Long form writing apps, what do you use?

@Steve @briandigital You can combine different snippets of text into one big file in iA Writer. https://ia.net/writer/support/general/content-blocks

Thereā€™s no indication in the UI that tells you this is possible, but it should work.

1 Like

Define ā€œlong form:ā€ My articles are 400-1700 words or so. I used Ulysses happily until April. Then I switched to DEVONThink and wanted something more DT compatible. So I tried a couple of things and ended up in Folding Text.

I really, really miss one thing in Ulysses: Embedding comments in an article. I write as fast as I can and look up details like spellings of names later. I leave notes to myself as I go. I havenā€™t found something that handles that as well as Ulysses.

@MitchWagner Iā€™m guessing Folding Text is MacOS only?

Iā€™m looking for a writer on iOS that works well with DTTG, I wonā€™t write over 1000-1500 words.

Hi @Jonathan_Davis,

I have a nice Alfred Workflow that allows me to create a markdown note linked to PDF Iā€™m reading. This way I keep one long note about my ideas and thoughts about the PDF. I found it quite some time ago here:

And to use Drafts and/or Ulysses for all your writing is quite possible. You can read about a Ulysses approach here https://thesweetsetup.com/shawn-blanc-ulysses-setup/

Right now I am trying a way to keep (almost) all my writing in drafts. You might have noticed that the new Drafts allows for Workspaces. I have mine setup to automatically filter for tags. This way I workspaces for eMails, blog posts, lists, writing. If something doesnā€™t have a tag, it stays in a workspace ā€œProcessā€ and this is the only one that shows up as a badge icon. This way Drafts only tells me how much I have to process and hides all the other stuff.
As with everything I got this idea from some other post, but I canā€™t find the link right now.

Hi @BradG,

I just wrote a reply to @Jonathan_Davis before seeing your comment. And I must say, that I completely forgot about Devonthingā€™s capabilities with RTF notes and wikilink features and all the nice little templates they have.

However, I prefer markdown notes and I have found a nice little Alfred Workflow that does exactly what you describe, but with a markdown note instead of RTF. It creates a linked note to a selected PDF. You can read about it here. https://shaz00m.wordpress.com/2016/06/20/research-workflow-with-devonthink-alfred/

1 Like

True. I always forget that you can point Ulysses to an external folder. I have never played with it.

On question. Can Ulysses on the iPhone/iPad also be pointed to the same external folder?

The reason Iā€™m drifting towards an external folder with markdown files is, that in the end, I use Pandoc to convert the text to Word or PDF. I found it to be the best way (for my workflow) to create reference lists.

Yes, as long as you use Dropbox to store those txt files.

Ref: https://ulysses.app/tutorials/dropbox

1 Like

iAWriter is simply a very nice writing experienceā€¦ highly recommend.

Byword has some nice features, eg Publishing to Evernote/Medium/Wordpressā€¦ and allows you to customise the text far more the iAWriter.

Thatā€™s good to know. Thanks.

Not sure if it helps but Editorial has folding text which can be really helpful with longer pieces of writing. It also allows blocks of text to be moved very easily to re order work if needed.

I guess I use automation in two distinct ways.
The first is using Editorial like Drafts, which I also use, as the place to begin pieces of text that can then be sent off to a variety of different places e.g. Email, Devonthink, DayOne, PDF etc.etc. There are lots of options. Whilst I love Drafts I find Editorial works better for me with longer pieces of text.
The second is with Taskpaper. Editorial is a great Taskpaper client and I often prefer to manage my tasks on iOS because of that. I have workflows for example to add @due dates and other tags to tasks, to move completed tasks from the active task list to an archive list and sort the archive list by date completed, to focus in on a particular tag and to highlight tasks overdue and today.
There are a lot of workflows contributed by users on the forums and, as my coding knowledge is pretty basic, I have developed most of those I use by editing what others have already done.

1 Like

Yeah, Folding Text is MacOS only. I forgot that was a criterion.

I think your best bet for longform writing ā€“ thousands of words or more per document ā€“ is Ulysses or Scrivener, though I havenā€™t tried Scrivener, and then import it into DTTG.

Alternately, is there a problem if you just write in DTTG?

@MitchWagner I suppose there isnā€™t anything wrong with writing in DTTG, but I would like a polished writer because Iā€™m an app hoarder too lol :grin:

2 Likes

Iā€™m using Scrivener to set up an editorial calendar for my farm blog and I also use it for my sheep inspector notes for the sheep Association newsletters. That way I can tell what Iā€™ve already covered and plan for future articles.

3 Likes

:poop:Many opinions, app choices offered, and experiences shared, all are grist for the mill.

To understand if you love an app itā€™s necessary to get beyond the one night stand phase and find a stand by me collaboration.

Spend the cash and the time to get by ainā€™t this neat or horrible phase to a place where you can make a choice for you space.

I donā€™t want to waste my life energy ā€” time or money. But spending time, thought, and money. ā€¦unless you get lucky is necessary.

What are the criteria/questions for an app searchā€¦

  • the need
  • is it fun
  • reviews
  • first impressions (can I make it do something ā€¦ kinship)
  • does it look worth the effort to dig deeper
  • documentation or lack

Dicourse has some interesting emoticons :poop: for example.

1 Like

A few more benefits of Scrivener.

I can use it to send direct updates to a manual in GitHub (I am trying to move it over to and get it working with GitLab right now).

Scrivener on iOS is robust enough to keep working on major projects, like my annual NaNoWriMo novels anywhere I have my iPad.

It integrates well with AEON timeline, critical for tracking timelines in complex stories.

2 Likes

There was a question about how long is ā€œlong formā€. For what itā€™s worth, I looked at what Iā€™ve written using Scrivener and they range from 15,000 to 85,000 words. Itā€™s all non-fiction, technical writing. I donā€™t think Iā€™d bother with Scrivener for anything under, say 5000 words, as I wouldnā€™t need the organizational features.

3 Likes

Could you expound upon this? I have just given up on Scrivener for writing docs because it was too hard to get Makdown out and into (something stored in Git+GitHub).

I used Roy Liuā€™s Scrivener starter repository available here.

Cloned it, put it into my own GIT system on my Mac and now whenever I update my LambTracker manual I can push the changes easily.

Iā€™m trying to move the same thing over to GitLab since I no longer plan to use GitHub.

I am Git novice at best so I just read the information, followed instructions and it worked. I am pretty sure it will work just fine on GitLab too once I get a few hours to go poke at it and get my GIT on my iMac connected to GitLab instead of GitHub.

1 Like

Thanks for the tip, Iā€™ll check out that link. Why are you moving away from GitHub?