Tangle · a plot checker for writers

Find the hole in your plot before your readers do.

A chapter reveals something. A later chapter depends on it. Move chapters around and that link can break without you noticing, until an early reader finds it on page 200. Tangle checks every link for you, every time you change anything.

Free. There is no account and nothing to buy, whether you are trying it out or planning a whole book.

Three steps

1 · Watch it catch a plot hole

The Winter Ferry is a short mystery novel, planned in Tangle. Tap chapter 9 and drag it one place earlier, or cut chapter 10, and Tangle shows you what breaks and why.

Open the story example
2 · Plan your own book

Start blank, or from a ready outline for a mystery, a romance, a thriller or a three-act story. The outlines come with their key links already set, so Tangle checks them from the first minute. Your book saves in your browser as you go, and nothing you type is sent anywhere.

Start your book
3 · Keep it, free

Tangle is one file. Download it and double-click it. It works offline. To keep your plan too, press More → Save to file in Tangle; Open file brings it back.

Download Tangle

What it tells you

Tangle's board for the example novel with chapter 10 cut. The ending, two chapters later, is outlined in red, and the banner reads: The Last Ferry needs Edda's reason, but nothing before it reveals it.
Cut one quiet chapter from the example and the ending breaks two chapters later, because Mara gives the pages back to Edda without ever hearing her reason. From inside your own draft, a hole like that is easy to miss.
BreakA chapter depends on something the reader hasn't been told yet, and an early reader will catch it.
WarningThree chapters in a row where no main character's story moves.
NoteWorth a look, not broken: two chapters in a row where nobody's story moves, chapters you haven't put in order yet, or a reveal that nothing later uses.

Also for game masters

Tangle began as a planner for D&D campaigns, where the players choose the route. The same checks work there: open the D&D example, a heist with problems planted for you to find.

Tell me what you think

What confused you, what broke, what you'd want it to do. Even one line helps.