Plan your story, then watch it unfold

Storymapper is a story timeline, map and relationship planner for writers. Lay out every scene on a timeline, pin it to your own map, chart who is tied to whom, and keep the whole plot in view.

Free forever for the core features. No card needed.

Plan your story

Lay every scene out in lanes for your characters, plotlines and places, under rows for acts, chapters and dates. Link cause to effect, and see the whole plot on one screen.

A Storymapper timeline for an example fantasy novel: four lanes of scenes under rows for acts, chapters and dates, with connectors between scenes.

Then watch it unfold

Story timeline

Lay your story out in lanes for characters, storylines and places. Stack chapters, dates and acts along the top, link scenes with connectors, and note where each scene starts and ends.

Story map with playback

Upload your own map, then pin scenes, draw territories, place icons and connect journeys with arrows. Press play to watch the story move across the map, or follow one character’s journey on its own.

Relationships that change

Draw a family tree, a chain of command or a web of alliances. Give each person and each tie a moment in the story, then press play and watch heirs succeed, oaths break and rivals appear.

Structures and reading order

Drop the three-act structure, the Hero’s Journey or five other structures onto your timeline as a row of beats. Switch to chapter order to see the story as the reader meets it, flashbacks and all.

Share it, print it, save it

Send a read-only link to your players, editor or co-writer: no account needed, and your notes stay private. Save the map or the chart as a picture at any moment of the story, and print the timeline as one sheet.

Labels and themes

Colour-coded labels mean the same thing on the timeline, the chart and every map. Work in Light, Dark or Parchment, with your choice of font and text size, including a high-legibility option.

Built for every kind of story

Simple pricing

Free

£0

4 projects
Timeline packed with features
1 map per project
Map playback
1 relationships chart per project
Share links
50 MB of image storage
Export your projects

Storymapper Plus

£3 a month, or £30 a year

Everything in Free
Unlimited projects
Unlimited maps per project
Unlimited relationship charts per project
Images on your scenes
Your own icons on your maps
Your own background image for the work area
2 GB of image storage

Questions and answers

What is Storymapper?: Storymapper is a web app for planning a story. It has a timeline for laying out scenes in lanes, a map view where you pin those scenes to your own map and play the story back in order, and a relationships chart for family trees, chains of command and alliances that change as the story goes on.
Who is Storymapper for?: Anyone who plans a story: novelists in any genre, screenwriters, game masters running D&D and other tabletop campaigns, video game writers and world-builders.
Is Storymapper free?: Yes. The Free plan has no time limit and needs no card. It includes the timeline, map playback, the relationships chart and share links for up to four projects, with one map and one relationships chart in each. Storymapper Plus adds unlimited projects, maps and charts, images on your scenes, your own map icons and more image storage.
Do I need to install anything?: No. Storymapper runs in your web browser and saves your work as you go. It is built for laptop and desktop screens.
Does my story stay mine?: Yes. Everything you create stays yours, and you can export your projects at any time. A project is private to your account unless you choose to make a read-only link to it, which you can switch off whenever you like.

Get in touch

A question, an idea or a problem? Send a message and we will reply by email.