your writing never leaves your device· no AI· no cloud· one session per day· five seconds is all it takes to lose everything· no signup required· your writing never leaves your device· no AI· no cloud· one session per day· five seconds is all it takes to lose everything· no signup required·

the internet's most diabolical writing tool

What fresh hell is this? It's the internet's most heinous writing invention, dailywriter.

Set your timer, write, and don't stop. If you stop, you get 5 seconds.

If you don't keep typing, your progress gets wiped and you start over with a fresh timer.

up for the challenge? test your skills.

dailywriter
01:00
5
you · live session
↑ that's what five seconds costs you.
click anywhere — try it. type a sentence, then stop.
you did it! ready for round 2? click to go again.
this is the actual app · try it
idle 5s = page wiped
start writing →
no signup. no card. just type.
one session per day no AI no cloud five seconds to lose it all your words stay yours write or don't · the page doesn't care either way one session per day no AI no cloud five seconds to lose it all

one session. one chance. twenty-four hours until the next one.

// the rules of the room

Three rules. No negotiations.

01
Open the room.
one session per day. you pick the duration. the cursor blinks. the timer starts. there is no draft folder, no saved indicator, no escape hatch.
— show up. that's the hard part.
02
Keep typing.
pause for more than five seconds and the page goes blank. the clock resets to zero. this isn't a penalty. it's the mechanic. the session exists only while you're in it.
— stop thinking. start typing.
03
Finish, then leave.
when the timer ends, the page locks for twenty-four hours. export your writing as a .txt if you want it. then close the tab. the session is done.
— done is a verb. earn it.

"I have been correcting the proofs of my poems. In the morning, after hard work, I took a comma out of one sentence. In the afternoon I put it back."

— Oscar Wilde · the patron saint of the over-thinker
// from the maker

why dailywriter exists.

I built dailywriter because I wanted a simple tool for my writing practice. Notion, Google Docs, Word (😳 to all those who still use it), just have too much going on. I wanted a black screen, an archive and tally to keep tabs on how my habits were coming along. No AI, no spellcheck, not evil data collection. Just a blank page and a timer.

If you dig the free version, consider supporting the project by signing up for dailywriter+. You'll put skin in the game and help me feed my family.

No pressure. We'll starve without your help.

jk. but also 👀.

— Josiah
the maker writes here daily.
// free vs. dailywriter+

Put some skin in the game.

$30 a year is the price of watching your streak grow and committing to actually writing everyday. pretty fair deal in all honesty. Stop paying a big corporation money to steal your attention and pay me (an indie founder with a kid and mortgage) to help you get your ability to think and focus back.

Free

dailywriter

$0 · forever
  • one session per day
  • five-second reset mechanic
  • 5, 10, or 15 minutes
  • export as .txt
  • session history
  • streak tracking
  • word count archive
start writing →
dailywriter+

dailywriter+

$5 a month · $30 a year
  • everything in free
  • session history — every session you finish, preserved
  • streaks that persist across days
  • total word count across all sessions
  • heatmap calendar
  • custom session length
unlock dailywriter+ →
magic link sign-in. no passwords. cancel in one click. 14-day refund.
// the small print, plainly

things you'll ask before
the cursor stops blinking.

I'm not a "real" writer. Is this still for me? +
the page doesn't check credentials. if you want to write more, dailywriter is for you. "writer" is a verb. five minutes today and you've already qualified.
What happens if I miss a day? +
the page unlocks after twenty-four hours regardless. on dailywriter+, missing a day resets your streak. on the free tier, there's nothing to reset. either way, tomorrow is a new session.
What if I have a typo? Or want to edit a sentence? +
you can edit while the timer is running. what you can't do is stop typing for more than five seconds without losing everything. typos are fine. pausing is not.
Can I cancel dailywriter+ anytime? +
yes. one click. no email required.
Is this for novelists, or anyone? +
anyone who writes. novelists, newsletter writers, journal keepers, people who think by typing. the session doesn't know what you're writing.
Why five seconds? Why not three? Why not ten? +
three was too punishing. ten was too forgiving. five seconds is long enough to think, short enough to keep you moving.
I write in another language. Does it work? +
yes. the timer doesn't speak english.
// the room is still open

5 minutes from now,
you'll have written something.

or you'll have closed the tab and gone back to thinking about it. same talent. same idea. same draft you've been meaning to start. one of those compounds. the other doesn't.

start your first session → unlock dailywriter+ · $30/year
no signup. no card. no email. 14-day refund on dailywriter+. cancel anytime.