Characters

Add a New Character

You can add a character from the header of any view, or from the Edit Window. These controls show only when you can edit the story.

If your story adds characters to scenes automatically (see Choose How Characters Join Scenes), the + Character chip is greyed out and the scene's Add Characters menu is hidden.

From Any View

Every view's header has a + Character chip, beside + Scene (in the Page view, in its Overview mode). It uses your story's own word for a character, so it may read differently in your template.

Drag the chip to where the new character should go and let go. The character is added, and the Edit Window opens on it with its name field ready, so you can type the name straight away.

• In the Timeline and Cards views, and the Page view's Overview, drop it on a scene. The new character is added to that scene too.
• In the Home and Stats views, a list of your characters opens as you drag. Drop the chip into it where the new character should go.

• In the Characters view, drop it between two cards (see below).

In the Characters View

Drag the + Character chip into the grid of character cards. A line shows where the new character will land. Let go, and it opens in the Edit Window.

You can also right-click empty space in the grid, such as the gap between two cards or the space after the last, and choose Add Character. While the menu is open, the same line shows where the new character will go, and the cards move apart to make room. The character is added there and opens in the Edit Window with its name field ready. This works when you can edit the story.

If the story has no characters yet, the view shows Drop new character here. Drop the chip there, click it, or right-click it and choose Add Character to add your first character.

In the Edit Window

There are two ways to add a character in the Edit Window.

While editing a scene:

1. Scroll to the scene's Characters section.
2. Click Add Characters at the right of the section's title. The menu lists every character in your story, by name from A to Z.

1. Click Make new Character.... The new character is added to the scene, and the Edit Window opens it with its name field ready.
2. When you're done, click the back arrow at the top left of the Edit Window to return to the scene.

While editing a character: open the ⋯ menu at the top of the Edit Window and choose Insert Character Before or Insert Character After. The new character is added just before or after this one in your list of characters, and opens with its name field ready.

Add Characters to a Scene

To say who is in a scene, you can tick characters in the scene itself, or drag them onto it from any view.

In the Edit Window:

1. Click the scene to open it in the Edit Window, and scroll to its Characters section.
2. Click Add Characters, and tick each character who is in the scene. The menu stays open, so you can tick several. Untick a character to take it out. With Automatic + Manual, the characters Prewrite found in the scene's text are marked (auto).

To take a character out of the scene, you can also point to it in the section and click the round ✕ at its top right corner. It turns red when you point at it.

By dragging:

1. Click the arrow at the right of the + Character chip in the header. A menu of your characters opens. (The arrow shows once the story has a character.)

1. Drag a character from the menu onto a scene. In the Timeline and Cards views, and the Page view's Overview, drop it on the scene itself. In the Home, Characters and Stats views, a small map of your story's scenes opens as you drag: drop it on a scene there.

To drag several characters at once, select them in the menu first, then drag any one of them:

• Cmd + click (Ctrl + click on Windows) adds a character to the selection or removes it.
• Shift + click selects every character from the last one you picked.

From a Scene's Right-Click Menu

In the Timeline and Cards views, and the Page view's Overview, right-click a scene and point to Characters. Every character in the story is listed with its picture, and the ones in the scene are ticked.

• Tick a character to add it to the scene, or untick it to take it out. The menu stays open, so you can change several.
• New Character… creates a new character, adds it to the scene, and opens it so you can name it.

The submenu shows when you right-click one scene, not a selection of several. How it behaves depends on how characters join scenes (below): with Automatic + Manual, the characters Prewrite found in the scene's text are marked (auto); unticking one takes it out of this scene, and ticking it again puts it back. With Automatic, there's no Characters item.

Choose How Characters Join Scenes

Prewrite can add characters to scenes for you, from what you write. The story's owner and editors choose how, in Advanced Settings:

1. Open the Menu (the ☰ button at the right of the header) and choose Advanced Settings…. It's there on a computer, not on a phone.
2. Open the Automation tab. Under Adding Characters to Scenes, choose:
   • Manual (the default): you add each character to each scene yourself.
   • Automatic: a character joins a scene when they have dialogue in it or their name appears in its action. You can't add or remove characters by hand.
   • Automatic + Manual: both. Prewrite adds the characters it finds, and you can add others yourself, or take one it found out of a scene.

See Advanced Settings for the other settings on this tab.

Edit a Character

You can open a character from the Home view, from the Characters view, and from a scene in the Edit Window.

At the top of a character's Edit Window, the masthead shows its headshot, its name and, under the name, details such as its Archetype. Click one of those details to jump down to its field, ready to change.

From the Home View

Click any character in the Characters section of the Home view. Point to a character to see its name. When a story has more than 12 characters, the button under them shows the rest.

From the Characters View

Click any character card. (With Cmd (Ctrl on Windows) or Shift held, a click selects the card instead: see Change Character Order.)

When Editing a Scene

In the scene's Characters section, click a character to open it. The back arrow at the top left of the Edit Window takes you back to the scene.

