Introducing 19:22, a simple writing app that does not let you delete beyond the current word. It is designed to embrace mistakes and get to an, imperfect, first draft. Reminiscent of writing on a typewriter, the only way to interact is forward. You cannot cut, copy, or paste text. The cursor position moves only as the user types forward and is otherwise immovable.

The little distractions found in other writing apps are purposefully omitted. There are minimal user-configurable settings—only increasing or decreasing the font size. Light and dark themes toggle automatically based on the system setting. But there is no settings page; no theme options or fonts to choose from; and there is no grammar or spell check to distract from the writing experience. Markdown support and theming is native.

The app autosaves on every character written. Because there is no copy or paste, the only way to get writing out of the app is by exporting. Markdown and plain text (stripping any user-written markdown) are currently supported, with a robust .docx export planned for the future. On a successful export, 19:22 is wiped clean and ready for another session.

19:22 is a place for intentionally sloppy work. It is a place to make mistakes, knowing you’ll fix them later. It is an oven to proof ideas and to blunder through half-baked ones. It is an app written for me, someone who struggles with self-editing during first drafts in Word or LaTeX documents; I hope it can be useful to others, bringing a feeling of calm to their writing process. And if it doesn’t resonate with you, I hope you at least get a laugh at the ridiculousness.

I welcome feedback—please reach out with any thoughts or feature requests you may have!

It is available for Mac® and can be found on the Mac App Store.