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Author OS doesn't write your book for you β it helps you think it into being, in your own voice. Here's every tool and how to get the most from each.
+ New (top-left) creates a project; the dropdown switches between them β keep several going at once. Each keeps its own Book Map, conversations, manuscript, and timer.
When you create a project you pick what you're writing β Book/Chapter, Speech, Sermon, Personal Essay, or Term Paper. The genre tunes the dictation question arc and how your words are shaped (your outline itself is free-form β see the Book Map below). Speeches and sermons are shaped for the ear β delivery rhythm, second person, room to breathe β and their timings are real speaking time.
Duplicate clones the current project β intent, Book Map, and section content β so you can rework a speech or sermon for a new occasion or audience without starting over. It even prompts you for the new audience on the way in.
Anchor the whole project to what it's for β these shape every tool (questions, dictation arc, and shaping):
Best practice: set The Assignment and Audience first β everything NORM does will serve them, and your Objectives suggestions get sharper.
Best practice: don't pre-plan the whole book. Add map nodes as ideas land and reorder later β the structure should follow the thinking, not precede it.
FLOW example: "I want to open with the night my parents stopped speaking, but I keep abstracting it." β NORM asks what you actually saw and heard in that moment.
DISCERNMENT example: "My claim: every rupture can be repaired if both people want it." β NORM probes the edge cases until the claim holds.
Best practice: generate in FLOW, sharpen in DISCERNMENT. Enter sends, Shift+Enter makes a new line. Tap π€ to talk instead of type.
Outline your sections β NORM builds a question arc tuned to your genre (a book's arc differs from a speech's or a sermon's) β you record yourself answering β it transcribes (Whisper) and shapes your words into prose in your genre's voice β you review β approve β publish. Nothing publishes without your approval.
Best practice: speak naturally and tell stories β don't "perform." Record one section at a time. The shaped draft keeps your voice; you stay the editor.
Two panes: your sections and a prose editor. Create a section (optionally linked to a Book Map chapter) and write. Every Save is a new immutable version β open History to view or restore any earlier draft, so you can never lose work. Run Check originality before you finalize. π Read plays a section aloud in a voice you choose β reading by ear catches what the eye misses.
The conversation develops your thinking and won't ghostwrite β but when you explicitly want line help, select a passage in Write and pick an op: soften, sharpen, clarify, simplify, deepen, enliven, tighten, lengthen/shorten, Β½/β /2Γ/3Γ length, summarize, assemble, synchronize, compartmentalize, or analyze it (extract, identify, word-swap, critical review). It uses your Audience so word choices land. Suggestions are yours to Accept or dismiss β nothing changes until you say so.
Already have copy? Paste it and NORM breaks it into cards and sorts them toward the right chapters (it never rewrites your words). Drag cards between the Unsorted tray and your Book Map columns β or on touch use each card's Move toβ¦ menu and the column ββΆ arrows. Accept its suggestions, then Expand a card β or several β into a section. Deleted cards go to a restorable π Trash. On a multi-monitor setup, hit β§ Pop out to open the board in its own window; use β to carry a card to a column in another window (everything stays in sync live).
This is the tool for feedback and questions β it discusses, then offers edits. Give an instruction or ask NORM a question β "critique my pacing and flag weak transitions", "tighten chapter 3 by a third", "I think the 'read your strip' card with my men's-retreat story fits better right before the climax β wdyt?" β and it reads your whole manuscript (weighing your Objectives, Audience and this project's π§ AI Memory), answers you in prose, and proposes concrete changes you apply selectively: rewrite a section, append to one, move/reorder one (e.g. "put that card right after the opening"), remove one, or add a new section (in an existing chapter or a new one). It can even sharpen The Assignment, Audience, or Objectives themselves. Nothing changes until you click Apply.
It's a conversation. NORM keeps context across the exchange, so when it offers numbered options you can just reply "do 1", "yes", or "the second one" and it carries that out β no need to restate. After you Apply a change, See it β jumps you to it in the Manuscript, and βΆ Undo reverses it. Critique also sees your recent edit history, so you can ask βwhat happened to my Big Idea?β and it'll tell you what changed and when (and can propose putting the earlier text back). Hit οΌ New to start a fresh critique. Open it from π Critique in the tab row or the Tools menu.
