I gave my writing version history.

So I've been doing this thing where before any major rewrite I duplicate my document with a timestamp in the filename. "essay_v3_before_restructure.docx" sitting in a graveyard folder. It's embarrassing but it saved me twice.

Got me thinking: why hasn't writing software figured this out? Git has solved this problem for code for like 20 years. You get a full timeline, branches, diffs line by line. But others (non-devs), still doing "copy the whole file."

I started prototyping something simple, not the full complexity of Git, just the core ideas applied to writing:

• A scrubable timeline. Slide back to any point in your document's history, not just "undo" but days ago.

• Branches before rewrites. About to cut 800 words and restructure? Branch first. If the new version sucks, you're not digging through clipboard history.

• Line-level diffs. See exactly what changed between drafts, not just "some stuff moved around."

Even just keeping the timeline has changed how I write. I'm less precious about cutting things because I know they're not gone. The psychological unlock alone is worth it.

Curious if anyone else has hacked together something like this, or found tools that actually do it well. I know some writing apps have "version history" but it's usually buried and useless. What are you all doing?

tool: https://loominapp.com