20 ms·

NovelWriter 1.0 – A markdown-like editor for writing novels

369 points by app4soft 6y ago

dnw 6y ago
I am currently using Obsidian for writing a book-length tutorial with multiple docs. Support for comments and footnotes are really useful to have for projects like the one I am working on.
sleepysysadmin 6y ago
It would be amazing if it fixed your grammar, removed cliches, fixed wordiness, activated passive language, swapped repeated words, fixed my run on sentences, overall just fixed my englitch. #featurerequest
- zx321 6y ago
  You're looking for proselint. https://github.com/amperser/proselint https://github.com/amperser/proselint
  - MyWorkComputer 6y ago
    Scrivener should integrate this.
    - chrisdbanks 6y ago
      ProWritingAid integrates with Scrivener and provides grammar checking, repeated words, and much more to help you improve whatever you're writing. http://prowritingaid.com/ http://prowritingaid.com/
      - cweagans 6y ago
        Friendly advice: This is helpful to know about, contextually relevant, etc and I'm glad you posted it, but you should probably disclose that you're the CEO.
  - vidarh 6y ago
    Looks very interesting, but the example given ("John is very unique") and the warning given by proselint for it illustrates why this is a veritable mine-field, and why what sleepysysadmin asks for isn't really possible (but that's ok - having a tool flag possible issues is still great) The example warning is certainly worth giving, but conversely Merriam-Webster points out that "very unique" is a common construction when "unique" is used in the sense "unusual", though most frequently used in less formal contexts. And so it may or may not be justified depending on what you're writing... Having gone back and forth with a real editor for a novel, half the effort was a conversation with the editor based on questions about intent and preferred tone and style, in order to come to agreement on things she had flagged as possible issues where it was not clear whether or not a change ought to be made or not. I'm absolutely going to take a closer look at proselint, though.
    - tclancy 6y ago
      Certainly. I think the idea is you pick and choose the plugins that suit you (so it's probably not a perfect fit for OP) based on what you think your strengths and weaknesses are. And taste: I want to slap everyone who sticks an adjective in front of "unique", so that rule works for me. No matter what Black says, all linters are an aggregation of someone's tastes and you are free to tweak as you see fit. Descriptivism beats prescriptivism where language is concerned IMHO.
- Veen 6y ago
  You'd need a human editor to do all that. Automatically fixing run-on sentences and removing repeated words is possible. Activating passive sentences is challenging; Grammarly gets it wrong all the time, in my experience. Replacing cliches and fixing wordiness would be very challenging without deep linguistic and cultural knowledge.
  - vidarh 6y ago
    I tried using Grammarly when writing a novel, and just had to turn it off. It gets things wrong so often that it just turned out to be a distraction. I still like using it for e-mails etc. but for anything that will pass through a professional editor anyway it's just not worth the hassle to me.
  - sleepysysadmin 6y ago
    >You'd need a human editor to do all that. Automatically fixing run-on sentences and removing repeated words is possible. Activating passive sentences is challenging; Grammarly gets it wrong all the time, in my experience. Replacing cliches and fixing wordiness would be very challenging without deep linguistic and cultural knowledge. Well I don't know why I was downvoted so heavily. I dont disagree. My goal isn't so much to write a novel but rather improve upon my englitch. Now I have chosen writing a novel in order to improve but I dont know where I went wrong. I would love a human editor but that costs $. I doubt anyone is giving me a dime for my book. I don't have >$1000 to get my book edited. Of which any hired editor will just shoot themselves.
    - vidarh 6y ago
      For that use, I think "proselint", as zx321 recommended, is probably a perfect start, as it references the source of the recommendation. (in terms of cost, though, you can get a decent editor for closer to the ~$300 mark for up ~60k-70k words, but of course if you're not intending on putting in a lot of effort - and more money - to market and sell it, that may well be too much too)
      - sleepysysadmin 6y ago
underdeserver 6y ago
Screenshots: https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/stable/int_introduction.html#screenshots https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/stable/int_introductio... From the main page (https://novelwriter.io https://novelwriter.io): novelWriter is a Markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many smaller plain text documents. It uses its own flavour of Markdown that supports a meta data syntax for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing between files. It's designed to be a simple text editor that allows for easy organisation of text files and notes, built on plain text files for robustness.
- app4soft 6y ago
  Homepage: https://novelwriter.io https://novelwriter.io Message to HN Mods: Please, replace actual topic link to news article link[0] [0] https://novelwriter.io/2021/01/03/release-1-0/ https://novelwriter.io/2021/01/03/release-1-0/
  - dang 6y ago
    In cases where a project hasn't been discussed on HN before, which it appears this one hasn't, we change the link to the project home page. I've changed it to that from https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/releases/tag/v1.0 https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/releases/tag/v1.0 now.
    - app4soft 6y ago
      Thanks!
- ConfusedDog 6y ago
  Looks really good. Like a simplified version of Scrivener, which is awesome. Would be awesome if I can import it to Scrivener and the other way around.
  - unixhero 6y ago
    Scrivener is the novelist standard now isn't it?
nahuel0x 6y ago
Somebody feels we need to found a middle way between full WYSIYWG and two pane source/preview for Markdown writing?
- cecja 6y ago
  Joplin has both atm it's quite nice.
- app4soft 6y ago
  Maybe ghostwriter[0] is what you are looking for? [0] http://wereturtle.github.io/ghostwriter/ http://wereturtle.github.io/ghostwriter/
  - nahuel0x 6y ago
    I just found typora[0] and Emacs "M-x markdown-toggle-markup-hiding" :) [0] https://typora.io/ https://typora.io/
    - app4soft 6y ago
      > https://support.typora.io/License-Agreement/ https://support.typora.io/License-Agreement/ EULA?! Thanks, but NO. P.S. ghtostwriter is fully free & open-source, instead of proprietary Typora.
      - nahuel0x 6y ago
        Also found MarkText, MIT Licensed: https://marktext.app/ https://marktext.app/
    - vulcan01 6y ago
      Also Vim's markdown conceal as seen here: https://github.com/plasticboy/vim-markdown#syntax-concealing https://github.com/plasticboy/vim-markdown#syntax-concealing The vim-pandoc-syntax plugin also has syntax concealing enabled by default, IIRC.
- 5cents 6y ago
klunger 6y ago
I am currently making my way through "The Fantasy Fiction Formula" by Deborah Chester. It's my first stab at this kind of thing, so it has been really eye opening. When I read any kind of fiction now, I can't help but map out all the elements of plot and scene described by Chester. (This has had the unpleasant side effect of making reading fiction less pleasurable. ah well) So, I can see this kind of tool being very useful in structuring plots, sub-plots and scenes. I still haven't written that book though, so I am wondering if any seasoned writers here have a take on it.
- prionassembly 6y ago
  I bought "Save the cat!" (I'd read some parts of Vogler's "Writer's journey" in film school) hoping to adapt the formula to writing a bad novel. Then I never did. The weird thing about hobby projects is that they don't have an actual audience. So I write a lot about philosophy and social theory and such, but it's ultimately a lot of self-dialog. This doesn't work for fiction, even short stories. (I did write a handful of poems in the 2010s)
  - Balgair 6y ago
