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Does anyone who writes words (or code) for a living know anyone who would ever consider using such a tool in the first place?! Please. The best writing tools

Does anyone who writes words (or code) for a living know anyone who would ever consider using such a tool in the first place?! Please. The best writing tools are a good text editor, a simple meta/mark-up ontology, and a focused mind.

kragen 16y ago
Yes, lots of professional writers (of books, especially) use Microsoft Word for their writing. In many cases their editors require them to do so.
Qz 16y ago
If you're writing a 100,000 word novel, a single text file in a text editor isn't really the optimal solution (although yes it's probably still better than using Word).
- kragen 16y ago
  If you're writing a 100 000-page novel, it doesn't matter what you do, you're not going to succeed. :) I'm guessing you mean 100 000 words? What do you think is the optimal solution? I'd think a text file in Emacs outline-mode would be about right, although of course Word seems to work pretty well too.
- eru 16y ago
  You can use e.g. LaTeX and its `include' or `input' commands to organize your document into different files.
  - Qz 16y ago
    That really doesn't address the need the article is speaking to -- the need for a writing program for the average writer that addresses writing concerns rather than formatting concerns.
    - eru 16y ago
      Yes, that's true. Though some Emacs mode could go a long way to help you with writing concerns (and may or may not employ LaTeX somewhere).
- sketerpot 16y ago
  I don't know what kind of books you're writing, but 100,000 pages is too many pages. Did you mean 100,000 words? I've only ever written 50,000 word NaNoWriMo stuff, but I've had a lot of success with text files, simply marked-up, in emacs. One text file per chapter. A short Python script converts them into LaTeX and a makefile builds a PDF. All the notes are handled with org-mode. It's a really sweet setup.
  - Qz 16y ago
    typo - fixed :) as for LateX/python stuff - the article is addressing the needs of the average writer, of which those who know anything resembling python are a small small subset.
- njharman 16y ago
  > a single text file in a text editor isn't really the optimal solution Why not? And if not, a folder with one file per chapter along with unix tools to work on them sounds ideal to me.

kragen 16y ago

Yes, lots of professional writers (of books, especially) use Microsoft Word for their writing. In many cases their editors require them to do so.

Qz 16y ago

If you're writing a 100,000 word novel, a single text file in a text editor isn't really the optimal solution (although yes it's probably still better than using Word).

kragen 16y ago
If you're writing a 100 000-page novel, it doesn't matter what you do, you're not going to succeed. :) I'm guessing you mean 100 000 words? What do you think is the optimal solution? I'd think a text file in Emacs outline-mode would be about right, although of course Word seems to work pretty well too.
eru 16y ago
You can use e.g. LaTeX and its `include' or `input' commands to organize your document into different files.
- Qz 16y ago
  That really doesn't address the need the article is speaking to -- the need for a writing program for the average writer that addresses writing concerns rather than formatting concerns.
  - eru 16y ago
    Yes, that's true. Though some Emacs mode could go a long way to help you with writing concerns (and may or may not employ LaTeX somewhere).
sketerpot 16y ago
I don't know what kind of books you're writing, but 100,000 pages is too many pages. Did you mean 100,000 words? I've only ever written 50,000 word NaNoWriMo stuff, but I've had a lot of success with text files, simply marked-up, in emacs. One text file per chapter. A short Python script converts them into LaTeX and a makefile builds a PDF. All the notes are handled with org-mode. It's a really sweet setup.
- Qz 16y ago
  typo - fixed :) as for LateX/python stuff - the article is addressing the needs of the average writer, of which those who know anything resembling python are a small small subset.
njharman 16y ago
> a single text file in a text editor isn't really the optimal solution Why not? And if not, a folder with one file per chapter along with unix tools to work on them sounds ideal to me.