Writing
Essays on the writing process, honest comparisons with every major writing app, and resources for writers who believe the act of writing matters as much as what gets written.
The philosophy
A typewriter writing app for your desktop
Why Midcent brings the feel of a typewriter to your Mac — not as a novelty, but as a serious writing tool.
A writing app without AI
No autocomplete. No rewrite suggestions. No generated text. Why the words should be yours.
Distraction-free by replacement, not subtraction
Most distraction-free apps hide things. Midcent replaces them with something worth looking at.
Famous writers’ first drafts
A five-part series on how great writers actually wrote — the crossed-out words, the abandoned pages, the drafts that nobody was supposed to see.
01
The myth of the clean first draft
Hemingway rewrote A Farewell to Arms fifty times. Fitzgerald restructured Gatsby from scratch. The clean first draft is a lie — and that's good news.
02
Seventeen drafts of one poem
Elizabeth Bishop wrote seventeen drafts of 'One Art' in two weeks. The journey from prose confession to perfect villanelle — and what it teaches about revision.
03
The scroll
Kerouac typed On the Road on a 120-foot scroll so he'd never have to stop. The philosophy of writing forward — and why removing interruptions changes everything.
04
What gets cut
Gordon Lish cut 55% of Raymond Carver's words. The story of the most famous edit in American fiction — and what it reveals about the space between drafts.
05
Why your first draft should look like a mess
Hemingway rewrote fifty times. Bishop needed seventeen drafts. Kerouac taped pages into a scroll. The mess is the method — here's why, and how to embrace it.
How Midcent compares
Honest, detailed comparisons — including where the other tool is better. Because writers who care about tools deserve the full picture.
Get started
#WriteWithoutDelete challenge
A 7-day writing challenge. No backspace. No deleting. Just forward.
Best writing apps for novelists in 2026
An honest guide — every tool reviewed fairly, including where it's better than ours.
Features
Everything Midcent does and why it matters for your writing.
Guide
Learn how to use Midcent — from first launch to advanced features.
Download Midcent
$14.99 on the Mac App Store. One purchase, yours forever. macOS. Windows coming soon.
Midcent — a quiet place to write.