The library includes Alice with Tenniel's originals and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz with W. W. Denslow's 1900 artwork, along with Treasure Island, The Secret Garden, Huckleberry Finn and Anne of Green Gables. Their authors, artists, editions and source material stay visible in the application. My part is the reading and creation experience around them.

The visual direction comes from books, maps and lantern light. I wanted the shelf to be worth browsing on its own, before the application asks anyone to make anything.

Near the start, a reader chooses between the complete work, a condensed telling, an age-adapted version and a more picture-led experience. Each is a different way to spend time with the same source.

Inside a scroll, text and illustrations run along one continuous page, with the contents and reading settings close by. The Alice edition pairs Tenniel's originals with AI chapter and scene art, clearly labeled, and uses decorative initials for the feel of a printed book. I worked on the pictures and the layout together, since the room an illustration gets and the way a chapter opens both change the reading.

The workshop can start from an original idea, a public-domain work or a manuscript the reader brings. It moves through source, rights, story, intended reader, art and review.

For an original story, it asks for the premise and setting, then the character's wants, needs, obstacles and stakes, with room for a three-act outline, a character arc, a theme and an ending. I like that those questions come before the pictures. A rough idea often gets much clearer once someone decides what the character wants and what stands in the way, and the review stage gives those choices a second look before the next step.

A public community area holds scrolls beyond the classic library, for anyone who wants to see what other people have made.