Studio notes
Notes from the studio on the choices behind Write 500 Words.
How iCloud syncing works
17 May 2026
Your whole project syncs across your Macs through iCloud Drive: manuscript, notes and version history alike. When two Macs clash over a chapter, the app settles it without losing your text.
Why an export looks different from the editor
15 May 2026
A tour of the five export routes, and why Manuscript format looks so unlike the editor. The editor is for writing. The export is for sending.
Content Analysis: a mirror for your manuscript
14 May 2026
Content Analysis surfaces what your manuscript already contains: a synopsis, plus the people, places and themes you've named. It runs on your own Mac, and it can be switched off.
Focus modes and the split editor
13 May 2026
Focus modes bring your eyes down to the line you're on. The split editor does the opposite and puts a second document beside the first.
Version history: every draft recoverable
12 May 2026
The app saves versions of every document as you work. Restoring one is never destructive, because your current text is versioned first. The history lives inside the project and travels with it.
Annotations and highlights: two private editing aids
11 May 2026
Annotations are notes to yourself threaded through the prose. Highlights are a yellow marker pen for passages you want to revisit. Neither appears in any export.
The Reference shelf
10 May 2026
The writer's working shelf: characters, locations, research, the notes a novel needs beside it. It sits outside the manuscript and outside the word count.
How the Stats panel keeps track
9 May 2026
The mechanics behind the daily target: what counts as a word, what the rest-day rule does, and what each piece of the panel is showing you.
Why the editor keeps markdown simple
8 May 2026
Markdown can do a lot more than the editor lets you reach. The set is narrow because a novel is text and structure, and most of the rest doesn't survive the journey out.
One project, one window
7 May 2026
A project opens in one window. The split editor covers the moments when two documents need to be visible at once.
Why plain markdown?
6 May 2026
What plain markdown actually is, and why the whole project format sits on top of it.
Why a daily target?
6 May 2026
Five hundred words a day is a practice the app borrows rather than invents. Why that number, and why the streak is gentler than the word usually implies.