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iwritelike.bsky.social
I Write Like
@iwritelike.bsky.social
80 followers 79 following 350 posts
I Write Like is a text editor for writers. I post about it, as well as about writing, storytelling, and books. I share only what I personally enjoy and find interesting.
The free version is here: https://iwl.me
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iwritelike.bsky.social
Installed MacLampsX for lamps and snow. Work is frozen, brain is happy.

#Christmas
A digital screenshot of a web browser window titled "Merry Christmas.txt" on a dark, minimalist writing site (iwl.me). The browser window is centered against a vibrant purple and blue abstract background. The entire image is decorated with festive holiday elements, including a border of colorful glowing Christmas lights and white snowflakes, with more snowflakes layered over the browser window itself to create a snowy effect.
December 25, 2025 at 7:13 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
How is it going?

#Christmas
A drawing of a snowman on a sand beach. A drawing of a snowman on a sand beach being washed away by a sea wave.
December 25, 2025 at 4:43 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
Typewriter sounds – an IWL Premium feature – are free to use online during the holiday season until early January.
iwl.me
A screenshot of a "Focus modes" settings menu featuring options for Typewriter, Declutter, and Highlight current line. A pink arrow points to a toggle switch for "Typewriter sounds," which is currently turned on. Screenshot of the mobile editor settings menu, with an arrow indicating the "Typewriter sounds" toggle located at the bottom of the Editor section.
December 24, 2025 at 4:26 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
Merry Christmas!
A close-up, slightly low-angle photograph of a vintage black Underwood typewriter. The circular metal keys are in sharp focus in the foreground, each featuring a subtle sparkle or "glint" effect. The background is softly blurred, showing the "Underwood" brand name in gold lettering. Overlaying the top half of the image is the phrase "Merry Christmas" written in a glowing, white, hand-lettered cursive font, accompanied by small twinkling star icons scattered across the keys.
December 24, 2025 at 11:54 AM
iwritelike.bsky.social
A very informative article on narrative structure:
www.strangepilgrims.com/p/lit-theory...

#WritingCommunity
Lit Theory 101 | Narrative Structure & Time
Free, accessible, practical guide to help make you a better writer and reader | PART 1
www.strangepilgrims.com
December 23, 2025 at 9:51 AM
iwritelike.bsky.social
I'm so in love with the typewriter sounds in I Write Like I wish I had them for the whole browser.
December 22, 2025 at 10:58 AM
iwritelike.bsky.social
Happy Solstice!
A close-up, ground-level shot of a sandy beach where the incoming tide is beginning to wash over the date "21.12.25" written in the sand. The foamy white water of a gentle wave covers the top half of the numbers. The sunlight reflects brightly off the wet sand and the ripples of the ocean in the background, creating a shimmering, bokeh effect. The foreground is scattered with small pebbles and smooth stones. A delicate, translucent leaf skeleton held up against a coastal sunset. The intricate network of veins is clearly visible, with small fragments of brown leaf material still clinging to the structure. In the background, the setting sun creates a bright golden glow over a blurred ocean, with soft "bokeh" light circles reflecting off the water's surface. The overall tone is warm and serene.
December 21, 2025 at 2:26 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
Bluesky pairs really well with Instapaper. I find stories on Bluesky, save them to Instapaper, and it becomes my digital bookshelf.

#app #reading
December 21, 2025 at 9:41 AM
iwritelike.bsky.social
First lines are not everything, but they are definitely a lot.
iwritelike.bsky.social I Write Like @iwritelike.bsky.social · 12d
Gabriel García Márquez on Kafka's Metamorphosis

#quotes #books
A screenshot of a text file titled "Márquez on Kafka.txt" open in a web browser. The text displays a quote from Gabriel García Márquez:"The first line almost knocked me off the bed. I was so surprised. The first line reads, “As Gregor Samsa awoke that morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. . . .” When I read the line I thought to myself that I didn’t know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago."
December 20, 2025 at 9:29 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
Why do you write? I write to trap thoughts and characters in a physical form, so I can always return to them later, just like I caught these rays -- here one moment, gone the next.
#myphoto #WritingCommunity
A wide-angle landscape photograph captures a vibrant sunset over a calm lake and silhouetted mountains. The sky is dominated by dramatic, swirling clouds painted in brilliant shades of fiery orange, deep pink, and soft purple, contrasted against a pale blue background. In the center of the horizon, a dark, jagged mountain range is reflected perfectly in the still water of the lake below. A strip of dark green land with tall grasses in the foreground frames the bottom of the image, while the golden glow of the setting sun illuminates the water's surface, creating a mirror-like effect of the colorful sky.
December 20, 2025 at 9:13 AM
iwritelike.bsky.social
What a perfect, heartbreaking and beautiful story. The loss of memory is shown with great skill through the perspective of a once-successful field biologist who is watching her world disappear in a literal and metaphorical inferno.

#shortstory
tahomareview.bsky.social Tahoma Literary Review @tahomareview.bsky.social · Oct 7
Spotlight this week on Betty J. Cotter, writing what she initially thought of as the “field trip story,” which then evolved into a greater examination of aging, memory, and our threatened environment.
The Memory Root - Tahoma Literary Review
For a while, Doris remembered when it started. A January day. Mild: 65 degrees, gentle breeze blowing in from the Gulf. She had brought her biology
tahomaliteraryreview.com
December 19, 2025 at 6:54 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
If there’s a right time to read a certain story, then there’s probably a right time to write one too. And if you miss that time, whether for reading or writing, you can’t really connect to it anymore. Right?

