Beta testers wanted
I built the writing app I wanted, and now I need five people to break it.
The short version: a new app for end-to-end fiction writing · AI-first or AI-last, works how you work · built out of my own frustration with today’s tools · looking for beta testers.
I’m Pete, from Sydney, Australia. I’ve been a part-time writer for about 18 months, and when I retired last year I poured myself into my first novel — literary fiction with a hard-sci-fi edge, based on the trajectory of AI, though it’s really a love story about consumption. I’d call myself an AI-enhanced writer: I use AI heavily for research and editing, but any AI-written prose is inspiration rather than copy-paste, and gets ruthlessly rewritten — more times than I care to admit.
After about six months, my frustration with the four writing tools I was using grew. I was spending more time shifting between tools than exercising my craft. My background is 40+ years in software development, so I knew I could build something that works the way I do. The result is Proseward — somewhere between Scrivener and Sudowrite, but with a much more open philosophy: complete control over your own work, and the freedom to use any other tool you like. All your files are stored on your own machine, in a logical structure, when you use the desktop app.
It is not a “write this book for me” app. It is a “help me write”, “help me edit” app, with a chapter-based drafting structure built on a rich outlining and canon system. Admittedly it is shaped by how I write, as an unashamed plotter — but it works.
Proseward is a one-man passion project that I have poured nearly a thousand hours into, and I use it every day on my own novel. I’m accepting five initial beta tester spots for authors currently working on manuscripts who are frustrated with their current software. macOS only for phase one. I don’t promise bug-free — that is what beta testing is for — but I do promise direct engagement and real responsiveness to feedback. Beta testers who like it get one year of the pro subscription free after launch, and discounted pricing thereafter.
What it does today
- Your prose is yours. Chapters are saved as minimally formatted files on your own disk. Point any other tool at the project folder and work there — Proseward picks the changes up automatically.
- Rich manuscript structure and plot linkages. Structure → canon → prose, all tracked. I never have to ask “how old is this character in this chapter” — it is calculated. Canon covers characters, locations, organisations, events, technology and magic, objects and artefacts, subplots and threads.
- AI-first or AI-last. Turn the generative features off entirely if you want to. Many of the useful ones are not about writing at all — “highlight all the dialogue with a different colour per character”, “show me every metaphor and simile”.
- A smart and brutally honest editor. Chapter analysis that goes well beyond “don’t use passive voice”: character voice, structure, canon conformity, mechanics and realism. It catches tense drift, head-hopping, stock tropes and the usual AI tells, and it tells you where.
- It learns your style. Flag a finding as “my style” or “too strict” and the reviewer stops arguing with you about it.
- Developmental review. Whole-manuscript reviews that trace character arcs, find the slow parts and offer concrete advice. No substitute for a human editor — but honest, in 20 minutes rather than two weeks, and for dollars rather than thousands.
- Use Proseward’s AI or your own. Every run is estimated in dollars and cents before it happens. Or bring your own API key and use whatever model you like.
- Privacy baked in. Control exactly what is sent. Every curated Proseward model is held to zero data retention, and you can wire up a local model instead.
- Deep chapter history. Every save is kept. Search or browse the history, compare it as markup against today’s text, and restore what you need.
- Mobile and offline. A native macOS app that works unconnected, and a tablet experience with no sync drama.
- Co-write, co-edit, beta readers. Export to Word, get the marked-up file back, and watch every edit land on the right chapter as attributed tracked changes.
- Read aloud. Instant system speech for a quick pass, or a downloaded local model for something close to an audiobook.
- Smart import. .docx, .epub, .pdf, .md, or a whole Scrivener project in one step — and it finds your real part, chapter and scene structure instead of dumping one giant chapter.
- Automatic canon creation. Scan an existing manuscript and it builds the canon for you.
- Work your way. Detach editor windows across screens; keep summaries and canon entries beside the chapter you are writing.
- Automatic sync and backup. No sync conflicts, and backups in entirely non-proprietary formats — if you ever leave, your files still work.
Beta means beta. Sync, the desktop installer, billing and the largest multi-model runs are still settling. The editor, canon, review loop, history, import and export are the parts I am confident about.