A lot of writers swear by distraction-free writing apps to help them get their work done. I’ve never tried one before, but probably should have, given how often I accidentally click away to Facebook in the middle of writing a story. (How did I end up watching cat videos for the last half hour again?)
I played with BlankPage a little this morning and here are some of the things I learned.
BlankPage has a cool outlining feature.
Outlining is something I should do more of. And BlankPage’s outlining feature is pretty easy to use. You create a list of the different beats or plot points you want to hit, each in its own box.
If you want to add a new outline point, click a button above the outline that says “Add another piece.”
If you later want to change the order of your outline, just click and drag to rearrange the pieces.
Here’s what my first BlankPage outline looked like:
BlankPage’s typing area is very plain
When you’re ready to write, click on a plot point to flesh it out. Below is the screen I got when I clicked on my first outline piece, “Wake up on a different planet.” It’s pretty much just an empty text box waiting to be filled. BlankPage means it when it says “distraction-free”:
I would expect the outline beat “Wake up on a different planet” to automatically insert itself as the page’s title (the blank above the text box), but it doesn’t. Maybe most people write outline beats that are too long to fit into the “title” area at the top of the page. So you have to enter a title at the top of the page yourself—and you probably should, so you can remember which part of the story you’re in.
I didn’t, though. Update on 6/15: In the comments below, Jesper from BlankPage offers this tip: “if you press Tab while writing, the outline [piece] pops in on the side. So you don’t have to remember it all, if you don’t want to.” Cool!
I just started writing:
Update: Here’s what it looks like after I hit the Tab key:
Writing in BlankPage was a lot more satisfying than writing in a Word document for some reason. Maybe it’s the large font or the clean interface. Maybe because it’s new to me, and primates love novelty.
I’m not sure, but anything that helps me feel happier while writing is something that I want.
There aren’t a lot of fancy formatting options.
But you can use key commands like Control+i for italics and Control+b for bold.
BlankPage exports to Word
Once you’re ready to edit, you can export your work as a Microsoft Word (.docx) or Plain Text (.txt) document. I tried both, and each worked fine. They pulled all the text I’d written under each outline point into one document. The names of my outline points (“Wake up on a different planet,” “Discover an alien civilization,” etc.) did NOT appear in the download—only the content.
BlankPage tracks your word count
There is a word count tracker at the bottom of your page. The default word count goal is 250, but you can set it higher or lower on your Settings page. There, you can also ask for daily emails to kick your ass inspire you to write:
BlankPage integrates with NaNoWriMo
I participate in NaNoWriMo fairly often, but find it’s a pain to log in every day to track my word count when I need to spend as much time as possible writing. If you let BlankPage know your NaNoWriMo ID, it will update your word count for you. Woohoo!
BlankPage works online or offline
BlankPage is browser-based, but if you get disconnected from the internet, it will continue to save your work. Update 6/15: BlankPage is also working on an app that works completely offline.
BlankPage saves every word
If you’re someone who accidentally closes documents, have no fear! BlankPage saves each word as you write so that your work doesn’t get lost.
I tested this by clicking backward in my browser, closing my browser page, and coming up with every other sort of mischief I could devise. The only way I succeeded in deleting any work was by hitting the Delete or Backspace buttons on my keyboard.
Conclusion: Two thumbs up!
BlankPage isn’t complicated or rich in features, but that’s the point. It helped me focus on the task at hand. Other than wishing that BlankPage automatically pulled outline beats to populate the title of each document section, I couldn’t find fault. Update on 6/15: Since learning that pressing Tab reveals the outline on any content page, I think the app is pretty much perfect for my purposes.
And now I need my thumbs back so I can hit the Space bar. Thanks!
Want Blankpage? You can sign up for a free trial at the BlankPage website.
Happy writing!
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This is a good review!
Do you have more than one monitor? I’m wondering if it also makes the second monitor blank.
I should have labeled my screen shots better! All the screen shots were only of my browser window, not of the entire desktop. I’ll label them to make that clear.
That means the app *doesn’t* make the rest of the screen blank — although you could enlarge your browser window to cover your whole screen. The “distraction-free” aspect is referring more to the fact that it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles of a regular word-processing program to draw your focus away from writing — fonts to play with, tabs that won’t line up properly, and so forth. Also, the visual interface is easier on the eyes, which helps you concentrate.
Your question got me curious about whether any of the distraction-free writing apps cover the entire screen. I looked through all the ones in this article and didn’t find one that does.
To get everything off your desktop (or hidden), I would close all other browser tabs/windows and enter Full Screen Mode. (Chrome has this setting under the View menu.) And to make sure nothing could distract me, I’d also make sure notifications for all my email/chat apps were turned off. An extension like StayFocusd could also help. I think you’re the person who introduced me to StayFocusd, but in case you aren’t, here’s an article that explains it and similar extensions: https://topalternatives.com/google-chrome-extensions-that-help-block-time-wasting-websites/
Thank you for all the additional info! I appreciate it!
You’re welcome. Good luck with finding something that works for you.
P.S. Another option is to disconnect from the internet. You open BlankPage with the internet connected, but then can turn off internet and continue to work, and it saves your work.
I talked to their help desk this morning and they’re also working on an app that works completely offline (so you can open it without being connected to the internet).
P.P.S. For writing apps that are full-screen by default, a friend over on Facebook just recommended DarkRoom. It works on Windows: http://jjafuller.com/dark-room/. There’s something similar for Macs called WriteRoom: http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom.
Hi Dale,
Thanks for a lovely review! I thought I’d just let you know that if you press Tab while writing, the outline pops in on the side. So you don’t have to remember it all, if you don’t want to. 😉
Enjoy your writing!
Thanks for the tip! I’ll add it to the review.