There are plenty of tools that allow you to write.
There aren't tools that help you write.
That's where Blurt comes in.
Use Blurt to get your thoughts out then use its tools to help you structure, edit and share your best work.
—
Blurt is $4.99/month during the PH launch.
A mental gym membership. Invest in yourself. Develop the habit. 😸
Around the web
Reviews
- Joshua Tab.Student, crafting WalkPros:
The interface is really awesome, the blur feature helps me avoiding fear from writing something
Cons:None so far
I discovered Blurt through Makers, I saw the founder building and improving the tool day to day, following advices and feedback.
Hope one day it will be as big as Medium because he deserved it!
Joshua Tab. has used this product for one month. - Eric HeitzDigital Marketing ManagerPros:
I like the focus option.
Cons:Too many to pick from
I currently use another app that gives me focus on outlining a project
and priorities but could see testing Blurt and combining a few writing tasks.
Eric Heitz has never used this product.
Discussion
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Makers
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Corey GwinMaker@corey_gwin · I make stuff. 👨🏻💻☕️ Building Blurt.app.
👋 Hi Product Hunt!
Well after a few months of hard work, it's time to introduce Blurt…
There's plenty of tools that allow you to write.
There aren't tools that help you write.
That's where Blurt comes in.
I built Blurt because I couldn't find a writing tool that had all the features I wanted in one place. I found myself switching between different tools for ideation, getting feedback, editing and publishing. I want to put all the things needed in one place.
Please let me know your brutally honest thoughts if you're a writer who tries out Blurt. I'm working to build a truly useful writing tool and space for you! 🙏
✅ Smart Edit
When you blurt out what's on your mind, it's easy to get too wordy. Smart Edit aims to identify bad grammar, wordiness, and hard to read sentences so your work is easier to read. You can also highlight a word and Blurt will suggest a synonym. Blurt will eventually provide summarizations and other improvements to help you write your best.
👀 Blur
By blurring what you write as you type, Blurt can help prevent your inner critic from stopping you from getting your thoughts down by self-editing too soon. I brought this feature over from my former side project, BlindWrite, as an experiment. Has been fun to learn how it's of value to others.
⏲ Writing Sessions
Writing sessions enable you to write for a set duration or word count. The aim of sessions is to help you get into a flow. I've found that sometimes you just need to blurt your ideas out before you consider editing them. You can use this in combination with the blur feature to really prevent your inner critic from getting your ideas out.
🧠 Distraction Free
The aim of Blurt's UI is to be minimal and out of the way. Text should be easy to read. Compositions should be distractionless. There should be a sense of freedom in Blurt to allow you to focus your thoughts while writing. This will take some continued iteration to get right, but will be a big priority going forward.
📝 Outline
The outline view allows you to structure your writing. I find creating a bulletized outline of my thoughts before writing helps me get started. It's also a good place to put notes, research, or links on a paragraph you're working on or haven't finished yet.
📈 Writing Stats
Clicking on the word count in the bottom right will reveal how long it will take to read your work. Did you know the average human reads at about 250 words per minute? Now you do. :)
Blurt keeps track of how many words you write every day. You can set a daily writing goal to help you develop a daily writing habit. "If you know you have to write something every single day, even a paragraph, you will improve your writing."
🌎 Publishing
When you're ready to share your work, you can share its link with others. If you wish, you can make it public so it's accessible from your Blurt profile like mine.
😻 Emojis
Blurt supports emojis! Type a ":" and a description to select one.
—
You can learn more about Blurt in my intro post on Blurt! :)
It's also not perfect. I've been working on Blurt in my ✌️spare time✌️ while working a full-time job. There are certainly some bugs I'm working to squash, but I'm hopeful to get Blurt to a point where I can commit myself full-time to it. :)
Lots more to come:
• 🏘 Blurt Writing Community
• 📊 Analytics for shared posts
• 🌚 Night mode
• 📥 Email publishing
• 🔥 Speed reading GIFs
I'd love to hear your feedback and what you think of Blurt. I want to make a truly useful writing tool for you and create a place for people to capture and share their best ideas and creativity with the world.
P.S. 👩🎓 If you're a student interested in using Blurt, please email me (corey [at] blurt.app) and I'll get you on a discounted $0.99/month student membership!
When you blurt out what's on your mind, it's easy to get too wordy. Smart Edit aims to identify bad grammar, wordiness, and hard to read sentences so your work is easier to read. You can also highlight a word and Blurt will suggest a synonym. Blurt will eventually provide summarizations and other improvements to help you write your best.
👀 Blur
By blurring what you write as you type, Blurt can help prevent your inner critic from stopping you from getting your thoughts down by self-editing too soon. I brought this feature over from my former side project, BlindWrite, as an experiment. Has been fun to learn how it's of value to others.
⏲ Writing Sessions
Writing sessions enable you to write for a set duration or word count. The aim of sessions is to help you get into a flow. I've found that sometimes you just need to blurt your ideas out before you consider editing them. You can use this in combination with the blur feature to really prevent your inner critic from getting your ideas out.
