Novella and AI

There are no AI features in Novella, and there never will be. That's a promise I will never go back on. Nothing in Novella generates, rewrites, or suggests prose, and nothing you write is used to train AI.

AI never touches your manuscripts or anything else you create in Novella. Your writing is stored on your own computer, and if you use Novella Cloud, it is encrypted on your computer before it syncs, with a key only you hold. That is on purpose: I couldn't read your writing even if I wanted to, and neither could any AI tool.

Novella is not in the business of doing your writing for you. AI or AI connections do not exist in the app today and will not in the future. I strongly believe the best of human creativity comes from the human mind and efforts, and I have put a lot of effort into making Novella the best tool it can be to support you in that process.

I started building Novella in January 2019 because I wanted a writing tool that worked for me. I designed everything in it myself. While the majority of the design was my own work, a friend who is a UX designer helped me polish the design. The logo was commissioned from a designer in 2020.

I've worked on Novella steadily since 2019, by hand, as a passion project. I beta tested it with family members and friends who are writers and implemented their feedback and requests. In 2025 I finally released it to the public, and I've been improving it ever since.

I'm a professional software engineer with more than 15 years of experience building production applications. As part of my job I occasionally use AI tools to help with coding and debugging. I am not a vibe coder, and Novella is absolutely not vibe coded. I design every feature, and I read, test, and stand behind every line of code that ships whether AI is involved or not.

I believe everyone should find and choose the tools that help them reach their goals. I hope that Novella is that tool for you, but if it's not, I fully support that, and I hope you find one that works for you.

John Woodruff Maker of Novella