Vellam vs Fictionary: who fills in the structure, you or the tool?

Who wrote this: the Vellam team. We build one of the two tools compared here, so treat the Vellam column as an interested party. Everything stated about Fictionary below is based on what Fictionary publishes about itself on fictionary.co. Features and prices change, so confirm on the current site.

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 framework-first structural editor. It detects your characters and draws the story arc automatically, and an AI instructor comments on each scene, but evaluating the 38 Story Elements is still largely your job, scene by scene. 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. 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. It serves both writers and, through StoryCoach, professional editors working with clients. It identifies character names automatically and links them to scenes, draws the story arc on its own, and its AI writing instructor, Edwina, gives scene-specific feedback. The framework is deep and the visualizations are strong. Evaluating the 38 Story Elements, though, is still largely the author’s job, 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

The things Vellam does that Fictionary does not

It reads the text instead of asking you to tag it

Fictionary is framework-based: it detects characters and draws the story arc automatically, and its AI instructor comments on each scene, but evaluating 38 elements for every scene is still largely up to you. 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, with no scene-by-scene evaluation to fill in 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. Fictionary links characters to scenes, but it has no automatic check for this, so 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, and its AI instructor gives feedback scene by scene, which is common ground. The difference is that Vellam’s assistant brainstorms with you and reads the whole manuscript, not one scene at a time.

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 site and product are in 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-language product.

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?

Not across the whole book. Fictionary identifies characters and links them to scenes, but catching a drifting detail still depends on you. 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 site and product are in 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.