Appiversary

Last August marked the one-year anniversary of when I started to build Subtext,my Saas for writers. I started this blog post in Drafts the week of the 18th, and am only now getting around to publishing it.

That’s how busy and crazy excited I have been working on it.

I’m in the midst of a major update right now with tons of cool new features, but I thought it would be fun to log everything I’ve been able do in just 12 short months:

  • Gists
  • Videocast Documentation
  • 409+ Storyforms
  • Narrative Argument
  • Structure Builder
  • Storyform Connections
  • Treatment View

And all of this completely one-hundred percent on my own.

Which is part of its massive appeal to me.

Features Discovered Along the Way

The Narrative Argument was not a part of the original release, but rather was a compelling feature I discovered about three months into development. Everyone struggles with the Dramatica theory of story; the app is overwhelming and the terminology even more so.

Subtext is my move to make Dramatica more appealing to the masses.

The Structure Builder was also not a part of the original release, but could be now considered the core feature. And the newest version in development blows the current one away.

Reunited with a Past Love

All of this while starting out knowing zilch about Laravel and PHP. And even less about VueJS and JavaScript.

When I was a kid I taught myself Assembly Language and C, thinking I would make video games. But then I got sidetracked with a career in animation, and only recently rediscovered my love for programming.

The idea that I can build something, push it to a server, and then watch as people around the world engage with it creates a joy within me unlike anything else.

I’m looking forward to increasing that joy over the course of the next year.

James R. Hull @jhull