Rough Draft - Write now. Edit later. Remember, it's just a rough draft.

@micah Thanks for your question Micah! First Draft goes beyond just a simple design and simplifies how you actually draft a document. You don't think about getting an exact picture, but just what the *bigger picture* goal of that picture is. Also instead of complicating things editing words you stop deleting so much due to the strikeouts and just focus on the idea rather than complicated *wordsmithing*.

@nbrempel Thanks for such an encouraging message! 🙏If First Draft is really the impetus to get you back into scribbling and getting your thoughts out that we couldn't be happier! Hope you enjoy Nick, and think you'll really enjoy what's coming next with the scribbling/strikeouts📝

@mkaroumi Thanks for the kind words and the idea Marcus 👊 We thought a lot about not only the features (and lack therefof) to keep you in flow, but also the environment. If you're like me, it's too tempting to not open another tab and go hunting for that [research / quote / www.drakedis.co GIF 😜] when an idea comes up -- especially when writing, and especially in a browser, where you can simply cmnd + t your way into a new tab, and then 5 minutes later you find yourself bingeing on cat videos on Reddit 🙀. For those easily distracted folks like me out there, we hope that the native Mac app environment of First Draft will be just far enough removed from web surfing so as to help them focus on their writing. (To get even more focused, check out a 1 Day Hack we put together -- Offline Time https://www.producthunt.com/tech... -- that will help you turn (and keep 😉) your wifi off for small periods of time, to really get into flow.) We do understand that while you're in the zone, you still might want to look something up later. That's why we've got you covered with placeholder buttons, which let you note the supporting materials you'll need to research later, keeping you focused on your writing now. We're super big Medium fans, and are currently building an "export to Medium" function -- among others. Making this transition -- exporting from the rough draft writing environment of First Draft to the polishing and publish environment of Medium -- we believe is one of the most important parts about writing with First Draft. We're not neuroscientists and can't prove anything (yet!) but we think that these transitions can help to train the mind to switch between writing mode vs. polishing mode when *you* choose, reducing multitasking and increasing focus and flow.

@playswithfood @mkaroumi great answer. I totally understand! Ps. Offline Time seems awesome! 👍

@mkaroumi Thank you so much! Glad that you are enjoying our 1 day hack 🔨

@imcatnoone Happy it was worth the time! Not that we spent an inordinate amount of time making it… 😉

@esbvn We saw a lot of writers commenting on other PH's for writing app saying they wanted to try it before purchasing. That's why we made First Draft have a single in-app-purchase to export. You can get in and try writing a first draft before purchasing. If you're scared of writing something important and having it trapped in the app you can start with one of fun/weird reddit.com/r/writingprompts that are pulled into the app. Hope you enjoy trying it out!

@benwtnb @esbvn sounds good, thanks!

@goldenchaos Hey Jason! Thanks for bringing up NaNoWriMo -- @benWTNB and I so were inspired by the program and the wonderful community there that we both decided to take the plunge this year. See you in November! And we're thrilled that you'd like to write your novel with First Draft. We've got a program for NaNoWriMoers to let you use First Draft for free through November. I'll tweet you the details!

@lindsey_io Very sorry to have let you down Lindsey. Apologies that the payment to unlock the app left a bad taste, we tried to be very up front with it during the onboarding but will think about how we can make it better! Thanks for the time you've already invested, we hope you'll give it a little longer try and forgive the onboarding… which it sounds like a small bug may have snuck back into while transitioning to Swift 2. Thanks for your honest feedback and we'll continue working towards leaving more writers in their 😄 place!

@lindsey_io thanks for sharing this. they say they don't want to be sneaky but don't even mention how much 'one purchase' is. i like the idea but I it looks like an acquired taste, one that I'm not willing to invest into. I have no trouble letting things flow even when digital.... But i like that it exists!

@itscoreyb @lindsey_io Good point Corey, we'll definitely add that into the onboarding. Disappointed that we've made some writers think of us as being sneaky… 😰 Thanks for helping us to improve. Very important to have the outside input on the sensitive IAP flow. It can be difficult to get that real feedback from beta users who don't have to actually purchase… we've messed up and will work to improve and be more transparent moving forward. Thanks for your honest feedback! 🙏

@eliservescent Thanks for the comments EJ! And thanks for visiting us in Tokyo earlier this month! Firstly, we're so glad you like the strikethrough deletion. We intentionally stripped all features out to get the bare-bones minimum needed to write, then added only the features we felt necessary. We may consider slowly adding bonus features such as markdown (which we love in another no-frills, "done is better than perfect" app, Deckset), other fonts, etc. Thanks for asking about our future plans! Beyond first showing the world the profound benefits of writing first / editing later, we also have some thoughts about providing a way for authors to give their audience a peek into their process.

@lukechrisinger Thanks for all your great thoughts! I'll reply with numbers to make it easier. 1) The tutorial can be skipped there's some small text along the bottom that says press esc to skip, we'll give some more thought to this. 2) That's a good point about the prompts. We'll add a setting to hide the button just like you can the placeholder button. 3) Which sidebar are you talking about? The settings sidebar should be able to be hidden and then the other sidebar hides as soon as you open a doc. What is the case that you want to hide it on the folder screen? 4) We're probably going to open up the text options more. Will take a bit of time as it effects the placement of the placeholder elements. Thanks for all the great ideas!

@benwtnb Sorry, should of been more clear. The sidebar on the right. I can't hide it for some reason. It's very obvious in dark-mode. Could be a bug? The drag and drop functionality with the folders is great, btw.

@lukechrisinger I think the sidebar/scrollbar is showing up because you might be using a 3rd party mouse. One of our devs also uses a different mouse and his always shows up, what you need to do is change your system preferences to show it "When Scrolling," for most 3rd party mice it shows up "Always."

@marchenkomark We've loved having someone (you) that writes about writing weekly involved in the beta and refining what parts of the writing process are focused on. Thanks so much for helping First Draft grow beyond its first beta!