A digital corkboard for your scene cards, free to start

What a scene-card corkboard looks like on Instaboard

The ready board is a three-act outline for an invented novel, set up the way writers lay index cards out on a wall.

• Scene cards with a bold name and a summary. Each card has a title row and a body, so you can read the scene list at a glance and still keep a sentence of detail.
• Colour by point of view. Blue is one character, orange another, green both. The pattern across the three acts shows who is carrying the story.
• A tick when a scene is drafted. Cards can carry a checkbox, so the board doubles as a progress check.
• Arrows for a subplot. Red labelled arrows follow one thread, the letter in this example, from scene to scene.
• A scene that opens its own board. The midpoint card opens a separate board for that scene's notes, beats or research.
• A story bible next to the wall. Characters on one list, open questions on a checklist, and a handwritten to-do for the week, drawn with a pen or a pen tablet.

You can zoom out to see all twelve scenes at once and zoom in to one card to read it. Move a scene by dragging its card to a new spot, and the arrows follow it.

Digital corkboards and outliners for writers, side by side

Every row is from the maker's own pages, read on November 2, 2026. Prices change, so check the page before you buy.

When another tool is the better choice

• You want a cork wall for writing and nothing else. Cork is made for it: free unlimited cards, stackable cards, [[links]] between cards with backlinks, and a clean Markdown export if you leave. It costs $19 a year to go past 3 boards. Instaboard's free plan counts cards, and a long novel can pass 150.
• You are planning a series with a story bible. Plottr is built for outlining books and series, with a series bible, on Windows and Mac. It costs $9.99 a month or $60 to $99 a year.
• You write the whole book in one place. Scrivener holds the draft, the notes and the research together, and compiles to Word, PDF, Final Draft or plain text. Instaboard holds no manuscript text and has no compile step.
• You live on Apple devices and want a plain pinboard. Corkulous pins notes, photos and PDFs to infinite boards on Mac, iPad and iPhone.
• You collect lots of images for a mood board. Milanote's free plan allows 100 items and 10 uploads, and Instaboard allows 3 images per board.
• You want cards that re-flow into a grid when you move one. Instaboard doesn't do that. You place and move cards by hand.

What to know before you outline a novel here

• No Scrivener, Final Draft or Plottr import or export. You can't bring an outline in from them or send a board to them. Selected cards and lists can be saved as a PNG.
• No automatic grid, stacking or sorting. Cards stay where you put them. Lists keep their cards in order, and you can move cards between lists.
• 150 items on the free plan, across your account. Cards, lists, text boxes, sticky notes, widgets and images count. Pen strokes, sections and arrows don't. The ready board uses 23 (21 cards and 2 lists), so a 60-scene novel plus a story bible fits only with care.
• 5 boards on the free plan. Keep one board per book, and use the card-to-board link sparingly.
• 3 images and 1 file per board. A character photo or a map is fine, a wall of reference images is not.
• No links between cards by name. Arrows join cards, but you can't type a link to another card and see backlinks.
• Editing needs a free sign-in with Google, Apple or email. Viewing a board by link doesn't. If your connection drops, your changes are kept and sync when you're back, but it isn't an offline-first app with local files.
• Pro is $5 a month billed yearly ($59.99 a year) and removes the board, item and image limits.

Questions