Lyttony
A novel cure for writer's block
Your next story starts here
Available for Macintosh
Intel or Apple Silicon, MacOS 10.12 or newer

Available for iPhone, iPad
iOS 12 or newer
Overview Video Pricing & Download Features What's New Screen Shots Testimonials/Publications Help/FAQ/More... Future Press Kit Contact
 

Overview: What is "Lyttony"?

Endless creative story openers are now at your fingertips with Lyttony, a rather novel opening-sentence-generator for your iPhone, iPad, and Macintosh.

Lyttony creates millions of original and thought-provoking story openers, useful for both teachers and students in creative writing classes, authors or writing clubs needing new inspiration, or just quick ideas for daily writing practice.

Lyttony is easy to use. It does not require you to choose from confusing topic lists, play 20-questions, or create an on-line account. You are immediately provided ready-to-use opening lines, with no restrictions on their use. Feel free to copy them as-is into your next best-seller, or edit them to your liking.

Ask Lyttony as many times as you want – there's something for everyone. And if you find a great opener, bookmark it or share it with friends. You can always rewind back to your favorite bookmarked lines later.

Lyttony can send you a new story every day, and create customized stories with your name and your favorite color (and more) woven into in the text.

For iPhones/iPads, Lyttony is integrated into your Messages app, so that you can create stories or access your bookmarks and send them from within the Messages app without leaving the conversation.

Lyttony can read the text aloud in your favorite computerized voice.

Lyttony can also be synchronized with "Global Story-time", so you and other Lyttony users from around the world can all receive the same story at the same time.

Need some ideas for your next great story, or stuck trying to think of an opening line for a writing assignment, since "It was a dark and stormy night" is already taken? Let Lyttony provide the impetus to wet the quill, unblock the synapses and pour inspiration into your mind.

Video Preview

Here is a quick (40 seconds) overview of Lyttony:

 

Pricing & Download

Macintosh Software

iPhone/iPad Software

$0.99 USD

Click below to download from the App Store:

$0.99 USD

Click below to download from the App Store:
 

Features

What can Lyttony Do?

  • Personalized * You can add your own name, type of pet, favorite color, etc. and Lyttony will weave these into its stories for you.
  • Customized * The Preferences/Settings page lets you choose a favorite color for the story text, and also where the user can play with the computer-voices and enable the "Read Aloud" and "Global-Sync" features.
  • Bookmark & Rewind * Bookmark up to 10 stories, then tap Rewind to choose a bookmarked story from the list and instantly re-display it. This is good for bookmarking/saving and revisiting prior funny ones, or sending the magic Story-Code to friends so they can jump to it it too.
  • Read Aloud * Lyttony can read your stories out loud, whenever you tap the Speaker/Read button, or automatically with each new story. Tap Settings to choose from any of the installed text-to-speech voices.
  • Daily Dose * Do you want to receive a daily idea without even running the app? There's a setting for that! Just turn on "Daily Notifications", choose an hour of the day to have it delivered, and every day like clockwork, you will get a new story idea! You can read it in place in the notification center, or tap it to have it displayed in the "Lyttony" app.
  • Messages App * On the iPad and iPhone, Lyttony also shows up as a Messages app extension, so you can create and send stories to friends without leaving the Messages app. It even remembers your bookmarked stories and works with GlobalSync mode. Open the Messages app. Click the Lyttony extension. Pick a story. Send."
  • Global-Sync * Turn on Global-Sync mode and tap in to the "global story-cosmos." All Lyttony users around the world can get the same story at the same time, no matter where they live. So if you and somebody in another country both choose "every hour", then all Lyttony apps will dish out identical stories together every hour. Turn on Global-Sync, set the same time-frequency as your friends, and enjoy synchronized story time.
  • Share * Send your favorites to friends via social media or e-mail, or copy/paste them directly into your own writing projects.
  • Shake it up * Shaking your iPad or iPhone will automatically generate a new opener. NOTE: iOS only, Macs are not meant to be shaken or stirred.
 