🧠 Distraction Free
The aim of Blurt's UI is to be minimal and out of the way. Text should be easy to read. Compositions should be distractionless. There should be a sense of freedom in Blurt to allow you to focus your thoughts while writing. This will take some continued iteration to get right, but will be a big priority going forward.
📝 Outline
The outline view allows you to structure your writing. I find creating a bulletized outline of my thoughts before writing helps me get started. It's also a good place to put notes, research, or links on a paragraph you're working on or haven't finished yet.
📈 Writing Stats
Clicking on the word count in the bottom right will reveal how long it will take to read your work. Did you know the average human reads at about 250 words per minute? Now you do. :)
Blurt keeps track of how many words you write every day. You can set a daily writing goal to help you develop a daily writing habit. "If you know you have to write something every single day, even a paragraph, you will improve your writing."
🌎 Publishing
When you're ready to share your work, you can share its link with others. If you wish, you can make it public so it's accessible from your Blurt profile like mine.
😻 Emojis
Blurt supports emojis! Type a ":" and a description to select one.
—
You can learn more about Blurt in my intro post on Blurt! :)
It's also not perfect. I've been working on Blurt in my ✌️spare time✌️ while working a full-time job. There are certainly some bugs I'm working to squash, but I'm hopeful to get Blurt to a point where I can commit myself full-time to it. :)
Lots more to come:
• 🏘 Blurt Writing Community
• 📊 Analytics for shared posts
• 🌚 Night mode
• 📥 Email publishing
• 🔥 Speed reading GIFs
I'd love to hear your feedback and what you think of Blurt. I want to make a truly useful writing tool for you and create a place for people to capture and share their best ideas and creativity with the world.
P.S. 👩🎓 If you're a student interested in using Blurt, please email me (corey [at] blurt.app) and I'll get you on a discounted $0.99/month student membership! Upvote (17)Share·
Joshua Tab.@satwaya · Student, crafting Walk
@corey_gwin So happy to see you launch today! Congratulations 🎉
Upvote (2)Share·
Andrew Askins@andrewaskins · Partner & CEO at Krit
@corey_gwin congrats on the launch! I'm a big Hemingway user primarily because of their tips to help me improve my writing, so at first glance I really love what you're building and want to be a supporter. My biggest problem with Hemingway and other writing tools is publishing and collaborative editing.
I still write 90% of my blog posts in Google Docs because I still haven't found anything better for collaborating on writing with others. Can you elaborate on how sharing drafts works? Are their built in tools like suggested edits or comments to make editing simple? Or are these things in your roadmap at all?
I also want to publish my writing to my company blog, not to another blog platform. Copying and pasting works alright, it's what I have to do with Google Docs anyway. But I would love something better.
I totally understand this is a side project and don't expect you to have every feature out of the gate! But I would love to hear what's on your roadmap, if you have an opinion about the direction you want to go in, etc. Sorry for the novel, really excited by what you're working on!
Upvote (2)Share·
Corey GwinMaker@corey_gwin · I make stuff. 👨🏻💻☕️ Building Blurt.app.
@andrewaskins Andrew! Thanks for the novel! :) Seriously! Incredibly helpful insights! These are the things I hope to hear because I want to build a truly useful tool for writers.
Your gripe with Hemmingway et al. is exactly why I built Blurt myself. I want all the best of these tools in one place!
1. Collaboration: Collaboration (specifically, getting feedback) is something I'm working on. Currently, there's no way for a reader to provide any comments or Medium-like highlight/side-notes. There's also no real-time collaboration. You can however share you Blurt work's link without publishing it so it remains private. And someone can provide feedback externally prior to making it public on Blurt. This is a temporary crutch. The Blurt solution will likely involve something of a hybrid between Google Docs and Medium.
2. Blog Platforms: I'm totally with you. I want to smartly figure out how to make Blurt part of the solution, not another problem. Not another place you have to publish through. I think a smart export to specific social media platforms is a good start. Conceivably a browser extension could help. I don't have it figured it out just yet but would certainly work to come up with a better solution than copy paste.
Yes, really want to commit full-time to start solving these problems now! :) For now I'm working a full-time job and Blurt is on the side. I'm hopeful to start spending more time on it if things go well! I'll keep you posted as I sense you share many of the pains I've experienced and trying to eliminate. :)
Upvote (4)Share·
Andrew Askins@andrewaskins · Partner & CEO at Krit
Hey @corey_gwin thanks for getting back to me! Of these two problems collaboration is the most important to me, it's what keeps me on Google Docs over everything else. I don't think realtime collaboration is necessarily that important but being able to make suggestions and track changes is huge. That is probably even more important to me than comments (but barely).
I'm super passionate about this problem and would love to help however I can! I'll sign up for a trial, but it will probably be tough for me to pay without any collaboration features.
Also, I think you're making the right move by charging up front. Ignore people who don't want to pay for things. This is a painful enough problem that if you can solve it for people there are enough out there who won't hesitate to pay $9.99 per month.
Upvote (1)Share·
⚡️
James Gallagher@jamesstewart · CEO @ Open Commit
@coreygwin @blurt @corey_gwin Congratulations on the launch! I like the minimalist approach you are taking to writing, and the fact you support writing sessions in-app, something some major editors neglect.
