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The is where you land when you sign in to your account.
From here, you can create a draft, or open any of your active or complete drafts from the list. If you have a lot to scroll through, use the drawer to search, sort, and filter your list.
On the , click the “+ New Draft” tile and fill in the details:
All four fields are required. Once you click 'Create new draft', the draft opens in the writing editor. You can edit these details anytime — see .
When you open a draft, you'll see the Workflow drawer open at the left of the editor. The Workflow takes your draft through seven steps: , , , , , , and .
Each step is locked until you complete the one before it. You can revisit and edit earlier steps at any time.
Changes to your Drafts and Notes are automatically synced and backed up to the cloud as you write.
Your open tabs and your progress through each step are also saved, so you can close the app and pick up exactly where you left off.
More details in
To delete a draft, click the 3-dot dropdown on the Drafts dashboard tile you want to delete, and select 'Delete Draft'.
A confirmation popup will open. Click 'Delete Draft' to complete the delete action.
*If you have deleted a Draft by mistake, contact us within 30 days and it can be restored.
To move to the next step, make sure all substeps are checked complete*; then, the “Mark Step Complete” button appears on the toolbar. Clicking 'Mark Step Complete' unlocks the next step, and opens it automatically.
*View individual steps below for details on marking substeps complete
Each drafting step displays the same draft in a different format, so changes you make in one step automatically appear in the others. For example, edits made in the Outline are reflected in the Rough Draft.
Completing a step doesn’t lock earlier ones; you can return to any previous step and continue editing at any time.
When you click “Mark Step Complete” in the final step (Polishing Passes), a celebration popup opens with two choices:
Draft Info holds the basic details of your draft — title, category, genre, and a short description. You fill these in when you first create the draft, and can revisit and edit them anytime from the Draft Info tab at the top of the Workflow drawer.
You can open and update this info at any point while you write - see
There are two ways to update Draft Info:
When creating a new draft, you may notice it already shows as 5% complete (before even a letter has been added in the editor). We think even getting started should count for something.
The Outline step is where you build the structure of your draft. Don't worry about writing polished content yet, focus on organizing your ideas into a clear framework.
Each Section is represented by a Section Title. Depending on what you're writing, a section might be a chapter, scene, topic, argument, heading, or any other major division of your work.
The numbered items beneath each Section Title are Subsections (or beats). These break a section into smaller pieces. In fiction they might be scenes or story beats; in essays they could be supporting points or paragraphs; in research they might represent evidence, topics, or sources to cover.
Your outline items can be messy and unpolished. These are planning notes that will guide your writing in the Rough Draft step, and won't appear as part of the draft itself.
A section from a novel outline:
Chapter 1 - The Coastline Thing
Chapter 2 - crossing the threshold (chapter title tbd)
Example from a screenplay:
INT. DINER – EVENING.
EXT. DINER – NIGHT.
Example from a memoir:
Early years
Getting Into Aviation
The Survey Years
The Outline drawer lists every section and subsection in your outline. Click any item to jump directly to it in the editor. Sections marked complete display a ✓, making it easy to track your progress at a glance.
A progress ring at the top shows how much of your outline has been marked completed.
The default layout is simply a starting point. Build an outline of any size; a Section can have as many Subsections as you like.
Adding a Section: Press Enter from a Section title, or from the (empty) last item of a subsection list. Place the cursor at the beginning or end of the Section title's text before pressing Enter to add a new section before or after it, respectively.
Adding a Subsection: Press Enter from a (non-empty) Subsection. Place the cursor at the beginning or end of the subsection's text before pressing Enter to add a new subsection before or after it, respectively.
Adding new lines to a Subsection: Use Shift+Enter if you want to add multiple lines within a subsection. It will add a new line where your cursor is placed, so you can add new lines before, after, or in the middle of text.
Turn a Subsection into a Section: use Shift+Tab, or the Section button in the toolbar .
Turn a Section into a Subsection: use Tab, or the Subsection button in the toolbar.
When you finish with a section, check the Section Complete box. Completed sections are dimmed, making it easy to scan your outline and quickly spot areas that still need work.
To complete the Outline step, all sections must be marked complete using the ‘section complete’ checkbox next to the section title - see .
