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POV Formatting Plugin for Scrivener & Word

A lightweight plugin that integrates into Scrivener (primary) and Microsoft Word, allowing writers to tag POV character names in the manuscript as they write. The plugin auto-generates a visual chapter-by-chapter POV map, flags chapters with more than 3 POV shifts (customizable), suggests formatting rules based on industry standards, and exports a one-page 'POV Summary' showing pattern consistency. Writers can also apply one-click formatting templates (e.g., 'italicize internal monologue for POV A') to entire chapters.

PLUGIN

14 weeks • 70% confidence

Value Proposition

Real-time POV tracking *while writing*, not after. Catches POV confusion before it becomes a manuscript-wide problem. The visual map makes patterns obvious and prevents the 'did I shift POV too much in Chapter 8?' panic. Formatting templates save hours of manual work. Beats generic writing software because it solves ONE problem deeply; beats manual tracking because it's automatic and visual.

Target Audience

Active fiction writers using Scrivener (primary, ~100k active users) and Word (~500k writers); indie authors and pre-submission traditionally-published authors drafting multi-POV narratives.

Key Features

  • POV character tagging system (highlight text, assign POV, auto-counts per chapter)
  • Visual chapter-by-chapter POV heatmap (shows which chapters have which POV characters)
  • Shift-frequency alerts (flags chapters exceeding user-defined POV shift limits)
  • And more, with full implementation detail...

Tech Stack

Scrivener 3 API (Lua scripting) Word Add-in API (JavaScript/Office.js) D3.js or Canvas (heatmap visualization) Stripe (subscription billing)
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Original Problem

Fiction writers struggle to maintain reader clarity about point-of-view shifts between chapters

Authors writing multi-POV narratives lack clear conventions for signaling perspective changes, causing reader confusion and requiring awkward exposition or formatting workarounds. Writers spend significant time debating best practices because publishing industry standards are ambiguous, and wrong choices can damage reader experience and book reviews.

Score: 17.5%