Just to note, your student initiative is a great way to pay back to the community, as well as allowing you to expand your network in the student market (which is a really great application of your app).
Upvote (1)Share·
Justin Jackson@mijustin · ⚡️ transistor.fm
Every year, there are tons of new writing apps released on PH.
THIS IS THE FIRST ONE I'VE REALLY WANTED TO TRY OUT
@coreygwin the problems you're tackling with this are the same writing struggles I have. Can't wait to try it!
Upvote (8)Share·
Corey GwinMaker@corey_gwin · I make stuff. 👨🏻💻☕️ Building Blurt.app.
@coreygwin @mijustin Wow! Thanks dude! 🙌 Means a lot coming from you. I know, I felt a little crazy building another writing app, but had a sense maybe I was on to something different by focusing on the real, underlying problems of writing.
Definitely let me know how it goes. Really want to help understand and improve the writing process for writers like yourself and make it fit into your workflow.
Upvote (1)Share·
Justin Jackson@mijustin · ⚡️ transistor.fm
@corey_gwin just bought it now! 🎉
Upvote (2)Share·
Ethan@booligoosh · 👨💻👨🎤 Making KanbanMail & Code The Web
Looks a bit like http://www.hemingwayapp.com/ except 20x more awesome!!! 😍
Upvote (6)Share·
Aram Shahinyan@aramiggs · Co-founder at inKin Corporate Wellness
Did want to give it a try, but I really don't understand this technique of on-boarding, when the product won't let me try it unless I provide my card details. This is quite annoying.
I do believe, that you lack conversions because of this.
Upvote (5)Share·
Corey GwinMaker@corey_gwin · I make stuff. 👨🏻💻☕️ Building Blurt.app.
@aramiggs Hey Aram! Thanks for the feedback.
I purposefully decided to require the paywall for two reasons:
1. It helps me qualify my users and validate the perceived value of the product. If there are users willing to provide payment details to check Blurt out with a paywall, I know I have a high quality lead. The action also provides significant validation of the product. Freemium can certainly be a great business model, but often requires significant overhead in supporting non-paying customers.
2. I'm bootstrapping Blurt in my free time while working a full-time job. In an ideal world, I can turn Blurt it into a full-time business that pays my bills and affords me a standard of living. I can't do that without charging for my work so for now I'm trying a more aggressive strategy to get me closer to that goal.
I understand if you're not comfortable providing your payment details—have received this feedback before. I can let you know if I decide to offer a trial without payment in the future if you're interested!
Upvote (10)Share·
Aram Shahinyan@aramiggs · Co-founder at inKin Corporate Wellness
@corey_gwin Thanks for reply, Corey.
The keyword here was "aggressive strategy" and the reasons you mentioned above are truly acceptable. Would love to try it once there is a Freemium option.
The best of luck :)
Upvote (4)Share·
Bret Prins 🔥@_rlntlss · Web Developer
@aramiggs @corey_gwin Personally I don't see this as an 'aggressive' strategy at all. I see it as a validation that if this product is good enough to survive and you're going to continue working on it. It has to generate some revenue. And that is more than fair. Also, it's not like this is a big purchasing decision for customers. It's 5-10 bucks. How many times have you traveled somewhere and tried out the local cafes? Did you get a free sip out of a $5 coffee before you bought it?
Just my $.02 😬
Cool product Corey! Looks really clever.
Upvote (3)Share·
⚡️
Ryan HooverPro@rrhoover · Founder, Product Hunt
Awesome to see you working on this on the side over the months, @corey_gwin! What's the plan next for Blurt? Think you'll ever work on it full-time?
Upvote (5)Share·
Corey GwinMaker@corey_gwin · I make stuff. 👨🏻💻☕️ Building Blurt.app.
@rrhoover Ryan! Thanks. Ya, it's been quite the journey bootstrapping Blurt!
The dream would be to be able work full-time crafting a product like Blurt for others.
For now it remains a side-project until I can get the revenue to a place that lets me leave my full-time job. I'm hopeful after launching here today I can harness the traffic and comprehend some of the conversations and experiences Blurt users are having to decide what comes next. I need to work on the business model a bit if I'm gonna scale up, but still have a lot to learn now that I've opened the floodgates.
As for plans? I want to continue to focus on helping professional and aspiring writers hone their skills. Better analysis of writing (e.g. what times of day might you write best? How might you summarize or simplify things?), better helping writers develop a writing habit with reminders and weekly summaries of their productivity, and add collaboration tools.
I have a few other spaces to explore. I have some aims to grow communities and better publishing features. Trying to comprehend how much value Blurt can add outside of places like Medium or what the next Medium might be. While community is important for marketing, garnering attention or influence, it's also helpful for getting support, inspiration and feedback. The email publishing space also seems interesting for Blurt. I also think writers would appreciate some simple analytics, know where their writing is shared, how long it was read, how far a reader got in it, etc.
Of course, also night mode needs to happen at some point. :)
I've got my work cut out for me! 😅
Upvote (4)Share·