If you have any empty sections, they must be removed to reach 100% completion (click Backspace from an empty section title to delete the empty section).
Once all sections are checked off, the progress circle in the drawer next to Outline will show a checkmark, and the ‘Mark Step Complete’ button will show in the toolbar; clicking it will unlock the Placeholder Setup step and automatically open it.
*You can come back to work on the Outline at any time, even after marking it complete.
All the steps share the same draft, just displayed in a different format depending on the step’s purpose.
So for instance, making edits to the Section title from the Rough Draft, you will see that same update in the Outline view (and vise-versa).
Once content has been added to sections in the Rough Draft step, a preview is displayed in the Outline. That way, if you decide to revisit the Outline step to move pieces around or delete sections, you will know what accompanying draft content is being moved/deleted.
The Outline step shows only a short preview so that the view is more condensed and makes it easier to see the bigger picture, but each preview can be clicked to open and show the full content.
The Placeholder Setup step is where you can review and customize the placeholders you'll use in your Rough Draft.
There are 26 placeholders built-in, but you only need to use the ones that are pertinent to your writing style or particular draft.
Examples of how placeholders can be used in the Rough Draft
'I don't want to write this conversation right now' - dialogue:
/dia argument about the hidden map
'this would be a good place for foreshadowing':
/fore hint at villain; make sure it's subtle here, don't want to give it away too early
'reminder to add a reference here':
/ref
See for placeholders shown in a full draft context,
or for how to add and activate a placeholder in the Rough Draft.
To customize a placeholder, click the 3-dot menu at the far right of the row and select ‘edit’.
This opens the editing view, where you can make changes in the inputs. For built-in placeholders, you cannot edit the name, but for custom placeholders you can edit both fields. Click ‘save’ to save your changes.
You can update the placeholder’s colors without opening the edit view - just click the swatches to open a color picker. After a color has been changed for a built-in placeholder, you can reset it back to its default color by clicking the 3-dot menu, and selecting ‘Reset to default’.
Editing a placeholder applies the change across all your drafts
For example, if you used ‘/dia’ in another draft, then update it to ‘/dialog’ in another draft’s placeholder setup, all the ‘/dia’s in your other draft will be updated to ‘/dialog’. This ensures that it still has the placeholder colors applied, and is included in the editing passes.
You can add a new placeholder to any section by clicking the ‘+ New placeholder’ button below that section. Add a name, placeholder, and change the colors (if you want to), and click ‘save’.
Custom placeholders are marked by a * to the left of the row.
You can move a custom placeholder to a new section by clicking the 3-dot menu, and selecting ‘move to’ - this will show a list of the sections and you can select a new one.
There's no specific completion requirement for the Placeholder Setup step. Once you're happy with your placeholder list, click the 'Mark Step Complete' button at the top of the page to unlock the Rough Draft step.
You can always come back and edit/add more placeholders as you figure out what your writing style or draft needs.
The Rough Draft step is where you start writing the actual draft, using your Outline as a guide.
Section titles and subsection descriptions are carried over from your Outline, and below each subsection description is a new drafting area (marked with '┃draft text...' when empty).
Embrace the 'rough' in rough draft
Let yourself write whatever comes: stream-of-thought, random ideas that pop up, very long run on sentences with a bunch of spelling errors, questions you don't have answers to yet...
Some days amazing prose flow out effortlessly, and other days all you can manage is word-spaghetti (creativity is funny like that). Use placeholders any time you get stuck, and keep moving forward.
This step is what the Placeholders were made for - see and for ideas on how to use them to keep your momentum going through the rough draft phase.
*You'll revisit placeholders (and whatever else you want to edit) in the Editing Passes step. The editor also ignores spelling errors in this phase to prevent any premature editing - spelling, grammar, and other cleanup are addressed later in the Refinement and Polishing Passes.
The Rough Draft drawer lists every section and subsection in your draft. Click any section title or subsection to jump directly to it in the editor.
Each item shows a ✓ once it's been marked complete, making it easy to scan for whatever is still unfinished - see .
A progress ring at the top shows how much of your draft has been marked complete.
