Reedsy

Once upon a time, there was a girl named Leah Larkspur who wrote a novel on the dreadful, dreadful platform called… Pages. *cue the uncontrollable shudders of fear* This novel was a sweet, confusing story about a golden retriever puppy called Luna, who lost her family and so desperately wanted to get them back.

But Luna wasn’t the only one who would lose something.

A year passed from the day that Leah Larkspur completed the novel, and then disaster struck. The Mac Book laptop met its most tragic demise, the controls frying and destroying the device and causing the novel Luna’s Big Adventure to be lost forever…

As you can imagine, after the trauma of losing an entire completed work, Leah Larkspur was averse to the idea of ever writing straight onto a computer again. So she began writing with *pen and paper. She found a brand of notebooks called Yoobi that she simply adored, and for two years she refused to use anything else. But then, she met a girl her age who also loved to write! The two quickly became best friends, and enjoyed friendly arguments about which was better: *pen and paper, or directly onto the screen. At first, Leah Larkspur could not be swayed. There were many perks, in her opinion, to writing on paper. One, she was able to practice her handwriting, two, she could write whenever and wherever she wanted, and three, it was just fun!

But over time, Leah Larkspur grew curious. According to her friend, writing on the computer was a great deal quicker than writing on paper. She was able to look up synonyms and antonyms and definitions of words without so much as a bat of an eyelash, and, Leah assumed, you could share your work much easier that way. So Leah Larkspur tentatively opened up a Google Document and started writing her second draft of The Secret of Moonflower Valley. She wasn’t so quick to abandon her beloved notebooks— no, mind you, she was rather oddly protective of her hoard, much like a dragon with its treasure— but she started writing on paper and typing it up onto the computer, where she was able to edit with such ease.

But Leah Larkspur did not account for the distractions that the computer presented. Aside from her compulsive desire to check her email, there was Pinterest to take up her time, and video games. And even when she was able to ignore the temptations that the internet provided, there was a scoundrel waiting in Google Docs to suck her joy and happiness from her.

Auto-Correct.

Yes, Leah Larkspur did know that half of her character’s names were made up and yes, she knew that humanimal wasn’t a word, but seeing five words in every sentence underlined in an ugly red squiggle got her all out of sorts. In fact, she had half a mind to revert to notebooks completely. She did miss the blisters she got from holding a pencil too long… (As you can see, Leah Larkspur is a strange, strange human specimen.) But then she was introduced to a writing platform that was designed for writers. One that was actually able to focus her ADHD mind on her world. Dabble.

She couldn’t have been happier. She was able to have her plot, notes, character profiles and deleted scenes in one place but also separated all at once! It was so much easier to go back and forth now. And there was a customizable dictionary where she could add all her new fandangled words with ease (such as fandangled). Plus, she could set word goals for each day to motivate her to write and not associate with the likes of… Pinterest. In other words, her writing life was perfect. …For exactly fourteen days.

As it turned out, Dabble required a paid subscription. Well, there went all her hopes and dreams… So she went back to Google Docs, which was a shame, really, because now that she knew what she was missing, it made her all the more disappointed. But life went on, and eventually Leah Larkspur’s heart did as well. She (almost) completely forgot what Dabble was like and continued to write her novel.

And then… well, Leah Larkspur’s life took a turn for the worse. She was unable to use Google Docs, for one reason or another, and she was forced back to depending solely on her notebooks. While her pencils and notebooks rejoiced, Leah’s novel did not. Without being able to edit as she wrote, the story’s quality declined, and Leah Larkspur was scratching her head as she tried desperately to keep track of her mental changes.

One day, while digging around online for somewhere to write, Leah discovered a site called ‘Reedsy’. Truth be told, Leah Larkspur wasn’t impressed at first. She tried writing a chapter or two on there, and decided she didn’t care for it. (Her fatal flaw here is not watching tutorials, you’ll understand. She didn’t realize the possibilities of this platform and just found it confusing.) But after reading compliments to the site and actually watching the tutorial, she realized that she had just hit a gold mine of writer’s riches. She could keep her notes and plots and characters all separate from her manuscript and easily switch between them, she could track her word count from day-to-day, focus, and best of all, Reedsy was completely free.

She transferred all her work from Google Docs to Reedsy and continued her joyful cycle of write, edit, read, repeat. She still appreciates Dabble Writer and is a part of their online community storycraft.cafe, but her personal favorite is Reedsy. Not only are they a wonderful writing platform, but they also have a marketplace where you can find editors, illustrators, marketers, and more for your self-published novels. (You can also promote your services, if you’re one of the above!)

And so, Leah Larkspur lived happily ever after…

The End

*the term ‘pen and paper’ was used because of its familiarity, but Leah Larkspur never used ink before the year 2023, and instead you would commonly see her with a mechanical pencil

P.S. Leah Larkspur is still very protective of her notebooks, even though she uses Reedsy more often. It is not advised to question her obsession or try to coerce her to downsize her collection. These attempts will be futile and may result in injury or death. (I’m just kidding, but seriously. You will not win that argument. Many have tried and failed.)