From Text-First to Structure-First: A Visual Pipeline for Narrative Writing

In narrative writing, crafting a well-structured plot requires more than ordering events, regardless of whether the work is a novel or a short story. To construct such a plot, writers typically adopt a narrative framework. However, adhering to a narrative framework can be cognitively demanding for novice writers, as traditional text-first approaches conceal the underlying structure, leaving them to manage many story elements while balancing coherence with creativity. Drawing on prior literature on narrative structuring and AI-assisted writing tools, we identified three fundamental challenges that novice writers face when constructing a plot: (1) alignment of narrative structure, (2) coherence, (3) plot ordering. We address these challenges through a visual narrative pipeline and its web-based implementation, StoryPilot, which provides a workspace to fulfill the pipeline steps by arranging narrative blocks, validating plot coherence as it evolves, and guiding alignment with the intended narrative schema.