draftwriter Run · Mac · iPad · iPhone

To finish the first draft.

A small drafting app for focusing not on what you have already written,
but on the sentence that comes next.

WHY RUN

I wanted to write a first draft.

There are always distractions, of course. A Mac can do far too many things.

So I went looking for dedicated writing tools. You know the kind—tools that only let you write.
I liked all of them. They were just a little expensive.

So I kept thinking. I wished there were something just for first drafts—something that would help me stay with the page.

Of course, nothing quite like that showed up. So I made one. draftwriter Run

Keep the features to a minimum.

The idea is simple: keep your hands on the keyboard, and strip away as much as possible that a first draft does not really need.

Arrow keys, Page Up, Page Down—things we use without thinking—are restricted. And the mouse, which somehow leads to web browsing the moment you touch it, is best kept at a distance too.

On the line you are writing now.

The interface keeps the line you are writing in focus. The current line stays clear, while the sentences you have already passed gradually fade.

Because in a first draft, writing the next sentence matters more than fixing the one you already wrote.

01 · NORMAL

You have to
write it
first.

Run does not do much. There is no Markdown, no proofreading. Selecting text or moving the cursor with the mouse is restricted too.

So your hands naturally stay on the keyboard. At least while you are drafting, there is less reason to wander off and do something else.

02 · Run! MODE

Run! Mode.

Maybe this is what Run really is.

The arrow keys no longer take you back. Moving forward is easy. Just write.

Going back? Delete.

The cursor changes too. It sits beneath the text, pointing at the unwritten space and waiting for the next sentence.

Of course, Run! Mode is something you turn on yourself. If you just want to write normally, use Normal Mode.

Run! Mode screen with the lower input pointer

03 · REVIEW

Review.

At some point, you do need to read what you have written.

That is what Review is for. But here, you can only read.

You cannot edit or select. This is not the time to fix things. It is the time to read.

04 · RECOVERY

Still, you can worry a little lessabout saving.

So while you are writing, Run creates a recovery copy every 2 minutes, just in case the app closes unexpectedly or something goes wrong.

It leaves one more when you quit the app.

Still, save once at the beginning, and once in a while.

Even time spent paused
can still be time spent
writing a first draft.

05 · IDLE TIME

Time you needed.

After a minute without typing, a timer appears at the bottom of the screen.

I wanted to look at time a little differently. Instead of showing how long you have been writing, it shows how long you have been stopped.

It is, clearly, time spent stopped.

But that pause might be what lets the next sentence arrive.Let’s think of it that way.

06 · SETTINGS

There are a few options.

You can change the language, adjust the writing area, and switch to dark mode.

But that is pretty much it. So do not spend too much time in Settings. Just go back to the page and write.

draftwriter Run

That is what this app is. A small first-draft tool for paying more attention to the sentence that comes next than the ones already written. Give it a try. On Mac, iPad, or iPhone.

Free