    Michael Tucker of the YT channel Lessons From the Screenplay has a very very good list of writing books here: https://www.lessonsfromthescreenplay.com/reading-list https://www.lessonsfromthescreenplay.com/reading-list The list is geared towards film media, but is a great guide on writing in general. I've read and annotated my way through all of them with gusto. I can very much recommend Into the Woods and Anatomy of Story as superb guides that really dig in deep into why we humans fall for the same stories time and time again. They are brass-tacks books and pretty philosophical at the same time, a rare combo. Michael's list is a great place to continue studying film specifically, but writing in general.
- vidarh 6y ago
  > This has had the unpleasant side effect of making reading fiction less pleasurable. ah well If it helps, I think this side-effect is likely to fade for good fiction. Bad-but-tolerable fiction gets ruined forever when you get better at spotting what they do and what it gets wrong... I haven't read the book you mention, but when I've read similar type of books before it's definitively been annoying for a while, but then it goes to the background and it seems to usually just pop into my mind when I either spot particularly good or bad examples. When I notice particularly good uses of techniques now, it tends to make me appreciate the work more, if anything.
premek 6y ago
is author here? - Is it suitable for non-technical writers? is there any feedback on them baing able to use markdown, @pov tags etc? - did you try some commercial competitors? How would you compare? I understand scrivener is one popular option
- deleted 6y ago
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- vidarh 6y ago
  I'm actually support for similar tagging to my own personal editor (for my first two novels I used a mix of Google Docs (yes, really) and Libre Office; using my own editor for my third). I'm definitively going to steal ideas from this one... I don't think using those kind of features requires any technical understanding at all. If anything, people are used to doing "ad hoc" tagging with easily searchable strings.
- app4soft 6y ago
  UPD: Dev just answered[0] to your qestions: Q: Is it suitable for non-technical writers? is there any feedback on them baing able to use markdown, @pov tags etc? A: "non-technical" as in the person or the writing itself? I deliberately chose not to write a WYSIWYG editor in order to keep the files plain text and as simple as possible. I've written a WYSIWYG editor before, and didn't like the result. I guess having to use some markup makes it slightly technical in use, but I've also added menu entries and keyboard shortcuts for all the features, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get started. Q: Did you try some commercial competitors? How would you compare? I understand scrivener is one popular option A: I've used it, yes. It's excellent, and perfect if you want a full WYSIWYG editor with a lot of features. I went in a different direction exactly because I wanted something simpler. Also, as a Linux user, the lack of decent options was a factor. [0] https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/discussions/567#discussioncomment-293407 https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/discussions/567#discussi...
chank 6y ago
Outside of the more technically inclined; Does anyone who is a long-form (novel) writer actually use markdown? Outside of blogging, which it was invented for and makes total sense for syntax conversion of free formed text to html is there any real use for it? Obviously you don't have to use it if you don't want to, but it sort of feels odd to me that all these developers making writing/notes apps that neglect rich text editing entirely in favor of markdown simply because it's easy to implement. I am definitely tired of seeing my writing littered with a detritus of special characters when it's never going to get exported to anything other than text.
- YetAnotherNick 6y ago
  I think most authors don't write in richer text format than markdown.
  - elcomet 6y ago
    most authors write in Word, and use only one or two font variation bigger size for chapter titles).
  - chank 6y ago
    I think you're assuming and probably wrong.
    - vidarh 6y ago
      I think you are assuming. I also think there's a confusion here and that you're talking specifically about RTF while the people responding to you are talking about the capabilities provided when they use "rich". The point being that Markdown has far more formatting features than most people who write novels need, and so it is "rich enough" as a format. I've written two novels and I'm writing my third, and as others have also pointed out, there's rarely a need for more than headlines, bold and italics, all of which are trivial in Markdown. Whether or not the editors are capable enough depends on peoples preferences and tools. But there's nothing about writing a novel that requires a format more complex while writing (if you send it off to an editor, they'll almost certainly insist on something they can import easily into word, though some accept Google Docs or ODT these days)
bronikowski 6y ago
It's true that with ideas, if you wait long enough, someone will do the work for you. I was toying with an idea of "novel markup", something that could let you track characters over scenes, geographical locations and interpersonal relationships. Things got hairy quickly so it died on pages of my notebook. Glad someone gave it a go. A header tagging is probably better than inline I wanted to have.
k_sze 6y ago
Interesting. Does that make it kinda midway between "pure" MarkDown and reStructuredText? As in, it's a bit more powerful than pure MarkDown, but still lighter to use than reStructuredText? I mean, if you don't mind summoning the awesome power of something like Visual Studio Code, you could also write reStructureText with live preview (there's a VSCode extension for that, IIRC).
cheph 6y ago
The proliferation of markdown forks is a mess. Can't you just use something better to begin with, like asciidoc? I think you can likely just use existing asciidoc mechanisms to support the same thing and then existing editors will still be usable.
- chank 6y ago
  The proliferation of markdown itself is also a mess IMO. Outside of web writing it seems really more effort than it's worth. Seems like everyone making a writing tool of any kind is ditching rich text in favor of it for no good reason.
  - jotson 6y ago
    For me, plaintext (like Markdown) is a strength over proprietary or binary formats and I've accepted the tradeoffs. It's the primary "good reason" I use Markdown. I have confidence that text will always be readable in the future even if I don't have the app that made it. Secondarily I find most word processors overkill with toolbars everywhere and I do not like using them.
- deleted 6y ago
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jonnycomputer 6y ago
I am writing a novel in Markdown using Emacs. For most of the novel writing process Markdown is enough. I have been toying with the idea of tweaking the markdown like this novelWriter does, mostly because I constantly find myself wanting to annotate my text, or temporarily mark out, but not delete, blocks of text.
isaacimagine 6y ago
Okay, so this looks incredible, congrats on the 1.0! Something a bit interesting but entirely unrelated: around 2018-06, I started a shell repo for a project named 'NovelWrite,' [1] (unrelated to this project, but a markdown novel serializer) then promptly forgot about it. Seeing novelWriter (this post) surface to the top spot was pretty interesting because, despite similar names, I was unaware of this project until now. 1: I'm not going to post the link to the repo as I'm not trying to advertise it; it's really quite a horrible project. I just found the coincidence mildly amusing.
gebt 6y ago
Great idea, great design! As I think markdown is good only for write simple texts (AND NOT FOR ADVANCED BLOGGING), a novel writing software would to be a choice; because authors don't use richer text format than markdown, as Nick mentioned.
- chank 6y ago
  I have the complete opposite view as you. Markdown is for advanced blogging and since novel writers don't need advanced html formatting they don't need markdown.
  - falcolas 6y ago
    Ebook formats are mostly HTML and (a strictly limited subset of) CSS. So, given that a book will eventually be rendered down to HTML, markdown isn't really that bad of a choice. Especially since things like tables can actually be useful, depending on what you're writing.
