Writing can take many forms now a days. Some prefer pen and paper and others prefer word processors. I am curious what !writing@beehaw.org uses for their own writing.
For me I have used Scrivener before but found it too powerful for my style of writing. I now find myself using Google docs since it can sync to so many places and I can write wherever I go. (If anyone has a FOSS Google docs alternative I am all ears)
So, !writing@beehaw.org, what is your software of choice? If you prefer pen and paper, what does your process look like?
I use a regular text editor (Pluma) or markdown editor (Ghostwriter) for writing
Personally I’m a hot mess. I use orgmode in emacs on the computer, fountainpen on paper, a ratta supernote a6, and nebo on my phone. So yeah, writing everywhere.
LibreOffice. It’s nice, simple, and gets the job done.
I use Libre Office, and when I paste to Royal Road, I let Grammarly offer edit suggestions in the browser. I often don’t take them, but it also catches some things that are really helpful.
I like having local copies that are easy to rename the file of or backup. I do one chapter per file. If I need to write remotely, I can, and I use Discord to send files back and forth like notes for the story, plus my world has a campaign website that I use as well. this format works well in part because I’m writing a serial and posting it one chapter at a time (~2k words, sitting at over 100 chapters right now)
I’ve found that using a pencil and paper gives me more time to elaborate what I’m writing, while I’m writing.
A sentence comes out differently if I’m using a keyboard as opposed to paper. It’s as if the time it takes to write a sentence determines how much time I allow my mind to dwell on what I want the sentence to convey.
I do dictation, then edit it in Scrivener.
Lately, I’ve been using Standard Notes for writing blog posts in Markdown.
For whatever reason I could never get my brain to work with google docs or computer writing. When I was younger, I used a type writer, and it was lovely. These days I find that I’m best with pen and paper. Though that’s only for the draft part. Once I’m secure in what I got, I’m typing it up.
All my prep work is done through a combination of Joplin and Obsidian while the actual manuscript is written in MarkText.
If you couldn’t tell, I really like the Markdown format.
