Sign up and choose your plan

Come here before anything else: the editor opens only for an Ilena account whose sign-up is finished, and that account is created in one guided flow. The flow first asks for your agreements; then, before you create your account, it says what Ilena is — in its own words, “It analyses, suggests, and leaves the decision to you: no suggestion enters your text without a gesture of yours.” Then come your account, your writing space, a few questions about your writing, starting settings, billing cycle, payment and the verification of your email address; the flow shows its progress, starting from Step 1 of 20.

Create your account

  1. On the Ilena site, select Free trial in the header, then Get started.
  2. Under Required agreements, accept the Terms of Use and confirm you have read the Privacy Policy. Receiving product news and a few writing tips by email is optional.
  3. Create your account with Google, or with a pen name, an email address and a password that you type twice. The pen name is the name that appears in your Ilena space; it does not have to be your real name. The password must be 8 to 32 characters and contain an uppercase letter, a lowercase letter, a number and a special character.
  4. Select Create my account.

For example, an account created under the pen name Docs Walk opens its workspace on an author node named Docs Walk.

The Create your account screen: a Sign up with Google button, then the Pen name, Email address, Password and Confirm password fields.
The account screen of the signup flow: Google, or a pen name, an email address and a password typed twice.

The writing spaces

Solo
To write alone, at your own pace. This is the space you can choose today. Its card lists what it includes: document management and metadata, importing your catalogue from PDF or Word, nine dictionaries, syllable and meter analysis, emotion analysis, suggestions to rework a line, and version history.
Studio
To write with a band, a team or a collective. It is marked Coming soon and cannot be chosen yet.

Select Solo, then Continue.

The Choose your writing space screen: the Solo card selected, and the Studio card greyed out with Coming soon.
The two writing spaces side by side. Only Solo can be selected.

Tell Ilena about your writing

Four questions follow: what brings you here, the place writing holds for you, the themes you explore and your style. Each offers ready-made answers and a box to write your own, which counts up to 2,500 characters. Ilena uses your answers to make its suggestions more relevant; the second question says, for example, that your answer “helps Ilena adjust the tone of its suggestions: simpler, more exploratory, more technical, or more demanding.”

Then, under Prepare your writing space, choose your main writing language and your timezone, and a few starting settings: dark appearance, larger text, automatic and manual inspiration. You can change all of them later.

Billing cycle

The two billing cycles of the Solo plan
CyclePriceFree trial
Monthly$9 / month, renewed monthlyNone
Annual$90 / year30 days, before the first charge

With the annual cycle, you can cancel before the end of the trial and nothing is charged. Ilena emails you before the first charge.

Select a cycle, then Continue.

The Choose your billing cycle screen: Solo · Monthly at $9 / month, and Solo · Annual at $90 / year with Free trial included, selected.
The billing-cycle step, with the two cycles of the Solo plan.

Add your payment method

  1. On Secure payment, select Continue to Stripe.
  2. Enter your payment method on Stripe’s page. Card details are handled by Stripe and are never stored on Ilena’s servers.

Stripe saves your payment method; your subscription starts once your email address is verified. On the annual cycle, that is when the free trial begins.

Verify your email address

If you created your account with an email address and a password:

  1. Back from Stripe, the flow shows Check your inbox: Ilena has sent a verification email to the address of your account.
  2. Open that email and click its link. A page confirms Your email address is verified. You can sign in. — your account is activated and your subscription starts.
  3. Return to the flow and select Continue.

If the email — subject Confirm your email address — does not arrive, select Resend the email, or write to [email protected].

Answer the last question and sign in

  1. Answer How did you hear about us? — one answer is required.
  2. Select Start writing. The sign-in page opens: sign in the way you signed up.

To go from signing in to a first saved work, follow First steps.