Follow the consequences

Every beat changes something.

A promise made. A key passed. A secret learned. Writing Workbench keeps those changes in story order, so you can see what is true at any moment.

Set the starting state.

Give your characters a starting location, knowledge and meters such as health, mood or stress. Add your world’s locations, items and factions.

Put changes on beats.

Arrange scenes on the storyboard, break them into beats, and record what changes. Who moves? Who learns something? Who has the key now?

Scrub to see what’s true.

The state machine replays changes up to the playhead. The stage shows who is present, their meters, who is offstage and where, and who holds each item.

An illustrative story

Follow the brass key.

Move a scene, and the order of its consequences changes too. The timeline and downstream state update with it.

Beat 01 / Setup
Mara holds the key.
The starting state says who has it.
Beat 02 / Handover
Mara gives it to Bram.
A state change records the new holder.
Beat 03 / Consequence
Mara tries to use it.
A continuity check can flag that she no longer holds it.

Continuity, without a connection

Find the loose ends.

Local checks look for dead characters walking, unexplained location changes, item ownership mistakes, absent speakers and cast/mention mismatches.

They also flag unmotivated leads, structure gaps, voice drift, unpaid setups, early payoffs and dormant threads.

You know the story

Fix it. Or mean it.

Use a one-click fix where offered, or dismiss an issue that is intentional. Checks work from the story state you record; they are a writing aid, not a verdict on your plot.

Explore continuity tools →

Bring your own AI / Optional

A deeper read,
on your terms.

Use Claude Code or Codex with an existing CLI login; run a local model with Ollama or LM Studio; or connect Anthropic, OpenAI, Venice AI, OpenRouter or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

Ask for plot-hole review, state-change detection, seed expansion, scene suggestions, beat breakdowns, character bios, voice checks or scene feedback.

Propose → Review → Accept

You keep the pen.

AI proposes changes. You review them and accept or reject them. Accepted changes can be undone. Planning, writing and local continuity checks work fully without AI.

In AI settings, turn off “Send full scene text” to send summaries and beats without your prose.

AI provider setup →

Privacy & ownership

Your work lives with you.

Stories are plain JSON .storystate files on your computer. Atomic saves, autosave and rotating backups protect your work. Choose where to save, and back up your files with the tools you already use.

There is no account and no cloud. Nothing leaves the machine unless you press an AI button with a provider configured. Local models can run fully offline; remote AI requests go to the provider you choose.

API keys go in the OS credential store. Claude Code and Codex use your existing login, with no keys stored by Writing Workbench.

Next chapter

Start your first story.

A short field guide to getting set up.