When using placeholders in the Rough Draft, make sure to type a Space after the placeholder to 'activate' it, and press Enter after adding any preview text to exit the placeholder preview.
Preview text is optional - placeholders can be used alone by adding the Space then immediately pressing Enter
See for placeholders in context, with usage in several different genres.
Example from a novel:
/set Nether Sluice, the keeper's cottage below the light, an hour before dawn
/note see Note - 'Nether Sluice - location descriptions
The morning ferry put Imogen Trout down on the quay at Nether Sluice a little after five, and the village did not so much greet her as observe her, the way one observes weather one has no intention of going out in.
/fore hint at coming troubles from weather
Above the cliffs the lighthouse stood dark, not dim and not shuttered but comprehensively dark, and everyone she passed on the steep road up was working very hard at not looking at it. /show
Example from a screenplay:
INT. DINER – NIGHT
LENA wipes down the counter for what is probably the third time. The place is empty except for HAROLD, seventy-something, nursing a coffee he stopped drinking half an hour ago.
/scene mostly dark except lights over counter + buzzing OPEN sign
HAROLD
You know, in my day, “closing”
meant you made people leave.
LENA
(bantering)
And yet here you are.
/dia something about Lena leaving town tomorrow — Harold doesn't believe she'll actually go
Headlights sweep across the windows.
Lena glances toward the parking lot.
A bus pulls in.
She watches it stop directly in front of the diner.
Example from a memoir:
I don't remember wanting to go to the airfield. My father remembers this differently, but my version is that I was nine years old, it was ninety degrees outside, and I had been promised ice cream.
/note ask Dad why we were actually there — was this the air show or something else?
The place smelled like hot pavement and gasoline. Dad kept pointing things out to me (names of planes, engines, things about wings that I immediately forgot) while I concentrated on kicking loose stones across the tarmac without getting caught.
Then an engine started somewhere behind us.
/det describe the sound — not just “loud.” Could feel it in chest?
I turned around in time to see a little red plane gathering speed at the far end of the runway.
I'd seen airplanes before, obviously. Tiny ones overhead. Huge ones through airport windows. But I had never watched one decide, right in front of me, to stop being on the ground.
/idea this is probably too neat/meaningful. Maybe undercut it with Dad yelling something I couldn't hear
When using placeholders in the Rough Draft, make sure to type a Space after the placeholder to 'activate' it, and press Enter to exit the placeholder preview.
Your Sections and Subsections carry over from the Outline, but you can add more sections or subsections any time you need to.
*It's recommended to go back to the Outline tab to add new sections or subsections (see ), as the layout there makes it easier (and any changes you make in the Outline will also apply to the Rough Draft); but it's also achievable directly in the Rough Draft.
Adding a Section: Press Enter from a Section title. Place the cursor at the beginning or end of the Section title's text before pressing Enter to add a new section before or after it, respectively.
Adding a Subsection: Press Enter from a Subsection. Place the cursor at the beginning or end of the title's text before pressing Enter to add a new subsection before or after it, respectively. Pressing Enter from an empty Subsection (one with no title and nothing drafted) turns it into a Section.
Adding new lines to Subsection notes: Use Shift+Enter if you want to add multiple lines within Subsection notes. It will add a new line where your cursor is placed, so you can add new lines before, after, or in the middle of text.
Deleting a Section or Subsection: clear its text and press Backspace from the empty row.
Turn a Subsection into a Section: use Shift+Tab, or the Section button in the toolbar.
Turn a Section into a Subsection: use Tab, or the Subsection button in the toolbar.
Use the checkbox to the left of a subsection to mark it complete. Completed subsections are dimmed, making it easy to scan the page and find what is still incomplete.
A Subsection can only be checked once there's text in its drafting area; until then the checkbox is disabled (hovering over it shows 'Must have draft text to be marked complete').
Section checkboxes are checked automatically
Sections are auto-marked complete once every Subsection under it is checked, and unchecks itself again if you add a new Subsection or uncheck an existing one. An empty Section (one with no Subsections) has nothing to complete, so it stays unchecked until you add a subsection and check it off.
lists every section and subsection with a ✓ next to the ones that are checked, so you can find whatever is still unfinished at a glance
To complete the Rough Draft step, all sections and subsections must be marked complete using the ‘subsection complete’ checkbox next to each subsection - see .
