See your story
before you write it - visual plot mapping tool for screenwriters and novelists
Scyn is a visual plot mapping tool for screenwriters and novelists. Plot every beat. Trace cause to effect. See where the structure breaks and watch your story take shape.
Elena discovers the hidden garden behind the estate
The caretaker warns her to stay away at night
She finds letters from someone who vanished in 1962
Her closest ally has been reporting to the estate owner
Elena confronts the truth buried in the garden
The garden is restored and the truth is set free
What is Scyn?
Scyn is a visual plot mapping tool for screenwriters and novelists. You lay out scenes on a canvas, draw the connections between them, and see where your story's structure holds or falls apart before you start drafting.
Outlines don't show you structure
Most writers outline in a document. A numbered list, some bold headings, maybe a few indented bullet points for subplots. It feels productive. And for a while, it works.
A flat list can't show you how scene 12 connects to scene 47. It can't show you that your protagonist's motivation in the climax doesn't actually trace back to anything in the first act. It can't show you the dead thread you forgot about.
You scroll up and down, trying to hold the whole story in your head. You paste scenes into different docs, rearrange them, lose track of what version you're working from. The outline grows but your understanding of the structure doesn't.
Spreadsheets track information but can't show relationships. Mind maps branch beautifully but don't capture narrative flow. Index cards on a corkboard get you closer, but they're static and isolated from your actual writing.
You don't need a better outline. You need a different way to see your story.
Three steps to your first plot map
Create a project
Name your story. You land on a blank canvas. This is where your plot takes shape.
Add your scenes
Create a node for each plot event. Give it a title and a short description. Drag it anywhere on the canvas. Position is meaning here.
Draw connections
Click and drag from one node to another to create an edge. Each edge is a relationship: cause and effect, setup and payoff, tension and release.
Built for how writers actually think
Visual plot mapping
You start with a blank canvas. Drag out a node for each story event. “Elena discovers the hidden garden.” “The caretaker warns her to stay away at night.” Give each one a description, a chapter assignment, a color if you want.
Connect them with edges to show what causes what. Each edge is a statement: this event leads to this one. This decision triggers this consequence.
Your story stops being a list and becomes a spatial thing you can see all at once. You can see which events have no connections, which ones feed into too many things, and which parts have gaps where logic should be.
This is the kind of structural problem you'd normally find on page 200 of your draft. With Scyn, you find it before you write a single page.
Chapter organization
Assign each node to a chapter or act. Filter the canvas to show just Act II, or just the B-plot, or just scenes involving a specific character. When you're deep in chapter seven, zoom out and see how it fits the whole. When you're looking at the full story, zoom into the scenes that need work.
Your chapters aren't just containers. They're lenses on the same underlying structure.
Story mode
Switch from the visual map to a chapter-by-chapter writing view. Each chapter shows its plot nodes right beside the text. Write your draft with the architecture visible at all times.
Move a scene in the map, it moves in the outline. Change the outline, the map updates. The structure and the writing stay connected instead of drifting apart the way they always do.
Available on Pro plan
Share and export
On Pro, generate an unlisted share link for your plot map. Send it to your writing group, your editor, your agent, your producer. Anyone who has the link can view your story's structure without creating an account, but it is not meant for search indexing.
Export as PNG on the free plan for offline reference, or as PDF on Pro when you need something polished. When everyone sees the same structure, feedback gets specific. "The inciting incident doesn't connect to anything in Act II" beats "something feels off in the middle."
Unlisted links and PDF on Pro plan
Writers who think in structure
Screenwriters
Structure isn't optional in your world.
Lay out a pilot, a feature, or a limited series visually before you start drafting pages. See your acts, your turns, your ticking clocks.
Novelists
Three timelines, five POV characters, one subplot too many.
See the whole architecture at once instead of scrolling through 40 pages of notes. Know what earns its place and what doesn't.
Writing groups
"Something feels off in the middle" isn't feedback.
Shared plot maps turn vague impressions into structural conversations. Point to exactly where the logic breaks.
Students and educators
Plot structure is easier to teach when you can see it.
Build a map of a published novel and the architecture becomes obvious. No lecture required.
Other tools weren't built for this
Google Docs
Great for drafting. Terrible for seeing structure. You're scrolling through a numbered list hoping to spot the gap on page 12 that breaks everything on page 47.
The corkboard arranges scenes on cards, and it's good at that. But cards don't show connections. You can move scenes around. You can't see what breaks when you do.
Mind maps
Miro, Coggle, MindMeister. Good for brainstorming sessions. Not built for narrative structure. Everything branches from a center. Stories don't work that way.
Spreadsheets
Some writers genuinely love them. They track information well. But a spreadsheet can't show you that scene 8 causes scene 23. Data isn't structure.
Scyn is purpose-built for narrative structure. Nodes, edges, chapters. Everything a writer needs to see their story before they write it.
Start free, go pro when you need it
- •Unlimited synced projects
- •Story mode for chapter-by-chapter drafting
- •Shareable maps with unlisted links
- •Invite up to 5 collaborators per project
- •Export to PDF
Questions
Do I need to know story structure theory to use Scyn?
No, you don't need any formal knowledge of story structure to use Scyn. There are no required templates, no hero's journey steps to fill in, and no save-the-cat beats waiting for you. You open a blank canvas and start placing scenes, characters, or ideas wherever they make sense to you. The tool adapts to your process instead of forcing you into someone else's framework. Some writers do use Scyn alongside established structures, and it works well for that too, but it is entirely optional. The only requirement is that you have a story you want to see laid out visually.
