Since I read about Hugh Howey from Seth Godin’s blog post, I subscribed to his blog and been reading him since. Then on August 2026, he wrote about a distraction-free writing tool he built which is free to download and use forever. It doesn’t need you to be online and won’t require you to create an account or get a subscription before using it. All the things I wanted in a writing tool—free and offline—were right there, so I was quick to download it and test it out.
You can download NEO here.
What I first noticed is its minimalist user interface. It really does the job of making you want to write without being distracted by shiny features. It also makes sharing and exporting your drafts easy, removing the friction of shipping your work.
Since I downloaded the app, I was able to start three drafts (I know! Here we are again starting things without finishing anything). But you know what, I am now 4,000 words in with one of the topics I’ve been wanting to write since 2024. Although I started working on its outline and started with the first paragraphs in LibreOffice, I was only able to do substantial progress when I exported it to NEO. And I don’t think I will be going back.
I hope NEO will be the app that finally helps me finish and maybe even publish what I have been putting off for two years.
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