We just shipped the concept phase of Talebuddy. It's designed to hold the chaotic stuff living in your head and scattered across your notes apps before you even start your first draft.
Think of it as a work desk that sits before the draft. You shape the story, work out your characters, and upload references, images and other material to help you visualize the world and the people in it. The idea is that everything you figure out here feeds the draft later, instead of getting lost between a dozen open tabs.
I'll be honest about where this sits: the concept phase is the first of the phases we've talked about (concept → draft → revision), and it's the one we wanted to get right first. If you skip planning entirely and just write, you can still use Talebuddy - it'll build the ledger dynamically as you write. But if you're the kind of writer who wants to know your cast before chapter one, this is for you.
Editorial agents that read past spelling
The other big thing in this release: the first versions of our translation and editorial agents.
A spellchecker tells you "teh" should be "the." That's useful and also the least interesting problem a new draft has. Our editorial agent looks for the things that actually break a story — plot holes, pacing problems, and the other issues that show up in freshly written work. It's the difference between proofreading and getting notes.
These are first versions. They will miss things, and they will sometimes flag something that was intentional. Treat the output as a reader's reaction, not a verdict. You own the manuscript; the agent is there to point at the parts that made it stumble. If it's wrong, ignore it.
The translation agent shipped alongside it. We support common languages like Dutch, German, English, French and Spanish - as well as some others - in this version. We'd love for you to try it out and let us know what you think.
A cleaner UI
We cleaned up the interface so the things that matter are the things you see. Earlier versions had more on screen than a writer needs while writing. Buttons in the wrong places, important actions that were hard to find and popovers that just got in your way.
With the concept phase in place, we're now able to open up characters in the sidebar, so you can see what they look like and what their traits are whilst you're writing about them. This helps you with visualization and keeping the characters consistent - both in your head and in your story.
That's most of what I can say concretely. The goal was to get out of your way while you work, and the cleanup was in service of that.
We're early, and we want to hear from you
All of this is early. We're still in the early phases of building Talebuddy, which means you'll find rough edges before we do.
If you hit a bug, or you have feedback or a suggestion, use the Help button. It's in the bottom toolbar while you're working, and also on the dashboard. That goes straight to us. Telling us what's broken or what's missing is the fastest way to shape where this goes next.
Let's write.