
Make Writing a Habit - stefannn
https://www.writenext.io/
======
mekoka
Writing is not publishing. If you conflate the two you might not write at all.
Having a place to write is as free and easy as:

    
    
      mkdir ~/thoughts
    

Now, after you've replied your quick counterpoints to someone on HN, whip out
the text editor and

    
    
      vim ~/thoughts/why-writing-is-not-free-nor-easy
    

Go and expand on your thoughts on the subject there. It doesn't have to be
prosaic, some simple bullet points that encapsulate the main ideas are enough.
You can revisit later for an in-depth or progressive analysis. Do that even if
you didn't actually reply to anyone, but felt merely like jotting down notes
about your take on the matter. Write your own thoughts on stuff that people
share in real life, on HN, youtube, facebook, etc. Observe a curious
phenomenon and write a single line about it in a file. It's easier than
Twitter. With the latter you worry about presentation, whereas the former lets
you capture the main thoughts quickly, without worrying about form.

You don't have to publish. It's just writing, it's for you first and foremost.
Over the years revisit, refine, and expand on your thoughts. Write articles
over the course of 10 years. See how clever or ignorant you were 5 years ago.
Allow yourself to laugh at your own jokes or to delete some posts in
embarrassment. Let your mind be changed as it's meant to, safe from judgment.
Some day you may feel wise enough and ready to share some selected pieces that
have remained constant all throughout.

~~~
stefannn
What still astounds me after 2 months of researching this space is that every
day I learn about a new way people store what they write. The other day, I was
talking with someone about how he stores what he writes in an Excel file. It's
like Abraham Maslow said "if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a
nail".

~~~
brudgers
Once upon a time, even before the world wide web, darkness covered the land
and me but a fledgling was tasked with editing my boss’s business letters. As
VP of engineering he was a man of letters. Many letters. Templated letters for
my boss was organized in the ways old managing engineers oft are.

Lotus 123 he wielded for engineering calculations and thus Lotus 123 was his
weapon for business letters. No spell check of course. No line breaks either.
Such was my editorial lot.

Please keep off the grass.

~~~
WorldMaker
I had a civil engineering coworker send me a flowchart in Excel. I was
somewhat impressed.

------
ray6080
It's a little bit uncomfortable to me seeing lots of empty boxes in the
writing history before the date I signed up, and I know I will never have a
chance to fill them out. Why not start the history graph from the first day
registered? Anyway, nice idea. I think I have some writing needs that can be
fulfilled by this product. Please keep your UI as simple as possible no matter
how many features you come up later.

~~~
woutr_be
I equally love and hate the power of those empty boxes. I use a workout
tracker that does the same, however it's not advised to be working out every
single day, yet I feel myself going to the gym because I want to see those
boxes filled.

~~~
dunefox
What's it called?

~~~
woutr_be
The app? It’s called Strong.

------
grativo
Shane Parrish recently did a podcast on this topic with Brian Koppelman. In
the podcast, Brian Koppelman talked about how we wrote a single page everyday,
however he did would not stop writing once he started. Rather than writing it
was a thinking technique using writing as a medium. It was a way to derive
thoughts from the subconscious. He also mentions how maintaining momentum is
important in accomplishing tasks such as writing.

Also kind of fun to see how scripts are created and how they are revised from
rough draft to final draft. [https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/brian-
koppelman/](https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/brian-koppelman/)

~~~
stefannn
Absolutely, once you start you get momentum and it is difficult to stop. I
wrote just today over 2000 words and I planed just for 500. That's why we
don't show the writing goal anywhere on the writing page, so that you don't
have any limit while writing. I will check the podcast, thanks for sharing!

~~~
grativo
No problem! I myself actually am a newcomer to writing, but I am excited to
see how I develop myself as I continue with this!

