Draft Lets You Focus on Being A Better Writer

The writing process is often complex, even the best writers in the world sometimes will struggle while writing. Many people rely on writing software, version control software, and other collaboration tools to help them while they write, but all that software adds up and can complicate the process even more than it already is.

Enter Draft. A new web service created by Nathan Kontny that lets you write, version, and collaborate all in one place.  Draft’s main purpose is to allow you to focus on being a better writer. And since it’s web based, there is no software to install — it works with any computer. I’m actually using it right now to write this post.

Draft offers a sleek and simple user interface that focuses on your writing and nothing else. The interface is customizable too. You can change the color of the background, font, and font size to make it look how you like.

And Draft’s version control system is super easy to use. If you want to save a version of your work, simply click on the “Mark Draft” button in the upper right-hand corner and it’s saved. From there, you can easily compare how your draft has evolved over time. The green and red highlights are a great way to see what you have changed, removed, and added in various drafts.

Additionally, Draft has an “Ask a Pro” feature, which will send your draft to a reviewer who will suggest potential edits for you to make. However, unlike collaboration software such as Google Docs which overwrites the master document, Draft’s version control system will not touch your master copy and will display the edits in a side-by-side comparison. From there, you can decide whether or not to accept the edits.

Draft also lets you import text and markdown files from cloud services including Evernote, Google Drive, and Dropbox. You can use Draft to edit these documents, share with your friends, and manage your friends’ suggestions. Plus, anything you do to the document is automatically synced back to your cloud account where you imported the document from. Pretty nifty.

For example, you can start a blog post on the train with Evernote, then sit down at home, use Draft to complete your blog post, and get feedback. And all the while, Evernote will have the latest copy synced back to your account.

Recently, Draft released a brand new Chrome extension that lets you easily create a new document in Draft for literally anywhere you can type in the web, including Facebook, Reddit, Hacker News, Gmail, etc.

How does it work?

Simply install the Draft Chrome extension, find a textarea, click the Draft icon in Google Chrome, and create a new document. Write your draft, and then once you’re done, you can have Draft paste what you wrote back to the originating website.

Now you can keep track of everything you write online.

Nathan also just implemented the ability to publish your drafts directly to WordPress or Tumblr, making it even easier to work in Draft and then publish.

Have you tried Draft? If so, what do you think?