Norn Support
Norn is a Mac app for planning and writing a novel. It needs macOS 26.4 or later.
Contact us
Norn is made by Woven Strand Software, LLC. Write to us at support@wovenstrand.com.
What to put in a report
Your macOS version: Apple menu ▸ About This Mac.
Your Norn version and build: Norn ▸ About Norn shows both, for example “Version 0.9 (647)”.
What happened, and what you expected to happen instead. Steps that make it happen again help most. A screenshot helps too.
Whether Sync with iCloud is on, and on how many Macs.
Please don’t send us your books unless we ask for one.
Testing with TestFlight
If you are testing a beta, the quickest way to reach us is the TestFlight app. It sends your build number and macOS version with your words.
Open TestFlight on your Mac and select Norn.
Click Send Beta Feedback.
Say what happened. Click Attach Screenshot to add one, then Submit.
You can also take a screenshot, click its thumbnail, and choose Send Beta Feedback from the Share menu. If Norn crashes and macOS offers to report it, add a line about what you were doing.
Questions
Where are my books?
In Norn’s own private folder on your Mac, kept out of iCloud Drive and Dropbox on purpose: a sync service copying a live database mid-write can damage it. Open your books from Norn’s Library window. For a file you can keep or move, use File ▸ Export ▸ Book Archive… in an open book, or right-click a book in the Library and choose Export Archive…. Time Machine backs up the library with the rest of your Mac.
How do I sync between my Macs?
Sign in to iCloud with the same Apple Account on each Mac. On the first, turn on Sync with iCloud in Norn ▸ Settings ▸ iCloud. On your other Macs Norn turns it on by itself and tells you (unless you turned it off on that Mac). One switch covers your Writer’s Kit and every book. Norn works fully without iCloud.
What syncs?
Your Writer’s Kit, every book whole (characters, the world and its images, plots, outlines, the manuscript, notes and brainstorms), and your writing log. Your Settings and your snapshots don’t sync: they stay on each Mac.
Can I write on two Macs?
Yes, but work on one Mac at a time. If the same thing is changed on both before they sync, nothing is lost: Norn asks you what to keep, and if a scene’s text changed on both it keeps both, one as an extra draft in the scene’s Drafts menu. When changes arrive for an open book, a bar asks you to Update. Updating clears that book’s Undo.
Sync says it’s paused. What do I do?
Read the book’s line in Norn ▸ Settings ▸ iCloud, which says why. Resume Sync… explains what happened and what each choice will do before you choose, and Norn takes a snapshot before any choice that replaces a book’s contents. Other books carry on syncing meanwhile.
If you used a test build of Norn on the same Mac, a TestFlight build says sync is paused because it uses a different iCloud. That is expected once: choose Use This Build’s iCloud… and confirm. Norn first takes a snapshot of your Kit and every book.
How does Norn keep my work safe?
It saves as you work. ⌘S saves every open book too.
It takes a snapshot of a book when you open it, and every 60 seconds after that if something changed. By default it keeps 20 of those and 3 opening snapshots for each book. You can change that in Settings ▸ Snapshots.
Before a book first syncs, it takes a “before sync” snapshot and keeps it until you delete it.
File ▸ Restore from Snapshot… opens a snapshot as a separate book, so your current book is never overwritten.
Beyond that, export a .norn archive of each book after a big milestone and keep it somewhere else. With a beta, do that after every session.
Do I need an account?
No. Norn has no sign-in. Sync uses the Apple Account your Mac is already signed in to.
Can two people share one Mac?
Yes. To keep your writing private from each other, give each person their own macOS user: System Settings ▸ Users & Groups, and add a Standard user for each. Norn then keeps each user’s Library, Writer’s Kit and settings apart automatically, and each can sync with their own Apple Account. Two people on the same macOS user share one Library.
What do you know about me?
Nothing that Norn sends us: it has no analytics and no tracking, and your synced books are in your own private iCloud, which we can’t read. The privacy policy has the details.