OutaStory is structured around the chapter as the unit of writing.
Each chapter has a title, an opening hook, and however much body
content you want — the platform paginates it into reader pages
automatically.
1. Start a draft
From the home page, click Write → New story. You'll be asked
for a working title (changeable any time) and a primary category.
The category drives how readers find your story; pick the closest
single fit and add tags for everything else.
2. Write your first chapter
Each chapter has:
- Title — visible to readers in the chapter list and reader header.
- Body — written in a rich-text editor. Markdown shortcuts work
(**bold**,*italic*,# heading). - Author note — optional, shown above the chapter as italics.
Useful for context, content warnings, or thanks.
You can save a draft at any time with Save draft; it never goes
live until you publish.
Pasting text you wrote elsewhere
Wrote your chapter in Word, Google Docs, or Pages? You can paste it in —
but click inside the chapter body first so the cursor is sitting in
the text area, then paste (Ctrl+V on Windows, ⌘V on Mac). If
nothing appears when you paste, the cursor almost certainly wasn't inside
the body box yet: click into the large writing area and paste again.
The editor keeps your words and your paragraph breaks, but it drops
the original formatting (bold, italics, fonts, colours) on purpose,
so pasted text always arrives clean and consistent. Add emphasis back
with the toolbar or the Markdown shortcuts above. Make sure you're pasting
into the big Body editor — not the title or the short description
field, which only hold a single line.
3. AI assistance (optional)
Two AI features are available to all writers:
- Describe my story — generates a short synopsis from your draft,
which you can edit before publishing. - Generate a cover — on the Cover step you can generate up to three
cover suggestions per round, and you get three rounds per draft.
Rounds are a per-draft allowance, not something you pay credits for.
Both are optional. If you'd rather build a cover yourself, the
cover designer is one tap away
from the same step.
4. Set the age rating
Pick the minimum reader age (0 (all ages) / 6+ / 12+ / 16+ / 18+,
the German youth-protection bands). The category may pin this — the
Children sub-categories all lock the rating to a specific age
band. Be honest: a story rated below its actual content can be
reported and removed.
5. Publish
Click Publish. The story is live within seconds.
Audio narration is a separate, optional step. Publishing does not
narrate your story. If you want narration, ask for it — from the
Audio step of the publish wizard, or later with Add audio on
/my-stories. See
Adding narration to your story.
Releasing it in parts (a serial)
Want to release your story a chapter at a time instead of all at once?
That option lives on the Details step of the publish wizard, not
while you're writing: tick Publish this as a serial — that is the
switch some authors look for. Write and save your opening chapters as
normal first, then publish with that box ticked. Anything you add
afterwards stays hidden until you release it. Already published the
ordinary way? Use Make it a serial on /my-stories. Full
walkthrough: Publishing a serial.
What you can change later
- Title, description, cover image — yes.
- Category — yes.
- Chapter content — yes.
- Age rating — yes, but lowering it can trigger a moderator review.
Editing anything on a published story creates the next version rather
than overwriting the live one, so readers keep reading while you work.
There is no unpublish action — see
Editing a published story and
Deleting a story.