Grafomaniaq
A writing app built on creative provocations.
Most writing tools solve the problem of formatting text. Grafomaniaq deals with a different one — the moment when the text refuses to be written at all. The app creates conditions in which starting to write is easier than not writing.
Available everywhere you write
Grafomaniaq is available for iOS, iPad, and macOS. All your texts and progress sync seamlessly and securely through your personal iCloud account.
A distraction-free writing environment
Habit instead of inspiration
Writing regularity in Grafomaniaq is structured as a game: the “heat” multiplier grows with typing speed, and there are levels, achievements, a daily word goal, and day streaks. The assumption is that a writing habit forms the way any other habit does — through repetition and visible progress.
The method
At the core is the principle of productive constraints: tight limits push the imagination to look for workarounds. The “Provoke Me” section offers assignments that pull you out of familiar writing scenarios: combining incompatible genres, telling a story from the perspective of an inanimate object, working within strict formal rules.
- Timed sprints. While the timer is running, editing is disabled. The inner critic waits until the session is over.
- Constraint roulette. Lipograms, texts without certain parts of speech, other formal frames — a noir drama with adjectives banned, for example.
- Word chains. Three random concepts that need to be linked into a single story.
- Deep prompts. Essay and journal topics that call for an honest conversation with yourself.
Privacy
The app has no servers, no trackers, and no data collection. Texts are stored only locally and in the user’s personal iCloud — the developers technically cannot read them. For journals and drafts this matters in a practical way: a text that has no observer can be written without holding back.
Provocations and local storage reinforce each other: the method requires a willingness to write badly, strangely, or too personally — and that willingness appears only when you are certain no one will see the draft.