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Comment by dtagames | Hacker News Reader

I'm curious but that's not much of an intro/demo.

Apologies, I've sort of been struggling with how to present the concept clearly and concisely. Here's an overview of where the idea came from: https://lunette.app/about

Basically, my wife and I both write, and we found ourselves bouncing around from app to app looking for something that felt good and like a place we could really be productive and creative but never found anything that felt quite right, both in terms of functionality and aesthetics. Products like Medium are subject to constantly changing business models and identities. Google Docs is cluttered and uninspiring. Notes apps probably came the closest... but this big realization was that writing is a process that's just one of many things you might do in any of those apps, and there are things that happen while writing prose that could be augmented if the app were specifically designed around that use-case.

As I mentioned in the about page, the first such discovery was that almost all writers I spoke to were doing the thing where they come up with ideas spontaneously and usually just type up those ideas at random places in the document, which makes a mess of everything. We set out to solve that problem as an MVP, but the broader goal is to continue to develop the app around the writer's use-case and make wrangling concepts into prose an easier process.

You would need to better underline why this is a webapp. You say you needed a better word processor, but mention products like Medium (blogging platform) and Google Docs (an online word processor). Why not Typora, Obsidian, Zettlr? These are complex word processor apps that also focus minimalism. I don't know if you considered these when starting to develop, but if so, some comparison would be apt to why your app is an alternative (eg. "it's one click away").

Thanks for this!

To answer the question, Lunette would ideally be a combination of local and cloud and be available via web and native app. One product I tried that did this was Roam Research (https://roamresearch.com/), but the problem was they made you choose because the two (either saved to the cloud OR locally), whereas I think it'd work better if those two worked hand in hand. But that's complicated to build and beyond the scope of a proof of concept.

Ultimately I went with the web app because that's my skillset and I figured the best first step was seeing if it's even something people would use.

> And what do we do with our ideas when they arise? Well, we scroll to the bottom of the document and jot them down, copy and paste them, rearrange them, and hope we'll remember to come back to them.

I write erotic novels as a hobby. I legit thought no one else does this (putting random unorganized ideas at the bottom of the document). I am genuinely pleased to know I am not the only one.

I was too! I hope the way we've done it solves the problem!

I do that too! It’s nice to have some “scratch space” at the end, like an artists’ palette to dab colors from.

Ideas naturally flow from scratch to outline to fleshed-out paragraphs this way.

I used to do that a lot, then I started using a second window of markdown for notes and save both documents next to each other.

> I used to do that a lot, then I started using a second window of markdown for notes and save both documents next to each other.

Ditto, except that I use Vim on a single file with vertical splits, so that that I have different parts of the same file in view at the same time.

With a large monitor I typically have 3x vertical splits on the same file.

I do this too with my iA writer windows - 3 columns with various ideas and texts. What I found is that the slim width of each window helps me to write better. Broad windows with their endlessly long lines made me loss focus on what I was writing.

Perhaps it comes from me being a 80-character line limit programmer and have always limited the width of my editor.

Got any previews of your work? Lol.

I think you need a video or something or a demo page where people can try it out without any log in. I also think the about page needs to explain takes ideation and composition and lets them work together. It kind of sounds like Scrivener or Manuskript?

You should update the About page. Your comment here is a much, much better explanation of what you are trying to do and why.

Tossing out some suggestions:

Instead of: Traditional word processors are for formatting text. Lunette organizes your ideas and supports the writing process.

Try something more like:

Lunette: A Word Processor for writers. A space for ideation and composition, not just text formatting.

Write a bio for each of you. Do not link to your twitter profile and her..whatever that page is. Neither of them says "We are writers with experience writing." Neither of them sells the idea that you know what you are doing with this app.

For your About page, you should put the stuff about "husband and wife team ..." at the bottom. Lead with info about the app, not about the team.

Rewrite your last paragraph in your comment here to strip out all the personal stuff and make it more objective:

Writers come up with ideas spontaneously and usually just type up those ideas at random places in the document, which makes a mess of everything. The MVP seeks to solve that problem, but the broader goal is to continue to develop the app around the writer's use-case and make wrangling concepts into prose an easier process.

Then follow with some of the info found in your second paragraph above (minus attacks on other products -- and I suggest you drop talk of "constantly changing business models" because if this succeeds, you will face similar challenges):

If you find yourself bouncing around from app to app looking for something that feels good and like a place you can really be productive and creative but never find anything that feels quite right, try Lunette.

Lunette is a marriage of writing-process focused functionality and clean aesthetics. Writing is a process. Making notes is just one of many things you might do in an app and there are things that happen while writing prose that could be augmented if the app were specifically designed around that use-case.

Then at the bottom close with something about the team. I would probably leave out the fact that you are "husband and wife." I would position it more like "Stephen Corwin and Kristi Grassi are both writers frustrated with their inability to find an app with the features they need." and the names should, again, link to a bio on the site that highlights why you two are qualified to make this app and make it better than other writing apps.

You also need some explanation for the screenshot on your landing page. The screenshot does not tell me what it does. I have to guess and those guesses are somewhat informed by your above comment but not by anything actually on the site itself.

If it were me, I would likely take the screenshot, stick it in an editor and circle stuff in red or whatever and then add notes below it: "The section in the red oval on the right is blah blah blah."

Tell me what it does and why this helps me write.

I second almost 100% of this feedback. Especially where you started: OP’s comment is much more illuminating than anything on the site. My only quibble is this:

> I would probably leave out the fact that you are "husband and wife."

If that were the language I’d probably agree, and probably wouldn’t have given it much more thought than that! But I think “husband and wife team” swayed me from that instinct. It’s a good balance between humanizing and establishing a shared interest in using the thing they’ve built. I don’t know how representative my reaction is, but “we created [thing] because [actual human experience and need it satisfies]” tends to be a persuasive way to get me interested, and actual human stuff feels more pertinent to me in that framing than stuff about the humans detached from the thing.

This is super helpful to hear, thank you! I'm like you, I like using products that feel like they've been built by people rather than faceless companies, so I felt like this would be good to share.

Wow. This was great advice. Remind me to look you up when I present my next project. Thank you for modeling what a great critique looks like.

My gmail address is DoreenMicheleTraylor. Let me know if you need anything else.

In case you don't know anything about the giver of that gift, check their profile. My jaw dropped when I saw who wrote it.

This is valuable advice, OP. Definitely suggest doing these things.

There are people who bill $500 per hour to do what you just did

I currently charge $75/page for website copy or resume review.

This is brilliant, thank you so much for the help!

Free advice, feel free to reject it as the trash four a.m. writing it is: I want you and your wife to write two sample stories using each of your unique voices. I want you to snapshot your writing process in respect to the various features of your product. I then want you to lay that out as actual examples of what real people do with your product and its relevant features.

What's the struggle? Just remove the sign up and send people straight into the app.

This is an interesting app/approach. I solved a similar issue by switching to LaTeX and TeXStudio. Being able to add any marker to the nav tree helps me be organized, and I can easily add in my notes as comments. With a good color scheme, it becomes very easy to organize and keep notes and encourage my writing, easily browsable, and can output a beautiful pdf with one button press.

We admittedly haven't put much effort into the this yet because we're genuinely curious about people's unbiased reactions to it since it's an mvp. This reaction in itself is great feedback though :)

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