Once all sections and subsections are checked off, the progress circle in the drawer next to Rough Draft will show a checkmark, and the ‘Mark Step Complete’ button will show in the toolbar; clicking it will unlock the Editing Passes step and automatically open it.
*You can come back to work on the Rough Draft at any time, even after marking it complete.
This step is where you resolve the placeholders you set up earlier. The drawer lists each placeholder pattern with a live count of how many are left, and the “Next Placeholder” button jumps you through the remaining ones.
The step completes automatically once every placeholder has been filled in.
Refinement is a guided cleanup pass focused on the strength of your prose. It flags:
Each check shows a live count of remaining instances with a “Next” button to jump between them.
For any flag you disagree with, choose Ignore to dismiss that one instance. The 'Ignore all' button will handle every remaining instance at once. Ignored instances are remembered per draft, so a flag you’ve dismissed won’t keep coming back.
Polishing has three sub-steps:
For any flag you disagree with, choose Ignore to dismiss that one instance, or Ignore all / Accept all to handle every remaining instance at once.
Ignored instances are remembered per draft, so a flag you’ve dismissed won’t keep coming back.
You can hide drawers, panels, and interface elements you don't need to create a clean writing space, then bring them back when you need them.
Hide/show the drawer - click on the sidebar icon for the currently open drawer
Hide/show the toolbar - click the 'eye' icon at the top-right corner of the editor in the toolbar, or the 'wrench' icon to show it again
Hide/show the 'section complete' panel - click the progress circle above of the 'section complete' checkmarks column in the toolbar
The toolbar gives you bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, superscript, subscript, highlighting, and links, plus text alignment (left, center, right, justify). Undo and redo are there too.
The step layouts (outline sections, draft beats, and so on) are structural, so they’re protected from accidental deletion — use the + and − buttons to add or remove them instead. Pasted text is flattened to plain text for the same reason: it keeps outside formatting from breaking the structure of your draft.
The toolbar in each step of the Workflow has a print button, and will print the format and content from that step.
Download offers a choice of export formats (DOCX by default). Marking a draft complete also opens a dedicated print/export modal, so you can take your finished draft wherever it needs to go next.
Notes give you a place to capture ideas, research, character profiles, worldbuilding, or anything else you want to keep alongside your writing.
Notes are accessible from two places in the app:
You can create a new note from either the Notes page or the Notes drawer, and the process is the same in both places:
You can assign a Note to a certain draft, or make it universal. This helps filter what you see in the Notes drawer in the draft editor.
To change a note name or the draft it's assigned to, open the note and find it's name and draft/universal assignment in the toolbar. Click the pencil icon to edit the draft name, or open the dropdown to select a new draft to assign it to.
If you need to reassign multiple notes at once, see
You can re-assign or delete multiple notes at once by clicking the “Select” button at the top of the Notes drawer. A 'Delete' button and an 'Assign to' dropdown will appear at the bottom of the drawer.
You can create up to 100 notes, and each note can have up to 100,000 words. See for how those caps are handled.
The Stats page, accessed from your dashboard, lets you view your overall writing stats, create and track writing , and view writing .
The writing activity heatmap is a tracker that lets you visualize your daily writing habits over time.
The shade of a square reflects how many words you wrote that day, and you can hover over any square (tap on mobile) to see the exact word count and date for that day.
While working on a Draft in the editor, you can open the Stats drawer any time to quickly view your current daily word count and session word count, as well as progress on active goals
Goals are optional, and you activate the ones you want to track by . There are 3 types:
You can also or at any time.
Use the 'Activate a new goal' button at the bottom of the Stats drawer to open the goal builder popup.
Achievements are badges you earn as you write — for writing streaks, draft milestones (finishing your outline, rough draft, editing, refinement, or a whole draft), drafting passes (taking a single draft through 2, 3, 4, or 5 full passes), big writing sessions, and lifetime word totals. Completed goals turn into badges too, and a congratulations banner celebrates new milestones as you hit them.
