Why Novelitist?
No two writers are the same. Some folk is quick to define and prescribe what a writer is or how a writer should write, which method he should adopt, or how she should do this or that in order to achieve that 70,000 words goal.
These prescriptions don't fit all, or if they do, they are so general as to be useless, much like astrology. This is a problem for those who venture into the business of building writing tools that are more than a ballpoint pen - and even that simple tool may be subjected to endless hairsplitting.
It's a problem because those adventurers must strike a balance between prescribing how to do things and remaining flexible enough so that such prescriptions do not become laws set in stone that cannot be circumvented by the most particular, or the quirkiest, or the most pedantic of writers.
On one hand, who are we to say what's quirky and what's "normal" when it comes to writing? On the other, how dare we not provide all writers with all the tools that they could mix and match to achieve their optimum writing comfort and their maximum output?
To the "who are we," the answer is, we aren't. We aren't the ones to say. To the "how dare we," the answer is, we don't. We don't dare not to at least strive to provide a full toolbox from where all writers can pick the tools they need and assemble for themselves the ultimate machine that shall melt all hindrance and remove all friction between them and the act of creation.
The Fallacy, and Merits, of Minimalism
By looking at the number of writing tools that offer next to nothing besides a minimalist (that is, barren) user interface, you'd think that the lack of minimalism is what's preventing the contemporary writer from writing and publishing her book.
Since the ultimate in writing minimalism has been with us for millennia in the form of the pen-paper-table triad, there is nothing new in transferring such simplicity into the digital domain. If how you write on your computer is little more than how you write with a pen in a notebook, the benefits are, shall we say, minimal.
On the other hand, no one can deny that decluttering leads to better focus. Having fewer things in your field of attention is conducive to focusing better on those things. When typing in its purest form, simply allowing your fingers to be a conduit for your flow of thoughts, anything that's not the resulting text tailed by a blinking cursor is redundant, surplus, a hindrance. So such a mode of writing must certainly be available to the writer who wants and cherishes it, and even who the one who doesn't yet know better.
But it's not enough, because at other times, that very same writer will want to see his stats and obsess over them, will want to be buzzed by noise in the interface and thrilled by the colors and inspired by overseeing his own work taking shape, by surveying it and previewing it and musing over the result.
The Optionality of the Swiss Army Knife
In contrast to the minimalist trend, there is indeed such a thing as a painfully cluttered interface. But some people actually like that, go figure. What about them? Should they be stuck in unsatisfying minimalism? What about everyone in between, whom represent the bulk, it could be argued, like any normally distributed quantity, people who swing between bouts of minimalist obsession and a desire to play with all the bells and whistles available, of which the more, the better.
A Swiss Army knife has it all. You just need to opt for a tool, unfold it, and do whatever it is that you need to do. Then fold it, and put the whole apparatus back into your pocket, until you once more need to crack open a can, uncork a bottle, or cut some string.
All the tools are there, folded, waiting to be used. You can even use a few at the same time. You can also use none, yet they are available, out of the way, and it's up to you to activate them.
Now minimalism is no longer an excuse. It's a choice.
The answer
Novelitist offers not only the best of both worlds, but actually both worlds and all the worlds in between, and it puts the choice firmly in your grasp.
We don't presume to prescribe to you how to write, just as we don't tell you what to write - that would be rather bizarre, wouldn't it? Telling you how to do it is no less so. So here are all the tools, build your thing with and out of them, then write your oeuvre.
Beyond that territory of opinion and preference, lies the unforgiving realm of must-have features, that is features that, if not present, make the whole point of an app questionable.
We don't say that "Novelitist is a complete, web-based, e-book authoring solution" lightly. With Novelitist, you can indeed write your book from start to finish, and pull out on the other side an actual publishable e-book, without ever having to leave the app.
There are not many solutions out there offering this balance of unobtrusiveness and feature richness, all aiming to benefit the writer, all under the writer's control.
Indeed, for many writers out there, Novelitist might just be the answer.