Today we move into our new home. This is the Sunday Plot website, and this is our first Sunday letter.
Let us introduce ourselves. Sunday Plot is a notebook for planning your novel before you write it: the structure, the characters, the places and, above all, what happens in each scene. It’s a DiezCien project, and we made it with one very specific person in mind: someone who has carried a novel around inside for years and never finds the time, or the order, to get it out.
Those novels look a lot alike. They have a very clear beginning, a scene in the middle you know by heart and an ending that changes every time you think about it. What they don’t have is a plan.
How it works
Sunday Plot asks you the questions about your novel one at a time: who your protagonist is, what they want, what’s in their way, where the story ends up. They come in the order that makes sense to think about them, and each answer is kept in its place. The story is yours. Sunday Plot brings the order, and lets you know when a character vanishes for five chapters, or when someone who died in chapter 9 is still strolling around in chapter 14. In 30 days you can go from an idea to knowing what happens in every scene.
Why “Sunday”
Because most novels get written in stolen moments: twenty minutes before the house wakes up, a free afternoon, a Sunday. Sunday Plot is made for those moments. Tell it how much time you have and it gives you a step that fits. If one day you can’t, nothing breaks: your novel stays right where you left it.
A closed beta, for now
Sunday Plot already works, but we’re still polishing it: that’s the “beta” part. It’s “closed” because, for now, only people on the guest list can create an account. We’d rather start small and listen to each person calmly than open the doors to everyone and not be able to answer anyone. While the beta lasts, it’s free.
What we ask of you
That you use it to get the novel you really want to write out of your head, not just to poke around the screens for a while. And that you tell us what feels like too much, what you miss and where you got stuck. Rough notes are fine: one line to hello@sundayplot.com is as useful to us as a report.
What you get
Your novel planned, scene by scene, and a say in what comes next. And the peace of mind that your novel is yours: you can export it whenever you like, and exporting will always be free.
What to expect
It’s a beta, and it shows: some things will change and one or two will behave oddly. Importing a draft is switched off for now, and exporting to Scrivener is still in the works. Whatever you write down stays, even if things around it change.
How to get in
Write to us at hello@sundayplot.com and tell us about the novel in your head; one sentence is enough. We’ll add that email to the list, and it’s the one you’ll need to use when you create your account: the email is what counts, not the link.
Until when? No date: we’ll open when it’s ready. We’ll tell you here.
In the meantime
- Without an account you can open a sample novel and see what it looks like inside: Wanted: One Dragon, or a classic like Frankenstein or Pride and Prejudice.
- Read something in Learn: short articles, for whenever you need them.
- We’re getting the first 30-day challenge ready. We’ll tell you here when it starts.
Happy Sunday.