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Chapters and Acts

Books are organized into acts and chapters. Most books have a single narrative act with multiple chapters; you only see act labels when there are two or more narrative acts. Optional prologue and epilogue chapters pin to the top and bottom of the book.

Open the chapter list​

Tap the chapter title at the top of Write. The Chapters list opens. On a tablet it stays open beside your writing.

Add a chapter​

Open the chapter list and tap + New Chapter at the bottom. The new chapter is added at the end of the book and opens automatically.

To bring in a chapter you already wrote elsewhere, tap Import chapter from file under + New Chapter and pick a file (.docx, .doc, .pdf, .epub, .rtf, .odt, .mobi or .azw3, up to 50 MB). The chapters in that file are added to the end of your book. Nothing already in the book is changed.

Its number is one above the highest chapter number in the book, so in a three-chapter book you get Chapter 4, even if you were writing in chapter 2 at the time.

Add a prologue or epilogue​

In the chapter list, tap + Add Prologue at the very top or + Add Epilogue at the very bottom. These pin to the start and end of your book and are labelled by name instead of by number. Each button disappears once your book has one.

Rename a chapter​

Tap the ... at the right of a chapter row, or long-press the row, then choose Rename. The Edit chapter sheet lets you change the Chapter title, an optional Subtitle, and the revision mark (Not yet, Needs work or Revised). Tap Save.

Reorder chapters​

Reordering is on the web app

Chapters cannot be reordered in the mobile app. There is no drag handle and no move control. To change your reading order (or to close a gap in your chapter numbers), open your book in the web app and drag the chapters in the Table of Contents. See Chapters.

This also means a chapter added on mobile stays at the end of the book until you reorder it on the web.

How chapters are numbered​

A chapter's number is its position in the book's saved order. Two kinds of title opt out of automatic numbering:

  • A title that begins with the word "Chapter" (such as Chapter 12: The Duel or Chapter One) is shown exactly as you typed it, and stops being numbered for you.
  • A short sub-label like 9a or 12C, which sits alongside the chapter above it.

Imported books commonly arrive with titles like "Chapter 1" and "Chapter 2" carried over from the original file, which is why their numbering can look stuck.

Clearing a title takes the web app

To hand numbering back to us you clear the number out of the title. The mobile app cannot save a chapter with an empty title, so if you want a chapter to show only its number, clear the title in the web app.

Park a chapter in Drafts​

Tap ... on a chapter row and choose Move to Drafts to take it out of the reading order without deleting it. It moves to a Drafts section further down the list and keeps its text and its number. Choose ... then Add to book to bring it back.

Delete a chapter​

Tap ... on the chapter row and choose Delete, then confirm. The chapter is moved to the trash rather than erased.

Restoring takes the web app

The mobile app cannot yet show you a book's trashed chapters, so a chapter deleted here is restored from the web app.

Acts​

Most books have a single act, and act labels only appear once a book has two or more. New acts are created in the web app.

When your book has two or more acts, long-press an act heading in the chapter list to:

  • Add Chapter to that act.
  • Rename Act (iPhone and iPad only; on Android, rename acts in the web app).
  • Remove Act (keep chapters), which keeps its chapters and moves them to a neighbouring act.
  • Delete Act.