- dyates 6y ago
  Markdown is pretty good for advanced blogging if you use it as a superset of HTML, as originally intended.[1] That way you get simple syntax for the stuff you're likely to use most often and can still implement more complex formatting when you need to. [1]: https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#html https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#html
WesleyLivesay 6y ago
Looks pretty cool! I have ended up settling on a similar setup for my writing in VS Code. I am a heavy outliner so instead of [FileTree][Markdown][Preview] I use [FileTree][Outline][Markdown]. I'm not sure I would find the various bits of stats useful, although I am sure there are some who do. I think it would probably just cause me anxiety or cause me to put too much focus on numbers.
kleer001 6y ago
Looks fantastic! But, too late for me. I'm writing a novel now in emacs' orgmode (spacemacs) with lots of customization. The killer app for me is orgmode's foldable hierarchies of text. Beyond that even typing speed isn't my main bottleneck, it's ideas and sitting down in front of the keyboard and actually typing.
- qorrect 6y ago
  Here that OP, Foldable Regions ^.
- michaericalribo 6y ago
  > it's ideas and sitting down in front of the keyboard and actually typing This is the crux of the challenge for every writer. At least for me, I use "finding the right tool" as a way to procrastinate from actually writing...
  - therealdrag0 6y ago
    Yeah and "building my own editor that's just right for me" is a tempting next level procrastination.
  - em-bee 6y ago
    i wrote my story in plain text in vim. when i was forced to convert to libre office in order to produce the format required for submission, editing became a pain, and i felt blocked from working on the story any further, since i no longer was able to just take any break i had to work on it. not being able to use my preferred editor, i too ended up searching for a better solution...
    - michaericalribo 6y ago
      What a pain! And there don't seem to be any good + easy answers... I'm addicted to my emacs bindings, and not using them trips me up—I might as well draft in plaintext, like you said preferred editor minimizes friction. But then there's the cost of switching tools at different stages of the writing process. Arguably, that's even more difficult!
greenie_beans 6y ago
awesome, gonna give this a try. i've tried making something like this but got to a point where it was becoming more sophisticated and difficult, so i shelved the project. i've decided that my time is better spent working on writing projects, so thanks for sharing.
impalallama 6y ago
Very cool, I've always wanted a tool like this that uses Vim macros. This doesn't quite meet that need but looks very useful nonetheless.
Cyber_squad 6y ago
Very very interesting reads, thanks for sharing!
omarhaneef 6y ago
So I have been looking for something like this, and in fact the closest thing might be Highland 2. What I have been using is VScode with some scripts and other features. Really want an alternative to scrivener that keeps everything in markdown. The key thing I miss in all the other versions is something that will: 1. Count the words in a chapter/scene/section 2. Give me a total based on the "in work" chapters/scenes/sections For example suppose I am writing Chapter 1-9. I don't like Chapter 8 so I am rewriting an alternate. I want to know what the old chapter 8 word count is, what the new one is, and what the total word count is (and I can select which chapters or sections to include in the "total"). Looks like this does something like that so long as I put all the relevant chapters together in the same folder. (Good enough if I get to use Markdown.) Only issue is, if I go into the folders, I don't see the Markdown files. Isn't that the point?
- Tallain 6y ago
  Have you heard of Manuskript[0]? It's an open source editor with a lot of features similar to Scrivener, runs on Linux/Windows/Mac, and has a few features that Scrivener doesn't have that have helped me plan things more fully in the past. It's not perfect, but it's a solid tool. Also, it's backed by Markdown text files. [0]: https://www.theologeek.ch/manuskript/ https://www.theologeek.ch/manuskript/
  - omarhaneef 6y ago
    I have used it, and I liked it but back when I used it: 1. It was only for linux (and I hope OS a lot) 2. I either didn't know, or didn't appreciate, that it uses Markdown. Thanks for the tip. (I also think there was only an option to install it from a site I did not know if I could trust, and I hate building from source.)
KaoruAoiShiho 6y ago
On Fiction.live https://fiction.live https://fiction.live (twitch for webfiction) we use straight up HTML through a WYSIWYG editor. If there's an easily extensible markdown-like with full features for stuff common in webfiction like spoiler tags we would like to adopt it.
- jotson 6y ago
  Fiction.live looks really interesting. Thanks for sharing it. Might want to check out https://twinery.org/ https://twinery.org/ if you haven't already
vikingcaffiene 6y ago
This has no word export option (unless I missed it) which makes it infeasible for a lot of writers. Like it or not, docx is the format a lot of folks in mainstream publishing expect. Context: My partner is a published author and I've pitched stuff like this at her on multiple occasions as an alternative to Scrivener. In addition to her laughing at my insistence that markdown is a superior way to write, she cites the need for a rock solid word export option that "just works" as a requirement for any tool she uses.
- michaericalribo 6y ago
  Just to add here, the question is not “is markdown (or tex or binary strings or...) better”, but “can the person who determines whether I get paid open the file?” The fiction publishing world is cutthroat competitive. Trying to use nonstandard tools / “breaking the mold” adds even more friction to success.
  - lhenk 6y ago
    This can be accomplished by exporting to PDF
    - vidarh 6y ago
      Unless you're already a big-name author you rarely get to choose. Docx will generally be an option, and if you're lucky a few other formats.
    - ASalazarMX 6y ago
      I guess their editor can just cut and paste to Word if he really wants to make corrections.
      - FalconSensei 6y ago
        > their editor can just cut and paste to Word if he really wants to make corrections Is it sarcasm? I mean... make corrections/changes is what an editor does.
manojlds 6y ago
Probably a dumb question - what makes it not suitable for writing technical books?
buildbuildbuild 6y ago
Ulysses deciding to switch to a subscription model, locking all of my works in progress after I purchased their app for $50, pushed me back to vim for writing. It’s remarkably unremarkable and fine. I wish this project the best of luck. Down with Ulysses.
ar-nelson 6y ago
Tried installing via pip3 on Debian Buster, and it segfaults immediately. I'm sure it's an issue with my system, but I can't figure out what; there's no useful debug information, even though it tries to open KDE's bug report dialog.
calebm 6y ago
Oh man, I'm definitely gonna try this. I recently did a good bit of research into how I could write a novel (or anything with footnotes) in plain text, and it was surprisingly difficult - so much so that I just decided to use Scrivener instead. But this looks promising!
therealdrag0 6y ago
Are there any minimal editors like this that support vim-like keybindings? I've been using Sublime-Text with a markdown plugin, but interested in something more focused on prose writing. (I also use 1Writer on iOS which is a solid plaintext/markdown editor.)
michaericalribo 6y ago
Lots of comments here to the effect of "novelists don't need full-featured rich styling*, it's all just plain text!" It's true for _many_ novels. But it's not true for _all_ novels! House of Leaves (Danielewski) and S. (Abrams/Dorst) are full-fledged multimedia novels. Many fantasy novels use maps; Crying of Lot 49 uses at least 1 image, in situ. And I would love to see an edition of Pale Fire (Nabokov) that interposes annotations between the "original formatting" of the poem! "The novel" isn't really a well-defined concept...there are many interpretations of the basic concept! The high % of novels that are "just text" is descriptive, not prescriptive. * Use whatever definition of "rich text" you like, I don't care