Revised your whole manuscript somewhere else? Paste it in and NORM first checkpoints your current version (saved as v1, v2β¦ and restorable), then diffs the revised copy against your cards and proposes the changes to make the manuscript match β rewrite changed sections, add new ones, remove what's gone. Review and Apply all to move to the new version. Your old version is always safe.
Tagged, reusable chunks (text, media, or slide decks) you can drop into any publication. πΎ Harvest sweeps your loose Unsorted cards into the library β AI-titling and tagging each, and moving any duplicates to Trash so you don't collect the same thing twice. Search by title, text, or tag; click a card to open it (edit its title, body, and tags); delete goes to a restorable π Trash. Insert any element as a card into your current outline.
A scratch canvas parallel to your book where you command the AI to draft and rewrite β "combine my outline and draft into one flowing 20-minute talk in my voice", "cut this to a tight 800 words", "rewrite this section warmer, less preachy". Pull in reference with β€ Outline / β€ Manuscript (or the include checkboxes), and it also reads this project's π§ AI Memory. Studio returns rewritten draft text β it does, it doesn't chat; for feedback and "wdyt?" questions use π Critique. Keep named π¬ Cuts (e.g. 20 min Β· KC 10/26), iterate with Undo/Redo + full history, and merge to the Manuscript or Outline when ready.
In π Project home, each project (body of work) has an AI Memory box β the standing framing you want NORM to keep in mind: the story spine, key facts, name spellings, voice & tone, do's and don'ts. It's fed into Studio and Critique for every publication under that project, so your book, 30-minute speech, and workshop all share one memory without you re-explaining it each time. Example: "The men's-retreat story is the emotional spine. Keep it wry, never preachy. Never soften the fall."
A freeform scratchpad that autosaves. πΎ Harvest saves its content to your Elements library and clears it; β Clear empties it. (Notes is yours β it isn't read by the AI. For things NORM should always remember, use π§ AI Memory above.)
Edit in place: in π Manuscript β All you can now click straight into any section's title or body and type β it autosaves. Drag the β Ώ handle to reorder; hit β€’ to open the full section editor (chapter, history, originality). Jump between tools: the header of Write, Critique, Organize, Review & History carries the same hotlink bar β π Write Β· π Critique Β· π Organize Β· π’ Review Β· π History β so you move straight from one to another. οΌ Card (also in those headers) turns any highlighted text β in a review, a critique answer, a card, or the editor β into a new card in π Unsorted. The βMove to chapterβ dropdown in the editor lists your chapters (it files the card into your outline) β it doesn't switch which card you're editing.
π History (header bar or Tools) is a timeline of every change across your whole project. Click any change to see a color-coded diff β green = added, red = removed. Restore any version β it's non-destructive (your current text is saved as a new version, so you can always come back). Two safety anchors: β© Back to where you started undoes every restore you've made since opening History, and β€Ί Restore to original takes a section back to its first draft. Every explicit Save (and every AI change) snapshots a restorable version; long editing sessions also snapshot automatically, so you're always covered.
Undo/Redo: press Ctrl+Z to undo your last action β a move, an AI Apply, a restore, a removal β and Ctrl+Y (or Ctrl+Shift+Z) to redo. A small toast tells you exactly what it undid (βUndid: rewrote a sectionβ), and a floating βΆ Undo / β· Redo bar appears bottom-left. Inside a text box, Ctrl+Z still does normal typing-undo β the app-level undo only kicks in outside a field, so the two never collide.
A guided dictation sprint. Set The Assignment + Audience, NORM drafts a chapter plan from your intent, and you go chapter-by-chapter answering spoken prompts β roughly 45β55 minutes a chapter, so a few hours of talking becomes a first-draft manuscript. A pace HUD tracks your progress.
Turn a finished piece into a speaker's recall deck β a card per movement with cue phrases (great for speeches and sermons). Print index cards or a sheet (Save as PDF), export Markdown, attach media to cards (π), or hit βΆ Rehearse for full-screen Performance mode: flip cards with β / β / Space (or a clicker), with per-card timing and pace. Switch Practice (timers + targets) to Perform (clean cards) for the real thing.
