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Show HN: First Draft (beta) – distraction-free writing for first drafts

11 points| wildermuthn | 12 years ago |beta.firstdraft.io | reply

14 comments

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[+] selectout|12 years ago|reply
Just wrote my first blog post using this and it was actually a nice refreshing experience. Much easier to write I found.

My one gripe is when I export to Google Docs for further editing, it has some weird formatting. The words don't get wrapped, and adding new lines of text pushes everything down a new line, not sure how to get rid of that.

[+] wildermuthn|12 years ago|reply
Exports should work from now on. Still in beta however... ;)
[+] wildermuthn|12 years ago|reply
That is odd. Working on it.
[+] stoolpigeon|12 years ago|reply
I like the idea quite a bit. Though I would like to be able to look back at what I've done more easily, even if I can't edit it. If I'm writing something longer I may need to go back periodically to refresh my memory (yes, even as I am writing). It messed with my flow to have to go up and use the menu button thing at the top.
[+] wildermuthn|12 years ago|reply
I like the idea of being able to scroll up but not being able to edit. Thanks for the feedback.

For now, I've added a cmd-L or ctrl-L shortcut to open up the last page view.

[+] babo|12 years ago|reply
My screen is vertically oriented, having only a dozen lines visible is a huge waste. I understand your purist design decisions but that feels bad for me.

Another note, line endings and text handling is somehow broken in the final google docs.

[+] wildermuthn|12 years ago|reply
I built this for myself, for two different reasons:

1) I wanted to learn Common Lisp. CL does indeed rock.

2) I wanted a way to finish my first drafts, usually for short stories, but also for novels.

[+] munchor|12 years ago|reply
Ctr+A and then Backspace doesn't seem to be working. Ctrl+ArrowKeys and Ctrl+Backspace doesn't work they way it usually works either.
[+] aghillo|12 years ago|reply
Actually, I really like the simplicity of this - will give it a try! It would (of course) be nice to save locally thought.
[+] wildermuthn|12 years ago|reply
That'd be a nice feature. If there's interest in First Draft, I have a desktop version based on nodewebkit that I can release.

Right now, it can export your file to Google Docs, and from there you can save locally.