Plot Cards - Build your story like arranging sticky notes
byβ’
A board-based writing tool for plotting stories. Arrange your ideas as cards on a canvas and see your whole plot at a glance β just like sticky notes on a wall. Free, runs in your browser, English & Japanese.
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Been needing something like this for outlining my novels. Dragging cards around the canvas feels surprisingly natural and the bilingual support is a nice touch for a free tool.
Loving the sticky note vibe for outlining scenes. One thing that would really help my workflow is a way to link related cards together with a labeled line (like "leads to" or "foreshadows") so I can map cause and effect without cluttering the board with extra notes.
@kandakyaku25199Β Thank you β really glad the sticky-note vibe clicks for you! Labeled connectors between cards ("leads to", "foreshadows") aren't in the app today. It's a genuinely interesting idea, and I'll think about whether it can fit without cluttering the board, since keeping things simple is a core goal for me. Appreciate you taking the time to describe the use case!
Drag-and-drop actually feels smooth and the Japanese toggle is a nice touch. Wish the free version had a bit more than one canvas though, otherwise solid for outlining.
@slabecekbx7hΒ Thanks! Quick clarification β it's free and you can already have multiple canvases: add as many Pages and Books as you like, each Page being its own canvas. The Page/Book selector is up in the toolbar β sounds like it could be easier to spot. Thanks for the feedback.
Finally tried this last night and the board layout actually clicked for me. Moved a few scenes around and noticed a gap in my third act I had been ignoring for weeks.
@linam9hmΒ This really makes me happy β that's exactly the moment I built this for. Thank you for actually giving it a try, and I'm rooting for you to fill that gap in your third act!
Does this save anything to the cloud or is it all local in the browser, since you mentioned it's free?
Curious how it handles long projects, like novels with dozens of chapters and subplots, does the canvas get unwieldy or is there some way to group or filter cards as the story grows?
@aytennwxwΒ For longer works the structure is Book > Page > Card β so you can split a novel across multiple Pages (e.g. one per chapter or act) and keep several Books, instead of cramming everything onto one canvas. Cards can also be grouped to move together. There's no filter view β that's on purpose, to keep things simple β but splitting into Pages keeps big projects manageable. Thanks for asking!
How do the cards stay organized once you start layering subplots β is there any tagging or folder system, or are you purely relying on spatial grouping on the canvas?
@sinemimirc3hzΒ Right now it's a mix: each card has a "kind" label (shown on the card) plus color-coding, cards can be grouped, and the Book > Page hierarchy works like folders. It's deliberately spatial + color/kind rather than a tag-filter system β keeping the tool simple and uncluttered is a core goal, so I'm intentionally cautious about adding heavier organizing layers. For layered subplots I'd lean on separate Pages plus color-coding. Thanks for the thoughtful question!