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What Do You Write On?

skip.knox

toujours gai, archie
Moderator
Sept Coleur notebooks hold the chewy mess that is my first-draft-but-also-writing-journal. I've tried a score of notebooks, but this brand has the right combination: paper that takes my fountain pens and doesn't smear, spiral binding that lays perfectly flat, reasonable price, and comes in colors! (they're like a rainbow)

Out of the chewy mess I extract and edit into Scrivener. Eventually Scrivener holds the real writing.

I use LibreOffice for pretty much all other kinds of writing. Notepad++ for html editing.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
I write first drafts by hand, also with fountain pen. I transcribe into Scrivener or Highland 2 and do a first round of edits at the same time.
 

Demesnedenoir

Myth Weaver
My work flow has altered. I now do 100% of my writing and early editing in Scrivener on an iPad Pro before moving to the Mac desktop for final edits and formatting. I no longer trust anything to do with clouds. The damned things rain. Once there, I work in Vellum and InDesign for digital and physical layouts, respectively. Finally have the work flow down pat and damned near risk free... knock on wood.
 
Lenovo X220 - the last compact laptop they made with a 'proper' keyboard on it with a RAM and SSD upgrade. Docked to an extra display when in my office. Ubuntu 18.04, Zim for world-building notes and Manuskript for writing.

I'm curious. How is your experience with Manuskript? Is it as good as Scrivener? Or better? I know Manuskript is free and open source but does it have all the necessary features to write a novel?
 

Slartibartfast

Minstrel
It’s good enough for me but I’ve never used Scrivener so it’s possible I’m just living in ignorance. I can say it’s a definite upgrade from a word processor. As it’s open source it wouldn’t cost you anything but time to try if you were interested.
 
It’s good enough for me but I’ve never used Scrivener so it’s possible I’m just living in ignorance. I can say it’s a definite upgrade from a word processor. As it’s open source it wouldn’t cost you anything but time to try if you were interested.

Awesome! Will definitely give it a try.

I see you're a fan of The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy? :geek:
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
I write on a Skytech Archangel gaming desktop named Morningstar on a desk that looks like a tornado hit it. I work in Word and OneNote, which is a remarkably versatile program for keeping things organized, especially if you're collaborating, which we do. I wouldn't use OneNote for actual writing, since printing and formatting 20190914_141530.jpg from it isn't graceful.
 

ThinkerX

Myth Weaver
I write on a Skytech Archangel gaming desktop named Morningstar on a desk that looks like a tornado hit it. I work in Word and OneNote, which is a remarkably versatile program for keeping things organized, especially if you're collaborating, which we do. I wouldn't use OneNote for actual writing, since printing and formatting View attachment 2256 from it isn't graceful.
rest assured, your work area is tidy compared to mine.
 

Devor

Fiery Keeper of the Hat
Moderator
After multiple laptops breaking on me, I'm now on a cheap chromebook laptop, which I'd never buy again. It's small and doesn't do well with anything that's not loaded into your browser. I now do my worldbuilding on google docs, then move it to word when I get the chance on my HP desktop. It's not a great system, but it works well enough, because I often pile a lot of garbage into my google docs notes, then need to clean it all up anyways. Most of my notes are kept in a three-column word document which is great when I need to think things through over a printed document. I love OneNote for its organized layout, but I've stopped using it for one big reason: It doesn't print well. If the pages you actually write in were in a print layout, that would be ideal (now I'm wondering if there's a setting for that and I didn't realize...).

I've got an old wobbly desk. My monitor is raised on politics books I decided never to read. To my right there's a pile of legos that I intend to build into my own set, whenever I get the freedom to work on it. To my left is a pile of junk and papers. In the middle it's clean with two glass coasters, a deck of cards, and a personal prayer I have standing up below the monitor.
 

A. E. Lowan

Forum Mom
Leadership
Will OneNote print? I've actually never tried. If I need to print what I have in OneNote, I normally copy and paste to Word. :p
 

Heliotrope

Staff
Article Team
MacBook something.....? I like Word and One Note and paper notebooks. Like, the old fashioned spiral bound. When I'm working on a project I carry my spiral bound around with me in my purse, and I have another under my bed. All my drafting, ideas, planning (I'm not a linear thinking at all. My stories don't come to me lineally. So I do a lot of brainstorming with pen and paper). All writing in Word, all organizing data in One Note.
 

Danskin

Scribe
11" MacBook Air. It's light and easy to throw into a purse/backpack...I used to use Pages for writing, but a few years ago I got Scrivner and it was the best $40 I ever spent.

Exactly the same! (except I used Word rather than Pages). Scrivener is amazing, I loved it even before I discovered the word count targets and writing history functions, and now I love it even more! The macbook is very light and easy to carry around – I write a lot on the train and in cafes etc.

But when I am writing at home, I usually 'dock' my macbook and use a bigger, better keyboard and a big screen. Because the keyboard on the macbook does suck a bit.
 

MJScribes

New Member
It’s good enough for me but I’ve never used Scrivener so it’s possible I’m just living in ignorance. I can say it’s a definite upgrade from a word processor. As it’s open source it wouldn’t cost you anything but time to try if you were interested.

Nice to know. My current combo of paper notebooks, Mac Notes, Word and Google Docs is finally falling apart and I'm looking for a more cohesive alternative - something where I could keep track of both the writing notes and the drafts. I guess I'll give Manuscript a chance (since I'm currently too cheap to splurge on Scrivener ;).
Quick question - how Manuscript handles images? At least 30% of my writing notes are graphs, mind maps, tables, etc. and no software I've worked with could handle this things easily. I'm not even asking if I could make a mind-map in Manuscript (I have no hope left), but if I made one on paper and snapped a photo, could I put it into Manuscript easily or would I have to convert it 6 times before it matches Manuscript's size and format requirements?
 
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