If you’ve been around for a while, you’ll know I’m a big fan of Lore Forge (here’s my write up on how I use it for my fiction writing). And when it comes to free tools, this is still the best in my opinion. But what it doesn’t do is formatting. The free version only lets you export to docx. To publish my novel Salt and Ice, I then used Libre Office and Kindle Create to format it. The process was so incredibly painful that I seriously considered biting the bullet and buying Atticus. After all, it’s what it seems like everyone recommends. However, I didn’t like the fact that it was always online for its full functionality. I live in Queensland, Australia, and at least once a year we have storms severe enough to knock out our internet. That is some of my best writing time since the distractions are forcibly removed and I didn’t love the idea that a formatting tool that I paid (a lot of) money for wouldn’t work.
Then my husband pointed me towards a new program he found called Deckle. This program is currently in early access and, while not free, it was still on par with Atticus’s pricing and, best of all for me, completely offline. I watched what few videos were available on it and liked what I saw. Unfortunately it didn’t have a demo, but it did offer 100% money back guarantee, no questions asked, for 30 days. I figured that was long enough to trial it.
It’s now been a bit over those 30 days and I am a complete convert! Not only does it have the user friendly, visual aspect without Scrivener’s learning curve that I loved with Lore Forge, but the formatting tools were so simple and easy to use it makes me wish I knew about it (or that it existed) when I was formatting Salt and Ice!
And, on top of me simply loving it and wanting to share with fellow writers, I am also now an affiliate. That means that, until the 8th August 2026 (US time zone) you can get this program for US$107, and I’ll get a little kick back as thanks for having referred you. After that date, the program ends its early access and enters full release and the pricing goes up accordingly to US$197, so if you like what you see here, now’s the time to buy it. And don’t forget, it’s got a 30 day refund policy so you risk nothing by trying it out.
That link is: https://deckle.studio/?coupon=jdlear.
Keep in mind that these screenshots and this article was written using version 1.4.6. I know that the upcoming version (1.5) will have major changes to the Codex (making it far more customisable), sprint and goal tracking, and include a visual timeline, just to name a few. My version hasn’t updated yet, it will in a few days, but I wanted to get this article out before the early access pricing goes up.
Also, if you’re reading this through your email, it may be cut short. Adding as many screenshots as I have made the article too long, so I recommend clicking the link to open it in a browser.
If you’d like to get all my articles direct to your inbox, don’t forget to subscribe! All my writing is free so it costs you literally nothing to keep up to date :)
Writing in Deckle
I created a brief little project to show you how it all works (so you don’t need to deal with my messy process and I avoid giving away spoilers). When you start a new project, the binder to the left is blank. You press that little + sign next to Draft to create what you like (in my case I created a folder named Notes, a Note named To Do which I nested inside the Notes folder, a Chapter with text directly inside it, and a Chapter with a scene inside it).
You can add any number of pages from here:
Folder
Chapter
Scene
Note
Part
Front Matter
Title page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Foreword
Preface
Table of Contents
Back Matter
About the Author
Acknowledgments
Also by the Author
Coming Next
Book Club Questions
Glossary
Import (you can import your previous work into Deckle automatically. It accepts docx, epub, and scrivener files in a zip folder. I tried it with docx and didn’t have great success but I haven’t tried it with the other versions and I know it’s getting a significant improvement next release).
Properties Panel
The right hand side defaults to the Properties panel. Here you can see the words and characters in what’s selected, be it a scene, chapter, or notes.
Then you have labels with a number of default colours. These are editable. I use the labels to indicate who’s POV the scene is in so I can see at a glance based on the colour.
Next is the Comments. That’s right, Deckle also has collaboration features. To be fair, I’ve not experimented with this yet, I haven’t reached a point where my story is at a state to share, but I can definitely see the potential of this for people who have a co-writer.
And finally is the versions history. This isn’t automatic (it does save automatically, but it doesn’t make separate versions automatically), but it means that once you finish draft one, you can save a snapshot of it, then work on draft two. Should you need to revert back, the snapshot is there and waiting for you.
Preview Panel
This is where you can see a live preview of what your book will look like with the selected Styles (more on that later) as you type it. You can choose to view it as a Kindle, iPhone, iPad, or in print. Perfect for those who like to see what their formatting looks like as they go!
You can also drag any of these panels left or right to increase or decrease the amount of screen they take up.
Research in Deckle
Along with adding the same kind of Chapter, Scene, Note, and Folders as the writing section, you can also add a web page to the research section. This will save a copy or a snapshot of the website so that the information is available offline or if the website ever goes down. If you’re writing non-fiction, the web page snapshot also includes the date it was saved, useful for your bibliographies.
