User Guide

A simple writing app for accountability partners to track their daily writing together.

Getting Started

  1. Log in with your email and password
  2. Click New Document to create your first piece
  3. Start writing! Your work saves automatically

Writing

The Editor

  • Write in Markdown format (headings, bold, italic, lists, links)
  • Your document auto-saves every 5 seconds after you stop typing
  • A checkmark appears next to the title when saved
  • Word count shows at the bottom of the editor

Markdown Basics

# Heading 1
## Heading 2

**bold text**
*italic text*

- bullet point
- another point

1. numbered list
2. second item

[link text](https://example.com)

Documents

Creating & Organizing

  • Click New Document from the sidebar
  • Click a document's title to rename it
  • Use folders to organize (type a path like /essays or /journal/2024)

Visibility

Each document can be:

  • Shared (default) - Your partner can see the title and word count
  • Private - Only you can see it

Click the eye icon on a document to toggle visibility.

Goals

Set writing targets to stay motivated:

  1. Go to Settings (gear icon)
  2. Under Manage Goals, choose a goal type:
    • Daily Words - Words to write each day
    • Weekly Words - Words to write each week
    • Posts Per Week - Documents to create each week
  3. Set your target number and click Add

Your progress shows on the home page with a progress bar.

Managing Goals

  • Click the target number to edit it
  • Toggle goals on/off with the switch icon
  • Delete goals you no longer want

Stats

The Stats page shows your writing history:

Goal Completion

See how well you've been hitting your targets over time.

Writing Activity

A GitHub-style heatmap showing which days you wrote. Darker squares = more words.

Daily Word Count

A bar chart of words written each day for the past month.

Recent Activity

A detailed list of your writing sessions, showing:

  • Document name
  • Words added/removed
  • Whether it was typed or pasted
  • Option to exclude from stats (for pasted content you don't want counted)

Partners

Winter Writing is designed for accountability partners - two people who support each other's writing practice.

What Your Partner Sees

  • Your shared documents (title and word count only, not content)
  • Your daily writing stats
  • Your goal progress

What Stays Private

  • Document content (partners never see what you write)
  • Documents marked as Private
  • Your password and account settings

Your partner is set by an admin and appears in your Settings.

Settings

Access settings via the gear icon:

Profile

  • Update your display name
  • See your email address

Password

  • Change your password anytime

Email Reminders

  • Toggle daily reminder emails on/off
  • Get a gentle nudge if you haven't written today

Tips

Paste Detection

When you paste text (over 100 words), it's automatically flagged as "pasted" in your stats. This keeps your organic writing separate from copied content.

  • Pasted content still counts toward word totals
  • You can exclude any stat entry if you don't want it counted
  • Excluded entries won't affect goal progress

Happy writing! The goal is simple: write a little every day, and let your partner keep you honest.