Why I'm building Limelight.

Inkwell is the writing app I wish I'd had when I was just starting out as an author. I had stories I cared about, a few half-good chapters, and a folder full of files that wouldn't sit still. Every tool I tried had been built for someone further down the road — for the writer with a system, a process, a publisher. Not the one staring at chapter one wondering whether it should even exist.

So I'm making the tool I needed then, and the tool I still need now. Inkwell treats your manuscript like a manuscript. It's chapter-first, it works offline, it doesn't ask you to sign up before you can start. When you're ready, it produces a print-ready PDF and an EPUB you can actually publish.

Limelight is the studio around it. It's a small thing — mostly me, a handful of writers I trust, and an ambition to keep showing up. I want to build the clear software choice for authors just starting out, and a serious option for the ones who never quite stopped writing. I want to do it in public, in the journal, with my work on the table.

If that sounds like your kind of place, the curtain is up. Pull up a seat.

— Steven