pwinnski 6y ago
I used Scrivener (MacOS) for my first novel, but I did not use most of the features of the software. Now it's stuck as the last remaining 32-bit app on MacOS, and I've debating whether to pay for an upgrade or use something else for novel #2. I've learned about this at a very good time!
jdbiggs 6y ago
So this is really good for what it is - an open source Scrivener. If I didn't have the cash for Scrivener I'd use this until I could afford it.
ajarmst 6y ago
I don't get it. Why "markdown-like". Do people writing novels have some need that is unmet by an existing flavour of markdown? Because I have to say that the last thing that ecosystem needs is yet another flavour. I thought the entire point to markdown was that you didn't need a special editor. Which of course has done nothing to reduce their mushrooms-in-a-damp-cellar proliferation.
- ajarmst 6y ago
  NB: I'm an emacs/org-mode/pandoc toolchain devotee (aficionado? cultmember?), so I should disclose that I don't get the point of most editing tools.
- fernly 6y ago
  Apparently they _removed_ some features of markdown, while adding some special comment forms to designate inline meta-data like a synopsis. https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/stable/int_interface.html#markdown-format https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/stable/int_interface.h...
ajarmst 6y ago
Two of my favourite authors draft by hand, which I still do (we're all in our fifties). What I want is not yet another (sigh) editor for writers but OCR tools that can be trained for cursive and don't soil the bed on encountering a crossed out word or insertion.
soferio 6y ago
Looks great. I would be delighted to have the small task of converting to docx when the big task of actually writing a novel is made easier by this and finished! (Also python has docx libraries so docx is unlikely to be too much trouble in due course). Well done!
ElBookleyTruth 6y ago
I'll learn you why formats doesn't matter. If your book is good we'll pirate it. And if your book is good it doesn't matter how you write it. The publishers will be willing to dig through your shit to get to the grains of it. Trust me. If you worry about formats you need to write better. Let that shit sink in. It really doesn't at all matter. And if you're popular you'll both earn a million and have a million pirates dude. Just write a good book. Bad books is nothing anyone cares about.
BenFeldman1930 6y ago
Missing any reference to the one and only editor, every commentator was actually having in mind: Emacs.
lazrgatr 6y ago
don't suppose you can make this, but aimed at thesis writing?
nickelcitymario 6y ago
As someone working on an alternative editor for novelists, I appreciate what the creator(s) are going for here. Creating ebooks is a pain in the butt for a non-technical user. But there's nothing to it if you've ever worked with HTML and CSS. Because the ebook formats are basically all variants of XML. I'm of the opinion that there really is a place on the market for editing software that is a) hyper-focused on the needs of novelists (allowing the design and features to be focused as well); and b) handles the technical aspects of ebooks for you. Most of the existing solutions require a certain amount of technical expertise, or are so bloated with features that managing the software becomes a project. But this is where NovelWriter falls short, in my opinion. It solves the ebook-creation process, but from the eyes of a developer. The thing is, developers don't have these problems, because we're comfortable with the tech. 5 minutes of Googling will solve the book writing problem for any developer. These problems persists for non-technical users. NovelWriter doesn't appear to solve them. The interface here looks like a code editor, which isn't going to be comforting to most writers. (Ever have someone walk up to your desk and declare the code editor on your screen to be immediately indecipherable? I think they're have the same gut reaction upon seeing this editor.) And Markdown is terrifying to non-coders. It looks like gobbledygook. We love it, but every time I've tried to show a non-developer what Markdown looked like, their eyes glazed over. So those are my critiques. But things that I think are awesome about this project: 1. Open-source. This should always be celebrated because it's not easy to just give away your hard work. (My own app will be SaaS.) 2. Word counts per chapter and for the book as a whole, viewable at all times. 3. Editor and preview at the same time. (Common feature for markdown editors, but still well done.) 4. Solution for outlining, character profiles, tracking locations, plot points, etc. The implementation for these appears to be quite simple, too. These are features that my own app may not have at launch, so hats off. 5. They actually delivered. I, for one, am excited about this project and will be following along.
jzer0cool 6y ago
Very nice from the screenshot provided and I would like to try running later this month. With new GNU license is it fine to release something new in same why there are different linux flavors? As I understand I must than return also provide the product source code as well and must also release under GNU, or is it something else? Or am I thinking here of GPL? If anyone has info please share!
swansonc 6y ago
I looked at the project, and the editor doesn't look to bad, but why, oh why, yet another markdown-ish format? Did you REALLY need to do that? There are multiple markdown flavors, and, if you want something a bit more 'bookish' there's a nice ecosystem around asciidoc(-tor). Did you REALLY need to introduce another markdown?
Merg 6y ago
It is certainly interesting. If you want to check out some free alternative, that are pretty neat for longer writing, I really like Quoll Writer. It does have few more useful features like password protected writing, pretty ergonomic, but less standard interface and few UI translations.
ripperdoc 6y ago
Possibly relevant alternative product: Dabble, which includes plotting tools, etc, using Svelte as UI if I understood it correctly. https://www.dabblewriter.com/ https://www.dabblewriter.com/
diimdeep 6y ago
Why is there still no text editors as smart about the text as JetBrains IDE as smart about the code, or there is?
dznodes 6y ago
I went to the documentation to SEE the software's User Interface. (i.e. what does it look like to use this software?) But sadly, like many open source projects they don't make the UI easy to see in the documentation or github pages. It's like they require to you install it before showing you how it works???
salamanderman 6y ago
On a tangent, if someone is looking for Markdown-like syntax for script writing, Fountain is great. I've found it a joy to use in my classes. https://fountain.io/ https://fountain.io/
125364ff 6y ago
So on VirusTotal, AVG and Avast detected a Trojan virus in your "novelwriter-1.0.2-win10-amd64-setup.exe " file from GitHub? Can someone please clarify what's going on? https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/7ccd1537522e9338bd2c2bc95d0c0ac95c9dbf7d47d7451f067a3408a5379ba1/detection https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/7ccd1537522e9338bd2c2bc9...
still_grokking 6y ago
Against expectations this is not an Electron app. It's only ~3MB small! Even with a bloated installer that contains all the dependencies (Python & Qt) it's only 35MB. It will use only a fraction of the resources of an Electron app. It's also of course snappier that any web-app. We need more proper desktop apps again. The Electron insanity needs to stop. Nice to see this here!
throwawaysea 6y ago
Has anyone used bookdown on R? https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/ https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/
BinaryAcid 6y ago
This looks awesome! I'm super excited to take it for a spin I confused about how to actually run this on a Mac. I downloaded source and stepped through the 3 steps on the website: brew install enchant, pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt, pip3 install --user pyobjc What do I do now? There is no dmg created or further instructions. Adding a dmg to the site would really open up your potential users.

