LoomArrasKeep track of everyone in your novel
LoomArras keeps a card for every character in your book and the ties between them: family, marriages, friends, rivals and secrets. It draws the family tree for you, lays every life along a timeline, and turns the whole cast into a character bible.
From GNUware, the makers of WordCairn. Features, supported computers and price may change before the first release.
The board in a current test build (0.2.4), showing the demo novel Wayside Folk laid out a generation to a row.
Your cast, in one place
Long novels and family sagas outgrow index cards and spreadsheets. LoomArras holds who everyone is, how they're connected, and when things happened to them, so you can stop scrolling back through chapters to check.
A card for every character
Names, roles, traits, places and life events, with a small portrait drawn from each character's traits.
Ties you can see
Parent, spouse, sibling, romance, ally, rival, mentor and secret tie, each drawn as its own kind of line.
Built for you
The family tree, the timeline and the character bible come from the cards you already filled in. Nothing to draw twice.
Four ways to see your cast
What the current test build does. It will grow before the first release.
Board
Zoomable, draggable character cards joined by relationship lines. Show only the main characters, one family, the married couples, or who lived where. Tidy the board into grids, rows, circles or rings around one character, and snap cards to a grid.
Family tree
Drawn automatically from the parent, spouse and sibling lines, generation by generation. Export it as an SVG or PNG image.
Timeline
Every life on one line of years, shaded by where each person lived, and marked with their moves, marriages and any other dated event.
Character bible
A readable reference for the whole cast, ready to keep beside your draft or hand to an editor. Export it as Markdown or PDF.
Private by design
Like everything from GNUware, LoomArras works on your own computer.
Nothing leaves your computer
No account, no sync, no tracking and no update check. LoomArras never connects to the internet.
Your novels, kept safe
One file per novel, saved so a crash can't leave it half-written. Automatic backups as you work, and a deleted novel goes to a trash folder first.
Easy to move
Download a backup of any novel as a single file and open it on another computer.
Where it stands
LoomArras is being built and tested now. There's no download or price yet.
Working in the test build
- The board, family tree, timeline and character bible
- Exports: family tree as SVG or PNG, bible as Markdown or PDF
- Automatic backups and moving a novel between computers
- A demo novel to explore, with 64 characters
Still to come
- More testing with real manuscripts and large casts
- Installers you can download
- The price, announced before release
Questions
Can I download it now?
Not yet. LoomArras is still in development. Email us and we'll tell you when it's ready.
What will it cost?
The price hasn't been set. Like WordCairn, the plan is to pay once, with no subscription.
Which computers will it run on?
That will be announced with the first release.
Does it read or change my manuscript?
No. LoomArras keeps its own record of your characters. It doesn't open your chapter files, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
Can I help test it?
Possibly. Write to [email protected] and say a little about your novel and your computer.
Want to know when it's ready?
One email when LoomArras is released. Nothing else.
Tell me when it's ready