Kicking off GLASS with an open alpha test
Earlier this year, I found myself with some time on my hands while I was on bereavement from work. I was desperate for a distraction, so naturally, I sat down and opened my usual word processor of choice to write.
But for some reason, the words were completely blocked. I’ve experienced my share of writer’s block, but this was a particularly bad case of it. A little nonplussed, I started thinking of ways I could force myself to focus.
And then I had this idea, as I was staring at the ancient user interface of a program that has been around for years. I started thinking of all the things I would love in a writing app to make it less distracting, and easier to focus in. I thought about how nice it would be to have a more modern interface, a cleaner page, to not have to click around through so many boxes to get to what I want, to hide a ruler, to make the tools go away so I can just have a blank canvas.
That’s when I decided, why not just make it?
Over eight months later, here we are. I’ve poured hundreds of hours into the project and finally, it’s ready to share with the world. GLASS.
Why is it called GLASS?
Brandon Sanderson once described prose as glass. Some prose is flowery, like beautiful stained glass. Some prose is simple and clean like the glass of a typical window. Both types of prose, and glass, offers a unique window to your creative world, your story.
Stephen King has talked about the mystical writing process, and in some of his works, his fictional authors have described bits and pieces about how they experience the magic of storytelling. One of those characters described it like looking through a little window on the page.
Your prose is the window your readers use to see your imagination. But in a way, the writing app or word processor you choose during the writing process is also a window of its own. Whether you like the idea or not, it sits between you and your wildest imagination. Unless of course you still use a typewriter, or write by hand.
But that’s the truth of it. That’s where the name comes from.
The Roadmap
Now that we’re here, you might be wondering what comes next?
First and foremost, some of my time will be devoted to fixing bugs and (hopefully) reading feature requests and answering support emails. As more and more users try out GLASS alpha for free, I hope you will be honest and open in your feedback. Tell me what you like, don’t like, the things you love, or hate. And also, tell me what you’d love to see in the app, too.
I have a lot of ideas of things I could build to add even more value to GLASS, but I’m just one writer. I want to know what features you want, so that way we can steer this app in the right direction.
In addition to maintenance and upkeep here are a few items you can expect:
Short term: Minor fixes and feature improvements of GLASS
Medium term: A mobile version for iOS and potentially Android with the ability to sync using third-party apps like Dropbox or OneDrive.
Long term: KILN. I know a lot of people are most interested in the design half of the deal and I have not forgotten (trust me). This one is big, and it’s making progress. Someday, you’ll be able to take a .glass file and set up a print or ebook in literally a few clicks! So stay tuned.
If you want to be notified when KILN is ready, you can sign up specifically for it here.
Thank you so much to all of you who have signed up today. It means the world to me, and I look forward to hearing from you in the coming weeks. Your feedback will be invaluable!