Literary Craft
Cairn
Structure as a writing partner. We don't write your novel — we help you think more clearly about what you're building.
Coming Q2 2026
What it does
Cairn is for authors who reject Sudowrite's prose generation but want more than Scrivener's database-with-text. Four named pillars give you structural craft tools alongside drafting and revision. AI is a thinking partner, not a generator. Local AI by default — your manuscript never leaves your Mac unless you choose. See how Cairn handles your data.
The five tools
Four pillars that ship today, and one new way to see your plot. Every one of them helps you think harder about your story — none of them writes a word of it.
Pillar 01
CharacterGraph
Your cast as a living relational network — typed relationships, quantified power dynamics, and arc evolution over time. See how the people in your story pull on each other, and where a single relationship is load-bearing.
Pillar 02
Voice Studio
Interview your characters. Ask them what they want, what they fear, what they haven't told you yet. Grounded in each character's psychology, they answer in their own voice — and they know things you didn't know they knew.
Pillar 03
StoryArc Builder
Three-Act, Hero's Journey, the 15-beat structure, Seven-Point — or your own. Cairn maps your draft against the framework and shows you the arc gaps. The structure helps you think; it never writes for you, and it never dictates.
Pillar 04
SeriesBible
Continuity across the whole series — characters, locations, threads, and a glossary that stays searchable and self-checking. When book four quietly contradicts book one, Cairn tells you before a reader does.
New in v1.0
PlotMechanics
Your plot as a system. Each beat is a node; each ‘this beat causes that beat’ is a typed link. Cairn finds the reinforcing loops that escalate your stakes and the balancing loops that let a reader breathe — so you can see why your story has the rhythm it has, and where its energy needs to release.
On the roadmap
ThemeIceberg
Q3 2026Theme depth analysis mirroring Systema's iceberg model — see which scenes engage theme deeply and which stay on the surface.
Who it's for
Indie series novelists, screenwriters, MFA students. Writers who already use Scrivener or Ulysses but want structural craft tools their current setup doesn't provide. Writers who want AI to interrogate their characters, not write their prose.
Pricing
One-time
$99
App + first year of AI features. After year one: $10/mo for AI features only. Manuscript editor stays free.
Subscription
$20/mo
Everything always included. $200/yr. 14-day free trial.
Get launch updates
Occasional updates on labsly app launches. No spam, no tracking pixels. Unsubscribe anytime.
Methodology acknowledgments
Cairn's structural craft tools build on the work of Joseph Campbell (Hero's Journey), Christopher Vogler (12-stage adaptation), Dan Wells (Seven-Point), the broader screenwriting tradition (15-beat structure inspired by industry-standard pacing), Carl Jung (character archetypes), Pixie Lighthorse and Pete Walker (trauma response patterns), and Abraham Maslow (psychology framing). None of these originators is affiliated with or endorses Cairn or labsly.