Rough Draft Alternatives
Rough Draft
Writing on paper, you let go and just get your idea out. You don't get caught up perfecting the words too early. Rough Draft is like writing with pen and paper, so you can't delete words, only cross them out. Each "edit" reminds you that you're writing a rough draft.
FEATURES
- Placeholders - Simple tags for where a picture, video, quote, or other supporting info will be added later. Stay focused now, and give supporting elements the focus they deserve later.
- Sidenotes - Easily create and drag-and-drop sticky notes for those genius ideas you get when writing you're in flow (but aren't sure just where they will fit yet).
- Clean Export - When you're done drafting, Rough Draft can remove your scratched-out words, and export a clean ready to revise draft to your favorite text editor or direct to Medium.
* Clean exporting is a paid feature, but as a small "Thank you!" for trying Rough Draft one is included free.
- iCloud Syncing - Start drafting on your iPhone, continue on your iPad, and finish on your Mac.
* Mac-to-Mac syncing is free, and Mac-to-iOS syncing is unlocked when you purchase Clean Export.
- Rough Export - Feel free to draft to your heart's content: with Rough Draft you can export your "rough" drafts for free forever. (But we recommend Clean Export to get your rough ideas polished and ready to publish!)
- OnlyRoughDrafts.com Publishing - Want some feedback on your rough draft? Test your ideas in their rawest form with a community of writers and editors who understand your work is still a rough draft. Get feedback before you spend time editing.
- Dark Mode, Word Count Goals, & Settings - Fit Rough Draft to your liking with simple settings, whether you want to start with a blank white sheet, or get lost in the dark.
Best Free Rough Draft Alternatives
Looking for a program that is like Rough Draft? We have our top picks here. If you need another program that has some of the features of Rough Draft on your device, read what we recommend in this post.
FocusWriter
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxPortableApps.comSimple but configurable and themeable, distraction-free text editor for writers. Open-source and available across desktop platforms.
Features:
- Customizable
- Distraction free writing
- Distraction-free UI
- Auto-saving
- Daily progress tracker
- Fullscreen support
- Multiple languages
- Distraction-free UI
- Portable
- Skin customization
- Tabbed interface
- Writing statistics
Manuskript
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxOpen-source tool for writers. With outliner, character management, plot development, distraction-free editor, etc.
Features:
- Distraction free writing
- Outliner
- Tracking of characters
- File-organization
- Outline folding
- Track Characters
- Tracking of locations
- Tracking of plots
- Tree structure
- Visual timeline
- Flat File CMS
- MarkDown support
- Notetaking
- Revision History
- Export to ePub
- Export to PDF
- Social media collaboration
- Visual Organization
- Wordpress integration
- Writing tool
Plume Creator
FreeOpen SourceWindowsLinuxWith Plume Creator, organize your writing projects ! Scenes, notes, characters,... Rich Text editing, full screen editing and multiple projects … Plume Creator gives...
Features:
- Outline mode
- Split files into sections
- Write in separate docs
- Distraction free writing
- Note Manager
- Outliner
- Writing tool
Calmly Writer
FreeWebChrome OSCalmly Writer is a professional text editor designed to focus on what you want to tell, with a simple, unobtrusive and distraction-free user interface.
Features:
- Convert images to PDF
- Distraction-free UI
- Web fonts
True Novelist
FreeWebWriting a novel is a large undertaking. True Novelist was created to make the process as easy as possible for authors.
Features:
- Auto-saving
- Customizable
- Divides to infinite sub-divisions
- Night mode/Dark Theme
- Outliner
- Writing tool
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