You can also import files that are locally saved on your computer, such as images, pdf files, and anything else that you use as a reference.
Finally there’s the Trash section. Anything you delete will go to the trash rather than being permanently removed, meaning you can delete to your heart’s content without fear of accidentally losing something or changing your mind later. Of course, the trash can then be emptied which will permanently delete what’s inside it.
Split Screen View
For all you multi-taskers out there, Deckle also has you covered! You can open up to four different sections of the document simultaneously to keep them on screen while you work, including your research.
Personally, I like to have it split screen with two screens active, one with the chapter I’m working on, and one with my To Do notes open so I can easily see what needs to be changed as I change it.
Codex
This is one of the areas that I know has been updated a lot since I wrote this article, however this should give you a good idea of what’s included.
The codex is basically your story bible where you store all information about characters, locations, important objects, spells, etc etc.
Characters
Currently, the character profiles are the same for every role you make, but this is one of those parts that will be able to be edited to match what fits your character, role, or style of writing/planning.
Currently you can label each character’s role as Protagonist, Antagonist, Supporting, or Minor characters, as well as upload fancy pictures of them to really set the mood.
Location
This is where you can record the details about notable settings in your story. It’s really useful for making sure you have places that sound coherent within your world, don’t all sound too similar (cause that can get confusing for the reader) and has a distinct atmosphere and vibe to them so that they’re memorable.
Items
This final section is a bit of a catch all for anything else of importance.
This was actually added based on feedback I gave the developers! My upcoming series Legacy of Ash and Smoke has a few important artefacts and lore associated with its magic, as well as spells that are gradually acquired throughout the series. I wanted some way to track them, so suggested adding an “Important Items” section to the codex for this very purpose.
Kudos to the devs for being really open to suggestions and improvements!
Outliner
If you’re familiar with Scrivener’s cork board, this is Deckle’s version of that. You can drag and drop chapters to rearrange them, and if you want to rearrange scenes, you just click into the chapter to move the scenes around.
And, of course, you can add more chapters from this screen so you can quickly outline your entire novel this way. Filling out the synopsis section also helps, especially if you’re lazy like me and name all your chapters One, Two, Three, etc (I just couldn’t be bothered filling them out just for screenshots on a dummy project).
Project Stats
This is another section that will likely be changed slightly with the new update to take into account sprints and goals. For this screenshot, I opened my current project for Legacy of Ash and Smoke so you can see how it tracks things over time.
I’m particularly looking forward to seeing the tapestry style tracker filling out over a year to see how that changes as I go!
Styles
There are two sections to the Styles panel: Presets and Advanced.
Presets lets you choose between a boggling amount of pre-set styles. In this build, there are an incredible 26 style presets. And, so long as you have selected a chapter through the binder, you can preview what each will look like just by clicking on each of them.
No worries if a style isn’t quite right either. Simply select the one that’s close enough, then change to the Advanced view.
This is where you can change literally everything about a style from the fonts used (including uploading your own if the one you want isn’t included), changing the scene break image, the margins for print layout, chapter design, even letting you add images to your chapter headings. It’s all here to make your formatting exactly as you like.
The preview, as with everything else, is updated in real time. You make a change and can instantly see how it will affect your story to decide if you like it or not.
Export
When your book is finished and you’re happy with the formatting, it’s time to export it! You can export it in:
epub
docx
pdf
markdown
plain text
Make sure you remember to add your metadata here (author name, title, subtitle, etc) so the front and backmatter can be prefilled correctly.
And then away you go, your book has gone from outlining to publication ready all in the one program!
Honourable Mentions
This is where I mention the parts of the program that are cool, but not really warranting full screenshots.
Focus mode — removes everything except the screen where you type your words. No distraction from all the parts of the program you don’t want to use.
Project wide search — You know you’ve mentioned this thing somewhere but your project is massive and you’re not sure where it is. This project wide search will locate it for you!
Continuous view — Don’t like having separate chapters and scenes and needing to click between them? Used to having your entire novel in one Word document (you heathen!)? Then continuous view is for you. It lets you see the whole lot in one single screen.
Final Thoughts
Deckle is everything I have ever wanted in a writing program, combining the functionality of Scrivener with the user friendliness of Lore Forge, and the formatting tools of Atticus (or Vellum if you’re an Apple enthusiast).
The developers are really communicative, letting everyone know what each update has with detailed release notes and very quick to reply to any emails you may send them with questions or concerns (I can personally vouch for this as I got responses within 24 hours).