Settings let you control how the app and your writing workspace look, including , , , , and . You can adjust the settings from 2 places:
Both locations show the same settings, so you can use whichever is most convenient.
Your settings apply across the entire app, not just a single draft. Any changes you make affect all drafts, notes, and the dashboard.
Settings are saved automatically as you make them. Your preferences are remembered in the current browser and will persist after closing the browser or logging out. If you use a different browser or device, you'll need to set them there as well.
The one exception is — themes you build yourself are saved to your account, so they're waiting for you on any browser or device you sign in from.
Use the sun and moon icons at the top of Settings to switch between light and dark mode.
The change applies across the entire app - the dashboard, editor, drawers, notes, etc.
Light and Dark mode each include three themes that make subtle adjustments to the colors used throughout the app:
A theme recolors the writing workspace, along with the rest of the app (drawers, backgrounds, text, accents, etc.).
Your most recently selected theme is saved separately for light and dark mode. If you prefer Calm in dark mode but Quiet in light mode, switching between light and dark mode will default to your preferences.
If none of the three suit you, you can build your own — see .
If the built-in aren't quite right, you can make your own. Go to the Settings page on your dashboard, find the My themes section, and click Add theme.
You'll pick a name for the theme, choose whether it belongs to light or dark mode, and then set five colors:
The whole app recolors as you pick, so you can see exactly how a combination reads before you commit to it. Cancel puts everything back the way it was; Save theme adds it to your My themes list, where you can select it like any other theme.
A theme belongs to the mode you built it for. A theme made for dark mode is only offered while you're in dark mode, since its colors would be hard to read against a light background.
You can edit or delete a theme at any time using the pencil and trash icons next to it. Deleting the theme you're currently using puts you back on Original.
Your themes are saved to your account rather than to one browser, so they follow you to any device you sign in from. They're also listed in the Settings drawer in the editor, so you can switch to one without leaving your draft — though adding and editing happen on the dashboard.
Use the text settings to choose the font and text size in the editor*:
The Reset button under the group puts both back to the defaults (JetBrains Mono, at 16 pixels).
*Font settings are global. Changing them updates every draft and note editor across the app
Use the layout settings to adjust the spacing used in the editor*:
Spacing is measured against the current font size, so it scales with it. A wider setting stays proportional if you change the font size in settings.
The Reset button under the sliders returns all three to their defaults.
*Layout settings are global. Changing them updates every draft and note editor across the app
Everything to do with your account can be found in the page of your dashboard:
Go to your page and navigate to Account Details; click “Change account email”, type the new address, and click “Send confirmation”.
A confirmation link is sent to the new address — the change only takes effect once you click that link. From then on, the new address is the one you sign in with, and the one your receipts are sent to. We also send a note to your old address letting it know the change was made.
Until you click the link, nothing changes; you keep signing in with your old address. If the email doesn’t arrive, check your spam folder, or start the change again to resend it.
*If you signed up with Google, changing this address doesn’t change how you sign in — you still use the “Continue with Google” button with your Google account. It changes where your receipts and account emails are sent.
In → Security → Password, click “Reset password” to open the form. You’ll need three things:
Click “Save password” and the change takes effect immediately; you stay signed in.
If you’ve forgotten your current password and can’t sign in at all, use the “Forgot password?” link on the sign-in page instead — it emails you a reset link, so you don’t need your old password. Setting up a recovery email first gives that link a second address it can be sent to; see .
*If you created your account with Google sign-in, you don’t have a password at all — you sign in through Google, and there’s nothing to reset here.
A recovery email is a second address that can receive a password-reset link if you ever lose access to the email you sign in with. It’s optional, but worth setting up.
In Account → Security → Recovery email, enter the address and click “Add recovery email”. A confirmation link is sent to that address, and it stays listed as pending confirmation until the link is clicked — an unconfirmed address can’t be used to recover your account.
Once confirmed, entering either your account email or your recovery email in the “Forgot password?” form on the sign-in page will send the reset link. You can change or remove the recovery email from the same place at any time.
Deleting your account permanently removes everything: your drafts, notes, stats, achievements, and sign-in details. It also cancels your subscription. There is no way to recover any of it afterward.
