SUDOWRITE ALTERNATIVE
A Sudowrite alternative for
planning the whole story.
Sudowrite is built to generate and polish prose. Storyflow is the visual planning canvas around the writing: structure, beats, character maps, world-building, and research, laid out in space with AI. It runs in the browser, and plenty of writers plan the story here and still draft the prose in Sudowrite. Free forever, no credit card.
Free plan, no object cap
No credit card
Works in your browser
Used by creative professionals at:
Artlist
Pixar
Nike
Red Bull
The North Face
Porsche
Start from a ready-made template
Pick a board, then let AI fill it in. Every template is a real, editable starting point on the same infinite canvas.
What can you use instead of Sudowrite, and where does each one fit?
Sudowrite is a genuinely strong AI writing tool for fiction, and it earned that reputation. Ask it to continue a scene and it generates prose in your voice, Rewrite reshapes a paragraph until the rhythm lands, Brainstorm throws out lists of ideas and twists, and Story Engine helps carry a draft forward from an outline. If your goal is generating and polishing the actual words on the page, Sudowrite is excellent at that, and this page is not going to pretend otherwise.
Storyflow is a different category on purpose. It does not generate prose, and it is not trying to. Storyflow is the visual planning canvas for the story around the writing: the structure and beats, the character maps and relationships, the world-building, and the research. Instead of a document, you get a truly infinite canvas where every piece is a card you can move, connect, recolor, and group, so the whole story reads at a glance rather than scrolling past in a manuscript.
The honest version: many writers plan the story in Storyflow and draft the prose in Sudowrite or their own editor, and that split works well. Storyflow is the alternative for writers who want to organize the story visually rather than auto-write it. The AI here lays out a character map, a beat sheet, or a world board from a prompt using your board as context, and the planning board becomes the next step: a beat sheet turns into an outline, a moodboard turns into a shot list, all on the same canvas.
HOW IT WORKS
Plan a story on the canvas in four steps.
Bring the premise. The AI lays out the first planning board, so structure starts with something real on the canvas.
01
Open a free canvas
Start in the browser with a free account. No app to install and no card to enter, just an infinite canvas ready for your structure, cast, and world.
02
Describe your story
One sentence is enough: a premise, a genre, a logline. Ask for a character map, a beat sheet, or a world-building board to start from.
03
AI lays out the plan
The AI reads the current board and lays out cards: beats and act structure, characters and their relationships, or world details, grouped so the shape of the story reads at a glance.
04
Refine, then draft where you like
Drag and recolor cards, pin research beside them, and turn a beat sheet into an outline. Export the plan as an image or PDF, share a view-only link, or carry it into Sudowrite to write the prose.
The structure Sudowrite writes into, laid out in space first.
Keep Sudowrite for the prose. Do the structure, beats, cast, and world on a canvas that shows the whole story at once.
A full plan from a single prompt
AI lays out the plan, you refine
Storyflow's AI does not write your prose. It lays out a beat sheet, character map, or world board from your prompt using the current canvas as context, so you shape a real structure before a single scene gets drafted anywhere.
See the AI story outline generator →
Characters you can see connected
Character maps, not a prose sketch
A generated character description is still one block of text. On the canvas, each character is a card you connect to allies, rivals, and arcs, so relationships and tension read visually across the whole cast before you write them.
See the AI character profile generator →
A world that spreads, not scrolls
World-building on an infinite canvas
A story world rarely fits inside a document. Storyflow's canvas is truly infinite, so places, factions, timelines, and lore keep spreading sideways with references attached, instead of scrolling past in a wall of prose you have to re-read.
See the worldbuilding tool →
The plan becomes the next step
Beat sheets become outlines and boards
A planning board in Storyflow is step one, not a static doc. Ask the AI to turn a beat sheet into a chapter outline, or a moodboard into a shot list, on the same canvas the planning lives on, then take that structure into Sudowrite to draft.
See the story planning tool →Free forever. No object cap.
Storyflow's free plan runs in any browser with no object cap and no time limit, so a whole story world never pushes you to upgrade just to keep planning it.
Unlimited planning boards on an infinite canvas, no object cap
Basic AI usage to lay out and expand structure, beats, and character maps
Attach research images, PDFs, video, and links, plus 20 file uploads
Share plans view-only, or invite collaborators free
BUILT FOR WRITERS
Made for planning the story, not generating the prose.
Lay a story out in space, keep the structure and cast visible at once, and move from plan to outline without leaving the canvas.
Structure you can see whole
The whole story in one view
Beats, cast, and world as cards: The pieces a draft buries in scrolling prose live on one canvas as cards you drag, recolor, resize, and connect, so the structure reads at a glance instead of hiding in a document.