Add images, audio, video, and PDFs in Media β they stay on your device free (or sync across devices with the $5/mo Cloud Media add-on). For talks, open the π₯ Audience screen, drag it to your projector/second monitor and fullscreen it; then cue any asset to it while your notes stay on your screen. Attach media to deck cards and turn on Auto in Performance mode to cue each card's media automatically as you advance.
When the draft's ready, make it a book. Format: pick a trim size, body font, and margins; add front/back matter (copyright, dedication, auto Table of Contents); see a live page-count estimate vs your target (and which Editorial Assist length op to use to hit it); Typeset PDF renders a print-grade, paginated, trim-sized PDF with page numbers on the server (no print dialog); Quick PDF uses your browser's Save-as-PDF; or export DOCX (book or manuscript-submission format) and EPUB. Cover: compose a front cover (title/subtitle/author over a color or image), or β¨ generate AI cover art and an β¨ AI back-cover blurb; download the front (eBook) or a full print wrap (front + spine + back, spine sized to your page count, barcode placed). ISBN: add an ISBN per format β it's validated and converted (10β13), with a scannable EAN-13 barcode.
Find sources, quotes, stats, and examples for the current project. Quotes are verified at the source before they're shown β no fabricated citations.
Example prompt: "research on how rupture-and-repair builds secure attachment."
Checks a dictation draft or a manuscript section against the web β CLEAN or FLAGGED with the matched sources β plus an AI rephrase to make a flagged passage fully your own.
Take the short reflection (right panel, or Profile) to discover your writer archetype. NORM uses it to tune its pacing, prompts, and question emphasis to how you think. See the Writer Tips tab for what each type means. In Profile you can also have NORM read your actual writing and compare how you write with how you process β when they diverge, that's a useful thing to notice, not a problem to fix.
Profile holds your demographics (which improve how your assessment is normed) and your data controls β withdraw and delete your assessment data anytime.
The β± in the header counts your active writing time and pauses (βΈ) after 10 minutes idle β an honest measure of real work.
The header shows your trial days / plan and AI exchanges left; Upgrade anytime. After the assessment, "See your full personalized report" opens your complete report in NORM Rhythm β individual results, a Change Readiness report, and the option to invite your partner.
Your writer archetype comes from your NRSI processing signature β your speed and your self-regulation. NORM adapts pacing, prompts, and structure to fit you; here's how to play to each type's strengths yourself.
You are: fast and self-aware β ideas arrive quickly and you connect them into a whole.
Watch for: over-abstracting; skipping the concrete.
Do this: draft fast and resist over-thinking; pour out the connections, then anchor each one to a specific scene or example. Lean on Research to feed your synthesis.
NORM tunes for you: faster pacing, fewer prompts, light structure β and deepens the Story and Insight beats.
You are: hot and instinctive β big bursts of momentum, shape later.
Watch for: losing the reader; accidental overlap with sources.
Do this: protect the burst β write the whole sprint before you edit. Then take one reader-pass (who is this for, what do they feel?). Run originality after fast drafts.
NORM tunes for you: high flow-protection (it won't interrupt the sprint) β and deepens the Insight and Reader-Turn beats.
You are: careful and precise β structure and quality lead, output is high-finish.
Watch for: the blank-page stall; polishing too early.
Do this: start with a low-stakes warm-up; allow a deliberately messy first pass before refining; make it concrete and usable. Let the timer show your momentum.
NORM tunes for you: low interruption, minimal prompts β and deepens the Warmup and Application beats.
You are: associative and exploratory β meaning surfaces sideways, through wandering.
Watch for: scatter; no clear through-line.
Do this: wander freely first, then use the Book Map and DISCERNMENT to find the spine; define your key terms early. Welcome NORM's frequent prompts as rails.
NORM tunes for you: strong structure scaffolding and frequent prompts β and deepens the Bridge and Define beats.
Adaptation tunes your experience β pacing, prompts, organization β and is never a verdict on you. It also nudges from your signals: lower emotional-regulation β it protects your storytelling and defers critique; attachment style β reassurance-first vs. autonomy-respecting; high meaning/spiritual β more meaning-centered prompts. Archetype adaptation activates on a paid plan.
Already have copy? Paste it β NORM sorts it into cards you drop into your outline.