369 points by app4soft 6y ago

dnw 6y ago

I am currently using Obsidian for writing a book-length tutorial with multiple docs. Support for comments and footnotes are really useful to have for projects like the one I am working on.

sleepysysadmin 6y ago

It would be amazing if it fixed your grammar, removed cliches, fixed wordiness, activated passive language, swapped repeated words, fixed my run on sentences, overall just fixed my englitch. #featurerequest

zx321 6y ago
You're looking for proselint. https://github.com/amperser/proselint https://github.com/amperser/proselint
- MyWorkComputer 6y ago
  Scrivener should integrate this.
  - chrisdbanks 6y ago
    ProWritingAid integrates with Scrivener and provides grammar checking, repeated words, and much more to help you improve whatever you're writing. http://prowritingaid.com/ http://prowritingaid.com/
    - cweagans 6y ago
      Friendly advice: This is helpful to know about, contextually relevant, etc and I'm glad you posted it, but you should probably disclose that you're the CEO.
- vidarh 6y ago
  Looks very interesting, but the example given ("John is very unique") and the warning given by proselint for it illustrates why this is a veritable mine-field, and why what sleepysysadmin asks for isn't really possible (but that's ok - having a tool flag possible issues is still great) The example warning is certainly worth giving, but conversely Merriam-Webster points out that "very unique" is a common construction when "unique" is used in the sense "unusual", though most frequently used in less formal contexts. And so it may or may not be justified depending on what you're writing... Having gone back and forth with a real editor for a novel, half the effort was a conversation with the editor based on questions about intent and preferred tone and style, in order to come to agreement on things she had flagged as possible issues where it was not clear whether or not a change ought to be made or not. I'm absolutely going to take a closer look at proselint, though.
  - tclancy 6y ago
    Certainly. I think the idea is you pick and choose the plugins that suit you (so it's probably not a perfect fit for OP) based on what you think your strengths and weaknesses are. And taste: I want to slap everyone who sticks an adjective in front of "unique", so that rule works for me. No matter what Black says, all linters are an aggregation of someone's tastes and you are free to tweak as you see fit. Descriptivism beats prescriptivism where language is concerned IMHO.
Veen 6y ago
You'd need a human editor to do all that. Automatically fixing run-on sentences and removing repeated words is possible. Activating passive sentences is challenging; Grammarly gets it wrong all the time, in my experience. Replacing cliches and fixing wordiness would be very challenging without deep linguistic and cultural knowledge.
- vidarh 6y ago
  I tried using Grammarly when writing a novel, and just had to turn it off. It gets things wrong so often that it just turned out to be a distraction. I still like using it for e-mails etc. but for anything that will pass through a professional editor anyway it's just not worth the hassle to me.
- sleepysysadmin 6y ago
  >You'd need a human editor to do all that. Automatically fixing run-on sentences and removing repeated words is possible. Activating passive sentences is challenging; Grammarly gets it wrong all the time, in my experience. Replacing cliches and fixing wordiness would be very challenging without deep linguistic and cultural knowledge. Well I don't know why I was downvoted so heavily. I dont disagree. My goal isn't so much to write a novel but rather improve upon my englitch. Now I have chosen writing a novel in order to improve but I dont know where I went wrong. I would love a human editor but that costs $. I doubt anyone is giving me a dime for my book. I don't have >$1000 to get my book edited. Of which any hired editor will just shoot themselves.
  - vidarh 6y ago
    For that use, I think "proselint", as zx321 recommended, is probably a perfect start, as it references the source of the recommendation. (in terms of cost, though, you can get a decent editor for closer to the ~$300 mark for up ~60k-70k words, but of course if you're not intending on putting in a lot of effort - and more money - to market and sell it, that may well be too much too)
    - sleepysysadmin 6y ago

underdeserver 6y ago

Screenshots: https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/stable/int_introduction.html#screenshots https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/stable/int_introductio... From the main page (https://novelwriter.io https://novelwriter.io): novelWriter is a Markdown-like text editor designed for writing novels and larger projects of many smaller plain text documents. It uses its own flavour of Markdown that supports a meta data syntax for comments, synopsis, and cross-referencing between files. It's designed to be a simple text editor that allows for easy organisation of text files and notes, built on plain text files for robustness.

app4soft 6y ago
Homepage: https://novelwriter.io https://novelwriter.io Message to HN Mods: Please, replace actual topic link to news article link[0] [0] https://novelwriter.io/2021/01/03/release-1-0/ https://novelwriter.io/2021/01/03/release-1-0/
- dang 6y ago
  In cases where a project hasn't been discussed on HN before, which it appears this one hasn't, we change the link to the project home page. I've changed it to that from https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/releases/tag/v1.0 https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/releases/tag/v1.0 now.
  - app4soft 6y ago
    Thanks!
ConfusedDog 6y ago
Looks really good. Like a simplified version of Scrivener, which is awesome. Would be awesome if I can import it to Scrivener and the other way around.
- unixhero 6y ago
  Scrivener is the novelist standard now isn't it?

nahuel0x 6y ago

Somebody feels we need to found a middle way between full WYSIYWG and two pane source/preview for Markdown writing?

cecja 6y ago
Joplin has both atm it's quite nice.
app4soft 6y ago
Maybe ghostwriter[0] is what you are looking for? [0] http://wereturtle.github.io/ghostwriter/ http://wereturtle.github.io/ghostwriter/
- nahuel0x 6y ago
  I just found typora[0] and Emacs "M-x markdown-toggle-markup-hiding" :) [0] https://typora.io/ https://typora.io/
  - app4soft 6y ago
    > https://support.typora.io/License-Agreement/ https://support.typora.io/License-Agreement/ EULA?! Thanks, but NO. P.S. ghtostwriter is fully free & open-source, instead of proprietary Typora.
    - nahuel0x 6y ago
      Also found MarkText, MIT Licensed: https://marktext.app/ https://marktext.app/
  - vulcan01 6y ago
    Also Vim's markdown conceal as seen here: https://github.com/plasticboy/vim-markdown#syntax-concealing https://github.com/plasticboy/vim-markdown#syntax-concealing The vim-pandoc-syntax plugin also has syntax concealing enabled by default, IIRC.
5cents 6y ago

klunger 6y ago

I am currently making my way through "The Fantasy Fiction Formula" by Deborah Chester. It's my first stab at this kind of thing, so it has been really eye opening. When I read any kind of fiction now, I can't help but map out all the elements of plot and scene described by Chester. (This has had the unpleasant side effect of making reading fiction less pleasurable. ah well) So, I can see this kind of tool being very useful in structuring plots, sub-plots and scenes. I still haven't written that book though, so I am wondering if any seasoned writers here have a take on it.

