An HTML template for long-form writing
You wrote 1,200 words and want to send someone a link to read them. Setting up a blog, a theme and hosting for one article is more than the article needs.
Writer is a template for that: one page for one long piece of writing. It runs on Hyperclay, which hosts HTML pages that save their own changes. You write with a rich-text toolbar. The people who get your link see the finished article, with no editor in their way.
Hyperclay has no free plan. Personal is $6 a month. A new copy starts public. It saves as you type, so make it private in your Hyperclay dashboard before you start drafting.
What you can do in it
- Format with three levels of headings, numbered and bulleted lists, bold, block quotes, and left, center or right alignment.
- Add code blocks, highlighted for JavaScript, HTML, CSS and Bash.
- Only you, and anyone you let edit the page, get the toolbar. Everyone else sees the plain article, as in the live example above.
It saves into the page
In your copy, write a paragraph, wait for the save indicator, then reload the page. The paragraph is still there.
Each save writes the article into the page's own HTML. Open Hyperclay's code editor and your paragraph is a <p> tag inside <main>. The toolbar is left out of the saved HTML.
Change it
The page is HTML you own. You can edit it in the code editor or download it.
The article column is at most 690 pixels wide. Open the code editor, add this line just before </head>, and save:
<style>.page-container { max-width: 800px; }</style>Now the column can grow to 800 pixels for every reader. You could also paste the page's HTML into Claude or ChatGPT, ask for that change, and paste the answer back into the code editor.
Where it stops
Writer holds one article per page. It has no comments, no newsletter and no list of posts. For dated posts on one page, use Devlog.
The toolbar's image button takes a URL. You can also drag or paste a PNG or JPEG in, and it is stored inside the page's HTML, which makes the page larger. The toolbar has no upload button.
Price and next step
Personal is $6 a month and Maker is $15 a month. Compare them on the pricing page.
If you're signed in, you name the copy and it's in your workspace. If you aren't, sign in or choose a plan, and you come back to the same page to name your copy.
When you publish your first piece with it, send me the link at david@hyperclay.com.