I should amend slightly: I HAVE used the comments and suggestions feature when commenting on someone else's work. I use that for my beta reading. But I believe there's a "live" way to do that back and forth (like Gdocs or Ellipsus) and no one I've met seems keen to use it. Comments always go one way

MS Word is still industry standard in a lot of circles. I haven't really made use of their collab features, but the AI presence is a turn off. Syncing (and I think autosaving) only works if you have OneDrive. I've dabbled with Pages, but it doesn't exactly *wow* me. I also lack a Mac.

I DID forget something! Cloud SYNCING! Backups are kind of its own thing, but being able to quickly access a project across multiple computers is super helpful. I'd even accept limited features on certain devices. Sometimes I just want to LOOK at my work, not draft on every device.

(NOW I'm done)

Maybe it sounds nice on paper but isn't so good in practice. But I wish I didn't have to grapevine different tools together to suit all my needs.

Did you actually read the whole 🧵?! Wow, you trooper! Thank you so much!! What do you think? What are your fave apps and what features do you wish for?

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but these are my pie-in-the-sky hopes for a writing platform or software. Maybe the technology isn't there or it would be too demanding for the average PC/Mac computer.

Ninth, little to no lag. I could forgive a program for lagging some if it actually had the inspiration board integration I mentioned above (which is why it should be togglable), but I'm so tired of a long chapter making an app freeze or behave choppy. Nothing ruins my flow worse than that.

Eighth, a nice pleasing UI. Might sound superficial, but I'm going to be staring at this all day. I want it easy on the eyes and maybe even pretty. A good UI setup too isn't too overwhelming and emphasizes the most important things. Give customization options.

Sixth, lots of export options, especially the big ones like Kindle, and they preferably should NOT break formatting afterwards.

Seventh, NO AI. Don't use my crap to train your LLMs and don't make me fight with some dumb AI assistant. If I need support, gimme a hooman.

Fifth, I don't want subs. I want to pay once, even if it's 100-300 bucks, and never be bothered again. If a dev needs more income, make a plugin store or offer advanced support with a fee. Host writing contests with an entry fee, I dunno. But don't force me into a sub. I'm broke.

Fourth, I want to be able to visualize my story's timeline and color code it at a glance to show which plot thread is being advanced, which crossover, and which important characters are present. I want to click on a scene, see a summary, and be able to go STRAIGHT to the scene.

I want inspo boards alongside my writing and I want to be able to embed videos, images, typed notes, and handwritten notes/drawings with a USB tablet or compatible computer screens. Maybe even have an infinite freeform canvas like Concepts on iPad.

Third, I want better integration of planning and inspiration tools. I want important keywords to hyperlink so that I can easily click to my planning doc and remember worldbuilding details. I want character names to bring up mini bios on the sidebar with important notes to remember.

Second, collaborative tools are super helpful and sorta feel mandatory. But more than just being able to share work and have others contribute, edit, or comment, I want to control who sees what. Betareader.io manages this AND gives reader analytics, but it's not cheap.

First, cloud backup and autosaving feels like a must today. It's devastating to lose work, but on top of that, it would be nice to have tight version control, like I've seen in Ellipsus, in case I need to roll something back.

Okay. Whining and pedantic nitpicking done. What DO I want in a writing app then?