prionassembly 6y ago
I bought "Save the cat!" (I'd read some parts of Vogler's "Writer's journey" in film school) hoping to adapt the formula to writing a bad novel. Then I never did. The weird thing about hobby projects is that they don't have an actual audience. So I write a lot about philosophy and social theory and such, but it's ultimately a lot of self-dialog. This doesn't work for fiction, even short stories. (I did write a handful of poems in the 2010s)
- Balgair 6y ago
  Michael Tucker of the YT channel Lessons From the Screenplay has a very very good list of writing books here: https://www.lessonsfromthescreenplay.com/reading-list https://www.lessonsfromthescreenplay.com/reading-list The list is geared towards film media, but is a great guide on writing in general. I've read and annotated my way through all of them with gusto. I can very much recommend Into the Woods and Anatomy of Story as superb guides that really dig in deep into why we humans fall for the same stories time and time again. They are brass-tacks books and pretty philosophical at the same time, a rare combo. Michael's list is a great place to continue studying film specifically, but writing in general.
vidarh 6y ago
> This has had the unpleasant side effect of making reading fiction less pleasurable. ah well If it helps, I think this side-effect is likely to fade for good fiction. Bad-but-tolerable fiction gets ruined forever when you get better at spotting what they do and what it gets wrong... I haven't read the book you mention, but when I've read similar type of books before it's definitively been annoying for a while, but then it goes to the background and it seems to usually just pop into my mind when I either spot particularly good or bad examples. When I notice particularly good uses of techniques now, it tends to make me appreciate the work more, if anything.

premek 6y ago

is author here? - Is it suitable for non-technical writers? is there any feedback on them baing able to use markdown, @pov tags etc? - did you try some commercial competitors? How would you compare? I understand scrivener is one popular option

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vidarh 6y ago
I'm actually support for similar tagging to my own personal editor (for my first two novels I used a mix of Google Docs (yes, really) and Libre Office; using my own editor for my third). I'm definitively going to steal ideas from this one... I don't think using those kind of features requires any technical understanding at all. If anything, people are used to doing "ad hoc" tagging with easily searchable strings.
app4soft 6y ago
UPD: Dev just answered[0] to your qestions: Q: Is it suitable for non-technical writers? is there any feedback on them baing able to use markdown, @pov tags etc? A: "non-technical" as in the person or the writing itself? I deliberately chose not to write a WYSIWYG editor in order to keep the files plain text and as simple as possible. I've written a WYSIWYG editor before, and didn't like the result. I guess having to use some markup makes it slightly technical in use, but I've also added menu entries and keyboard shortcuts for all the features, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get started. Q: Did you try some commercial competitors? How would you compare? I understand scrivener is one popular option A: I've used it, yes. It's excellent, and perfect if you want a full WYSIWYG editor with a lot of features. I went in a different direction exactly because I wanted something simpler. Also, as a Linux user, the lack of decent options was a factor. [0] https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/discussions/567#discussioncomment-293407 https://github.com/vkbo/novelWriter/discussions/567#discussi...

chank 6y ago

Outside of the more technically inclined; Does anyone who is a long-form (novel) writer actually use markdown? Outside of blogging, which it was invented for and makes total sense for syntax conversion of free formed text to html is there any real use for it? Obviously you don't have to use it if you don't want to, but it sort of feels odd to me that all these developers making writing/notes apps that neglect rich text editing entirely in favor of markdown simply because it's easy to implement. I am definitely tired of seeing my writing littered with a detritus of special characters when it's never going to get exported to anything other than text.

YetAnotherNick 6y ago
I think most authors don't write in richer text format than markdown.
- elcomet 6y ago
  most authors write in Word, and use only one or two font variation bigger size for chapter titles).
- chank 6y ago
  I think you're assuming and probably wrong.
  - vidarh 6y ago
    I think you are assuming. I also think there's a confusion here and that you're talking specifically about RTF while the people responding to you are talking about the capabilities provided when they use "rich". The point being that Markdown has far more formatting features than most people who write novels need, and so it is "rich enough" as a format. I've written two novels and I'm writing my third, and as others have also pointed out, there's rarely a need for more than headlines, bold and italics, all of which are trivial in Markdown. Whether or not the editors are capable enough depends on peoples preferences and tools. But there's nothing about writing a novel that requires a format more complex while writing (if you send it off to an editor, they'll almost certainly insist on something they can import easily into word, though some accept Google Docs or ODT these days)

bronikowski 6y ago

It's true that with ideas, if you wait long enough, someone will do the work for you. I was toying with an idea of "novel markup", something that could let you track characters over scenes, geographical locations and interpersonal relationships. Things got hairy quickly so it died on pages of my notebook. Glad someone gave it a go. A header tagging is probably better than inline I wanted to have.

k_sze 6y ago

Interesting. Does that make it kinda midway between "pure" MarkDown and reStructuredText? As in, it's a bit more powerful than pure MarkDown, but still lighter to use than reStructuredText? I mean, if you don't mind summoning the awesome power of something like Visual Studio Code, you could also write reStructureText with live preview (there's a VSCode extension for that, IIRC).

cheph 6y ago

The proliferation of markdown forks is a mess. Can't you just use something better to begin with, like asciidoc? I think you can likely just use existing asciidoc mechanisms to support the same thing and then existing editors will still be usable.

chank 6y ago
The proliferation of markdown itself is also a mess IMO. Outside of web writing it seems really more effort than it's worth. Seems like everyone making a writing tool of any kind is ditching rich text in favor of it for no good reason.
- jotson 6y ago
  For me, plaintext (like Markdown) is a strength over proprietary or binary formats and I've accepted the tradeoffs. It's the primary "good reason" I use Markdown. I have confidence that text will always be readable in the future even if I don't have the app that made it. Secondarily I find most word processors overkill with toolbars everywhere and I do not like using them.
deleted 6y ago
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jonnycomputer 6y ago

I am writing a novel in Markdown using Emacs. For most of the novel writing process Markdown is enough. I have been toying with the idea of tweaking the markdown like this novelWriter does, mostly because I constantly find myself wanting to annotate my text, or temporarily mark out, but not delete, blocks of text.

isaacimagine 6y ago

Okay, so this looks incredible, congrats on the 1.0! Something a bit interesting but entirely unrelated: around 2018-06, I started a shell repo for a project named 'NovelWrite,' [1] (unrelated to this project, but a markdown novel serializer) then promptly forgot about it. Seeing novelWriter (this post) surface to the top spot was pretty interesting because, despite similar names, I was unaware of this project until now. 1: I'm not going to post the link to the repo as I'm not trying to advertise it; it's really quite a horrible project. I just found the coincidence mildly amusing.

gebt 6y ago

Great idea, great design! As I think markdown is good only for write simple texts (AND NOT FOR ADVANCED BLOGGING), a novel writing software would to be a choice; because authors don't use richer text format than markdown, as Nick mentioned.

chank 6y ago
I have the complete opposite view as you. Markdown is for advanced blogging and since novel writers don't need advanced html formatting they don't need markdown.
- falcolas 6y ago
  Ebook formats are mostly HTML and (a strictly limited subset of) CSS. So, given that a book will eventually be rendered down to HTML, markdown isn't really that bad of a choice. Especially since things like tables can actually be useful, depending on what you're writing.
dyates 6y ago
Markdown is pretty good for advanced blogging if you use it as a superset of HTML, as originally intended.[1] That way you get simple syntax for the stuff you're likely to use most often and can still implement more complex formatting when you need to. [1]: https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#html https://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax#html

