I write a lot every day and have done so for fifty years or so. Over the last six months, I have finally gathered a set of software for writing that
- Makes it easy to write,
- Doesn’t slow me down,
- Supports the creation of easily readable documents, and
- Puts as few technical barriers between my brain and the document.
I thought I’d describe my software for writing toolkit for you.
The foundations
Markdown
First, the foundational piece of all of this is that I write in Markdown. The benefits for me are that it
- is simple to write with simple formatting and structuring rules that can be memorized in one session,
- is highly portable,
- can be written or edited on any platform with any text editor,
- supports my documents structured with an outline,
- can be exported into any word processor format with no loss of formatting if needed, and
- can be incrementally backed up with version control.
Note that this last feature might not mean anything to you, and that’s okay. It’s a big deal to me but it need not affect your Markdown use.
I was pre-disposed to write in Markdown because I’ve written raw HTML and LaTeX since the 1990s. I also have used word processors since WordStar (when I was in grad school) and Microsoft Word v1.0 for DOS (when I worked at IBM) in the mid-1980s. But Markdown is easier to write than the first two and more stable than any application will ever be (on the scale of decades).
PDF and EPUB
Given my long history of computer usage and of changing computer platforms among DOS, Windows, MacOS, iOS, Android, and Linux, I am a big proponent of transferrable file formats. I have already highlighted plain text and Markdown, but I must clarify my love for PDF and EPUB files.
- PDF: this seemingly ancient and well-supported file format is readable on all platforms while supporting the generation of beautiful printed documents. This format generates a document whose visual representation is faithful to the author’s vision. Most platforms support creating these documents at the operating system level, so it’s extremely convenient.
- EPUB (think of this as the file format used by e-book readers): this still-evolving format is far less familiar, more difficult to generate, and is not readable within very much software. It is available on all platforms, and no features of the document are lost in any move between platforms. Its killer feature is that it uses re-flowable text, making it convenient to read on screens of all sizes with resizable text. This makes reading medium- and long-form documents extremely convenient.
Any software that makes it easier to generate both of these formats will rank highly with me because I want readers to have a good experience with my writing, and PDF and EPUB documents cover all the important use cases for me.
The software list
Enough with the warm-up. Here is my list of software for writing:
- Typora — a downloadable app for writing longer articles or books in Markdown. While free text editors are available on every platform (and they absolutely work just fine), Typora provides a few niceties that make the writing process quicker for just a few dollars.
- Excalidraw — a webapp for creating resizable drawings quickly. This webapp is great on any platform for generating quick sketches with transparent backgrounds in PNG or SVG. It also does all that I need without overloading me with features.
- Obsidian — a downloadable app for organizing notes and writing notes and short drafts. Given how much I use this application, it deserves its own post. For now, note that it is a great virtual “catch-all” for the information I formerly put on post-its and note paper, all of which I would eventually lose.
- ChatGPT — a webapp for generating introductory text or for just brainstorming. It knows how to generate and read Markdown. You’ve probably heard of this one. The sooner you get comfortable working with this tool, the more quickly you will become more productive. It is a much bigger improvement than the historical move from writing with quill and ink to writing on a computer.
- Softcover.io — a downloadable command line-based publishing system that can create PDFs and EPUBs simultaneously from Markdown documents with little effort (once the user has set it up with a good bit of effort). This has been the tool that has brought all of the above together.
With this set of software for writing, I can easily write and read documents on all platforms. I can also easily share these documents with anyone.
Conclusion
I know this set of software for writing is not for everyone. Even so, I hope this article has made you think about your workflow and how you might become happier and more productive by constructing a toolset that fits how you think.
