Chapter nine isn’t working. You just can’t see why. Yet.

Fictorial helps you name it, shows you the evidence in your own pages, and holds you accountable to make the edits.

Start your free trialOne full project, on the house

It never writes a word of your book.
It never trains on it, either.

Forty-two haystacks. Four needles. Found.

Ask anything about your book. Every answer comes citing where it came from, so you can check it yourself. Can’t remember the color of Kelly’s eyes? Just ask.

The questionDoes Kelly stay consistent when things go wrong?

The Kelly of chapter 31 isn’t the Kelly of chapter 4. Deliberate, or accidental?

Chapter and verse.

Every observation comes with the lines that prove it. Fictorial’s use of AI has guardrails designed to keep it from inventing ideas about your book.

WorkshopManuscriptStorymapNotesDaedalia

Is Kelly inconsistent? She seems to run from trouble early on, then fight back in the middle.

You’re right to flag it. Early on, Kelly’s response to adversity is movement — escape, silence, or explosive confrontation. When Lefty criticizes her art in Chapter 4, she says “I’m scared. I don’t know what to do besides draw. It’s all I know how to do.” … In Chapter 9, she “despised it and doubled down on the things he criticized about her work.”

But by the middle stretch — Chapters 25–31 — she’s different. … In Chapter 31, when Lefty dismisses her work and her identity (“…I’m not your goddamned singing frog”), she’s articulate, furious, demanding recognition rather than disappearing.

The question is whether this shift is deliberate (she’s growing agency) or accidental (the book hasn’t decided who she is yet). Which was it for you?

Ch 4Ch 9Ch 25Ch 31Across 20 of 43 chapters

From Daedalia, the founder’s sixth novelA snippet from an actual exchange in Fictorial’s Workshop feature

The edit you keep putting off.

Every insight worth keeping becomes a note. Notes gather into editing passes, and Fictorial tells you what’s next until they’re done.

NotesYour revision plan
Scenes are clear. Work on Kelly’s arc next?Work on this next
Kelly’s arc1 of 3 done
Seed Kelly’s agency earlier: one small push-back before Ch 25Normal
CharacterCh 12Saved from Workshop
Mark where Kelly first stops runningNormal
CharacterCh 18
Let Lefty notice the change before she says it out loudNormal
CharacterCh 27

Wait, when did the gun first appear?

Storymap maps the characters, turns, and events across your entire book, and places them on a visual timeline for you to browse and interact with.

Fictorial Storymap timeline for Harmony House: who appears where and what turns across 47 chapters, with chapter 24 selected: Freja captures Jessie and Deepu at gunpoint, quoted from the manuscript
Screenshot of StorymapHarmony House, the founder’s novel.
Handbook of Fictorial · First edition · 2026 A.D.

The Four Laws
of Fictorial

AI has remarkable, uncanny capabilities. But it is just a tool we wield. It can’t imagine, and it can’t judge. These are distinctly human capabilities and Fictorial is founded on the idea of keeping this line crisp. Our civilization exists because people invented tools to help us create: the pen, the press, the word processor. Fictorial is built in this tradition. In a nod to the great Isaac Asimov, we’ve written these rules down.

  1. Zeroth law

    Fictorial may not take the place of human creativity, or, by any answer it gives, allow a writer’s judgment to be overruled.

    In plain English  You make every creative decision. It can question you. It can’t overrule you.

  2. First law

    Fictorial may not write a word of your book. Asked to, it must refuse.

    In plain English  Not a sentence, not a line of dialogue. Every word of your book is yours, so there’s nothing of ours in it to detect.

  3. Second law

    Fictorial must answer with evidence from your own pages, except where none can be found, in which case it must say so.

    In plain English  Every claim points to a line you can check. When it can’t find one, it tells you.

  4. Third law

    Fictorial must protect your manuscript, so long as that protection does not conflict with your right to delete it.

    In plain English  Never used to train any model, ours or anyone else’s. Private to your account. Delete it, and we delete it.

Ben Wakeman, novelist and founder of Fictorial
From the founder
I just finished my sixth novel, Daedalia. Writing is my passion, but for thirty years my day job has been building software. I made Fictorial because I wanted a way to talk with my book while I’m writing it. I didn’t want a tool to write for me, or tell me I smell terrific. I wanted an honest sounding board with a sharp eye, one that would help me write the best book I possibly can by holding me accountable to the edits I commit to. No one, no matter how much they love you or how much you pay them is willing to obsess over your book as much as you do. Fictorial comes close. Don’t take my word for it. Try it for yourself.
Ben WakemanNovelist, author of Daedalia and Harmony House · Founder of Fictorial

You write the book.
Fictorial helps you see it.

Start your free trialOne full project, on the houseNo card needed to start. Then $20 a month, locked in if you subscribe by December 31, 2026. Cancel anytime.

Questions

What is Fictorial?
Manuscript feedback for novelists. Upload your draft securely and privately, then chat with Fictorial to find what isn’t working. It shows you the lines that prove it, keeps track of the edits you commit to, and never writes a word of your book.
What’s in the free trial?
One manuscript, its full Storymap, and 50 Workshop replies over 30 days to see what Fictorial can do. No card needed to start.
What can I upload?
A Word file (.docx). Your book stays in the app you write in; Fictorial reads a copy.
Does Fictorial train AI on my book?
No, and neither do the companies whose models it runs on. Their business terms rule it out. Here’s exactly what happens to your manuscript.
Can I edit my book inside Fictorial?
No, and that’s on purpose. You write where you write. Fictorial helps you see what to change.
Can I cancel?
Anytime, from your account. Delete a project and its manuscript goes with it.
Why not just use ChatGPT or Claude?
Keep them for everything else. Fictorial runs on models from the same companies, so the difference is what’s built around them for a novel. A chat assistant sees only what you paste, forgets it next time, and tends to agree with you. Fictorial knows your whole book and shows you the lines behind every answer, so you can check it. It keeps the notes you save, tells you which ones you’ve dealt with in your next draft, and won’t write a word of your book for you.