Help & Tutorials

New here, or just want a refresher? Take the guided tour for a quick walkthrough of the whole app, or browse the topics below.

Getting started

From a blank page to a structured draft.

Open Projects and click “+ New project.” Quill asks what you're writing (a screenplay or a novel) and whether to start from a blank page or import something you already have — then you pick a structure: Save the Cat, the Hero's Journey, Three-Act, and 20+ more.
Each framework gives you a beat sheet to fill in. Work top to bottom, or jump around.
Quill is your editor, not a ghostwriter: it gives notes, asks questions, and coaches — it never writes your prose for you.
Make the whole app bigger or smaller with the A− / A+ control floating at the bottom-right — handy if the default text feels small (it remembers your choice). The same cluster jumps you back to the top of long pages.
Writing a script or manuscript? Hit “Full screen” in the editor toolbar to hide the menus and side panels for a wider, distraction-free writing area; press Esc to come back.
Prefer to learn by doing? Use “Take the guided tour” above for a one-minute walkthrough.

Your projects

Every story you're writing, in one place.

Each project is one story — its screenplay or manuscript, plus the cast, world, and beats that go with it.
Start fresh with “+ New project,” or upload a novel or short story you've already written.
Uploaded files — finished scripts, references, renders — live in a project's Documents tab; submit them to the Workshop, order Greenlight coverage, or Ask Quill from there.
A screenplay or upload that isn't in a project yet shows on its own row (or under “Unfiled uploads”) so nothing gets lost — open it and link it to a project anytime.
Open any project to keep working — your latest edits autosave.

Write offline — Mac & Windows apps

The same editors on your desktop, synced to your account.

OMD has native desktop apps for Mac and Windows — write your novel or screenplay offline, anywhere, in the exact same editors you use on the web.
Your work saves to local files on your computer and syncs to your account: open a story on the web, keep writing on the desktop, and pick up right where you left off. If the same document changed in two places, OMD asks how you'd like to resolve it — your words are never overwritten without you choosing.

Still stuck? Reach us from the Contact page, or ask in the Forums.

From script to storyboard — the screenwriting power-flow

Upload a screenplay and turn it into a cast, portraits, an audio table read, and a storyboard — one pass at a time.

Prefer a guided click-through? Use “From script to storyboard — walk the pipeline” at the top of this page, or “Walk the pipeline” in any open screenplay's top bar — it walks you through these steps live, page by page. The written version follows.

1. Start the project. On Projects, click “+ New project,” choose “Screenplay or TV script,” then “Import a script I already have,” and pick your file. Quill reads it and suggests the closest structure (free) — confirm the title, then “Create project.” .fountain and .fdx import exactly; PDF is best-effort, up to 2 MB, and must be real text (a scanned, image-only PDF won't read). Your original file is kept in the project's Documents tab.

2. Pull the cast and world. Open the screenplay, then click “Cast & World” in the top bar. The page shows the exact cost before you run anything — extraction is charged per scene-batch (about 2 coins for a short film, a little more for a feature). Click “Extract cast & world” (the Quill button with the gold coin total) and Quill reads the whole script, proposing every character with a physical Appearance, the world's locations and rules, and how everyone connects. Nothing is saved yet.

3. Review and save. Edit anyone — the Appearance field is the one that drives the portrait, so give it a look — uncheck anyone you don't want, then save to the linked story (Quill creates and links one if the script didn't have a story yet). The cast and world land on the project's Characters and World tabs. Coins are spent on the extract, not the save.

4. Build the headshots. On the Characters tab, each character has a portrait carousel. On the Headshot slot click “Generate” (the Quill button) — Quill draws a headshot from the character + your world style for 1 coin; “Use this portrait” to accept it. Ask Quill to improve it (free advice), then re-roll to apply it — or re-roll fresh (1 coin each). Every render stays in that shot's history to reuse for free. The headshot becomes the character's avatar everywhere.

