write, code, right?

I’ve created my share of niche CMS software in the past.

Content Management Systems are just tools that manage the input of things like text, links, images, and other files for an author (like me) to create content and then post it in a readable, consumable format for a user (like you) to enjoy.

It is something of my go-to coding project.

Want to create a website for simple news stories for kids (which I built about 10 years ago) then write a CMS to do that.

Want to create an Instagram-like photo sharing tool (which I built about 18 months ago) then write a CMS to do that.

Want to write a novel but you’re working across three different computers and occasionally on a phone so an online system would be perfect, then write a CMS to do that. I’m building something like that now, and as they say, piecing together the plane while flying to my destination.

I’ve used writing software in the past, but figured the added challenge of swapping between writing code and writing words would be an interesting career break distraction.

The MVP is a basic online text block management tool that lets me write, save, organize, snapshot, and append notes, characters, and other details to a story project.

My goal is to refine through need: in other words, I write story and then say to myself “hey, it would be handy/useful/vital for the software to do such-and-such” so I take a break from writing and make the software do such-and-such… then I go back and write some more.

Rinse. Repeat.

And and the end I might have both a finished story, and a groovy piece of software that is effectively a novel-writing CMS.