WesleyLivesay 6y ago

Looks pretty cool! I have ended up settling on a similar setup for my writing in VS Code. I am a heavy outliner so instead of [FileTree][Markdown][Preview] I use [FileTree][Outline][Markdown]. I'm not sure I would find the various bits of stats useful, although I am sure there are some who do. I think it would probably just cause me anxiety or cause me to put too much focus on numbers.

kleer001 6y ago

Looks fantastic! But, too late for me. I'm writing a novel now in emacs' orgmode (spacemacs) with lots of customization. The killer app for me is orgmode's foldable hierarchies of text. Beyond that even typing speed isn't my main bottleneck, it's ideas and sitting down in front of the keyboard and actually typing.

qorrect 6y ago
Here that OP, Foldable Regions ^.
michaericalribo 6y ago
> it's ideas and sitting down in front of the keyboard and actually typing This is the crux of the challenge for every writer. At least for me, I use "finding the right tool" as a way to procrastinate from actually writing...
- therealdrag0 6y ago
  Yeah and "building my own editor that's just right for me" is a tempting next level procrastination.
- em-bee 6y ago
  i wrote my story in plain text in vim. when i was forced to convert to libre office in order to produce the format required for submission, editing became a pain, and i felt blocked from working on the story any further, since i no longer was able to just take any break i had to work on it. not being able to use my preferred editor, i too ended up searching for a better solution...
  - michaericalribo 6y ago
    What a pain! And there don't seem to be any good + easy answers... I'm addicted to my emacs bindings, and not using them trips me up—I might as well draft in plaintext, like you said preferred editor minimizes friction. But then there's the cost of switching tools at different stages of the writing process. Arguably, that's even more difficult!

greenie_beans 6y ago

awesome, gonna give this a try. i've tried making something like this but got to a point where it was becoming more sophisticated and difficult, so i shelved the project. i've decided that my time is better spent working on writing projects, so thanks for sharing.

impalallama 6y ago

Very cool, I've always wanted a tool like this that uses Vim macros. This doesn't quite meet that need but looks very useful nonetheless.

Cyber_squad 6y ago

Very very interesting reads, thanks for sharing!

omarhaneef 6y ago

So I have been looking for something like this, and in fact the closest thing might be Highland 2. What I have been using is VScode with some scripts and other features. Really want an alternative to scrivener that keeps everything in markdown. The key thing I miss in all the other versions is something that will: 1. Count the words in a chapter/scene/section 2. Give me a total based on the "in work" chapters/scenes/sections For example suppose I am writing Chapter 1-9. I don't like Chapter 8 so I am rewriting an alternate. I want to know what the old chapter 8 word count is, what the new one is, and what the total word count is (and I can select which chapters or sections to include in the "total"). Looks like this does something like that so long as I put all the relevant chapters together in the same folder. (Good enough if I get to use Markdown.) Only issue is, if I go into the folders, I don't see the Markdown files. Isn't that the point?

Tallain 6y ago
Have you heard of Manuskript[0]? It's an open source editor with a lot of features similar to Scrivener, runs on Linux/Windows/Mac, and has a few features that Scrivener doesn't have that have helped me plan things more fully in the past. It's not perfect, but it's a solid tool. Also, it's backed by Markdown text files. [0]: https://www.theologeek.ch/manuskript/ https://www.theologeek.ch/manuskript/
- omarhaneef 6y ago
  I have used it, and I liked it but back when I used it: 1. It was only for linux (and I hope OS a lot) 2. I either didn't know, or didn't appreciate, that it uses Markdown. Thanks for the tip. (I also think there was only an option to install it from a site I did not know if I could trust, and I hate building from source.)

KaoruAoiShiho 6y ago

On Fiction.live https://fiction.live https://fiction.live (twitch for webfiction) we use straight up HTML through a WYSIWYG editor. If there's an easily extensible markdown-like with full features for stuff common in webfiction like spoiler tags we would like to adopt it.

jotson 6y ago
Fiction.live looks really interesting. Thanks for sharing it. Might want to check out https://twinery.org/ https://twinery.org/ if you haven't already

vikingcaffiene 6y ago

This has no word export option (unless I missed it) which makes it infeasible for a lot of writers. Like it or not, docx is the format a lot of folks in mainstream publishing expect. Context: My partner is a published author and I've pitched stuff like this at her on multiple occasions as an alternative to Scrivener. In addition to her laughing at my insistence that markdown is a superior way to write, she cites the need for a rock solid word export option that "just works" as a requirement for any tool she uses.

michaericalribo 6y ago
Just to add here, the question is not “is markdown (or tex or binary strings or...) better”, but “can the person who determines whether I get paid open the file?” The fiction publishing world is cutthroat competitive. Trying to use nonstandard tools / “breaking the mold” adds even more friction to success.
- lhenk 6y ago
  This can be accomplished by exporting to PDF
  - vidarh 6y ago
    Unless you're already a big-name author you rarely get to choose. Docx will generally be an option, and if you're lucky a few other formats.
  - ASalazarMX 6y ago
    I guess their editor can just cut and paste to Word if he really wants to make corrections.
    - FalconSensei 6y ago
      > their editor can just cut and paste to Word if he really wants to make corrections Is it sarcasm? I mean... make corrections/changes is what an editor does.

manojlds 6y ago

Probably a dumb question - what makes it not suitable for writing technical books?

buildbuildbuild 6y ago

Ulysses deciding to switch to a subscription model, locking all of my works in progress after I purchased their app for $50, pushed me back to vim for writing. It’s remarkably unremarkable and fine. I wish this project the best of luck. Down with Ulysses.

ar-nelson 6y ago

Tried installing via pip3 on Debian Buster, and it segfaults immediately. I'm sure it's an issue with my system, but I can't figure out what; there's no useful debug information, even though it tries to open KDE's bug report dialog.

calebm 6y ago

Oh man, I'm definitely gonna try this. I recently did a good bit of research into how I could write a novel (or anything with footnotes) in plain text, and it was surprisingly difficult - so much so that I just decided to use Scrivener instead. But this looks promising!

therealdrag0 6y ago

Are there any minimal editors like this that support vim-like keybindings? I've been using Sublime-Text with a markdown plugin, but interested in something more focused on prose writing. (I also use 1Writer on iOS which is a solid plaintext/markdown editor.)

michaericalribo 6y ago

Lots of comments here to the effect of "novelists don't need full-featured rich styling*, it's all just plain text!" It's true for _many_ novels. But it's not true for _all_ novels! House of Leaves (Danielewski) and S. (Abrams/Dorst) are full-fledged multimedia novels. Many fantasy novels use maps; Crying of Lot 49 uses at least 1 image, in situ. And I would love to see an edition of Pale Fire (Nabokov) that interposes annotations between the "original formatting" of the poem! "The novel" isn't really a well-defined concept...there are many interpretations of the basic concept! The high % of novels that are "just text" is descriptive, not prescriptive. * Use whatever definition of "rich text" you like, I don't care

pwinnski 6y ago

I used Scrivener (MacOS) for my first novel, but I did not use most of the features of the software. Now it's stuck as the last remaining 32-bit app on MacOS, and I've debating whether to pay for an upgrade or use something else for novel #2. I've learned about this at a very good time!

