An app for people who want to be more mindful of their writing practice. Drawing from personal experience, philosophy, and advice from some of Jordan's favourite authors, this app aims to give you the tools to help stay on task and form a healthy relationship with the writing craft.
Think-Write was designed using:
- React
- Typescript
- Tailwind CSS
Thinking-Write is easy. Think of something you want to write.Anything. That something is now your first project. Now take that project and run or watch the video belwo to learn more. If you'd rather read, keep scrolling.
think-write.mp4
The first step is to head over to the "projects section" and click the big green button labeled "New Project".
Congratulations! You've started your first session! Once you're in, give your project a title, then pick a goal for your session. This goal could be a number of words, minutes, or hours. You may also select "no goal". It's up to you. If you've set up a goal for yourself, it will be tracked in a progress bar beneath the text editor.
Ok so we've got a title and a goal set. Awesome! Before you start writing, have a peek at the icons beneath the lower right hand corner of the editor. This where your toolbox lives. In its current state, the toolbox features a pomodoro timer, a lock button, and a project settings button. The projects settings button, pictured below, just opens your title/goal dialog so you can make changes if needed.
Think-Write comes with one big caveat: in its current state, all data will live in your browser. Feel free to use it, but if you clear you browser your data will be lost. Please bare this in mind. It is very important to maintain your browser's local storage or save your text elsewhere if you cannot do this.
If you haven't heard of the pomodoro method, that's ok. Basically it's a rotiational timer that gives you a clock to work against. It was featured here because Jordan, the app's creator, is a big ADHD brain and this is something that helps him focus. It's a proven method and it works!
Clicking the pomodoro button will display two settings: 20/5 and 40/10. These numbers refer to set "work periods" and "break periods". The longer number (eg. 20, 40) is the length of time in minutes that you will work. When the time is up, the pomodoro will beep at you, signifying that it is break time. Break time lasts for the shorter number of minutes (eg. 5/10), and will beep again to signify the start of another work period. This lasts for 4 rotations at which point you may start the cycle over or finish your session! It should also be noted that once the timer is set, clicking the clock a second time or leaving the page will cancel the function.
Before you click this little guy, it's best you go back to finishing up your session first. When you're ready to commit to locking away your fresh and almost certainly-- no matter what your sweet, innocent brain is telling you-- fantastic piece of writing, click this bad-boy. A dialog will pop up. Select a future date. This will determine how long your session will be locked up. Our recommendation is a minimum of 12 weeks, but you can pick any date. Or if you just want to clear your editor you can click on today's date to save the session in an unlocked state. Whatever choice you make, heed the warning: Once your session is locked it cannot be accessed until the lock date has passed. It's ok though. Have you ever forgotten, for months or years, about a piece of writing and returned to it with a set of fresh eyes? It's absolute bliss! Go ahead. Trust in the process. Close your eyes and click "submit!"
Now that we're back out on the projects page, you will see your project on display. Isn't it beautiful? Brings a tear to the old eye. On the right, you'll see the typical edit and delete buttons. Take a guess what they do. While you're doing that, I'm gonna go grab some water.
Seriously I just had a drink of nice, cold water. You probably should too now that we're on topic. OH MY GOD, I SHOULD PUT A HYDRATION REMINDER IN HERE.
Anyway, click on the edit button and check out the new state of your project. Up top there's a dropdown that holds all your past sessions. Each one is housed in its own dropdown and can be read, or edited, individually. Keep an eye out for those unlock dates if you're taking advantage of that feature!
That's it! You've got the tools. You're ready to put your skills to the test. Now get out there and write some kickass stories!