#WritingCommunity
December 19, 2025 at 4:18 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
I've just read 'Leaving', flash fiction by @kellypedro.bsky.social published in @fracturedlit.bsky.social. I really liked it, especially the ending. At first, I feared something like this would happen, and then I knew it would because, of course, it couldn't be otherwise.
fracturedlit.com/leaving/
Leaving | Fractured
fracturedlit.com
December 18, 2025 at 9:23 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
I've been obsessed with @grantamag.bsky.social's podcast to the point that I started looking forward to chores because that's when I listen to it. It feels like being wrapped in an atmosphere of thought, literature and discoveries. Here's the link:
granta.com/explore/?cat...

#podcast #books
Explore Granta | The Magazine of New Writing
From Nobel laureates to debut novelists, international translations to investigative journalists, Granta publishes the best new literary writing and art.
granta.com
December 18, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Reposted by I Write Like
iwritelike.bsky.social
Does your soul sing when you see a typewriter? My soul is singing now that there are typewriter sounds on I Write Like. Try it!
I’m so in love, I’m melting 🫠.
(I’ll attach the screenshots showing how to enable the feature.)
#amwriting #WritingCommunity
December 13, 2025 at 4:14 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
What a wonderful and heartbreaking story that lets a reader piece together what happened through thoughts and phrases that drop seemingly randomly during a fight over what a gravestone should say.
'Corners' by Etgar Keret published in @vqr.bsky.social
www.vqronline.org/spring-2025/...

#shortstory
Corners
And then they started fighting about what the gravestone would say. Noam’s dad wanted “Son, something, and friend, plucked in the prime of his life.” He didn’t know what the “something” would be yet, ...
www.vqronline.org
December 16, 2025 at 9:15 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
What are your thoughts on publishing the letters of famous people after their death? At what point does a private life become cultural material?
December 16, 2025 at 10:10 AM
iwritelike.bsky.social
Before you start reading this, ensure that your surroundings are suitable for explosive laughter.
Absolutely brilliant and hilarious. Thank you, Elizabeth Schambelan, and @nplusonemag, for this experience.

#shortstory #funny
December 15, 2025 at 8:29 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
"The first words I typed were not on a computer keyboard or a glass screen, but on an old mechanical typewriter."

About typewriter sounds in I Write Like:
blog.iwl.me/2025/12/13/t...

#writing #editing #app
A still-life photo focusing on a desk setup. In the foreground, a pair of white wireless headphones rests next to a clear glass mug containing a tea-colored liquid. The background is cluttered with items, including a tall green and white tumbler (possibly a Starbucks cup) on the left, candles, and what appears to be part of a plant. In the center-right, a silver MacBook Pro laptop is open, displaying text on its screen. The laptop is stacked on two books: one yellow and black titled "ABSOLUTE FREEBSD," and another red and black titled "THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FREEBSD OPERATING SYSTEM." Below the books is a black mechanical keyboard.
December 15, 2025 at 3:42 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
Gabriel García Márquez on Kafka's Metamorphosis

#quotes #books
A screenshot of a text file titled "Márquez on Kafka.txt" open in a web browser. The text displays a quote from Gabriel García Márquez:"The first line almost knocked me off the bed. I was so surprised. The first line reads, “As Gregor Samsa awoke that morning from uneasy dreams, he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. . . .” When I read the line I thought to myself that I didn’t know anyone was allowed to write things like that. If I had known, I would have started writing a long time ago."
December 15, 2025 at 9:35 AM
iwritelike.bsky.social
I've just read this story, and it's so good! Such a perfect portrayal of the narrator through his thoughts. I now want to read more by Vivek Shanbhag.

#shortstory #storytelling
grantamag.bsky.social Granta @grantamag.bsky.social · Nov 7
‘He introduced me: “Mr Manmohan, my boss, but more importantly, a famous Kannada short-story writer.” I listened for any trace of sarcasm.’ 

Fiction by Vivek Shanbhag, translated by Srinath Perur.

granta.com/a-measure-fo...
A Measure of Martyrdom | Vivek Shanbhag | Granta
‘I didn’t mention Shami to my wife, I am not sure why. Maybe, deep down, I wanted to keep her a secret.’ Fiction by Vivek Shanbhag translated by Srinath Perur.
granta.com
December 14, 2025 at 9:44 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
Today I learned that some elements of sci-fi appeared as early as 2nd century CE in True Story by Lucian. I always thought it was a modern genre.

#books #history
December 14, 2025 at 4:51 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
In 1986 Pennebaker and Beall studied the effects of journaling, calling it 'expressive writing'. They found it produced small but reliable benefits, such as better mood, reduced stress. New studies come to the same conclusion. Times change but stress remains, and so do the attempts to write it out.
December 14, 2025 at 10:16 AM
iwritelike.bsky.social
Does your soul sing when you see a typewriter? My soul is singing now that there are typewriter sounds on I Write Like. Try it!
I’m so in love, I’m melting 🫠.
(I’ll attach the screenshots showing how to enable the feature.)
#amwriting #WritingCommunity
December 13, 2025 at 4:14 PM
iwritelike.bsky.social
Do you write your first drafts by hand?

"Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity"
www.frontiersin.org/journals/psy...

#writing #brain #science
Frontiers | Handwriting but not typewriting leads to widespread brain connectivity: a high-density EEG study with implications for the classroom
As traditional handwriting is progressively being replaced by digital devices, it is essential to investigate the implications for the human brain. Brain ele...
www.frontiersin.org
December 13, 2025 at 9:45 AM