Two Ways to Write
The Stanza Composer offers two editor modes, each designed for different writing styles and needs.
Standard Mode
A rich text editor (WYSIWYG) powered by Tiptap. Format your text with bold, italic, headings, and lists directly in the editor. What you see is what readers get.
- Great for prose poetry, free verse, and casual writing
- Formatting toolbar for quick styling
- Intuitive and familiar if you have used word processors
Advanced Mode
A plain text editor powered by CodeMirror. Displays line numbers alongside your text, plus character and line counts at the bottom.
- Perfect for structured forms like sonnets (14 lines), villanelles, or haiku
- Line numbers help you track stanza structure
- Character and line counts are useful for constrained forms
Switching Between Modes
Toggle between modes at any time. Your content is preserved — the editor converts between HTML and plain text automatically. Choose whichever mode fits the poem you are writing right now.
tip
Writing a sonnet? Use Advanced Mode so you can see the 14-line structure at a glance. Writing free verse? Standard Mode gives you more formatting flexibility.