How do you pronounce Scyn?
Scyn is pronounced /siːn/, same as the word "scene". Like a scene in a film or a chapter of a book. The spelling throws people off on first read, so "sin" and "sigh-n" come up a lot. Both wrong, but in a friendly way. Just "scene".
Can I use Scyn for non-fiction?
Yes, Scyn works well for any project that has a structure worth mapping out visually. Writers have used it for narrative non-fiction, memoir, documentary planning, and podcast series with recurring storylines. The canvas does not assume fiction-specific elements like character arcs or act breaks, so you can label your nodes however you want. If you are organizing a complex argument across chapters, mapping the timeline of real events, or planning how different interview subjects connect to each other, the visual layout helps you spot gaps and pacing issues the same way it does for fiction.
Can I import from other tools?
Not yet, but this is one of our most requested features and we are actively building it. The first wave of import support will cover Scrivener project files, Final Draft documents, and plain text or Markdown outlines. The goal is to let you pull in an existing manuscript or screenplay and have Scyn generate a starting map from its structure, which you can then rearrange and expand visually. If you use a tool that is not on that list, let us know. We are prioritizing integrations based on what writers actually use, and your input directly shapes the roadmap.
How is this different from a mind map?
Mind maps are hierarchical by design. Everything branches outward from a single central node, which means every idea is defined by its relationship to the trunk. Scyn maps are non-linear. Any node can connect to any other node in any direction, which reflects how stories actually work. A subplot might loop back to the opening scene, or two separate threads might converge at a single turning point. You can also layer different types of connections, like tracking cause-and-effect separately from chronological order. The result is a map that shows how your story actually flows rather than a neat tree that flattens it.
Is there a mobile app?
Scyn is a web app and does not have a native mobile app. It works on tablets, especially with a keyboard attached, but it is designed for desktop-size screens where you have enough room to see the full map and work with multiple nodes at once. Story mapping is a spatial activity, and trying to do it on a phone screen would mean constant zooming and panning instead of actual thinking. That said, the web app is responsive enough for quick reviews on a tablet if you want to glance at your structure on the go. A dedicated mobile companion for reading and annotating is something we are considering for the future.
Can I collaborate with others?
Yes. On the Pro plan, you can invite up to 5 collaborators per project, and they can view or edit the same map from their own accounts. This works well for writing partners, co-authors, screenwriting rooms, and editor-author workflows where everyone needs to work from the same structural overview. Permissions are per-project, so you control who has access to what. Unlisted read-only share links are also a Pro feature, so you can send a current map to an editor or writing group without giving them edit access.
How many scenes can I add to a single project?
There is no hard cap on the number of nodes you can add to a project. The canvas is designed to handle large maps smoothly, and most writers find that somewhere between 30 and 80 nodes covers the full structure of a feature-length screenplay or novel. Some users have pushed past 200 nodes for sprawling multi-POV epics or TV season breakdowns and the performance holds up. If your map starts feeling crowded, you can use color groupings, filters, and zoom levels to focus on specific sections without losing the big picture. The practical limit is more about your own ability to navigate the map than any technical constraint.
What happens to my data?
If you work without signing in, your project stays in the browser on that device. If you sign in, your active project is saved to your account so you can pick it up from your dashboard on another machine. Clearing browser data only affects work you created without signing in. Pro removes the one-project limit, so you can keep multiple synced projects in your account at once. We do not use your story data for training, analytics, or anything other than storing it for you. Your stories are yours. You can also export your projects at any time as JSON files for your own backup or archival purposes.
Can I use keyboard shortcuts?
Yes, nearly every canvas action has a keyboard shortcut. You can create new nodes, draw connections, delete elements, undo and redo, zoom in and out, and navigate between nodes without touching the mouse. Press the ? key while on the canvas to pull up the full shortcut reference. Power users tend to work almost entirely from the keyboard once they learn the basics, which makes the mapping process feel much faster and more fluid. The shortcuts follow common conventions where possible, so if you are used to tools like Figma or Miro, many of the key bindings will feel familiar right away.
Guides for writers
How to Outline a Novel: A Practical Guide
The outlining methods that working novelists actually use, a template you can start with today, common mistakes to avoid, and how to pick th...
How to Outline a Screenplay: A Practical Guide
A step-by-step guide to outlining your screenplay, from logline to scene breakdown, with techniques used by working screenwriters.
Hero's Journey Template: A Visual Guide for Writers
Map the hero's journey as a visual plot map instead of a list. See how spatial layout reveals story structure that linear outlines miss.
Save the Cat Beat Sheet for Screenwriters
A detailed walkthrough of Blake Snyder's Save the Cat beat sheet with visual plot mapping techniques to help screenwriters nail story struct...
Story Structure Templates Every Writer Should Know
A practical breakdown of the most useful story structure templates, from three-act structure to the hero's journey, and how to apply them.
Visual Plot Mapping for Writers
Learn how visual plot mapping helps writers spot structural problems, track cause and effect, and build stronger narratives.
How to Map a Multi-POV Novel
Learn how to track multiple point-of-view characters using visual plot mapping. Keep timelines aligned, subplots connected, and pacing balan...
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