WordGrinder

A terminal word processor for longform writing: davidgiven/wordgrinder. Not a text editor: a character-cell word processor that handles words, not characters.

Designed for writing prose without distractions. It is a word processor, not Word and not vim.

• Prose-oriented: word count tracking, paragraph styles (headings, body, quotes)
• Distraction-free, menu-driven interface: no keybindings to memorize
• Exports to HTML, Markdown, and plain text
• Single-file documents (.wg)

Best for novels, memoirs, academic papers: anything where word count and paragraph styles matter more than code.

wordgrinder draft.wg        # create or open a document

• Esc opens the menu (like classic DOS word processors)
• Documents are sets of styled paragraphs, not free-form text
• Built-in spell check, undo, find/replace

Not in most distro repos; build from source:

sudo apt install build-essential lua5.3 liblua5.3-dev libncurses-dev
git clone https://github.com/davidgiven/wordgrinder.git
cd wordgrinder && make && sudo make install

• Building a WriterDeck
• Micro
• CLI Tools
• Return to terminal
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