Writers - what tools / techniques do you use to write?

[plzd]

Thanks to all on this thread viewtopic.php?f=9&t=47606&start=110 for helping me, just a little bit more, to step off the precipice...

I'm finally allowing myself to start writing after wanting to for decades.

I'm starting from, I guess you could say, ground zero (or subzero), and would like your input. I am giving Fiction a go and I have much to learn. One thing I know for sure is that I am definitely a pantser -- writing by the seat of my pants -- it's a blast. My characters have somewhat taken over, though. They've kindly introduced me to new characters and scenes, and scenery that I never imagined. Almost at once I've found myself holding to the harness about me, as I've no choice now but to stay seated, wide-eyed and smiling. It's exhilarating!

I have dealt with learning disabilities (some of them were the teachers themselves) growing up so grammar and punctuation, etc. are not necessarily my forte. But I'm quite excited (and hesitant, simultaneously).

I looking forward to hearing from you about what tools, techniques, disciplines, computer keyboard(s), software, services, etc. that you've found best to use.

Thanks for your input.

[manyroads]

You probably will benefit from a tool like Scrivener, there is a nice appimage available for Linux. See: http://wayoflinux.com/blog/scrivener-returns

[Eadwine Rose]

I can highly recommend Reedsy. I started out writing my book in that. The main thing is that I wanted to be able to slide my chapters around on a whim which this site provides.

After that I chucked the entire dealie in LO and went correcting from there.

https://reedsy.com

I tried various writing programs, none were meeting my needs, hence the online venture. Advantage: you can access that from anywhere and any computer :)

[kernelkurtz]

Heya plzd.

I've been doing a lot of re-evaluating recently in this regard. For the most part I write in Pluma, my fave among the GUI text editors. Customized with a dark grey background and light grey text. It's good but not perfect ... there's a bit of bugginess to it with lines vanishing on right-click in certain contexts.

So in shopping around and trying to go minimal, I'm working on fixing up nano at the CLI now, for production.

Getting down raw text in a distraction-free sort of way is the general idea. I like that it's GNU, too.

I've tried a bunch of fancy editors like Sublime and Atom, but they just don't click for me.

There's a lot to learn about turning plaintext into something more pleasingly formatted: LaTeX and pandoc and markdown, oh my. (I have a tendency to fall back on HTML here, because I know it well.)

And then there's publishing on the fly. Wordpress has been my go-to for everyday, and it could still win out. But in the interests of minimalism, I've been field-testing a lot of other CMS/static-site/blog software. My pick of the litter is AnchorCMS (.com). It's ancient and not updated and limited, but in a way that's a plus for me, since I'd like to get better at hacking around with scripting languages (PHP in this case). And like big-brother WordPress, it's also GPL.

I appreciate the opportunity to ventilate myself about these half-thoughts and half-built projects in a place where it might be of some use to others.

[arjaybe]

I write with a fountain pen and transcribe it with LibreOffice, using a template. (You don't want to do carriage return-tab for paragraphs if you're going to make ePubs) You can check out my books on my website (free downloads) if you want to see how they turned out.

[Fibogacci]

You probably will benefit from a tool like Scrivener, there is a nice appimage available for Linux. See: http://wayoflinux.com/blog/scrivener-returns

Thank you very, very much :) Scrivener looks very promising to me.

I have discovered just a few days/weeks ago Focus Writer (and Ghost Writer) as well. They have eg. nice feature of setting custom background (eg. photo or image) for your text and writing. It can be useful just for creating mood

Other tools which I like to use for writing (and research and/or idea creating/generating) are:
zim
freeplane (application for mind mapping)

Another tool (it is not application for Linux) is a website: http://jasnopis.pl/aplikacja (for Polish texts and language)

It measures Gunning fog index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunning_fog_index) and other text's indexes and counts words, paragraphs and other stats for text (eg. nouns, verbs, adjectives).

For sure there are similar websites for other languages, maybe you can share some links.

Edit: I've forgot, I really like wordgrinder (for CLI) as well.

[Fibogacci]

So in shopping around and trying to go minimal, I'm working on fixing up nano at the CLI now, for production.

Getting down raw text in a distraction-free sort of way is the general idea. I like that it's GNU, too.

You can try very interesting wordgrinder. It is CLI word editor, distraction-free.

[kernelkurtz]

You're a person after my own heart. I've made the same recommendation in the past (after Lunduke put out a video on it as I recall) and I'm going to spend some time tonight seeing how hackable it might be in terms of a more inviting background color and all. Thanks!

[plzd]

Well, I meant to get back sooner but my main character fell and broke her ankle while traversing a mountain pass, and I -- I had to call in an air ambulance -- they took forever, and... (Sure. Sure you did. Oh, you poor dear.)

Been lurking on my own thread and want to say thanks to everyone of you for your input, etc..

@manyroads - I'm looking again at Scrivener--there's a lot to wrap my mind around with it as I'm not even very familiar with proper structure/procedures, but it has alot that I think I want.

@Eadwine Rose - you're right, I like reedsy(.com)--amazing product, but I don't want my work on someone else's servers. There is still a lot on their site that I can benefit from though. Thanks

@kernelkutrz - thanks for ventilating! I am a gleaner; always looking for nuggets. Believe it or not, I've been trying Atom with AsciiDoc plugins (AsciiDoc Preview, etc).. AsciiDoc is unbelievable! and I will probably continue tamper with it. My problem with it is getting caught up a bit in layout and design when right now I need to be "brain dumping." The thing about AsciiDoc (or AsciiDoctor) is that you can take that ONE document that you've made and render it to just about anything with the likes of Pandoc, etc.. Anyway. Thanks.

@arjaybe - I've seen other(s) say that with handwriting draft (transcribing later) the author becomes much more connected to the material. It has to be true. I'll have to remember your epub formatting tip. Thanks.

@Fibogacci - I love Freeplane! One could just about right it all in a mindmap utilizing Node, Node Notes, and Node Details, etc.! Or just for structure and maybe "linking" documents... Lot's to love with Freeplane. I played with Wordgrinder too. Nice.

I'm looking forward to more nuggets as the posts pile up. Thanks again.

[figueroa]

I looking forward to hearing from you about what tools, techniques, disciplines, computer keyboard(s), software, services, etc. that you've found best to use.

I write, but I'm of a different school of thought that goes something like, don't be distracted by tools, techniques, etc. Use whatever works without investing energy into the tools. The prime directive is to output content, so a computer that doesn't crash and saves my work even when I might forget is most handy, as is time and a place without distractions. I use LibreOffice; it has the tools that I need when I want them. If spell checking distracts, turn it off. A good editor (human) is indispensable, as well as the ability to accept constructive criticism. I know -- boring.