Ahhh…Consolas. I knew it looked familiar. Thank you for the thoughtful response!
This all comes back to one of my pet peeves: Writing software, and the productivity community’s obsession with finding just the RIGHT software and “workflow” to get writing done.
It’s an obsession I share, and I am a professional writer. But it’s nonsense.
You want to know what 95% of professional writers use?
Microsoft Word. It does the job, and it’s what their publishers want, so why not.
One of my favorite writers, Cory Doctorow, who is VERY prolific, uses Linux and the default text editor of same. He’s also talked about the importance of learning to write anywhere, at any time, and he says he’s written great swathes of text at airports, hunkered down with his laptop near the only available power outlet.
The important thing is not what you write with. The important thing is that you write.
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Ayn Rand used to laugh at reporters who asked to take a photo of her at her desk. “What desk?”, she’d say. She would just take her typewriter wherever she was.
It is an enviable ethic.
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Not entirely, entirely true.
I’m writing a huge fantasy saga with 6-8 viewpoint characters. I could write in Word and I used to, even, for a thriller trilogy I published years ago. However, using Scrivener gives me a tremendous bird’s eye view on such a complex projet, and it’s been invaluable in helping grasp me the whole thing in order to write and publish it swiftly while staying more or less sane.
Can you write with a pen and a piece of parchment? Sure.
Does it make sense?
Well… no.
A professional photographer will take amazing images with an iPhone 4, but there’s a reason why they use DSLRs. The ceiling is so much higher for their skills.
However, it’s entirely true that the quest for the perfect writing tool is a very elaborate way to procrastinate and one people should vainquish as soon as possible. Writers write.
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I was thinking precisely the same thing. For writing that requires substantial research (dissertations, large books, etc.) having tools like Scrivener and Obsidian are tremendous helps. For short or long form writing not requiring complex plots, character development, research, etc., Word or iA Writer can do the job. I’m using Scrivener for a large book project and iA Writer for simpler things like blog articles. As my dad used to say, “if the tool isn’t right the mechanic isn’t bright.” He was an Air Force jet engine mechanic. 
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I’d suggest that @anon85228692 @Bmosbacker and @MitchWagner are all on-point — from different perspectives and experience. The common thread I hear in their latest posts is “get familiar with your tools, then pick up the right tool, and focus wholly on the work from that point forward”.
If working gets interrupted with fiddling with new tools, then the work suffers. Obviously. A time to play. A time to crack on with the work.
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There’s a wonderful passage I can’t find right now, from a book about writing, where two successful novelists can hardly believe how the other writes. One is full time, the other on the side after working as a doctor. One finds writing painful, the other easy. One works for long stretches and takes breaks, the other regularly for an hour or two at a time. One self-medicates, the other doesn’t. And of course their styles and character development methods differ wildly. Neither is wrong.
If a person wants to write, they must start with who they are and what they can do and figure out a way to accomplish their task—when it comes to tools, nonchalance and obsession are both viable routes!
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And something that’s kind of implied underneath all of their posts, it seems, is the idea that these tools all solve an existing, identified problem in a way that works for them.
For a new writer, the challenge is usually the “sitting down to write” part - not the tool they use. And the accumulation of tools almost never does anything to move the “sitting down to write” needle - no matter what the sales copy claims.
If nothing else, starting in something like Word is do-able now, and it’ll allow the person to make a list of the things that make them cranky. Then they can take that list and find a tool that actually solves those problems.
I once read a book for programmers that gave a bunch of tips, and one of them was basically “pick a text editor, and stick with it”. The marginal productivity gain from switching tools is frequently eclipsed by the massive productivity gain from having deep knowledge of the tool you use, and having the usage of your tool be second nature.
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The fantasy writer Glen Cook worked on an assembly line in Detroit. He’d write in breaks of seconds between widgets going by on the assembly line. Widget goes by, he works. Turns to pick up pen and paper, writes a few word. Next widget comes by, he does that. Repeat hundreds of times every day.
Later, he was promoted to a desk job and had trouble writing after that.
My friend Joe Haldeman writes the first drafts fo novels in fountain pen in bound books, on the front porch of his house in Florida, before dawn, lit only by a lantern.
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“Interstitial writing” has its upsides:
Upside: A remarkable amount of writing can get done.
Downside: The end product can be an unstructured mess.
I take advantage of the upside while wrangling with the downside. I’d say I’m happy with it.
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Oh yes, absolutely. In my workshops, I have actually transformed @Kourosh 's principle of “touch the keys every day” (when playing the piano) (giving credit of course) to “touch your manuscript every day”. The old saying “nulla dies sina linea” (no day without a line) actually works better, in my opinion, when it remains related to the same project. Writing anything random is good practice, but it won’t make progress on a book.
Hats off to you sir, you know Joe Haldeman.
I knew writing my post of his practice – it’s famous among SF&F authors – and of course I had to write it to the person who personally knows the famous counterexample 
I think we are indeed all very much in agreement deep down, but we love to chat, don’t we? And it’s a lovely chat. Thank you all for this great discussion 
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Yes, context and lots of other things matter.
“Right” way to learn to write?
Start. And continue.
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Joe and his wife are lovely people and extreme extroverts. My wife and I consider ourselves lucky to be among their hundreds of friends around the world.
And I was not trying to make you uncomfortable .
If you have successfully maintained a practice of creating writing then you should be proud.
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That’s very nice. I suspect that craftsmen like your grandfather would understand the passion for the right tech “tool” even if they knew nothing about digital technology.
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Thank you and no worries at all! I found the coincidence amusing 
I don’t know M. Haldeman but if the occasion arises, please give him my regards from a fellow little writer from the other side of the pond, and best wishes to them both.
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I do this a lot with my first drafts of things (fittingly enough, using the Drafts app for Mac). I have my MacBook on my kitchen bar instead of a standing desk. I type a few words or a line, then meander about the kitchen or into the living room whilst thinking.
On good writing days, Apple Watch commends me for being ahead of my activity goals for the day.
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I believe this is the same habit that John le Carrè uses, except loose sheets of paper.
Two good habits at once! I salute you!
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Once I had it pop up the “it looks like you’re starting a workout” dialogue in the middle of some particularly fast scribbling when I was pretty stressed out. It probably just barely made both conditions - heart rate plus perceived motion.
I wonder if anybody has ever issued a writing challenge along the lines of:
“Write fast and long enough that Apple Watch closes your rings for the day”.
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Research and note taking are not mutually exclusive. Researching, hopefully, certainly tends to be more analytical.