paste-up board / issue 14 · free workflow
Lay Up a Whole Newsletter Issue Before You Write Any of It — Free
Name the issue budget and each slot's word count; the board totals them against it, so you find out the issue is 300 words over before you have written any of it.
What this replaces
Word-count advice tells you to be concise. This adds up the slots you planned against the budget you set, so an overrun is a visible negative number while the fix is still deleting a section rather than rewriting a draft.
Tool note. This runs entirely in your browser — no account, no upload, no paid API key. Google NotebookLM is named as the free source-grounded reading path for the material you paste; its published free-tier terms were checked on 2026-09-13 and can change.
The four passes
Collect the smallest useful input
A word budget on the first line, then one slot per line with its count.
Let the board total them
Each slot is counted; the final row is the issue against the budget.
Cut from the largest slot
The frame with the most words has the most to give.
Write to the plan
The board sets the shape; the writing is still yours.
Try it on the paste-up board / issue 14
The board below runs in your browser. It opens with a worked sample so the result is visible before you paste anything; switch scenarios, edit the text, or reset to the sample.
running the sample…
first-load · sample values are illustrative, not verified facts
Everything you paste stays in this browser tab. Nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and no request leaves the page to generate the result; clearing site data removes anything saved locally.
What breaks, and what to do
Budget missing from the paste
Nothing to compare against; state it on the first line.
Slots with no word count
Counted as zero, which flatters the total.
Images and pull quotes
Only words are counted here; leave your own allowance for art.
Go deeper — Paste-Up Board
The free board above is the whole loop. The paid tier keeps the arranged output so you do not rebuild it.
- Printable paste-up with each frame boxed at its real length — estimate: 16 minutes saved per issue, basis: 4 slots re-measured at ~4 minutes each
- Saved local history across issues — estimate: 8 minutes saved per issue, basis: re-entering 4 slots and a budget at ~2 minutes each
$4 one-time