While the door is closed
Follow the sentence.
A typewriter face. An open page. The line you’re writing stays near the middle of the screen, so you can keep your attention on what comes next.
A little room to write
Start with twenty words.
Click the page and write. At 20 words, the door opens and you return here.
I shut the door at nine and put my phone in the kitchen drawer. The chapter had stalled on the scene where Ruth tells her brother she sold the farm. I had written it four times and hated all four. So I stopped trying to get it right. Ruth said it fast and asked him to pass the salt. By noon I had eleven hundred words. Three hundred were worth keeping.
20 words to goA glimpse inside Door. Click the page to begin.
A small taste of Door. This demo doesn’t lock your Mac.
Where the idea comes from
Built on
Stephen King’s
writing philosophy.
Door is influenced by Stephen King’s writing philosophy, from his book On Writing. Write the first draft with the door closed. Rewrite with the door open. Choose a daily word count and stay in the room until you have written it. King’s own is 2,000 words.
In Door, writing mode is the closed door and editing mode is the open one. Door is an independent app. Stephen King is not involved with it and has not endorsed it.
“Write with the door closed, rewrite with the door open.”
Stephen King, On Writing
01 / A promise to the page
One target.
Then, one word at a time.
Choose your words.
Decide how many words you want to write this session. A small beginning, or a whole chapter. You set the target.
Close the door.
Writing fills every display. No Dock, no menu bar, no switching to another app. Your Mac stays here with you.
Keep your word.
Reach your target and the lock lifts. Return to your book, or stay a little longer. Every word is saved as you type.
02 / The writing & the book
Space to write.
Space to put it together.
Inside Door for Mac. A page for writing. A place for the book.
When the door opens
Make it a book.
Reorder, split, or merge chapters. See their word counts. Bring in a draft and find its headings. When you’re ready, copy the whole book in chapter order.
03 / Yours, from the first word
Keep every chapter
together.
Door saves as you type. Every chapter is a plain text file you can open with another editor.
What happens when I reach my target?
The lock lifts and you can keep writing. When you’re done, press esc, then return to go back to your book. Your words have already been saved.
Can I leave before I finish?
Yes. Set your passcode in Door before a session. Press esc while writing and enter it to stop early. Press esc again to return to the page.
Can I bring an existing draft?
Paste your draft into Door. Find Chapters lists its headings and word counts. Choose the headings that start a chapter and split the draft there.
Where does my writing live?
A Door book is a folder that Finder shows as one document. Inside, each chapter is a plain text file.
The room is ready.