5. Add half- and full-body framings. The Half-body and Full-body slots stay locked until a headshot exists — Quill draws each from the one before it (1 coin each) so the face carries across all three. These aren't just for show: the storyboard prefers the full-body, then half, then headshot as each character's on-model reference, so generating them makes your panels far more consistent. (A “Generate all portraits” button can batch the whole cast at once — it appears when that tool is turned on.)

6. Hear it performed — Table Read. Back in the screenplay, click “Table Read.” Choose One narrator or Full cast, pick a performance tone (Neutral, Calm, Dramatic, Sincere, Serene), choose voices (preview each with ▶), and for a full cast assign a voice per character. “Generate table read” shows the cost on the button — 15 coins solo, 25 for a full cast. Quill records it in the background and sends a “table read ready” notification; the player plays it scene by scene and downloads an MP3.

7. See it — Storyboard. (The Storyboard tool is currently turned off by default, so this step appears only once it's enabled for your account.) Click “Storyboard,” pick a scene, and first build the establishing shot — an image of the empty location that keeps every panel in the scene consistent (reuse it across same-location scenes for free). Click “Suggest panels” (free) for a staging plan and shot list, refine each shot, then “Generate” a panel (up to 6 per scene). Panels and establishing shots are priced by the board's Quality tier — Draft, Standard, or Best — with the coin price shown on every button. “Generate all” roughs out the whole scene fast; for the tightest continuity, then walk the panels top to bottom — each one can build on the shot before it. Panels use your characters' portraits, the establishing shot, and the previous panel for continuity. Prefer your own image? Upload an establishing shot, a rough sketch for Quill to render a polished panel from (priced like a panel), or your own finished art (free). A scene character without a portrait still renders from their saved Appearance, but a portrait is what keeps their face consistent — they show greyed with an “add a portrait” nudge; if a finished panel misses someone, open “Cast · edit,” tick them, Save (free), and regenerate. Every render is kept in History to re-use for free, and “Contact sheet (PDF)” prints the whole board.

8. That's the pipeline: import → Cast & World → portraits (headshot, then half/full) → Table Read → Storyboard. Each step feeds the next — the Appearance you save drives the portraits, and the portraits keep your table-read casting and storyboard panels on-model. It's all Quill's tools, free during the beta; the coin costs show what a membership covers later.

Storyboard

Turn a scene into image panels — when the tool is turned on.

Storyboard rolls out gradually, so it appears only once it's turned on for your account. It works best after Cast & World and a round of portraits, since panels use your characters' portraits for continuity.

Pick the Look first (top of the board): Illustrated or Photoreal. Illustrated — a hand-drawn or painted storyboard — renders every scene reliably (including sensitive ones like children, medical, or violence) and is faster and cheaper; it's what storyboards traditionally look like. Photoreal is cinematic film-still realism, great for pitches, but the image content filter blocks some sensitive scenes, so a few panels may fail. The look defaults from your story's World Style and drives your portraits too; you can override it per board. Changing it affects only new renders, so regenerate to match.

If a board has mature or artistic scenes the default renderer keeps refusing — they come back empty — open Board settings and turn on “Mature / artistic scenes.” It switches that board to a more permissive renderer so those shots generate, and works with either Look.

Open Storyboard, pick a scene, and build the establishing shot first — an image of the empty location (priced like a panel, by the board's Quality tier) that keeps every panel consistent; reuse it across same-location scenes for free. Leave the prompt blank and Quill reads the whole scene to build the set — its layout, furniture, and props — so the space holds together shot to shot, or click “Suggest the set” (free) to see and tweak it first. You can also upload your own establishing shot instead — free.

“Suggest panels” is free — Quill proposes a staging plan and shot list. Suggested shots appear as empty “draft” cards until you render them: refine a shot, then click Generate (priced per panel by the board's Quality tier), or “Generate all” to render a scene's drafts at once. A card with no image just means it hasn't been generated yet.

Board settings has a Quality tier that sets the renderer and the price per panel: Draft is fast and cheap for blocking out a board, Standard is the everyday tier, and Best uses Quill's strongest renderer for character and set consistency — worth it for the final pass. Each option shows its coin price right in the menu, and every render button re-prices when you change the tier.