------
jayparth
I just don't know what this product does. Your messaging appeals to me but I
have literally no clue what features or functionality I'm signing up for.

~~~
stefannn
Thanks for the feedback, it's absolutely more work to be done on the
presentation - I will explain here a bit more. We help people that want to
write more to stay motivated to write daily. By comparison, we think it is
sort of a fitness app where you train your writing muscle instead of your
physical body.

One of the main things that I struggle with when writing is a lack of
attention or the distractions that get in the way of typing more words. The
area where you write is at the core of the product. It is a clean modern space
that has no distractions so that you can stay completely focused. At the end
of each writing session, you get achievements and stats about what you wrote.
Word analysis, writing clarity, readability, and sentiment analysis of the
text will be available shortly.

To keep you engaged, there are 3 goals that you should meet daily: writing
words (at least 250, by default 500), a writing time (at least 30 minutes, by
default 1 hour), and a score that is calculated by using your previous days'
writings. Based on how much you write, you get achievements and you compete
with other writers in the platform. We're putting together as I write this
message a way to sign up for writing challenges, too.

Not yet fully ready, we're working on a system of notifications, where you can
set a time when to be remembered to start writing so that you never miss a
day.

All the content is double encrypted so it is secure and nobody can steal your
ideas.

I hope that clarifies what we're doing. If you have any other questions or
suggestions I would be happy to clarify.

~~~
livre
>Word analysis, writing clarity, readability, and sentiment analysis of the
text will be available shortly.

What languages will this support? I'm interested in Spanish, I only use
English for chatting with people online and commenting on forums.

~~~
stefannn
It will have Spanish! We're starting with English, and Spanish is the next
one.

~~~
Scottopherson
Nice, I'd think supporting many languages would be a worthy goal. This could
be a nice tool for language-learners keeping study journals.

------
neilwilson
Anything that promotes privacy and then offers “sign in with Facebook, et al”
worries me.

At the very least offer Github or Ubuntu One or something as a single sign in
option for those who don’t trust either your database or BigCorp

~~~
SCUSKU
Is Github, being owned by Microsoft, really that much more trustworthy?

~~~
everfree
Yes because GitHub's business model doesn't directly rely on the violation of
user privacy. It's just pay-for-features, afaik.

~~~
Cthulhu_
Github doesn't, but Microsoft has shifted from a software licensing company;
they make most their money off of subscription services now I believe, but
never forget that they added ad tracking and advertising options to their
operating system, and only after a lot of pressure do they start your new
system up with asking about what privacy invasions you will permit for the
sake of advertising.

------
audiodude
Other tools I've used like this:

[https://draftin.com/](https://draftin.com/)
[https://write.as/](https://write.as/)

For distraction free writing. The latter actually hooks up to a blogging
platform if you're so inclined. The former doesn't so, like the top thread on
this post talks about, I've used it for saving all kinds of random snippets of
thoughts and song lyrics and whatever.

~~~
stefannn
Although there are many other free-distraction tools, we believe WriteNext
differentiates from them. Our main focus is to help you write more often and
better by creating a writing habit. It is not enough to have a distraction-
free tool if you don't return to write there daily.

~~~
audiodude
Okay but when I go to the homepage, don't you think it's kind of ironic that
it talks all about the achievements and badges that you can earn, then claims
to be "no distractions"?

[https://i.imgur.com/Opi7qDV.png](https://i.imgur.com/Opi7qDV.png)

------
digizeph
Reminded me of [750 words]([https://750words.com/](https://750words.com/)). I
have some brief experience on writing 750 words everyday for a couple of
weeks, then gave up (just like my other blogging attempts, unfortunately). It
seems overall beneficial, but hard to keep on doing.

~~~
stefannn
What were the things that stayed in the way of writing consistently?

------
bhaumik
Neat project, worth checking out
[https://750words.com/](https://750words.com/) for inspiration. It's a great,
simple product.

~~~
stefannn
Thanks! Is there any particular feature that you would want to see in the
product? Which is the thing that keeps you engaged to write?

------
syndacks
You have a typo, I believe: "There is no such thing as bad writer." needs an "
a " after the "as".

Or maybe that's your intention? In which case, I find it distracting and could
take away credibility for your product IMO.

~~~
stefannn
Thanks for pointing that out, it's updated now!

------
tuxwins
The site is now unable to serve requests. I signed up, and the loading won't
stop.

~~~
stefannn
There was a quick update that we put and the server was down for around 1
minute. I think you accessed just at that moment. Sorry for the inconvenience,
please try now.

------
marcofloriano
Congratulations on creating such an amazing app! I´m myself a (brazilian)
wordpress blogger, but i needed a place on the cloud to do my personal
writings without distractions.

Starting to write right now.

Thank you!

