42 COMMENTS

NEO – Fiction without Friction

Sorry, couldn’t help myself. I was tempted to make “Fiction without Friction” the tag line for NEO, but it’s only (kinda) clever the first time you hear it. I’ll (probably) never say it again.

I’ve been blogging about NEO for over ten years now. I’ve been writing exclusively inside NEO for most of this year. Quite a few authors I know have adopted NEO as their go-to for getting that rough draft written. With more users and more time, the program has been smoothed over and most of the pesky bugs have been squashed. NEO is ready for prime time!

To that end, I put NEO on its own landing page, here on my site: www.hughhowey.com/neo. I also created a short-ish video on how to acquire, install, and use NEO:

I get nothing out of you using the software. It’s just something that’s amplified my writing sessions, and if it helps anyone else, then I’m chuffed to the max. My biggest hope is that a novel that might not have existed without NEO will now see the light of day and find a reader out there, somewhere.

Not only is it free, forever, it also doesn’t collect any data about you or upload your books anywhere. Everything you write is saved on your computer. And your entire bookcase is backed up daily and saved for two weeks, just in case. If you want an online backup, link your Neo Library to iCloud or DropBox. You can also email yourself copies of your WIP with a keypress.

NEO exports to Word, for when you need to do an editorial pass with tracked changes. Or PDF if you want to share with beta readers. Or you can export straight to .epub with a table of contents and Amazon-approved formatting.

The ENTER, ENTER, ENTER philosophy behind NEO is what keeps me writing. No more formatting section breaks or new chapter headers. No more re-numbering chapters. Hit ENTER once for a new paragraph. Hit it again for a new section break. A third ENTER gets you a new chapter. I like to think of this as NEO’s enterface. (groan. I know)

Word count progress bars, daily goals, a 30 day writing history, and word sprints are all there to motivate you. Quick notes let you drop a to-do so you can keep writing and google something or make up a proper noun later. The “Darlings” tab is a place to drag and drop text you aren’t in love with without losing it forever. Everything about NEO is there to remove the friction of authoring your next novel.

That’s it. Something I made for me that I’m offering for free. Now back to my own writing…

42 responses to “NEO – Fiction without Friction”

  1. Kevin Palm Avatar
    Kevin Palm

    Hey, Hugh!

    Nothing to do with NEO, but I’ve gotta ask: What’s up with the “Hugh Howy” I see on this page and in the “From:” field in the email I received this morning? Did you change your name for Witness Protection or something? 😁

    Reply
    1. Hugh Howey Avatar
      Hugh Howey

      LOL! No, the nickname in my WordPress backend was misspelled. I saw that too when I uploaded the video and fixed it.

      Reply
  2. bob wandtke Avatar
    bob wandtke

    Thanks for that! Great program! started my first short story!

    Reply
    1. Hugh Howey Avatar
      Hugh Howey

      Wooooo-hooooooo!

      Reply
  3. Andrew M. Avatar
    Andrew M.

    Not a writer, but love the idea of NEO. We need more simple tools, not bloated over-complex tools where we use 10% of the functionality. Back to basics!

    Reply
  4. Chris Tice Avatar
    Chris Tice

    Ive used it a couple times and really like the format. I used to have a dump folder to keep favs bit darlings is a better name.
    I do a lot of writing on my android tablet, is there a way to download neo there?

    Reply
  5. Markus Diersbock Avatar
    Markus Diersbock

    Awesome walk-thru and GUI design!

    As a programmer, it would be awesome to see an interview on your tech stack and how you made GUI choices based on your writing needs — and how other writing apps fell short!

    Reply
  6. Jonathan Avatar
    Jonathan

    Was excited for this since they first post. Alas, I’m now a Linux user. Hopefully a more dev savvy writer than I can convert it and share!

    my remarkable has a similar frictionless interface I’ve had tons of success being productive with but the Enter/ Return function sounds like a nice feature (like Final Draft that screenwriters use)

    Reply
    1. Hugh Howey Avatar
      Hugh Howey

      There’s a linux version!

      Reply
      1. Jonathan Avatar
        Jonathan

        Very exciting! Already moving my work into it. Thanks for making it so easy.

        Reply
  7. John Finch Avatar
    John Finch

    Hugh, you’ve made my day!

    Reply
  8. Patrice Fitzgerald Avatar
    Patrice Fitzgerald

    Looking forward to jumping onto this. Thanks for sharing your work!

    Reply
  9. Imran Avatar
    Imran

    I had written to you a very lengthy letter, I do hope it reached you via the contact page safe and well. For me this is a very important subject and I beg you to read iz and possibly grant me a reply.

    Back to NEO, in our think tank we were using a very simple NEO like proggie that kept getting more complex, nowadays it is a word-like monster. I will distribute it amoung our members and have it checked if it is suitable. If so, Quantum Entanglement will be very happy growing into the future with you app. Thanks for sharing it with all of us, people like you have become rare pearls on planet Earth.

