Scrivus is a local-first desktop application for drafting, organising, planning and revising long-form fiction. It keeps the manuscript and associated research together in a project folder rather than requiring writers to place their work in a cloud service.
Projects can contain chapters, scenes, notes, maps, worldbuilding material and planning data alongside the manuscript itself. Scrivus provides distinct workspaces for activities such as drafting, revision and structural planning, allowing writers to move between the detailed text of a scene and a broader view of the project.
Project files remain on the user’s computer in readable formats, making Scrivus particularly attractive to writers who prefer direct control over their work and backups.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Rich-text editor with scene navigation, focus mode, typewriter scrolling, writing goals and timed writing sprints.
- Binder for organising chapters, scenes, folders and notes with drag-and-drop and multi-selection.
- Maintains scene metadata including status, point of view, location, timeline, tags and synopsis.
- Outline workspace shows manuscript structure, word counts, scene status and pacing information.
- Compares different drafts with word-level highlighting of additions and deletions.
- Revision workspace supports anchored comments, resolved discussions and separate feedback for individual drafts.
- Canvas provides a freeform planning board for ideas, scenes, characters, locations and relationships.
- Lore Book stores characters, locations and other worldbuilding material using custom categories and fields.
- Atlas manages story maps with searchable markers and links to Lore Book entries.
- Imports Word manuscripts and converts recognised act, chapter and scene headings into project structure.
- Compiles selected manuscript material to DOCX or EPUB with configurable output presets.
- Provides automatic and manual project backups with restore facilities.
- Includes light, dark and high-contrast themes.
Website: github.com/ObsydianX/scrivus
Support:
Developer: ObsydianX
License: MIT License
Scrivus is written in TypeScript. Learn TypeScript with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
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|---|---|
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| Cheese Paper | A comfortable writing environment for lengthy prose |
| Skribisto | Writing studio with corkboard, sessions and rich export support |
| novelibre | Novel organiser integrated with LibreOffice and OpenOffice |
| Scrivus | Plan and write your novel while keeping everything on your own computer |
| NovProg | Tracks and graphs writing progress against project goals |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
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