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You can upload during onboarding, when creating a project from the Project Dashboard, or from the project's Home view. We support .docx, .txt, .md, .epub and .pdf files, or you can paste the text directly. There is a 25 MB file size limit and a minimum length of 5,000 words so that the analysis has enough to work with. Scanned or image-only PDFs cannot be read and should be re-saved as .docx or .txt. Novel Maestro segments your text into chapters and scenes automatically. Note that re-uploading a file into an existing project will replace its chapters and scenes and clear the analysis derived from the old text, though manually written tasks will survive.

The Project Dashboard lists all your novels. Each card shows the title, genre, word count, and First Take status. Click a card to open its workspace. You can also create new projects, duplicate existing ones, or archive projects you're no longer working on.

Each project opens in a multi-column workspace. The left rail gives you access to every section: My Novel, My Manuscript, Maestro's First Take, Developmental Report, Diagnostics, Workshop, Beta Readers, My Tasks, My Notes, Export, Tour and Account. The center panel changes based on what you select.

Chosen during onboarding and changeable in your Account settings, coaching modes change how direct or exploratory Novel Maestro's tone is when delivering feedback. They do not change what the diagnostics find, only how the advice is delivered.

A personal editorial response to your manuscript — a warm, honest opening to Maestro's First Take. When the system is still processing, you'll see the progress of the concurrent diagnostics running against your manuscript. Once complete, read the letter once through. It sets the tone for everything that follows.

The characters we found in your manuscript — their wants, needs, fears, and the lies they tell themselves. This is a mirror: Novel Maestro shows you how your characters come across on the page, not what they say about themselves. If a character doesn't land the way you intended, correct them.

The genre classification inferred from your manuscript. Genre shapes reader expectations and determines what conventions your narrative is expected to fulfil. If the classification doesn't match your intention, correct it.

The voice and register we hear in your prose — the emotional texture of your writing style. Consider whether the tone Novel Maestro identifies matches what you hear when you read your own work.

The driving question that pulls readers through your story — what keeps them turning pages. If Novel Maestro misidentifies your central question, that's a powerful signal.

The implicit promise your opening pages make — what the reader expects to experience based on how your novel begins.

The underlying ideas woven through your manuscript. Review whether these match what you believe your novel is about.

Corrections made in the Looking Glass are kept on file and never re-run or rewrite the First Take you already have. They feed forward into the Developmental Report, the next read, the story model, the book summary, and the Workshop. Corrected fields show a 'Corrected' marker when you revisit them.

A single, sharp editorial observation — the one thing that strikes the editor most powerfully. This isn't a comprehensive verdict; it's a focused insight. A collapsible 'View all evidence' section shows the grounded claims (the Receipts). Click through to verify against specific passages.

The single most important revision focus with a concrete first step. It creates your first tracked revision task via the 'Add to My Tasks' button. Don't try to fix everything at once — start here.

What more than a dozen diagnostic passes found in your manuscript. A teaser for the deeper analysis available to you, with a card per diagnostic carrying its verdict teaser. For paid writers, these cards link directly into each full diagnostic.

A gateway page summarising what you've explored and previewing the tools available when you unlock your full editorial toolkit — Unpinned Suggestions, Deep Diagnostics, Workshop, Notes, and multiple re-reads.

After revising your manuscript, trigger a new read. A quick re-read keeps your current First Take for comparison via a Revision Assessment step. A full fresh read permanently replaces your First Take. Both consume one read. (The free tier's single read applies to your account, not per project).

The manuscript editor is a chapter-centric view — scroll through all scenes in a chapter with inline editing. Changes autosave. Universal Grounding lets you click from any diagnostic finding to jump straight to the highlighted passage.

Every scene is automatically analyzed in the background. Novel Maestro extracts a synopsis, identifies point of view, conflict, stakes, and generates numeric scores. Updated in real time as you edit.

A distraction-free single-scene editing mode. Click the Focus button in the top bar to enter, or select a single scene from the manuscript tree.

You can upload during onboarding, when creating a project from the Project Dashboard, or from the project's Home view. We support .docx, .txt, .md, .epub and .pdf files, or you can paste the text directly. There is a 25 MB limit and a minimum length of 5,000 words. Scanned or image-only PDFs cannot be read and should be re-saved as .docx or .txt.

Diagnostics are specialized AI lenses that examine your manuscript from different angles. Each one runs independently and can be re-run after revisions. Results include specific passage references — click any to jump to that moment in your text. Every diagnostic now carries matching craft lessons in Learning, with a walkthrough of how to read that particular tool, reachable from the foot of the diagnostic itself.

Your cast roll call. Maps every character's presence across the manuscript — who appears where, how often, and for how long. Look for characters with very low presence percentages or absence gaps, and check role overlap warnings to merge or differentiate characters.

Tracks characters' internal arcs across eight dimensions — emotional state, moral alignment, self-awareness, and more. Scores each dimension at every scene to show how a character changes (or doesn't) throughout the narrative. Compare the AI-generated arc shape with your intent, using the scene-level detail to pinpoint exactly where the arc stalls or needs another beat.

Examines whether your protagonist is driving the story or being driven by it. Classifies each scene as proactive or reactive and flags 'passive runs' — stretches of consecutive reactive scenes. Look at stretches of passive scenes and consider adding a moment of choice or initiative to restore your protagonist's agency.

Evaluates your manuscript against the conventions of your chosen genre — the ingredients, beats, and character archetypes readers expect. Results are categorized as kept, bent, or broken. Evaluate broken promises that might leave readers feeling something is missing, or use the subvert action to mark intentional deviations.

