NovelShaft
: How to use it, features, and the business problems it solves

What is NovelShaft

NovelShaft is an AI-assisted novel-writing environment that keeps the manuscript, the manuscript outline, reference material such as characters and world-building, and conversations with AI together in one project called a "work". You can go from talking through a fragment of a scene or a character, to drafting, to revising a long-form novel, to exporting and publishing the finished manuscript, all on the same screen. It is available on the Web and on iOS (iPhone and iPad), and supports works written in Japanese or English.

At the center of the design is the idea that the author decides what stays in the work. AI asks questions, organizes, suggests, and drafts, but limited changes it makes to the manuscript or reference material can be skipped before they are applied, high-risk actions such as deletion require explicit approval, and changes can be undone afterward with the project-wide Undo. NovelShaft is not a service that hands the story over to AI. It is designed as a collaborator for an author who has to keep facing a long story with an ever-growing pile of settings and drafts.

Think about the next scene with the draft in view

The writing workspace is a three-pane screen: the AI conversation on the left, the manuscript outline in the middle, and the manuscript editor on the right. Once a conversation settles the core of the story, say "Emma entrusts her memory, Luca takes on the story," you can write it into the manuscript and keep the meaning of that choice in reference material, all without leaving the screen.

Source: NovelShaft official site (the screenshots below are from the same source)

You do not need a finished prompt; conversations run in natural sentences. AI replies come with short reply suggestions that you can pick to continue, or you can write freely. You can point AI at a selected passage or at reference material inside the work with reference tags and ask it to look at the description in a specific chapter, and for topics such as character relationships or timelines that read better as a diagram, AI adds one. A scene that comes to you on the move can be dictated with voice input, transcribed, and used in the conversation.

Conversations are split into threads by topic, so discussions about "a character's motive," "how the final chapter unfolds," and "wording" do not get mixed together. A default AI model is set per account, and individual replies can be switched to another model when needed.

AI does not rewrite on its own. You get five seconds to skip a change

Ask AI to "add a sentence to the final chapter that shows Emma entrusted her memory," and it shows what it will change and asks to confirm with "Apply changes to the work." For limited changes like this, if you choose "Do not apply" during the few-second countdown before auto-apply, the manuscript stays as it was.

After a change is applied, you can open the target and check it, then use the project-wide Undo. High-risk actions such as deletion require explicit approval, and AI is not given the ability to delete reference material at all.

Searches and actions AI performs are kept as an execution log in order, and manuscripts or material it creates or updates can be opened from the result to check what was actually saved. If another screen or AI has already changed the same manuscript, edit-conflict protection keeps your in-progress input from being silently overwritten and lets you review the latest content before saving.

Characters, world, and timeline live outside the manuscript

Reference material is organized in folders per work. Besides free-form documents for settings and research notes, you can create plot material such as a basic plot, hierarchical outline, scene cards, and four-act structure; character, place, and world settings that organize goals, motives, and conflicts, the role of a place, and the rules of the world by field; a timeline that switches between a list and a vertical chronology; and relationship charts and family trees editable as both a diagram and a text list.

External files such as text, images, and PDFs can be brought in as reference material too. Depending on what you ask, AI searches the relevant passages in the manuscript and reference material it needs.

For the situation long-form writers know well, where character notes, the plot, and AI conversations each hold a different version of a setting, you can check for gaps against characters, the timeline, and the rules of the world with AI while it references the manuscript and material. The official site states that this is not a feature that guarantees complete automatic detection of contradictions; AI observations are positioned as a starting point for review.

Even with only a fragment, it drafts your first prompt for you

You do not need a title or settings to create a new work. Choose which is closest, "nothing decided yet," "only fragments," "have settings or a synopsis," or "already writing," pick what you want to start with today, add a line about what is on your mind, and an editable first prompt is prepared. You can also skip AI and begin from the manuscript.

Creative assists, which explore a specific creative theme, can be reused as dedicated threads per work. The outcome of the dialogue is previewed as a report and can be saved as reference material. A creative assist never directly rewrites the manuscript or existing settings.

How to use it

1. Create an account

   Sign up with an email address and password or a supported external account. No payment details are required, and you get 1,500 AI credits for 30 days: 1,300 welcome credits plus the regular 200 Free credits.

2. Create a work (project)

   Choose whether it is a Japanese or an English work. AI, search, word or character counting, typesetting, voice, and export follow the language of the work. If you already have a draft or setting documents, bring them in as reference material and start from there.

3. Write while consulting AI

   Move between the conversation, outline, and editor as you write. AI replies consume credits, and usage varies with the AI you choose (Lightweight, Standard, Advanced) and the action. Changes AI makes to the manuscript or material are confirmed before they are applied.

4. Read it back and tidy it up

   Switch between horizontal and vertical writing and listen back with standard read-aloud (which uses no credits) or AI voice. Manuscript search with confirmed replace, a variant-spelling check that looks up several spellings of names and places at once, and a target for the total body text are available.

5. Export or publish

   Export the whole manuscript or a selected section as Text, Markdown, DOCX, PDF, or EPUB 3. A work can stay private, be shared link-only with people who have the URL, or be published publicly.

Features

In the publishing settings you set a public title, author display name, and blurb separately from the project name you use while writing, and choose the ending of the public URL yourself. The published range can be the whole work or everything under a chosen heading, and link-only URLs can be reissued.

Because the reader page does not change automatically as you keep writing, a draft in mid-revision is never visible to readers.

Supported environments

Pricing

The Web version is billed monthly in US dollars. Free is a plan with no expiry that refreshes 200 AI credits every 30 days. Paid plans expand, in addition to credits, the available AI models, reference-material storage, the reference and conversation context AI can use, and the limit on long responses.

Additional AI credits can be purchased on every plan, including Free. Purchased credits do not expire unless the purchase screen says otherwise (monthly credits expire at the end of the billing period).

• In-app purchases on iPhone and iPad go through the App Store, with separate yen prices. As of September 8, 2026, the App Store lists Light ¥3,000, Standard ¥6,000, and Pro ¥18,000 per month. The official site explains these as the Web USD prices plus the store's sales commission, and states that the price, currency, and tax shown on the purchase screen are authoritative
• Web payments go through Stripe Checkout and accept credit cards and the other methods shown there. Monthly plans renew automatically until canceled, with no minimum term
• The Web USD prices do not state whether tax is included
• Paid creative assists are one-time purchases priced in yen in the Web catalog (not sold in the app)

(Based on the official site, the Specified Commercial Transactions Act notice, and the App Store listing as of September 2026)

How your work's data is handled

When you entrust a manuscript and its settings to a service, rights and AI training are the first things to check. Here is what the official site and the Terms of Service (last revised August 25, 2026) say.

Service history

The first version of NovelShaft launched in February 2025. After reconsidering how AI should take part in creative writing, the service relaunched in its current form on July 14, 2026. The relaunch announcement put "keeping the author the author" first and set out a policy of designing AI as a collaborator rather than a replacement for the author.

The public site's changelog runs from the release of the core features on July 11, 2026 through September, with updates including structured reference material, public reader pages, English support, diagrams and images, consulting with reference tags, and ruby and writing instructions. The iOS app was released on September 4, 2026. The official site also has a contact point for business collaboration such as publishing, editing, and creative education, and for capital partnerships.

How it differs from other novel-writing AI and chat assistants

"Writing a novel with AI" covers different things depending on how much text the AI generates and where the manuscript and settings live. NovelShaft keeps the manuscript and reference material inside the work, and AI answers by referring to them.

FAQ

The information on this page is based on what was published on the official site as of September 2026. Please check the official site for the latest specifications and pricing.