SOMEWRITINGAPP STUDIO

Syrma Essays

a relatively new experience for writing essays.

Yes, you might be wondering: does the world really need another writing app? Trust me, while building Syrma Essays I questioned it every single day. What I questioned even more was whether an essayist needs to know what markdown is. It’s everywhere. So I threw most of it out and set type the way books do instead. The upside is that no matter how badly you write, you get to see your words as they’d look in print. At the very least, it’s a kind of therapy.

I also threw out the file tree. This is how writing should be: drafts piled messily across your desk until you realize there’s nowhere to put the takeout you just ordered. And nothing here gets deleted — cut a word and it stays on the page, crossed out — which means a draft never ends on its own. So I built a Finalize button, industry-first (maybe), bringing back the ceremony of completing a draft.

coming to Mac soon

The desk: a few dozen drafts lying scattered and crooked across a grey-green surface. The editor: a warm paper, oxblood ink, a title placeholder reading All good work starts with a bad title. Paper, ink and typeface choices for one piece, over the list view. Finals: a contents page of finished pieces, grouped by year.

what’s included