jdbiggs 6y ago

So this is really good for what it is - an open source Scrivener. If I didn't have the cash for Scrivener I'd use this until I could afford it.

ajarmst 6y ago

I don't get it. Why "markdown-like". Do people writing novels have some need that is unmet by an existing flavour of markdown? Because I have to say that the last thing that ecosystem needs is yet another flavour. I thought the entire point to markdown was that you didn't need a special editor. Which of course has done nothing to reduce their mushrooms-in-a-damp-cellar proliferation.

ajarmst 6y ago
NB: I'm an emacs/org-mode/pandoc toolchain devotee (aficionado? cultmember?), so I should disclose that I don't get the point of most editing tools.
fernly 6y ago
Apparently they _removed_ some features of markdown, while adding some special comment forms to designate inline meta-data like a synopsis. https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/stable/int_interface.html#markdown-format https://novelwriter.readthedocs.io/en/stable/int_interface.h...

ajarmst 6y ago

Two of my favourite authors draft by hand, which I still do (we're all in our fifties). What I want is not yet another (sigh) editor for writers but OCR tools that can be trained for cursive and don't soil the bed on encountering a crossed out word or insertion.

soferio 6y ago

Looks great. I would be delighted to have the small task of converting to docx when the big task of actually writing a novel is made easier by this and finished! (Also python has docx libraries so docx is unlikely to be too much trouble in due course). Well done!

ElBookleyTruth 6y ago

I'll learn you why formats doesn't matter. If your book is good we'll pirate it. And if your book is good it doesn't matter how you write it. The publishers will be willing to dig through your shit to get to the grains of it. Trust me. If you worry about formats you need to write better. Let that shit sink in. It really doesn't at all matter. And if you're popular you'll both earn a million and have a million pirates dude. Just write a good book. Bad books is nothing anyone cares about.

BenFeldman1930 6y ago

Missing any reference to the one and only editor, every commentator was actually having in mind: Emacs.

lazrgatr 6y ago

don't suppose you can make this, but aimed at thesis writing?

nickelcitymario 6y ago

As someone working on an alternative editor for novelists, I appreciate what the creator(s) are going for here. Creating ebooks is a pain in the butt for a non-technical user. But there's nothing to it if you've ever worked with HTML and CSS. Because the ebook formats are basically all variants of XML. I'm of the opinion that there really is a place on the market for editing software that is a) hyper-focused on the needs of novelists (allowing the design and features to be focused as well); and b) handles the technical aspects of ebooks for you. Most of the existing solutions require a certain amount of technical expertise, or are so bloated with features that managing the software becomes a project. But this is where NovelWriter falls short, in my opinion. It solves the ebook-creation process, but from the eyes of a developer. The thing is, developers don't have these problems, because we're comfortable with the tech. 5 minutes of Googling will solve the book writing problem for any developer. These problems persists for non-technical users. NovelWriter doesn't appear to solve them. The interface here looks like a code editor, which isn't going to be comforting to most writers. (Ever have someone walk up to your desk and declare the code editor on your screen to be immediately indecipherable? I think they're have the same gut reaction upon seeing this editor.) And Markdown is terrifying to non-coders. It looks like gobbledygook. We love it, but every time I've tried to show a non-developer what Markdown looked like, their eyes glazed over. So those are my critiques. But things that I think are awesome about this project: 1. Open-source. This should always be celebrated because it's not easy to just give away your hard work. (My own app will be SaaS.) 2. Word counts per chapter and for the book as a whole, viewable at all times. 3. Editor and preview at the same time. (Common feature for markdown editors, but still well done.) 4. Solution for outlining, character profiles, tracking locations, plot points, etc. The implementation for these appears to be quite simple, too. These are features that my own app may not have at launch, so hats off. 5. They actually delivered. I, for one, am excited about this project and will be following along.

jzer0cool 6y ago

Very nice from the screenshot provided and I would like to try running later this month. With new GNU license is it fine to release something new in same why there are different linux flavors? As I understand I must than return also provide the product source code as well and must also release under GNU, or is it something else? Or am I thinking here of GPL? If anyone has info please share!

swansonc 6y ago

I looked at the project, and the editor doesn't look to bad, but why, oh why, yet another markdown-ish format? Did you REALLY need to do that? There are multiple markdown flavors, and, if you want something a bit more 'bookish' there's a nice ecosystem around asciidoc(-tor). Did you REALLY need to introduce another markdown?

Merg 6y ago

It is certainly interesting. If you want to check out some free alternative, that are pretty neat for longer writing, I really like Quoll Writer. It does have few more useful features like password protected writing, pretty ergonomic, but less standard interface and few UI translations.

ripperdoc 6y ago

Possibly relevant alternative product: Dabble, which includes plotting tools, etc, using Svelte as UI if I understood it correctly. https://www.dabblewriter.com/ https://www.dabblewriter.com/

diimdeep 6y ago

Why is there still no text editors as smart about the text as JetBrains IDE as smart about the code, or there is?

dznodes 6y ago

I went to the documentation to SEE the software's User Interface. (i.e. what does it look like to use this software?) But sadly, like many open source projects they don't make the UI easy to see in the documentation or github pages. It's like they require to you install it before showing you how it works???

salamanderman 6y ago

On a tangent, if someone is looking for Markdown-like syntax for script writing, Fountain is great. I've found it a joy to use in my classes. https://fountain.io/ https://fountain.io/

125364ff 6y ago

So on VirusTotal, AVG and Avast detected a Trojan virus in your "novelwriter-1.0.2-win10-amd64-setup.exe " file from GitHub? Can someone please clarify what's going on? https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/7ccd1537522e9338bd2c2bc95d0c0ac95c9dbf7d47d7451f067a3408a5379ba1/detection https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/7ccd1537522e9338bd2c2bc9...

still_grokking 6y ago

Against expectations this is not an Electron app. It's only ~3MB small! Even with a bloated installer that contains all the dependencies (Python & Qt) it's only 35MB. It will use only a fraction of the resources of an Electron app. It's also of course snappier that any web-app. We need more proper desktop apps again. The Electron insanity needs to stop. Nice to see this here!

throwawaysea 6y ago

Has anyone used bookdown on R? https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/ https://bookdown.org/yihui/bookdown/

BinaryAcid 6y ago

This looks awesome! I'm super excited to take it for a spin I confused about how to actually run this on a Mac. I downloaded source and stepped through the 3 steps on the website: brew install enchant, pip3 install --user -r requirements.txt, pip3 install --user pyobjc What do I do now? There is no dmg created or further instructions. Adding a dmg to the site would really open up your potential users.