Letters guide

Everything the page can hold

The three-day procrastination that became Letters v1, told with every block the editor supports.

I was supposed to write an article. I had a subject, a deadline, and absolutely no desire to begin.

The writing app in front of me worked. It just did not have the exact mood I wanted. So I made a tiny deal with myself: I would build a simpler page first, then write the article.

A completely reasonable plan

Make one clean writing page.
Give it the exact type, colors, and atmosphere I wanted.
Write the article.

The third step is still waiting.

Then the small idea got ideas

One thing led to another. I added automatic local saves, a library, a timeline, ready-made themes, typefaces, backdrops, Markdown, backups, and a random color generator. Every finished part made the next part feel obvious.

Blue Hour when I wanted late-night focus.
Paper Light when I wanted the screen to disappear.
IBM Plex Mono when the draft felt technical.
Newsreader when it needed to feel like an actual story.

I did not write the article. I built the place where I wanted to write it.
Three days into some very productive procrastination

Three days later

Somehow the detour became Letters v1: a free writing app with no signup, no registration, and no save button. It was supposed to help me write one article. Now it is ready for anyone to try.

Day one: a blank page. Day three: Letters v1.

Day	Original plan	What actually happened
One	Write the opening	Built the editor and local saves
Two	Finish the draft	Added a timeline, themes, typefaces, and backdrops
Three	Publish the article	Polished Letters v1 and decided to share it

The technical summary

Under the hood, the editor uses Editor.js. Each heading, paragraph, list, quote, image, embed, table, and code sample is its own clean block.

A sentence can be bold, soft, bright, or hold exact characters without turning the page into a cockpit.

const originalPlan = 'write one article'
const actualResult = {
  days: 3,
  product: 'Letters v1',
  mood: 'exactly right',
}

console.log(actualResult)

The soundtrack for turning one small detour into a three-day build.

What this page is quietly showing off

Headings from H1 to H3
Bold, italics, highlights, inline code, and links
Numbered lists, bullet lists, and checklists
Quotes, dividers, images, and embeds
Tables and code blocks
The article I should have written three days ago

Why I’m sharing it

I had so much fun making Letters that keeping it to myself felt wrong. So the core product is free. You can open it, make the room yours, and write without creating an account.

I also want to keep building it into something sustainable. Letters Cloud is the paid version I’m preparing, with device sync, end-to-end encrypted storage, collaboration, and more. Some of it already exists behind the scenes, but the signup flow has not been properly tested yet.

When it is ready, I want to celebrate with a 30-day window for lifetime access. More on that later. For now, consider this a tiny note in the margin.

Now, about that article

I should probably go write it. You can edit this story, delete it, or use every block above to tell a better one. Press / on an empty line and make the page yours.