Inspiration
I created Tracé because I couldn’t find a lightweight Chinese writing tool that felt truly comfortable for screenwriting, worked well across devices, and made structure easy to understand at a glance.
Traditional document editors are often overloaded with features that writers simply don’t need. I wanted to build something much more focused: a minimal writing environment where the structure of a screenplay or novel is always clear, while the interface stays out of the way.
What it does
Tracé is a writing workspace designed for screenplays and novels.
It helps writers focus on the story itself while keeping its structure visible and easy to navigate. Screenwriters can work in a clean, distraction-free environment, while novelists can organize chapters, sections, and ideas without turning the writing process into project management.
The goal is simple: write stories, not formats.
How we built it
Tracé is built as a native macOS application with a strong focus on speed, simplicity, and a desktop-first writing experience.
Instead of trying to reproduce a traditional word processor, we designed the app around the actual workflow of writers: writing, understanding structure, organizing ideas, and moving naturally between them.
The product has been developed iteratively through continuous prototyping, testing, and feedback from real users.
Challenges we ran into
One of the biggest challenges was finding the right balance between structure and simplicity. Writers need tools to understand and organize a long work, but too many controls can quickly become distracting.
Another challenge was building a writing experience that feels natural for both screenplays and novels, since the two formats have very different structural needs.
We also spent a lot of time making sure that features such as outlining and idea organization remain connected to the text itself, instead of becoming a separate, complicated management system.
Accomplishments that we're proud of
We’re especially proud of keeping the interface clean and the product focused on writing rather than feature overload.
Even in its current beta stage, Tracé has already reached more than 300 users, which has given us valuable feedback and confidence that there is a real need for a simpler writing tool designed around Chinese-language creators.
What we learned
We learned that good writing software is often less about adding more tools and more about deciding what should stay invisible.
We also learned that even small interaction details can have a major impact on whether a writer stays immersed in the story or gets pulled out of the creative flow.
What's next for Tracé
Next, we plan to continue developing Novel Mode, with better tools for long-form structure, ideas, and writing progress.
Our long-term goal is to turn Tracé into a focused and reliable writing workstation for Chinese-speaking writers—a place where screenplays, novels, and ideas can grow without the complexity of traditional document software.
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