If you only want to stop paying, you don’t need to delete anything — ends your billing and leaves all of your work in place.
Download or print anything you want to keep before you start a deletion (), because the app locks as soon as you confirm. For the steps and what happens next, see .
In Account → Delete account, the “Delete account” button opens a confirmation popup that asks for your password — or, if you sign in with Google, asks you to retype your account email instead. Confirming does three things right away: it cancels your subscription, locks the rest of the app, and schedules your account for permanent deletion.
Deletion covers everything — your drafts, notes, stats, achievements, and sign-in details — and is finalized within 30 days. There’s no way to recover any of it afterward, and the app is locked while the deletion is pending, so download or print anything you want to keep before you confirm ().
Deleting your account is not required to stop paying — if you only want to end your billing, leaves your work in place.
While the deletion is still pending, the app stays locked to a single Account card with a “Cancel delete account” button. Clicking it stops the deletion and restores access to your drafts and notes.
The one thing it doesn’t restore is your subscription — that was cancelled the moment you confirmed the deletion. To start editing again, subscribe again from the Account section.
Last First Draft is a subscription with two plans — $13 per month or $120 per year. Both include every feature; the only difference is how often you’re billed and the yearly discount. New accounts start with a 14-day free trial: your card is collected upfront, and the first charge happens when the trial ends unless you cancel before then.
The Subscription card shows a status badge — Free Trial, Active, Payment failed, or Cancelled — next to your plan and price, with the relevant date underneath (trial end, next charge, or the day read-only access runs out).
The “Manage subscription” button opens the secure billing portal, where you can view invoices and billing history, update your payment method, switch plans, or cancel. Payments and billing emails (receipts, trial reminders, renewal notices) are handled by our payment processor, Stripe — we never see or store your card details.
Also in the billing portal, from Account → Manage subscription — update your card, billing address, or email for receipts there at any time.
If a renewal payment fails, your account switches to read-only until the payment goes through. Updating your card in the portal restores full access; see for what read-only mode looks like.
Go to Account → Manage subscription to open the billing portal, choose to update your plan, and pick the other plan.
Before you confirm, the portal shows exactly what you’ll be charged or credited: switching part-way through a billing period accounts for the time you’ve already paid for, so you’re never billed twice for the same days.
A plan change doesn’t touch your work or your access — both plans include the same features, and your drafts, notes, stats, and achievements are unaffected. Nothing about the app changes except the amount and how often you’re billed.
Go to Account → Manage subscription and cancel your plan in the billing portal. There’s no cancellation fee and you don’t need to contact us first.
You keep full access until the end of the period you’ve already paid for. The Subscription card then shows a Cancelled badge with a “Cancels on” date, and no further charges are made.
Canceling during your 14-day free trial means you’re never charged at all.
Canceling never deletes anything you’ve written — see .
Canceling a subscription never deletes your work. What changes is what you can do with it:
Resubscribing at any point restores full editing access, with all of your content intact.
Your work is only ever removed if you delete your account yourself — see .
If you want your own copies to keep, download or print your drafts before the read-only window ends — see .
Once a cancellation has taken effect, the Subscription card in your Account section shows Renew Monthly and Renew Yearly buttons. Pick one to start a new subscription.
Billing starts right away on renewal — the 14-day free trial applies to new accounts only. Full editing access comes back immediately, with every draft and note exactly as you left it.
You can create as many drafts as needed.
To keep things fast and reliable, a few caps are in place:
When you reach a word cap, you can still delete text, but new additions are blocked and you’ll see an alert.
If you lose connection while working, a banner lets you know you’re offline. To prevent lost work, editing is paused; the editor becomes read-only, and step navigation and “Mark Step Complete” are temporarily disabled. You can still read and print. Everything resumes automatically once your connection returns.
Your work is automatically saved to your account continuously as you write, and is securely stored in the cloud.
All your work (Drafts and Notes) are private. Only you can access them, and they are never shared with others. Your work will never be exposed to scraping/training for AI models.
In addition to automatic saving, your drafts and notes are backed up every day, and backups are kept for 30 days. If you accidentally delete a draft or lose important content, contact us as soon as possible — we can likely restore it from a recent backup.
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