Ghostkey studio
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Ghostkey, Dabble, LivingWriter

Three good tools that want different things. Dabble is proudly AI-free. LivingWriter is here to encourage you to write every day. Ghostkey is for the pragmatic writer: marketing and editing features to get you novel from draft to published book.

Ghostkey
The professional
Dabble
AI-free
LivingWriter
The cheerleader
Getting the words down
Modern text editor A smooth writing experience.
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Dictate your draft Speak it on a walk; it arrives as text.
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Write by hand, photograph the page
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Search by meaning, not keywords
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Planning the book
Structure templates Hero's Journey, Save the Cat, Story Grid and the rest.
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Analyze your story against templates Hero's Journey, Save the Cat, Story Grid and the rest.
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Manual story bible Characters, places, the rules of the world.
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Story bible updated for you Characters, places, the rules of the world.
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Working on what you wrote
Quality spellcheck Notes in the margin about the writing, not the spelling.
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Line edits on your craft Notes in the margin about the writing, not the spelling.
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Continuity checking Her eyes were grey in chapter 2 and green in chapter 19.
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Book coach
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Keeping the book moving
Word-counts Your writing day by day.
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Goals and sprints A deadline, a daily target, a timer to write against.
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Tasks The next action on each chapter, tracked to done.
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Chapter status Drafting, revising, done.
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After the draft
Comp title research Which books yours sits beside on the shelf.
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Blurb help
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Working with other people
Real-time collaborative writing
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What it costs
Free plan What you can do without paying anything.
Free forever, AI included, on a few runs a week
14-day trial, then paid
1 manuscript, 25,000 words
Entry paid plan Monthly price, billed monthly. Each vendor discounts an annual term.
See pricing
$19/month
$15/month

What Ghostkey doesn't do

No real-time co-writing — two people cannot type in the same chapter at once, and Dabble can. No word-count goals or sprint timers to write against; Poltergeist tracks what each chapter still owes instead, which is a different idea, not a better one. And offline is a safety net, not a mode: you can keep writing a book this device has already opened and it syncs when you are back, but a book it has never opened will not open, and adding or renaming chapters needs the server.

What Dabble does better

Dabble is proudly AI-free, and if that is what you want from a writing app, nothing on this page should change your mind. It also has real-time co-authoring, writing-group sharing, and — on its top plan — DabbleU, with live workshops and a course library. None of those three exist in Ghostkey.

What LivingWriter does better

A free plan you can stay on rather than a trial you leave: one manuscript up to 25,000 words. It also integrates with Canva and Google Drive and converts prose into screenplay format. Ghostkey has a free plan, but none of the other three.

Every claim about Dabble and LivingWriter was read off their own published pages on 30 August 2026. Prices are the monthly figures listed.
Dabble and LivingWriter are trademarks of their respective owners. Ghostkey is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by either.