What's New in This Version

2.0.0, January, 2023

  • Made all in-app-purchase features freely and fully available in app. ("Read to me" and "GlobalSync".)
  • Can save up to 10 story bookmarks. (2x more now!)
  • Major updates to the Intro screens, both user interface and the content. (Thanks Kat!)
  • Clicking the BOOKMARK button now also displays a quick-flash "Bookmarked" text to let user know it did something. (Thanks Kat!)
  • Clicking the SPEAK button while the text is busy speaking will now STOP the current speech. (Thanks Kat!)
  • Runs natively on Apple Silicon Macintosh.
  • More Personalization options added.
  • When you clear a user-typed Personalized item in the Preferences window, it now will auto-revert back to the factory default value, instead of a question mark. (Thanks Chris!)
  • New richer story text colors.
  • Classier more readable story font.
  • Much lighter (or darker in dark mode) background woodgrain desk under the story notepad paper. (Thanks Kat!)
  • The story title now randomly changes as well.
  • Nicer looking button display along bottom.
  • Many new stories added.
  • The author of the currently displayed story is now discoverable, if you look for it.
  • The originally shown paper background now is also remembered and recalled when you bookmark and rewind to a prior story.
  • Added a "Report a problem" menu item (Mac) and button (iOS) to easily send me an email.
  • BugFix: Fixed the "Review App" prompting.

1.0.1, December 2019

  • Mac: Fixed intermittent startup problem running under macOS Catalina (10.15).
  • iOS: Dark Mode supported.

1.0.0, June 2019

First Release

 

Screen Shots

The main display

Some settings

 

Testimonials

People are quite excited about what they can make with this software:

  • Really Useful! - This is a great little prompt generation app. I'm loving it!
 

Help & FAQ & More Info

FAQ: Here are some common questions/answers...

  • Q: Can I write and publish my own story using these story ideas without royalty or copyright issues?
    A: Yes, that is the whole point! Any stories you create using Lyttony quotes are completely yours to give away or sell. No copyright or attributions needed, you don't even need to mention this software.
  • Q: How do I access this directly from my messages app?
    A: After you install the Lyttony app from your iPhone/iPad, simply run the Messages app: and click the little "extensions" icon, and you should see the Lyttony icon there:

    Click it, and create new stories and post them right there! It can also list the bookmarks you saved with your iOS Lyttony app, by dragging the top of the Lyttony pane up to expand the Lyttony message view, so you can choose and send them too.
  • Q: Can I add some of my own story ideas into this software to share, and get my name in the credits too?
    A: Yes, for the next big release... it requires some time and work for me to convert each story idea into the right format for the software, but I will again recruit some writers to add to the melting pot for the next major release. Please send me an e-mail with your request!
General Tips:
  • You can save up to 10 bookmarked stories. As you save new ones after that, the older ones get removed from the list.
  • Easter-egg, sort of: There is a piece of music I wrote, and an accompanying super-short-story, hidden in the app.
Mac Tips:
  • You can directly select the text of the current story and copy it for pasting into other documents.
  • Lyttony plays nicely in Dark Mode.
iOS Tips:
  • You can shake your iPhone/iPad, and it will generate a new story.
  • You can tap on the story, and the text will be immediately copied to the paste-board, where you can switch to another application and paste it in as text.
  • There is a built-in iOS "Messages extension app", so you can access Lyttony right inside Messages, create new stories or access bookmarked ones and send them in your conversations.
Why the funny name? How does it work, really? Does it just look up a list of pre-made lines?

Read the Software Privacy Policy Here

 

What is next?

Well, what would YOU like? If you let me know what things you would like to see next, and I will add them to my to-do list for the next update!

 

Press Kit

If you are publishing a review of this software and would like more information and assets, download my free Press Kit below:

Download Press Kit (".zip" file)

 

Contact Me

If you have more questions or wish to send me feedback:

Contact Me

The best way to contact me is by using the "report a problem" option in the app itself to send me an e-mail, because it will automatically add some information at the bottom of the e-mail about what version of the app and operating system you are using:

Macintosh:

iPhone/iPad:

 
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