Pamela Koehne-Drube

Written by

Pamela Koehne-Drube

7 December 2022

News & Features

Progress Update #2

Novlr progress update

With NaNoWriMo over and everyone heading into the holiday season, the Novlr team has been hard at work tackling bigger projects. We’re still working on the little things, but we’ve got some exciting new updates coming over the next few weeks that we’re excited to share with you!

It’s been amazing to see so many of you still keeping up the writing into the first week of December. While the NaNo spirit had a record number of writers all logging in to work on their novels, there’s still a huge number of you committing yourselves to your writing! There are now 116,711 total novels live in Novlr, with a total word count of over 570,711,550. That is an absolutely stellar achievement from our writers.

In the last three weeks since our last progress update we’ve added a brand new feature and started the task of working through some other necessary improvements. Here’s what we’ve been working on:

✨ New features ✨

Proofreader

The return of the proofreader has been our biggest request for those who have migrated from legacy Novlr. Novlr Pro subscribers will now have access to the new and improved ProWritingAid-powered proofreader that has vastly improved stability and usability from our original integration.

The proofreader is available styled for both dark and light mode and can be toggled on and off directly from the writing screen.

Proofreader

When toggled on, the proofreader will scan your text and highlight spelling and grammar mistakes, as well as offer suggestions for common style mistakes. Simply hover over a highlighted word to see and accept changes, and double-click any word to access the thesaurus.

Additionally, you can also choose your preferred language style from UK, US, Australian, and Canadian English in the “Writing” tab of the settings modal.

✨ Community ✨

Writing challenge

We have launched our first writing challenge on our Discord server.

With NaNoWriMo over, we want to keep the spirit of community going! One thing we learned over November is that we have an amazing, friendly, and supportive community of writers. It’s the perfect group to work with on critiques and feedback.

Seeing how other writers interpret prompts is a great way to learn, and by offering critiques on each other’s work, we encourage other writers to grow and develop their craft.

The challenge is open to anyone, whether you’re a Novlr subscriber or not. So if you’re interested in joining and developing your skills with the help of your fellow writers, the join the conversation in our dedicated challenge forum on Discord.

Novlr writing prompt
Our first writing prompt! Join us for the challenge.

✨ Bug fixing ✨

Version flashing

Some users have reported a bug that we have called “version flashing.” It happens when your project is saving, but words have been added while that process is ongoing. A few words can flash on and off the screen as our servers try to determine which is the most up-to-date version to show on the screen.

While rolling out the proofreader, we have made strides in speeding up this process, which should improve this for most users. It’s not a full fix yet, and users with slower devices or internet speeds might still experience it occasionally, but it’s a big step in the right direction.

Project homepage

Some users reported that the project home page had an issue where the width was displayed oddly on some screens. This has been rectified, and the project homepage should now load normally for all users across all devices.

App crashing

When we first released the proofreader, in some cases, navigating away from a page after turning it off could crash the app. This has been rectified, and app crashes should no longer occur.

✨ UI improvements ✨

Wider margins

With the release of the new app, wider margins on the writing screen were by far and away the most requested visual improvement. Margins are now 30% wider than previously and will remain the same width no matter what text size you choose.

Novlr wider margins

More useful analytics on the dashboard

The previous analytics shown on the dashboard included writing time, which, based on user feedback, was not the most useful statistic to show as quick access on the Novlr dashboard.

We have improved this by changing the analytics that show on the dashboard to words written today, this month, and this year as these are the most viewed writing stats.

Clearer offline mode

We’ve created a popup that notifies you when your device goes offline to make it more obvious when this occurs.

(we also fixed a spelling mistake in the popup 🤫)

Improved pricing cards

We changed the visual display of our pricing cards to make our pricing structure clearer. We want to be as open and transparent about our pricing as possible, so it’s important to us that this information is communicated in a way that’s accessible, and easy to understand.

clearer pricing cards - Novlr

✨ Other ✨

Price changes

On December 1st we changed our prices. Writers can still write a single novel in Novlr for free, but Novlr Pro subscriptions had a price rise.

All subscribers with active subscriptions before December 1st also have their prices frozen, meaning they will pay their original subscription price for the time that the subscription remains active.

We know this is a big change, so if you have any questions, please get in touch via the chat bubble in the Novlr dashboard. We’re happy to answer all of your questions.

Lifetime subscriptions

Lifetime subscriptions have been a popular request over the years, and we’re happy to confirm that they can now be purchased! For a single payment of $499, you receive a lifetime subscription to Novlr Pro that will give you access to all Pro features and updates, forever. It’s a single-purchase option for those who prefer a lump sum payment over a monthly or annual subscription.

Offline sync optimisation

We optimised how offline sync works to avoid potential bugs caused by browser capacity and device speed. Offline words now don’t sync when nothing has been added, to streamline the process.

✨ Coming soon ✨

  • Upcoming improvements to saving and versioning
  • Publish to ebook
  • Split chapter
  • Focus mode
  • Exciting news about Novlr Academy releasing before Christmas!!