Writing Ladder is focus training for writers. Start small, stay consistent, and climb your way to longer writing sessions, one rung at a time.
Free while in beta. No credit card. Runs in your browser, and installs to your home screen on iPhone and Android.
No complicated setup, no productivity philosophy to learn. Open the app and write.
Tell us how long you can currently write in one sitting. We start you just below that, so your first session is a win rather than a wall.
Write until the timer ends, even if you stop mid-sentence. Then get up and move for five minutes. Jot down any idea you don't want to lose, and the next sprint starts itself.
Finish every sprint at a level three times and you are ready for the next. Choose to move up yourself, or let the app do it. Repeating a level is normal, not a setback.
Most focus apps hand you a 25-minute timer and assume you can already concentrate. If you can't, that's not a starting point. It's a wall.
Writing Ladder starts wherever you actually are. Even one minute counts.
Built for writers who want to finish the book, not optimise a productivity system.
A step-by-step training program for writers. Start short, build up, unlock longer sprints.
Distraction-free timers that end on time, so you stop while you still have momentum.
Write in the built-in pad and it counts for you. Watch words per minute climb as your focus grows.
Mid-flow when the bell rings? Jot the thought on your break. It's waiting next sprint.
Every break gets you on your feet, your way. Never a prescribed exercise, because bodies and offices differ.
Build a habit if that motivates you, or switch it off entirely. Stats that only count up.
Optional ticking while you write, and an alarm at the end loud enough to reach you from the next room.
Runs in any browser and installs to your home screen on iPhone and Android. Sign in and your history follows you.
They outperform marathon writing, and the research has been clear about it for decades.
Academics writing in brief daily sessions and logging their output produced roughly nine times the pages of those who wrote in long, occasional bursts. (Boice, 1989)
A meta-analysis of 22 studies found short breaks significantly increase vigour and reduce fatigue, with bigger gains on creative work. (Albulescu et al., 2022)
Brief activity breaks during prolonged sitting preserved attention and self-reported energy that otherwise declined over hours. (SITLess trial, 2025)
Writing Ladder combines established findings into one program. It has not been clinically trialled as a protocol, and we won't pretend otherwise.
Everything below is free to use right now. We collect no payment details. When paid plans arrive you will hear about it in advance and have to actively choose to subscribe, and nothing you have already written gets locked away.
Free in beta. Planned price below.
Free in beta. Planned price below.
No payment details are collected today. Prices shown are what we intend to charge when paid plans launch.
Stop anyway. That's the point. Finishing mid-sentence leaves an open loop that makes the next sprint far easier to start. And you won't lose the thought: type it into your break note before you get up, and it's waiting for you when you sit back down.
For someone who currently writes nothing, one minute is the difference between zero and started, and it compounds. The research on brief, regular sessions is unambiguous: consistency beats intensity, by a wide margin. You won't stay at one minute for long.
No. Writing Ladder works alongside Scrivener, Word, Google Docs, or a notebook — it just runs the clock while you write wherever you already write. There is also a writing pad built in, which counts your words live and stops you at the bell, if you'd rather write in one place. Word counts and pace are tracked only when you use that pad. It's a sprint pad rather than a manuscript vault, so keep your real draft where it lives.
Move however works for your body and your space. We never prescribe specific exercises, chair stretches, a walk to the kettle, or a full workout all count equally. The only rule is getting away from the keyboard.
Nothing bad. Your level is permanent. You never get demoted for taking time off. Streaks are entirely optional and can be switched off, and every other stat only counts upward.
Both, eventually, but consistency comes first. As you climb, more of each hour becomes writing time. What tells you a level has stopped challenging you is finishing every sprint at it without stopping early, three sessions running, which is the same signal Couch to 5K uses. Speed is never the test. If you write in the app's pad it will show you a words-per-minute trend as well, but that is information, not a grade.
That's all it takes to start. Build from there at whatever pace your life allows.
Start your first sprintFree while in beta. No credit card. Runs in your browser, and installs to your home screen on iPhone and Android.