There are many writing apps available, for example Microsoft Word free edition. One does not have to compose in a text box. Use the app to write it then copy and paste the result.
For such things I invariably use WriteRoom. I find formatting and futzing with a web app to be built in procrastination mechanisms. It's generally trivial to spend a few minutes copying and pasting once the actual text is done.
This is a solution to my problem: as writing for me is always a struggle due to the tendency to keep more focussed on optimizing previously written text then on continue writing new. This app allows me to write like a flow.
Because a writing app supports the act of writing. Once you’re done writing, you don’t need the app anymore. And when you’re in the act of writing, things are often not linear. You might come up with headers first, and fragments of text, usually in the order they pop into your head, not the order they need to be in the final copy. Then you wordsmith and reorder things to get them into a progression.
And in Word you can always collapse the section and then move it around with all of the text.
Hi, thank you for the comment. For "I don’t see why you wouldn’t just do it in any semi-competent text editor", I have explanation. I used to write with Pages (text editor) with my MacBook. After doing it for almost half year, I found that it is quite inconvenient. First, it is not private since my wife will use my computer so she mights see those files contains my private thoughts. This makes me unable to let go of myself while I am writing. Secondly, after saving hundreds of files, I found it is hard to navigate and review the journals I've written in the past. Of cause, there is something called Evernote, but there's no word counter. Then I realized I need something better, or at least suitable for my need, so I built this app. I don't know if anyone will use, but I know I will use it everyday myself. Haha.
> breaking down goals into concrete tasks, which only a human can do or push you to do.
If it's a goal a lot of people have, and which follows a general formula, then once someone has written it down, the software can store it in a central database and let everyone else make use of it. Imagine entering "write book" into your to-do list app, hitting TAB, and watching it expand into "write proposal chapter, find writing group, show chapter to group, modify chapter using feedback, write outline for draft, [...], submit to publisher."
Then, if you immediately know how to "write proposal chapter," you can just stick with that and check it off when it's done—but if you're unsure, you can select that sub-task and hit TAB again, and it will expand into "select writing tool, find environment suitable to writing, schedule writing time, create new document"—and then there would be a placeholder step with a question in it, "what are you writing: {prose fiction, technical guide, biography, etc.}" You'd select, say, prose fiction, and it would replace the placeholder with more steps: "think of name and other physical details for main protagonist, think of conflict, write first paragraph introducing both character and conflict, [...]"
And there's already a collection of such lists available online to get your database off the ground: the eHow/Wikihow/etc. type sites. You could also parse the StackExchange-driven sites for answers that look like ordered lists.
A fun little writing app is called "Write or Die". It forces you to keep writing, or else your work is erased. Fantastic way to get a first draft written down on paper. The online version is free.
I generally like distraction free writing environments, but i doubt that it's really a good idea to have such without the ability to open / manage multiple "files". If you have to type everything into one textbox, without the possibility to switch context, you are IMO likely to be distracted by what you wrote earlier.
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