~~~
stefannn
Hello, Marco! If there is anything that you want to be improved or you're
missing something, please just drop us a line!

------
willart4food
Secret to writing: 200 crappy words per day.

~~~
stefannn
That's what Tim Ferris said, right?

------
whoatethedonut
I'm curious about the premium feature "writing export" \- is this to say if I
sign up for a free account I can write stuff for days, but never get my
writings back out?

------
myu701
I used to use writingstreak.io and it just drops you into a box and has you
start writing.

I don't know what this one does yet in terms of screenshots or a quick
tutorial on how to use it.

~~~
stefannn
Thanks for the feedback - we'll improve the presentation. I put here another
comment explaining all the features that are not explained properly on the
landing page now. Is there anything that you're missing on WritingStreak? What
would you like to see improved?

------
horizontech-dev
We have been using Typora and love it. Very simple. Supports md.

~~~
jasonv
I’m writing a Leanbook in Typora. After trying out nearly every MD editor I
could find on Mac, it was my favorite.

~~~
horizontech-dev
sorry, what you mean by Leanbook?

~~~
jasonv
I meant Leanpub.

------
heinrichhartman
Any intentions on bolting-on/integrating with a publication pipeline?

    
    
        WRITE <=> EDIT <=> REVIEW <=> PUBLISH

~~~
stefannn
Are you asking about book publishing or web blogging platforms (e.g. Wordpress
/ Medium / Ghost)?

~~~
heinrichhartman
I was thinking about web-blogging / Zettels
([https://braindump.jethro.dev/zettels/](https://braindump.jethro.dev/zettels/)),
but not about a particular platform. Could be under writenext.io/.

~~~
stefannn
We don't consider it as a short-term feature, but it's in our plans to make
integrations with Wordpress / Ghost in the upcoming months.

------
simonklitj
Very cool! I'm intrigued, and might even use it for my next project. Are you
planning on eventually monetizing it, and if so, how?

~~~
nevi-me
It's hidden at the footer, but
[https://www.writenext.io/premium](https://www.writenext.io/premium)

~~~
simonklitj
Ah, didn't see it. Thanks! Would say that it's exceptionally well hidden.
"Write now. It's free" is too misleading, imo. At least add "Pricing" in the
top menu. Doesn't really sit well.

~~~
stefannn
We removed the Pricing/Premium page because we do not intend to make any of
the current features paid. What you sign up for is free. Writing in the
current mode will always be free!

~~~
simonklitj
Ah, that makes sense! Good to know!

~~~
tuxwins
And has typos too.

>Can I get a refund of my Premium upgrade? >Yes, you can get a refund if you
have been charged a new monthly / anualy payment and you haven’t used the
Writing Facilitator since then.

Doesn't sit well for a product that promotes writing.

------
nishparadox
This looks good. Does it offer features similar to hemingwayapp? Like nuances
in sentences and such?

~~~
stefannn
We're early yet, but we have in plan for the next weeks word analysis, writing
clarity, readability and sentiment analysis.

------
ulisesrmzroche
Talk about over engineering, dang. Is it a journaling app? Day One is the big
bear in the room.

But just writing everyday won’t make you better the same way fucking around
with a guitar everyday won’t make you any good.

If you really want to become a better writer, try writing a short story or an
essay. Or Nanowrimo. That’s always popular

~~~
pc86
But nobody goes from writing 0 words a daily to Nanowrimo and comes out the
other end as a "better writer" without having some sense of discipline and
writing regularly. Doing anything besides eating and sleeping every day is
hard. If you can get to the point where writing 250, or 750, or 2,000 words a
day is a given, then you can focus on actually getting better without having
to worry about the effort required simply to put words on the page.

------
TurkishPoptart
Is this entirely web based? How are writing records stored? Thanks and great
site!

~~~
stefannn
Thanks for the comment! Yes, it is web-based for now. We have in plan to make
a desktop app and also add offline writing. The writing records are encrypted
before being stored in the database.

