Both tools want to make your story hold together, and they take opposite routes to get there. Fictionary gives you a deep structural framework and asks you to fill it in scene by scene. Vellam reads the manuscript you already wrote and builds the map for you, then checks the whole book for the places where it stops adding up.
You can revise a novel with either one. The real question is who does the legwork: you, annotating every scene against a framework, or the tool, reading the text and surfacing what it finds.
Short answer: Fictionary is a manual, framework-first structural editor. You tag each scene against 38 Story Elements and read the visualizations you populate. Vellam is an analysis-first tool that reads the prose itself, auto-builds the map, and flags contradictions across the whole book. Choose Fictionary if you want a rigorous scene-by-scene framework to work through by hand. Choose Vellam if you want the tool to read the text and do that work for you.
What each tool is built around
Fictionary (StoryTeller) is built around structure, on the principle that flawless structure builds great stories. Its core is a framework of 38 Story Elements you evaluate for every scene, plus 15 visualizations like the Story Map and Story Arc that chart your manuscript once the elements are filled in. It serves both writers and, through StoryCoach, professional editors working with clients. The framework is deep and the visualizations are strong. The work of populating it, though, is yours: a lot of the legwork is done by the author, scene by scene.
Vellam is an analysis-first writing tool. You write in its built-in editor, and the centre of the tool is the analysis layer: it reads your manuscript chapter by chapter, builds a map of every character, location and thread from the text itself, checks consistency across the whole book, and even tells you how AI-like the prose reads. Its AI assistant brainstorms ideas with you, but it never writes the book for you.
Functional comparison
| Capability | Fictionary | Vellam |
|---|---|---|
| Deep scene-level structural framework (38 elements per scene) | ||
| Structural visualizations (Story Map, Story Arc, and similar) | ||
| Editor-and-client workflow (StoryCoach) | ||
| Reads your prose and builds the map for you (no manual tagging) | Vellam only | |
| Whole-book consistency check (character, location, plot contradictions) | Vellam only | |
| Auto-built Story Atlas (per-chapter cards from your text) | Vellam only | |
| Auto-extracts characters, locations and plots from each chapter | ||
| Cross-chapter continuity catch (for example eye-colour drift) | ||
| Character, location and plot heatmaps across chapters | ||
| Built-in AI-writing detector (per chapter and whole book) | ||
| Rule-based prose analysis, no credits (cliches, passive, weak verbs, repetition) | ||
| Long-form developmental critique of the whole book | ||
| AI brainstorms ideas without writing prose for you | ||
| Fully localized interface (Polish, English, German, Spanish) | ||
| One-time payment, credits never expire |
A check marks the tool built for that job. Fictionary leads on its scene-level framework, its visualizations, and the editor-client workflow. Vellam leads on reading the text for you, checking the whole book, and localizing.
The things Vellam does that a manual framework does not
It reads the text instead of asking you to tag it
Fictionary is annotation-based: you evaluate 38 elements for every scene, and the visualizations come alive only once you have done that. Vellam is inference-based. It reads your manuscript chapter by chapter, the way a reader does, and pulls out the characters, locations and threads on its own. No scene-by-scene legwork to populate before you get anything back.
It checks the whole book for contradictions
Because Vellam reads the prose itself, it can run a whole-book consistency check and flag four kinds of contradiction: a character trait, a character’s state of mind, a location description, and a plot status that stops adding up. If a character’s eyes are grey in chapter two and brown in chapter nineteen, that is exactly the kind of drift it surfaces. A framework you fill in by hand has no automatic equivalent, because the catch depends on the author noticing in the first place.
It builds a Story Atlas from your text
After each chapter, Vellam generates per-chapter cards for every character, location and thread, pulled from what you actually wrote, with heatmaps that show where someone disappears for a stretch. It is structural insight you read, not a structural template you populate.
It tells you how AI-like your prose reads
Vellam has a built-in AI-writing detector. Run it on a chapter or the whole book and it scores how machine-like the writing looks, with the lowest-scoring sentences highlighted. It is the same kind of scan a publisher or contest might run, so you see it first. A structural editor has nothing like it. There is also a rule-based layer that marks cliches, weak verbs, filler, passive narration and repetition at the sentence level, and it costs no credits.
An idea generator, not a prose generator
Vellam’s AI is a thinking partner, not a ghostwriter. The assistant brainstorms plot, talks through a character, and points at a line that could be sharper. What it does not do is hand you finished prose to drop into your book. There is no insert button, nothing is written into your manuscript, and the whole design assumes you write every line in your own words. Fictionary does not write your prose either, which is common ground. The difference is that Vellam adds an AI that helps you think without ever taking the pen, and it reads the manuscript so you are not the one doing the tagging.
Built with authors and publishers, and it moves fast
Vellam is built in the open with the people who use it. There is a public feedback board where authors and publishers post requests, vote, and watch them ship, and we read and act on all of it. The roadmap is shaped by working novelists and by publishing houses at the same time, which is rare in this category, and features land quickly. The goal is the tool writers actually want, improved continuously with them.
Works in your language
Vellam’s interface is fully localized in Polish, English, German and Spanish, and its analysis is built for manuscripts in those languages. Fictionary’s interface is English. If you write in Polish, German or Spanish, that difference is not cosmetic: it is the difference between annotating your structure in a second language and working in your own.
You stay in control
Vellam never changes your text on its own. Its AI help is opt-in, sits in a side panel, and your text is not used to train any model. Fictionary also leaves your prose to you, which is a point in its favour. Where Vellam goes further is that it does the reading and the checking for you while still keeping every word yours.
Choose Fictionary if
- You want a rigorous scene-level framework and you are happy to fill in the elements scene by scene.
- You lean on structural visualizations like the Story Map and Story Arc as your main lens.
- You are an editor working with clients and want the StoryCoach handoff.
- You are comfortable with a subscription and an English interface.
Choose Vellam if
- You want the tool to read the manuscript and build the map, instead of tagging every scene yourself.
- You want whole-book contradiction detection, a Story Atlas, an AI-writing detector and sentence-level analysis in one place.
- You write in Polish, German, Spanish or English and want a fully localized tool.
- You want an AI that brainstorms ideas without writing the prose for you.
- You prefer a one-time payment with credits that do not expire.
Can you use both?
Yes, and they complement each other cleanly. Use Fictionary’s framework to plan and pressure-test structure scene by scene, then run the finished manuscript through Vellam for an automatic consistency pass, an AI-detection scan and a Story Atlas you did not have to build by hand, before it reaches a beta reader or an editor.
Frequently asked questions
Does Fictionary check character consistency automatically?
No. Fictionary is annotation-based: it gives you the framework and the visualizations, but you populate them scene by scene, so catching that a character’s eye colour drifts depends on you noticing. Vellam reads the text and flags that kind of contradiction across the whole book on its own.
Do I have to tag every scene in Vellam the way Fictionary asks?
No. Vellam reads your manuscript and extracts characters, locations and threads for you. The Story Atlas and heatmaps are built from the prose, with nothing to fill in by hand first.
Does Vellam have an AI-writing detector?
Yes. It scores how AI-like a chapter or the whole book reads and highlights the lowest-scoring sentences, so you see what a publisher’s scan would see. Fictionary does not include one.
Does Vellam work for novels written in Polish, German or Spanish?
Yes. The interface and the analysis are built for Polish, English, German and Spanish. Fictionary’s interface is English.
Can I use Fictionary and Vellam together?
Yes. Plan and structure with Fictionary’s scene framework, then run the finished draft through Vellam for an automatic consistency check, an AI-detection pass and a Story Atlas built from the text.