Reverie doesn’t ask you to plan your draft before you write it. You write, and the structure comes from what you wrote. When you want to see it, press ⌘R to open the sidebar.
What the sidebar shows
As you draft, you mark where one scene ends and the next begins: a scene break (three asterisks), a heading, a chapter title. Reverie reads those marks and lists your scenes in order, each labelled with its first line. Click one to jump straight to it.
You didn’t build this list. There’s no synopsis card to fill in and no folder to drag anything into. It’s a reflection of the draft you already have, and it stays out of sight until you call it. The default is still a page and nothing else.
Choosing what counts as a scene
A scene break always marks a scene. Headings are up to you: maybe you think in chapter titles, maybe in the sections beneath them. Tick the ones that match how you see the draft, and the list reorganises to match.
Your files, in order
Once a folder holds more than one document, the sidebar groups your scenes by file, in the order they appear in your manuscript. Drag a file to move it, so chapter three can sit before chapter two, and Reverie remembers the order for next time. New files join the end of the list.
Each file can be folded shut to show just its title, or opened to show its scenes. Collapse the chapters you’ve finished and keep the one you’re working on in view.
Reordering
The list is also a way to move scenes. Drag one to where it belongs, within a file or from one file into another, and the words move with it. The whole passage is lifted out and set back down in the right place, with the joins handled for you. What used to mean selecting a few thousand words, cutting, scrolling to find the seam, and pasting becomes a single drag.
This is a revision tool, not a planning one. It works on the prose you’ve written, and never asks you to lay out structure you haven’t.
When the sidebar is empty
The sidebar shows nothing until you’ve given it something to read. Write one long stretch with no breaks and no headings and it stays empty, because there’s no structure to show yet. Add a scene break or a heading and your scenes appear.
The same sidebar holds your Goals, opened with ⌘T.