    Reply
    1. Hugh Howey Avatar
      Hugh Howey

      I don’t see it, and I tried searching your email address and username for this comment and nothing came up.

      Reply
      1. Joachim Imran Reinhold Avatar
        Joachim Imran Reinhold

        Please look for Quantum Entanglement, Joachim, Mars etc. I am a bit beside me for some health issues, maybe I used my official e-mail … Apologies.

        Reply
      2. Joachim Imran Reinhold Avatar
        Joachim Imran Reinhold

        I just sent it again.

        Reply
  10. Robert Gibson Avatar
    Robert Gibson

    Any chance or plans for release on mobile? or the upcoming GoogleBook?

    Reply
    1. Joachim Imran Reinhold Avatar
      Joachim Imran Reinhold

      iPadOS would be awesome. But then, let us be grateful for what have have already. I just imported my novel from 2015 and started a revised version.

      Reply
    2. Chris Tice Avatar
      Chris Tice

      I saw an openware windows emulator, winlator, for android im going to try with neo.exe on my tablet. My kids still live at home so anywhere my tablet and keyboard fits is my writing space.

      Reply
      1. Rob Gibson Avatar
        Rob Gibson

        I think the upcoming Googlebook may be able to run the Linux version. But the Googlebooks aren’t out until October 4th or 5th.

        I would love to see one on Android and iPad OS for those on the go!

        There is one other thing I would love to see in “Draft” mode the ability to type into a chat box and have it “send” to the main document. So that I can “chat” my story instead of fighting blank page syndrome early on. But that’s just me.

        Reply
        1. Chris Tice Avatar
          Chris Tice

          Winlator is a bit janky with my bluetooth keyboard so i may have to see whats going on there but neo works so far.
          Im currently drafting into google docs and would like a better solution as the docs are just ok. I have word on my win10 laptop and refuse to pay for the app. I also got the tablet free so im a bit cheap, but thats my demon haha
          I like your idea of chatting straight into the document. A lot.of times im driving when inspiration strikes. I should use voice recorder and transcribe later but that probably wont happen

          Reply
        2. Hugh Howey Avatar
          Hugh Howey

          Android version already exists: https://github.com/hughhowey/neo/releases/tag/pocket-latest

          iOS version is coming this week.

          Reply
          1. Chris Tice Avatar
            Chris Tice

            Awesome! Not sure how i missed that, thanks hugh

          2. Jonathan Hayes Avatar
            Jonathan Hayes

            Well YEE-haw!!!!

            Thanks, Hugh – NEO looks amazing!

  11. Susan Avatar
    Susan

    I’ve uploaded 3 covers, and I’m loving how easy this is Hugh, and I love writing “in the dark!”

    “Enterface”, lol! I put the ENTERS on the only sticky I have on my monitor. Yes!

    Thank you!

    Reply
  12. Charlie Avatar
    Charlie

    I’m not a writer, but this looks awesome. I shared it with all of my group chats that might contain writers.

    However, why the choice to allow AI to generate book covers? There’s nothing stopping people from using the same process to generate a cover on their own then drag and drop it onto the book in NEO.

    I know that people are going to generative AI, but why include it as a feature?

    Just my $.02.

    Thanks for reading and thanks for sharing something you created with the rest of us.

    Reply
  13. Jason Aydelotte Avatar
    Jason Aydelotte

    Hey Hugh, great job on this; I’ve been following the saga since you first started talking about it. I like so much about it and it definitely does what you’ve been wanting for so long, it seems.

    It’s so great (especially free!) but below are a few pieces of constructive criticism that keeps me from using it (yet!). The takeaway from this comment should be that you’ve done a wonderful job here and it’s likely to work fantastically out of the box for most people; as a publisher and formatting nerd, though, I need a few more things that it doesn’t have.

    • not every first paragraph of a chapter should have a dropcap, and there’s no way to turn them off. Like, I have location headers in my novel because it needs them, but they don’t need a dropcap.

    • In a similar vein, not every “chapter” should be called “Chapter X”; I have an epigraph, a dedication, and Parts (capital P) to my current novel, but they all come across with “Chapter 1, 2, or 3” at the top

    • No keyboard shortcut for aligning paras (e.g. quotes that need to be centered or the like)

    • the markdown import isn’t working correctly. Example: *This line should be in italics* but is imported as plain text.

    Reply
    1. Hugh Howey Avatar
      Hugh Howey

      Thanks, Jason!

      – If you go to Format > Drop Cap Style > Off is now an option.
      – If you right-click on a chapter in the left-hand pop-up pane, you can create unnumbered chapters. You can also export chapters with chapter numbers off.
      – Look under Formatting in the shortcuts menu. The shortcuts are there.
      – I’ll look into the markdown formatting! Thanks for bringing that up!