Step Between Characters

At the bottom of a character's Edit Window, the arrows step to the previous or next character in your list. Between them, a strip shows every character's picture in that order. The one you're on has a blue ring; the others are smaller and greyed until you point at one, which shows its headshot and name. Click a picture to jump to that character. When there are more pictures than fit, the strip scrolls sideways, and its edge fades while there are more to see. The character you move to opens on the same part of the window, and on a desktop the field you were typing in has the cursor again. A story with one character has no footer.

Rename a Character

A new character's name field is ready to type in, and so is the big name at the top of the window. Once a character has a name, and you've moved on or closed the window, the field shows it with a Change name… button instead, and the name at the top becomes a button that does the same. Click it to open Find & Replace on that name: you type the new name, and choose which mentions of the old one in your story change with it. See Find and Replace.

Two characters in the story can't share a name (the Stash keeps its own names). If you type a name that's taken, Prewrite says so, and the character is left unnamed when you close it or move to another.

Add an Actor Headshot

Prewrite links to The Movie Database (TMDB), so you can pick from thousands of actor photos to help you picture your characters.

1. Click a character to open it in the Edit Window.
2. At the top, in the character's masthead, click the headshot card.

1. A window opens where you can search for an actor by name, or by a film or show they were in. Click a photo to make it the character's headshot.

You can also upload your own picture (drop a JPEG, PNG or GIF file on the window, or use Upload Image, just left of Close at the top right). This window picks one picture at a time.

To change the headshot later, click the card again and pick another. Once there's a headshot, the card's pencil button opens a menu: Replace image picks another, and Remove image takes the headshot off.

A character's Images section works like a scene's (see Add Scene Images): add pictures with the + tile, several at once if you like, star one to make it the primary, and drag a thumbnail to change the order. The headshot isn't part of it.

The masthead's background is the character's cover image (the primary one). Without one, it shows a plain grid. To set it straight from the masthead, click the pencil button at the masthead's bottom right (Add cover image). The first image you pick becomes the cover, and any others join the character's Images. Once there's a cover, the same button opens a menu: Replace image picks another, and Remove image deletes the cover image, as deleting it from Images does.

For a character, the image window's Suggested tab searches for their archetype, their profession, and the places in the scenes they're in. It never searches for how a character looks: their race, gender or age.

Delete a Character

1. Click the character to open it in the Edit Window.
2. Open the ⋯ menu at the top and choose Delete Character.

The character is deleted straight away, from the whole story, with no question asked. To bring it back, click Undo in the header.

Clean Up Unused Characters

Over time a story can collect characters who never made it into a scene. To find and remove them:

1. Open the Menu (☰) and choose Clean Up Characters…. It's there for the story's owner and editors.
2. Prewrite lists every character who is in no scene and nowhere in the script. A character counts as used if they're added to a scene, speak in one, or are named anywhere in its script (even just in someone else's lines), however characters join scenes in your story, and even if you took them off that scene's list. Scenes in the Stash count too.
3. Everyone listed is ticked. Untick anyone you want to keep. A character in the Slideshow shows the slide mark, since that's often why a character has no scenes.
4. Click the delete button. The characters are deleted from the story, and any lines they spoke keep their text.

To bring them back, click Undo in the header: one click restores them all. If no character is unused, Prewrite says so.

Change Character Order

1. Open the Characters view, from the buttons down the left of the story (along the top on a phone) or from its button in the Home view.
2. Click and hold a character card, and drag it where you'd like it. A line shows where it will land.
3. Let go.

The Home view and the + Character chip's menu list your characters in this order too. The Characters view's filter can hide some cards while you work (see Characters).

• Copy instead of move: hold Alt (Option on a Mac) when you let go. When you copy one character, Prewrite asks you to name the copy, since two characters can't share a name.
• Move several characters at once: select them first, then drag any one of them.
  • Cmd + click (Ctrl + click on Windows) adds a card to the selection or removes it.
  • Shift + click selects every card from the last one you picked.
  • Drag across empty space to draw a box around cards. Hold Shift while you drag to add them to the cards already selected.

Right-Click a Character

In the Characters view, right-click a character card for a menu of what you can do with it. The menu shows only when you can edit the story.

• Edit opens the character in the Edit Window.
• Duplicate adds a copy right after it. Prewrite asks you to name the copy, since two characters can't share a name.
• Move to Stash and Copy to Stash put the character, or a copy, in the Stash. If the Stash already has a character with that name, Prewrite asks for a new one first.
• Rename everywhere… opens Find & Replace on the character's name, so you can rename it across the story (see Rename a Character).
• Delete Character deletes it from the whole story. Undo brings it back.

Several characters at once: select them (see Change Character Order), then right-click any one of them. The menu acts on all of them: Duplicate 2 Characters (the copies are named for you, such as "Erica 2"), Move 2 to Stash, Copy 2 to Stash and Delete 2 Characters. Right-clicking a card that isn't selected selects it on its own first.

Empty space: right-click between two cards, or after the last, to add a character there (see In the Characters View).

With the keyboard, press Shift + F10 (or the menu key) on a card you've tabbed to. To get your browser's own menu instead, hold Alt (Option on a Mac) when you right-click.