Writing & Publishing a Story

The editor, drafts, and hitting publish.

Everything on Shovel starts with one piece of writing. (You'll see the word story in the buttons; it's the same thing the app sometimes calls a shovel.)

Tap + to open a clean, full-screen editor. Write a title and a body. Shovel auto-saves your draft as you type, so you never lose work. You can also press Cmd/Ctrl+S to force a save.

Want a cover image or a short summary? Open Settings inside the editor. They live in that side panel, not on the main screen, so they're easy to miss.

Once you have a title and a body, hit Publish. Very long pieces get a gentle nudge near 30,000 characters.

A published story can be liked ♥, bookmarked, shared, and commented on. As the author you also get Edit and Delete. Your story doesn't belong to a world yet. That comes later (see Applications & Invites).