Synopsis

One whole piece, not a set of boxes

The synopsis is a complete article, like writing on manuscript paper. There are no forms for you to fill in, and there is no fixed format: add a paragraph when you want to add one, and delete a section when you want to delete one.

At the top of the paper, you will see the comic name and the date of the last change. The body text uses Songti, and headings use Heiti. Each level 1 heading has a small red number above it, 01, 02, and so on. It reads like a book’s table of contents.

The first draft from the assistant

When setting up planning, the assistant writes a first version with five level 1 headings:

1. One sentence: what this story is about in one sentence.
2. Characters: who is in the story, and what each of them wants. Character names are bolded.
3. Story: this is split into four parts: beginning, development, climax, and ending.
4. Episodes: how many episodes the whole story has, with a small title for each episode, “Episode N · Episode title”.
5. Rules: the rules that must be followed in this world, listed one by one.

These are only suggestions. If something does not fit what you want, edit it directly.

When the comic is still called “Untitled”, the assistant will give it a name after writing the synopsis. If you have already named it yourself, the assistant will not change it.

What is the “Episodes” section for? When setting up planning, the assistant builds each episode in Pacing based on this section. After that is done, the episode list is separate from this section: if you later edit the text in this section, episodes will not be added or removed automatically. To add an episode, go to “Pacing” and click “Add” in the top right.

Format bar

The row of buttons above the paper applies to the paragraph where your cursor is:

• ¶: body text
• H1 · H2 · H3: level 1, 2, and 3 headings
• “: quote
• B · I: bold and italic
• —: divider

The button for the format of the paragraph where your cursor is will be highlighted.

Autosave

Stop typing for one second, or click somewhere else, and it saves automatically. Next to the date, you will see “Saving…” or “Saved”. If it cannot save, it will show the reason. Unsaved content stays with you for now and will be saved together next time.

The synopsis does not have protection for “who edited first”: if you and the assistant edit at the same time, the version saved later wins. While the assistant is editing the synopsis, do not type in the synopsis. When it finishes, the paper will automatically update to the latest version.

How it relates to “this episode’s synopsis”

In production, each episode also has its own synopsis. It says what happens in that episode and who appears. It is saved separately from the whole-story synopsis here: changing one will not change the other.

Before the assistant makes an episode, it first reads this overall synopsis, then writes that episode’s synopsis. So set the overall direction here, and write the details in that episode. See “ This episode’s synopsis”.