Or at least that’s what I’d love to be doing, but I am still in the early development stages and don’t have much that I can share. There is yet to be a working website and there is a just barely working Discord bot, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
So what is this app?
If you are in any writing communities on Discord, you are probably familiar with some sort of sprint-running bot. There are a couple out there and they are great! Some of them even have project tracking capabilities and can give you stats and streaks. If you like to track your writing progress, you might have used some web app or productivity tool to help you do this (or maybe you just love a spreadsheet, also valid). I wanted something that could do both. I wanted to be able to run some sprints with my friends on Discord and have that progress show up in whatever web app tool I’m using. I couldn’t find it.
So I’m building it.
Before I got laid off from my software engineering job last year (which I won’t get into right now, but oof the tech job market), I didn’t have much time to code outside of my job. A girl’s got other hobbies, you know? But I did have some interest in making a Discord bot spurred on by an interesting use case from a server I’m in that I thought I could help solve, and by the end of last year, I had built one and figured out how to host it on a Raspberry Pi.
With one Discord bot under my belt, I had an idea for another, and I already knew the scope of what I wanted would be much, much bigger, but it was something I wanted (and hopefully what others wanted), so I was determined to build it.
I have big plans for this app, but I knew I had to start small. So, we’re starting with a bot that can run sprints. I know some may say even that is not that small (and I agree!), but I decided this was the bare minimum it should be able to do before I could get people using it. And I want people to use it. I want people, writers, to use it and tell me how they’d like to use it. I would love for this to be a collaborative development with other writers.
After months of learning, researching, planning, and of course, coding, I’m almost at a place where this bot can run sprints, and if you’re interested in being a tester and giving me feedback, please subscribe to this newsletter, because my tester call will be coming here first.
A little about Writi
Writi (any pronouns) is the Write Time App mascot and face of the Discord bot. Some may argue that paying an artist to draw a cute mushroom lad holding a pencil for your little writing app idea shouldn’t be at the top of the list, but I beg to differ. He’s done a great job so far for drumming up some interest when I shared the art in a writing server I’m in. Looking at that cute little face always cheers me up.
And why a little mushroom lad holding a pencil? Look, I think mushrooms are cute okay. And it’s a writing app, of course he’s holding a pencil.
Anyways, I think I’ve rambled enough about this. If you’ve made it this far, thank you, and if you have any interest in this app and its future, please subscribe to get the updates!