Getting Started: The Outline Tool
The Outline tool is where every part of a story — its arc, its settings, its characters, and any research or inspiration behind it — gets organized in detail. Where the Story Planner panel inside the Write tool is a quick glance, the Outline tool is the full, expanded version: the place to sit down and really build out a story's world before or during writing.
It's organized into four tabs: Story, Setting, Characters, and Research.
Story Tab
This is the big-picture shape of the story:
- The Beginning — a free-text box for how the story starts
- The Journey (Middle) — a running timeline of plot events. Each event has a title and a short description, added with + Add Event, and removable with the small × next to it
- The Ending — a free-text box for how the story wraps up
This tab is the detailed version of the "Plot" tab your child sees in the Write tool's Story Planner sidebar.
Setting Tab
- Locations — each location gets its own card, and can include Sub Locations with an Effect field (useful for things like "the cave — makes sound echo" or "the palace — guarded at all times")
- World Attributes — separate cards for world-building rules, each with its own Sub Attributes, for things like how magic works or what technology exists
- Setting Notes — a free-text box off to the side for general world-building, history, rules, and environment notes that don't fit neatly into a location or attribute card
Characters Tab
- Character Profiles — one card per character, each with Add Trait (short tags like "brave" or "can fly") and a Character notes box for anything longer
- Character Notes — a general free-text box on the right for relationships, secrets, and dynamics between characters
Research Tab
A space for Research & Inspiration — click + Add Item to log anything that's informing the story (a reference, an idea, an inspiration source). This tab is currently simple, but it's actively being expanded — deeper research tools, story mapping, and world-builder features are planned here in a future update.
How Spark Fits In
Everything in the Outline tool can be built and edited by your child directly — clicking around, adding characters, filling in locations — and they're always encouraged to explore it themselves. But Spark can also update these fields automatically in the background as it notices new characters, settings, or plot events show up while your child is writing, so the outline stays current without extra manual work.
Spark is also available inside the Outline tool the same way it is everywhere else in StorySpark — if your child isn't sure how to use a feature here (or anywhere on the platform), they can just ask.
Staying in Sync with the Write Tool
Every story element you can see and edit in the Outline tool feeds directly into the Story Planner sidebar on the right side of the Write tool — that panel is essentially a live, condensed summary of whatever's been built here. Update a character's traits in the Outline tool, and it shows up in the Write tool right away, and vice versa.
Use the Current Story dropdown at the top to switch which story you're outlining, and Return to Editor at the bottom to jump straight back into writing. Changes save automatically, so there's never a need to hit a separate save button.
Related tools: the Write tool for drafting the actual chapters, and Spark for turning any of these outline pieces into a writing prompt.