AI lays out the first pass: Instead of a blank outline, the AI proposes a full beat sheet or character map from your prompt. Keep what fits, cut the rest, add your own. It plans the structure, it does not write the scenes.
Plan without limits: No object cap on the free plan means a sprawling story keeps every beat, location, and note that earns its place on the board.
Context from the board you are planning
AI that builds on your story so far
Reads your active board: The AI uses what is on the planning board you have open, so new beats and characters fit the world and tone you have already set on the canvas.
@-mention your sources: Add up to one Tactic and three documents as context: a premise, a synopsis, or research the plan should grow from.
Re-prompt to refine: Ask for a tighter three-act shape, a darker antagonist, or more subplots. The AI reworks the structure on the board while keeping the cards you edited.
Research beside the story, not in a doc
Media-rich research on the canvas
Drop in anything: Images, video, GIFs, PDFs, and links sit on the canvas next to the beat or character they inform, so references stay visible instead of pasted into a note you scroll away from.
Frame grabs from video: Capture stills from YouTube and Vimeo straight onto the board when a reference film sets the tone for a setting or a mood.
Notes where you need them: Longer world notes and backstory live as documents on the same canvas, so the plan stays scannable and the detail stays one click away.
The plan is step one, not the prose
From planning board to outline and beyond
Turn plans into real structure: Ask the AI to convert a beat sheet into a chapter outline, or a moodboard into a shot list, on the same canvas, with the story details carried over, ready to draft from.
Share the plan: Invite collaborators or a co-writer free, or send a view-only link so a beta reader or editor can explore the plan without an account.
Export as image or PDF: Need the plan in a doc, a pitch, or beside your Sudowrite draft? Export it as a clean image or PDF in one step.
WHO IT IS FOR
Who looks for a Sudowrite alternative for planning?
Writers who want to organize the story visually, then draft the prose wherever they like.
Novelists structuring a book
Lay out the beats, connect the cast, and structure the plot as cards you can see at once, then draft each chapter in Sudowrite or your own editor with the structure already sorted.
Plotters building beat sheets
Generate a beat sheet from a premise, drag beats until the shape is right, and turn it into a chapter outline on the same canvas before a word of prose gets written.
Worldbuilders and fantasy writers
Spread places, factions, timelines, and lore across an infinite canvas with reference images attached, so a deep world stays visible instead of scrolling past in a draft.
Screenwriters planning structure
Map characters and beats visually before the pages, expand the thin acts with AI, then move into a script tool to write with the structure locked in.
Co-writing teams and editors
Plan a story together on one shared canvas, share it view-only for notes, and keep every research reference without trimming the board to fit a limit.
COMPARED
Storyflow vs Sudowrite, Scrivener, and Notion.
Each tool does something well. Sudowrite generates and polishes prose. The question is what lays out, connects, and structures the story around it.
Storyflow
Recommended
AI that lays out story structure from a prompt
A visual, connected planning canvas
AI prose generation and rewriting
A free plan with no object cap, in the browser
Sudowrite
AI that lays out story structure from a prompt
A visual, connected planning canvas
AI prose generation and rewriting
A free plan with no object cap, in the browser
Scrivener
AI that lays out story structure from a prompt
A visual, connected planning canvas
AI prose generation and rewriting
A free plan with no object cap, in the browser
Notion
AI that lays out story structure from a prompt
A visual, connected planning canvas
AI prose generation and rewriting
A free plan with no object cap, in the browser
What creators are saying
Join early creators getting structured workspaces and AI that remembers their projects
“Storyflow has sped up my workflow by at least 3x, which means more flow state and more projects I can actually ship. It truly changed the way me and my team create.”
Reilin Joey
Director & YouTuber
“One prompt gets me a structured board. But the tactics are my favorite. I run my YouTube scripts through them and my intros and retention got better. It's amazing.”
Justkay
YouTuber & Freelance Filmmaker
“I used to juggle five apps to plan a project. Now I describe what I am making and get boards, lists, and a schedule. All in one place.”
George
@fernwehchronicles
Sudowrite alternative questions, answered.
Everything writers ask when comparing Storyflow with Sudowrite.
For the planning side of writing, yes. Sudowrite generates and rewrites prose, and it is genuinely good at it. Storyflow is a different category: it is the visual planning canvas for the story around the writing, structure, beats, character maps, and world-building, on an infinite canvas with AI. Many writers plan in Storyflow and draft the prose in Sudowrite.
Draft the prose in Sudowrite. Plan the story on the canvas.
Describe your premise, watch a beat sheet or character map lay itself out, and refine on an infinite canvas with no object cap. Free plan, no credit card.