Identifies recurring images, symbols, emotional patterns, and thematic echoes. A motif in the opening and closing creates a satisfying frame. Strengthen the motifs that serve the story, and prune or redirect those that appear without clear purpose.

Tracks narrative promises — questions raised, mysteries hinted at, threads left dangling — and checks whether they're paid off. Look for promises without payoffs that could frustrate readers, and payoffs that arrive without a clear setup.

Reads the three signals beneath plot and pacing — thematic presence, the emotional temperature of the prose, and the value-arc charge — against the shape the genre expects. Overlays the expected charge skeleton on the actual value arc. Look for divergences between your prose sentiment and the dramatic turn, and check for extended thematic gaps.

A multi-dimensional emotional map charting tension, conflict, stakes, emotional intensity, and protagonist agency scene by scene. Look for long flat stretches where engagement might flag, and check that climactic scenes actually register as peaks across multiple dimensions.

Analyses your manuscript's pacing — the rhythm of fast and slow, the ebb and flow of narrative energy. It identifies pacing zones and classifies the overall profile. Check whether your pacing profile matches your intent, paying attention to flagged issues like sagging middles or rushed climaxes.

Navigate your manuscript by story thread rather than chapter. Read a subplot thread in isolation to see whether it has its own arc, whether its pacing works, and whether it builds to a satisfying resolution.

Analyses how your subplots and secondary threads interact with the main storyline — whether they complement, contrast, or compete with the primary narrative. Check whether your secondary threads are pulling their weight, and whether their climactic moments are well-timed relative to the main arc.

Maps cause-and-effect chains. Shows how events connect — which scenes cause later developments, and which feel disconnected. Strong causality makes a story feel inevitable rather than arbitrary. Look for broken links where events happen for no clear reason, or where consequences never materialise.

Scans for continuity errors — contradictions in character behavior, setting details, timeline, and factual elements. Review high-severity continuity contradictions, deciding whether they are genuine errors or intentional choices like an unreliable narrator.

A simple table with one row per scene. Empty cells show passive protagonists, sagging middles, and exposition that masquerades as story. Check for empty cells that reveal scenes that change nothing and merely provide information.

A full editorial assessment synthesizing strengths, risks, character notes, pacing notes, theme notes, continuity concerns, and open questions to orient your revision.

A comprehensive readiness assessment that synthesizes diagnostic data into an overall picture. Use this as a pre-submission checklist to identify what is still visibly unresolved in your manuscript.

Create rich notes with titles, content, tags, and colors. Organize them into collections. Pin important notes for quick access. Search, filter by tag or collection, and sort by date or title.

Attach files via drag-and-drop or file picker. Add web links with automatic URL unfurling (title, description, image preview). Link notes to specific chapters, scenes, or characters.

Group related notes into named collections with descriptions, icons, and colors. A note can belong to one collection.

A Kanban board with To Do, Doing, and Done columns. Drag and drop to reorder. You can filter by priority, toggle archived tasks, and use the 'Group by area' toggle to group open tasks by editorial dimension with per-area progress.

A triage tab containing every diagnostic suggestion that hasn't become a task yet, including sequenced priorities and Your First Move. Review suggestions and turn them into board tasks with one click. Viewing these requires full access.

Export your full task list as a PDF report.

An AI-powered developmental critique tool. Choose a focus (Premise, Scene, Chapter, Character, Thread, Theme, or Whole Book), select a preset question or write your own, and get a structured editorial response grounded in your manuscript. There are five modes: Diagnose, Strengthen, Explore, Deepen, and Challenge.

Workshop usage is metered. The free tier allowance applies over the lifetime of your account, while paid tiers get a larger allowance over a rolling 30 days. Both full Workshop analyses and follow-up chats count towards this limit.

All past workshop sessions are saved. Browse and revisit previous conversations to track your editorial thinking over time.

Reader-persona reports generated as part of a read. Each reader provides a different lens and answers questions specific to their role. Disagreements between panelists are useful signals for revision. Viewing the beta reader panel requires full access.

Export your manuscript as PDF, Word, plain text, or print. Choose between a Reading copy or Standard manuscript format layout. Scene intelligence metadata can also be included if you have full access.

Export your Maestro's First Take, Developmental Report, Full Consolidated Report, or a custom selection as a PDF. The Editorial Letter can additionally be copied to the clipboard as Markdown, or downloaded as plain text. Exporting diagnostic reports requires full access. The Report Library holds every saved snapshot for easy re-download.

Generate AI-assisted publishing assets: synopsis, query letter, and blurb — all grounded in your manuscript.

Update your name, email, and avatar from the Account page. Change your password at any time.

View your current plan, read allowance, and subscription status. Upgrade from the Pricing page.

Redeem access codes on the Account page. Redeeming a Per Manuscript voucher unlocks one specific manuscript rather than the whole account, grants that code's read allowance, and releases a Developmental Report that may have been blocked on the free tier. Subscription codes unlock your whole account.

Choose from multiple color palettes and switch between light, dark, and system themes.

Novel Maestro auto-detects your preferred dialect from your browser on first use. This applies to everything Novel Maestro writes, and you can override it in your Account settings.

Subscribe or unsubscribe from the Novel Maestro newsletter via your Account settings, or by using the unsubscribe link in any newsletter email. Essential account emails (like password resets) will still arrive even if you unsubscribe.

Your manuscript belongs to you and is never used to train language models. Your work is sent to our AI providers only to produce your analysis, and projects are entirely private to your account. You can export your data as a single JSON file, or permanently delete your account (which requires typing your email address to confirm).