line switcher at the top shows which line you are on — a new project has one, usually called Main.

2. **Create the draft line**

   Choose **New draft line**, name it for the experiment ("darker ending", "two-hander version"), and confirm. Plot switches you onto it. The script looks identical because it starts from the moment you branched.

3. **Rewrite without fear**

   Write, cut, and reorder. Make save points here too; they belong to this draft line's history.

4. **Switch back to compare**

   Use the switcher to return to Main at any time and read the original. Switching is instant, and each line remembers its own place.

   ![The draft-line switcher above the page: onto the experiment, then back to Main. Nothing on one line touches the other.](https://www.inkwell.software/help/draft-line-switch.light.webp)

   _The draft-line switcher above the page: onto the experiment, then back to Main. Nothing on one line touches the other._

   [Watch the recording](https://www.inkwell.software/help/draft-line-switch.light.webm)

5. **Decide what happens next**

   Keep both lines as long as you like. When the draft line wins, bring it into Main with **Incorporate** — see [Incorporate changes from a draft line](https://www.inkwell.software/help/version-control/incorporate). If it loses, leave it; it costs nothing to keep.

> **Note: Just one scene?**
>
> For an alternate version of a single scene rather than the whole script, a take is lighter: it lives inside the scene and compares side by side. See [Takes](https://www.inkwell.software/help/writing/takes).

## What next

- [Draft lines](https://www.inkwell.software/help/version-control/draft-lines): Parallel versions of the whole script: when to open one, how switching works, and how a draft line comes back to the main draft.
- [Incorporate changes from a draft line](https://www.inkwell.software/help/version-control/incorporate): Preview what a draft line would change in the main draft, then bring the whole of it across in one action you can undo with a save point.
- [Write a take of a scene](https://www.inkwell.software/help/writing/takes): Open an alternate version of one scene beside the original, compare the two side by side, and keep the one that works.

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Canonical page: <https://www.inkwell.software/help/getting-started/try-a-draft-line>