      Reply
      1. Jason Aydelotte Avatar
        Jason Aydelotte

        Fantastic! Probably just didn’t see those first go–I’m moving house as well as working two full time jobs AND trying to write so I’m a bit frazzled. Thanks for the quick response. Hope you and Shay are well!

        Reply
  14. Joachim Imran Reinhold Avatar
    Joachim Imran Reinhold

    Same problem with non-English novels. If there is a “Chapter” etc. printed no one will touch it. It would be great if this can be overwritten or deleted / switched off. Thanks.

    Reply
    1. Hugh Howey Avatar
      Hugh Howey

      You can turn off chapter numbering in export, so it just holds your chapter title. You can also turn chapters into non-numbering chapters in the left-hand pop-up pane. Let me know if that works or if you need something different. :)

      Reply
  15. Tommy Randell Avatar
    Tommy Randell

    Enter, Enter, Enter – Yes, Yes, Yes.
    Moving my work into Neo is straightforward and somehow comforting with its lack of fussy, complex Structure.
    The best tools, of course, always are self-defining – I’m hoping Neo will become MY writing tool where others have failed.
    Many Thanks.

    Reply
  16. Lucas Avatar
    Lucas

    That’s a nice program. You have some neat ideas in Neo! By coincidence I just finished my own program QuietWriter. Same philosophy: focus on writing, free and private.

    QuietWriter is mainly targeting to the Dutch language but there’s a Engelish version to. You can find it at my website. Reviews are welcome!

    Reply
  17. Carlo Avatar
    Carlo

    For the last decade, I’ve been following your search to find and, eventually, effort to create a writing tool that was perfect for your needs. I’ve always used Word to write and generally never have an issue with some of the things people cry about, though its grammar check has gone to crap in the last couple of years. Well, I just watched the intro video for Neo and think I’ve found the new writing program I didn’t know I wanted. I’m in the middle of a project, but I’m going to download Neo to use for the rest of the books in the series. I’m going to share the news with my other writer friends. Thanks for making something I didn’t know I needed.

    PS-congrats on the success of SILO on Apple. Happy sailing!

    Reply
  18. Moonbase59 Avatar
    Moonbase59

    Crazy how one comes to read a previously unknown author!

    I found NEO on GitHub when checking for open source writing tools, and I’m awed by the concept—distraction-free writing, easily rearranging stuff (I’m a “Plantser”, sometimes plotting, mostly pantsing), and export-on-a-click. Beautiful, just what a writer needs!

    Somewhere I saw “written by a wannabe novelist” or such, which made me smile and look you up. Now I’ll get “Machine Learning” first, then read the “Silo” series…

    Thanks for your content, your books, and especially your work on NEO—keep it rolling, and happy sailing!

    Reply
    1. Moonbase59 Avatar
      Moonbase59

      I forgot: THANK YOU for providing a Linux .AppImage and not neglecting us Linux users!

      I’ve been using Linux exclusively since 2012, my daily driver is a ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 (best keyboard ever!) running EndeavourOS, my Desktop has Linux Mint.

      I believe in single-source publishing, so my previous workflow was rather centered around Markdown, Pandoc and Git revisioning. Lots of technicalities. NEO inspires me to WRITE again instead of losing myself in tech detail. ENTER, ENTER, ENTER, i.e. “Go ahead and WRITE!”

      Thanks again.

      Reply
      1. Hugh Howey Avatar
        Hugh Howey

        Music to my ears!

        Reply
    2. Hugh Howey Avatar
      Hugh Howey

      Thanks, Moonbase! (The boat we live on is named LUNA, so she’s our moonbase).

      Reply
  19. Zahra Avatar
    Zahra

    Thank you so much for this software, it’s wonderful!! I have been using it and it ticks so many of my boxes. I was wondering if it’s possible to change the margins of the document for people who might prefer a wider typing screen.

    Reply
  20. John Nicosia Avatar
    John Nicosia

    Hugh –

    Thank you so much for creating NEO. I love the typewriter scrolling feature!

    One question, what is the best way to get NEO updates? Is it as simple as going to the NEO page and just uploading a new version?

    Also, the Season 3 finale of SILO was one of the most incredible episodes of television I have seen. An amazing end to a great season.

    Thank you again for NEO.

    John

    Reply
  21. Brent Avatar
    Brent

    Hello, Mr. Howey.

    Thanks for NEO, it’s been a real lifesaver in putting myself into the writing mood. One small thing I noticed: If, instead of clicking Quit from the File menu, I click the Close button at the top right, the program seems to crash in the form of the desktop icon going “blank” (white) and my Windows (10) machine not being able to find the program. This has happened several times time to me now (the last time I kind of “tested” to see if that’s what was happening), so I thought I would let you know. It’s a great program otherwise. I really enjoy it. Thank you so much.

    Reply
    1. Brent Avatar
      Brent

      Buddha’s blue balls, where was that icon of me pulled from!? LOL.

      Reply

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