WriteNow

WriteNow is a social writing application by Allan Lasser. It's like newsletters, but backwards. Individually respond to writing prompts, then read everyone else's responses. It was conceived at the CODEX Hackathon in 2016.

Purpose

I like newsletters. I like that they're emails. I like that they stay in my inbox. It gets me to actually read them. And there's a personability, an informality, that is informed by its context. I feel like I'm being written to, rather than for. Newsletters, as a format, are rising in popularity, and justifiably so.

These days we are writing more than ever. Between all the texts, tweets, and emails we send to one another, we're writing enough to fill volumes. So I wanted to piggy-back on that behavior. I also wanted something that captured those positive feelings, but in the opposite direction. A newsletter is written by one person and sent to many people. What if we could have many writers send their writing all to the same place?

I want us all to write about the same thing, to capture the range of voices that surrounds any one subject. I want that writing to come naturally. I want it to fit into the daily flow, to allow us to sneak some expression into an otherwise utilitarian routine. These likes and wants gave rise to this, WriteNow. It's a way for writers to respond to prompts and then see all the results in one place.

So that's what this is and why it exists.

Goals

1. Create a simple and straightforward system for collaborative writing.
2. Use email as the primary interactive interface.
3. Allow the system to be used without registering for an account.
4. Afford privacy, accessibility, and utility, while fostering community.

Specification

A group is a collection of authors and a collection of prompts. Every group has a corresponding email address. When a group is created, it requires an initial author. If a group has no authors and no prompts, then it is deleted.

An author can join any group by entering their email and a name. The email is kept private and only used by the system. The name is used to identify authorship of an individual response within a group.

A prompt is created by sending an email to the group's email address. If the sender is a member of the group, then the prompt is sent out to all members of the group. Every prompt has a corresponding email address.

A response is created by sending an email to the prompt's email address. If the sender is a member of the group, then their response is recorded. The body of the email is used to create the response.

URL Structure

Path	GET	POST
groups/	Displays all the writing groups	Creates a new group
groups/create	Displays form for creating a group	Creates a new group
groups/group/	Displays the group's prompts and authors	N/A
groups/group/join	Displays a form for adding an email to the group	Adds email to the group
groups/group/leave	Displays a form for removing an email from the group	Removes email from the group
groups/group/author	Displays the author's responses within the group	N/A
prompts	Displays all of the prompts	Creates a new prompt
prompts/prompt	Displays all the responses to that prompt	N/A
prompts/prompt/response	Displays a single response	N/A

Data Structure

{
    Group: {
        id: Int,
        name: String,
        email: String,
        authors: List[Author],
        prompts: List[Prompt],
    },
    Author: {
        id: Int,
        name: String,
        email: String
    },
    Prompt: {
        id: Int,
        date: Date,
        email: String,
        title: String,
        body: String,
        author: Writer
    },
    Reponse: {
        id: Int,
        date: Date,
        title: String,
        body: String,
        author: Writer
    }
}