Run “Suggest panels” again any time — it’s additive and gap-aware: Quill looks at the shots you already have (generated panels and drafts) and proposes only the missing ones to fill the gaps, never duplicating or wiping your work. If your shot list already covers the scene, it adds nothing and tells you so.

“Generate all” roughs out the scene fast; for the tightest continuity, then walk the panels top to bottom, getting each one right before the next — panels carry from your portraits, the establishing shot, and the previous panel.

Bring your own art: upload a rough composition sketch for Quill to render a polished panel from (priced like a panel, by the board's Quality tier), or drop in your own finished image for any panel (free). Both land in the panel's History like any render.

A character with no accepted portrait still renders from their saved Appearance, but a portrait is what keeps their face consistent panel to panel — they show greyed with an “add a portrait” link. If a panel misses someone, open “Cast · edit,” tick them, Save, and regenerate.

Every shot carries a number (14A, 14B…). Open “Shot notes” on any panel to record the Action, Dialogue, and the details a crew needs — angle, camera move, lens, duration, audio, transition. The shot's size and angle also guide the image (so a close-up renders as a close-up from the right angle); the rest is a production layer that never changes the picture. When you “Suggest panels,” Quill pre-fills the angle, move, a rough duration, and the scene's dialogue for you to confirm.

“Shot list” (top of the board) opens the whole film as a table: every shot with its number, size, angle, move, lens, duration, cast, action, and dialogue. Filter by scene, search, and export to CSV or PDF for the crew.

“Animatic” plays your rendered panels as a timed slideshow, using each shot's duration (set it in Shot notes; shots with no time default to a few seconds). Space plays/pauses, the arrow keys step, and the timeline scrubs — a quick moving preview of the sequence. “Download MP4” exports it as a silent video to share.

Every render stays in History to reuse for free. Export two ways: “Contact sheet (PDF)” is a compact thumbnail grid; “Storyboard pages (PDF)” prints one shot per row with its number, action, dialogue, and notes.

Package — your Producer Packet

One shareable professional page for your project.

Open a project's Package tab — or the Package button in a screenplay's top bar, right after Storyboard — to assemble a Producer Packet: your logline, synopsis, writer's statement, cast gallery (with the portraits you've made), locations, and a storyboard contact sheet.

The packet is assembled live from your project — update a character or add a panel and the packet reflects it. Nothing to re-export.

Choose which sections show with the checkboxes; a section without content simply drops out.

The story owner can turn on a public share link — anyone with the link can view the packet, no account needed. Turning sharing off kills the link immediately; turning it back on issues a fresh one.

Write the synopsis and statement yourself — this page speaks for you to producers, managers, and contests.

For screenplays, the Package tab also shows Producibility — a production breakdown counted from your script: scenes, locations, night exteriors, cast burden, and cost drivers. The facts are free; coin-priced Suggestions add Quill's ideas for making a draft cheaper to shoot.

Producer members can export the breakdown as spreadsheets — a scene stripboard, cast list, and locations — ready to import into a scheduling tool like Movie Magic or StudioBinder.

For Producer members, packet PDFs and Greenlight report exports are white-labeled — your own letterhead name and logo (set them under Settings → Profile) replace the One More Draft credit, so you can hand a client a clean, branded document. Greenlight coverage also exports as a real PDF.

Producer members get share-link analytics on the Package tab — how many times your public packet has been viewed, how often the table read was played, and when it was last opened. Anonymous counts only; a public link has no one to identify.

Run Producibility on two drafts and Impact Analysis shows what your rewrite did to the shoot — a night exterior added, a location dropped, a role merged — computed from the two snapshots, free, plus a rough estimate of the budget impact.

Help & Tutorials

Getting started

Your projects

Write offline — Mac & Windows apps

Stories & beats

Characters, world & themes

Writers Room — your project's team space

Screenplay editor

From script to storyboard — the screenwriting power-flow

Table Read

Storyboard

Publishing your book

Logline & Quill's coaching

Workshop

Greenlight

Package — your Producer Packet

Challenges

Forums

Marketplace

Keyboard shortcuts

Account & preferences