5/4 Vibe Coding Update

*This post was written by speaking into ChatGPT, allowing it to clean and organize, then ME doing a heavy overwrite. FYI!

A lot happened last week, and I feel like my brain is exploding. Let’s get into it.

Last week, I was finally able to get my Apple App Store developer payment to go through, (still not sure what was going on) I just kept trying it every day until it worked. Weird.

The bummer was right as I was fist pumping for getting it done, I realized I probably need to change the name of my developer business name.

You see, what I didn’t realize, is your Developer name is displayed by your App name. To be approved as an Apple developer you either use your legal name or use a true business, like an LLC. I had used my author/book biz, Laura Wifler Creative, Inc. by default. Which means, “Laura Wifler” would be right next to any apps I post, and I didn’t want that. I’m hoping to build most of my products to not need my personal brand long term. I think it’s fine if they leverage the community I’ve spent nearly 20 years on the internet cultivating to lauch, but ultimately I’d like them to run autonomously.

Plus, as my husband and I started talking through the logistics of the different platforms I’m building, we realized that it probably made sense for these projects to have their own business structure. We talked with our accountant, and the recommendation was to go ahead and open a separate LLC.

So much of my week was spent doing very glamorous founder things like applying for an LLC, getting an EIN, setting up a bank account, etc.

So now that I’ve done that, I need to go back and adjust my Apple Developer account name to the new LLC. Ugh.

Sword Drill

In terms of Sword Drill, there weren’t a ton of app improvements this week because it’s mostly sitting there, waiting for me to get everything sorted with the Apple App Store.

I did work on the App Store screenshots and started making sure all the information was ready.

I will say: every time I tell someone I’m trying to get an app into the App Store myself, they respond with some version of: “Wow. Good for you. That’s really hard.”

Which is both encouraging and deeply unsettling.

To be clear, I do not have some grand confidence that I am the best person for this job. I don’t even know if I’ll be able to get it all the way across the finish line myself.

If I do end up needing to hire someone to help me, I don’t think that’s a failure. So I’ll let you know!

The larger Sword Drill update is really the content.

We’ve now created around 5,000 Bible trivia questions.

Yes. Five thousand.

I’m using a Claude project I built a couple weeks ago to generate questions, and then a seminary student I hired from Reformed Theological Seminary is editing through each one for quality. The slowest part is that I hit my Claude data limits very quickly. So every few hours, when my limit resets, I go back in and generate more.

At the very least, I’m staying ahead of the editing process, and the question bank is starting to feel substantial.

Parlor launched to The KidLit Lab community

Parlor had a big week.

I launched it first to The KidLit Lab students inside Circle, and then to the broader KidLit Lab email community.

And it has been so fun to watch people come over and start building their author websites!

That was the whole point of Parlor from the beginning: to make a polished, professional author website feel simple and doable instead of like one more tech mountain to climb.

So far, I’ve had a lot of interest, a lot of people starting sites, and a lot of good questions. Which means: customer service.

We haven’t had major bugs so far, which I’m very grateful for. The questions have mostly been general:

What can the site do?
What can’t it do?
How do the fees work?
Can I add this?
What happens if I’m not published yet?
What if I want to change something later?

Most of this is answered in the FAQ, but I am learning that people will often email a human before they dig around on a website.

So I spent some time this week making the website and the builder clearer. I updated some language, highlighted the most common questions, and added screenshots for each section of the wizard so people can better understand what information they’re entering and how it will show up on their site.

Parlor launches next to the broader Laura Wifler Creative community tomorrow, and after that, it will be public for anyone to use!

SADIE surprised me

My last current project is SADIE: Source and Discovery Illustration Engine, and she is essentially a Christian research assistant.

Originally, I built SADIE to help writers gather research in a more organized, useful way. My first vision was that she would produce an Excel document full of quotes, sources, studies, examples, and references around a topic.

But this week, something fun happened: A writer friend asked me for help thinking through the positioning for one of her children’s books. The book was in some ways, about the sovereignty of God, and she was trying to figure out how to talk about it clearly to parents.

And then she used SADIE in a totally different way than I originally intended.

Instead of only asking for research and quotes, she asked SADIE about market positioning. She asked how the book might be framed for different publishers and about hooks, taglines, angles, and ways to communicate the idea more clearly.

And the results were incredible.

She Voxed me about it, and when she shared the output, I thought, HOLY COW THIS IS AWESOME.

So I went back into SADIE and expanded her purpose.

I updated the homepage and the agent and I made sure that when someone starts interacting with SADIE, she explains more clearly what she can help with.

Now, instead of thinking of SADIE only as a source-gathering assistant, I’m thinking of her as a research and communication assistant for Christian writers, authors, pastors, teachers, and communicators. Honestly it’s so exciting.

And because you guys are here on my lil Buiding in Public thread of my newsletter, I’ll share with you a first look at SADIE. Like I’ve mentioned, she’s totally ready, but I don’t want to overwhelm people with the rate that I’m vibe coding….eeek!

Alright, that’s it for this week! See you next week!

Laura