Explorations

Break the story.
Keep the draft.

Every project has a permanent Main draft and any number of explorations — parallel versions of your story where the radical rewrite can fail safely, and the parts that work come home.

Four movements

I

Begin

Start an exploration — a perfect copy of your story as it stands. Chapters, beats, Codex and all.

II

Write freely

Rewrite, delete, invent. Everything you change stays inside the exploration. Main is untouched by definition.

III

Compare

Open any chapter's history and read both versions side by side, differences highlighted.

IV

Merge or set aside

Cherry-pick the passages that work, make the exploration your new Main, or archive it with its full history kept.

The Exploration Picker

Switch worlds in one click

A small pill at the top of the writing window always shows which version of the story you are in. Click it, choose an exploration, and every document — chapters, beats, Codex entries — becomes that version's. Unsaved work is tucked away safely first, so nothing half-applies.

An exploration begins as a perfect copy of your story as it stands, named and numbered for you. Create it and jump in — or park it for later and keep writing on Main.

The Alchemist's Tale Mentor Betrayal
Main default
Mentor Betrayal active
Opening B
Magic-System Rework parked
Start an exploration… Manage explorations…

Compare — Chapter 7 · Main vs Mentor Betrayal

Main

Maren smiled and poured the tea, and for a while the world was warm.

Mentor Betrayal · taking

Maren's hand did not tremble as she poured the second cup — the one with the bitterroot.

Save Next difference

Committed to Main with the note "merged from Mentor Betrayal."

Selective Merge

Cherry-pick paragraphs, not files

Open any chapter's history — every saved version, from every exploration, timestamped. Compare side by side, accept or reject each block, and retain only the passages that earned their place.

When the whole experiment is the new canon, merge the entire exploration in one motion. The source stays intact — Mythos never burns a bridge for you.

The Guardrails

Built so nothing is ever lost

Imports go to Main

An imported manuscript is your canonical draft, so Mythos always files it on Main — and every exploration inherits it automatically.

Deletions are gentle

Removing a chapter hides it from the exploration you are in, nowhere else. Toggle Show Explorations to see it again — and bring it back anywhere.

Merges never destroy

Making an exploration the new canon leaves the original intact, history and all. Permanent deletion exists, but it is a separate, deliberate act with a confirmation.

In Practice

Three ways writers use it

"What if the mentor betrays the hero?"

Start an exploration called Mentor Betrayal, rewrite the chapters that change, and read them against Main. If it works, merge the strongest passages back. If it doesn't, archive it — the experiment cost nothing.

A/B test two openings

Write opening A on Main; start an exploration and write opening B. Compare side by side with fresh eyes, keep the winner, archive the other. Both stay in history forever.

Park a half-formed idea

Create Magic-System Rework without switching to it. It sits dormant in the picker — a parking lot for the idea that isn't ready — while you keep drafting on Main.

Write the dangerous draft.

Fourteen days free, every feature. Main stays pristine no matter what you try.

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