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The canvas is not for writing down the answer.
It’s not for storing a finished structure. The canvas is
where you test relationships,
remove them,
and place them again to judge.
Here you don’t lock things in;
you shake the structure and see what holds.

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When to use it

Use the canvas when:
  • The story’s center feels blurry
  • You have scenes but no clear direction
  • There are many relationships but the core is hard to see
That’s when you need to check structure
before writing more.

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What you can do

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Character ↔ event relationships

Place characters and events as cards
and use lines to show influence.
Who moves what,
which event is central
— you see it at a glance.

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Theme and scene links

Connect scene cards and theme cards
to check the story’s direction.
See whether every scene
ties to a theme.
Scenes that don’t connect
may need another look.

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Extending plot context

You can bring flow from the plotboard
onto the canvas and extend it.
  • Context before and after a scene
  • Change in emotion
  • How setting influences things
You’re re-reading flow as relationship.

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Basic checking flow

  1. Place the main cards first.
  2. Add supporting cards and connect them.
  3. Remove connections that don’t help.
Structure gets clearer
when you simplify, not when you add more.

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Tips

  • Too many lines can look messy. Keep only the ones that help.
  • If the central card isn’t clear, it may be too early to expand into a document.
The canvas is
not for proving a finished structure;
it’s for checking it.
If the plotboard orders the story’s progress,
the canvas checks the relationships that support that progress.