Introducing the French Writing Playground

Introducing the French Writing Playground

Published: November 2, 2025 • 8 min read

At exactly 7:43pm last night, I made the final commit to GitHub for the French Writing Playground application that I have been working on, successfully deploying Version 1.0 of the application. At least it's the final for now unless I come up with some new idea. I'm glad I have finally been able to bring this app to life. It gives me a lot of relief, actually.

Now, just in case you didn't read my previous technical blog post, this app was motivated by a simple problem: to improve my French writing skills.

The Problem I'm Solving

Since my SDR Era began, I have been occupied with programming and learning and refining my skillset that I find I'm not able to give as much time to practicing writing French. However, I believe that small consistent daily practice over a long period of time will compound to get me to the level that I want to attain.

So I built this app to act as a vessel for helping me reach my goal. It will allow me to practice communicating random thoughts and ideas in a time-efficient way by establishing a minimum baseline (50 characters) that I have to meet every single day.

How the App Works

Choose Your Mood, Set Your Theme

Upon loading the app, it will ask how you feel, giving you 8 themes to choose from:

• Joyful
• Calm
• Energetic
• Frustrated
• Anxious
• Creative
• Hopeful
• Reflective

Whatever theme you choose will determine the theme of the application. Cool, right? I just thought, why limit the app to the binary light and dark mode when we can see a different theme depending on how we feel at the time of writing?

Your chosen theme will determine what type of acknowledgement message you receive as well as the type of quote you receive. The quote will be available in both English and French. I just thought this might be a nice way to learn some vocabulary, and the words might be easier to recall since they're based on how you feel at that moment.

Write Your Daily Entry

Then you get a simple text box where you can submit a minimum of 50 characters. Imagine writing 50 French characters every day for 365 days. You would have essentially written 18,250 characters in a year. There's no way you would not have made progress if you view the corrections for all your writings.

Get AI-Powered Feedback

After submitting your writing, you will have the option to choose between GPT-4.1 and GPT-5-mini to be graded. (GPT-4.1 is fast and reliable 90% of the time, so it's the option I recommend. However, if you ever receive a correction from GPT-4.1 and you think something's wrong and you were not properly evaluated, then I recommend trying GPT-5-mini.)

Then you will receive:

• A CEFR score (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages)
• Corrections for your writing if there are grammatical errors
• Style enhancement suggestions for a better or more natural way to express the same thought if there are no errors

Explore the Community Collage

There is even a Community Collage section where, if you choose to, you can have your writings and their corrections stored, along with the emotion you felt at the time of writing.

This collage has a comprehensive filter allowing you to filter by multiple factors:

• Searching the content written
• Author name
• CEFR level
• Date posted
• And honestly many more

You can also choose to export the content to CSV or as a PDF. Cool, right?

The Tech Behind the Scenes

Now, all dynamic workflows in the application, from the acknowledgement messages to the daily workflow to the CEFR evaluation as well as the corrections, are being handled by a number of Make AI Automation Workflows which make calls to different OpenAI models, primarily GPT-4.1.

Why I Chose Make

Now, could I have built this application by directly making the API calls from within my application? Absolutely. I just chose to use Make because:

1. I completed the course and I want to start integrating it into the applications I am building
2. Using a Make Workflow gives me flexibility if I choose to extend the workflow in the future by perhaps connecting it with other applications
3. Okay, this is a bit lame, but I paid for the Core subscription to allow me to test out some features while going through the Make Academy courses, and I simply wanted to use my credits, at least some of it

After completing all five Make Academy certifications, I wanted to put my learning into practice immediately. This project became the perfect opportunity to demonstrate that I can design sophisticated automation workflows, not just understand them theoretically.

Intentional Design Decisions

No Authentication Required

You will notice that the application does not include any authentication features or functionalities. Well, that is intentional! I really wanted to make this application as easy to use as possible. No thoughts, no barriers. Just come, write, receive your corrections, and close it.

Optionally, you could browse the Community Collage if you want to learn from other people's writings or if you simply want to be nosy and see what others are writing in their different emotional states.

Solving My Real Problem

You see, another reason I am happy about this app is that it has become that tool I've always wanted in my French journey. Have you ever had a thought in English and then wondered, "How do I say this in French?" But then you don't just want to see the translation. You'd rather attempt it to see how close you are to accurately expressing that thought.

I usually feel this way when I watch French movies. I see something interesting and I exclaim in English, and then I wonder, how could I have said that in French? Well now, I no longer have to Google it or type a specific instruction to ChatGPT to rate the text. I just have to write in my playground and the app knows what it needs to do.

Building Solo: The Reality Check

Now here's the thing about building an application alone: I am the only one that has tested the application. This means that the judgments about the appropriate colors, themes, and other design elements were made just by me.

Doing a quick Google search, I learned that approximately 4.5% of the world population has some form of color blindness. You might decide when using the application that I definitely am part of the 4.5%, and that's okay.

Your Feedback Matters

That is exactly what the feedback section is for. You can send a quick feedback using the emojis and optionally leave a short message to inform me of what's wrong, or you can simply send a more detailed feedback. Whatever works for you!

Tell me if:

• There's a feature you think the app should absolutely have
• The sounds are annoying (PS: you can turn them off below the form submission button)
• The micro animations feel too much
• Anything else that could improve your experience

If you use the application and make requests for improvements or features you'd like to see, I will definitely try my best to implement them.

Future Ideas (Maybe Version 2.0?)

Even I myself can think of multiple ways to improve the app:

Email Practice Questions

• Optionally sending emails with 3-5 multiple choice practice questions and their answers in PDF format to users who opt in to receive them
• The practice questions will be based on the errors or weak points identified in their sentences
• I used this method to practice grammar rules and conjugation at the beginning of my journey

Optional Authentication

• For a more personalized experience
• Track your progress over time
• Set personal goals and streaks

More Mood Themes

• Sad
• Angry
• Hungry
• Hangry (yes, this is important!)

Yes, all the above are possible. However, this Version 1.0 serves the original purpose of the application. And frankly, I have this new idea that's also been taking form rapidly in my head, and I'm so eager to get started on it.

Try It Out

I hope you have an enjoyable experience as you use the French Writing Playground. For easy mobile access, just visit frenchwritingplayground.com.

This is my first real project outside of professional work and academic assignments. It's imperfect, it's version 1.0, and it solves a real problem I have. That feels like a win.

Thanks for reading, and maybe I'll see your writing in the Community Collage!

This post is part of my project documentation series, where I share the technical and personal journey of building applications that solve real problems.