Author Markus McDowell and his writing apps

Being a writer requires a lot of thinking, brainstorming, and musing. But when it comes to the actual writing and editing, tools are needed. In the past, of course, it was pen and paper, coil and parchment, and then a typewriter. (Many still write this way, of course, they’ll probably not so much the quail in parchment.)

The advent of the personal computer was a game changer, especially in terms of the ease of editing. No more marking up a page and then re-typing it on a typewriter.

Today, with laptops, personal computers, phones and tablets, all of which work together and sync over a cloud system, makes writing far more efficient and, dare I say, fun. I can take notes even on my phone while I’m out. I can do quite a bit of writing and editing even on an iPad.

So without further ado, here are the tools I use currently.

Ulysses. This is a wonderful writing app, the only gets better every year. It began as a way of writing using only mark up, which was not ideal for many people who like WYSIWYG. But today, it is a complete writing environment. Following the user interface model pioneered by Apple’s iTunes, there is a library down the left-hand side of the window. The library can be filled with folders, folders within folders, and sheets. Sheets can be glued together to be seen and worked with as one document, but shows separately inside the folders.

Ulysses makes it easy to do away with just as much or as little interface distraction as you wish. You can use commands for formatting, or use Markdown code. It has a built-in spelling and grammar checker, and each sheet has a drawer connected that can hold notes, writing statistics, outlines tied to the sheet, and graphics.

It can export to a variety of formats, including Microsoft Word and PDF, but can also post directly to a blog or a website.

There are Mac, iPad, and iPhone version, which always stay in sync with each other, and the developers have truly done an excellent job of staying with the similar in her face on different types of devices. I always have my entire library of writings, completed and in progress, regardless of where I am as long as I have my phone.

I do every single bit of my writing in Ulysses: books, short stories, ghostwriting, editing projects, blog posts, and more.

(It’s a nice touch that the app’s name comes from a book by one of my favorite authors, James Joyce.)

Aeon Timeline. When something that I am writing requires close attention to chronology, this is my go-to app. It is quite involved in extensive, but the developers have included several templates, including some for writers. Not only is there a timeline view, but there is also a narrative view, especially for writers, where you can organize chapters and scenes. There is also a spreadsheet view, and outline view, as well as a mind map function. All of these elements come from the same data, just different ways to look at it. You can also set up characters and locations, with data such as birthdates and death dates and marriages and so on. Arcs allow you to follow different characters or plot lines, as well as include information that might be happening in the larger world of the story but not actually part of the narrative.

Each event can have a time, duration, participating characters, observing characters, location, and much more. Characters can be designated as protagonist, allies, protagonist, and so on; you can also set constraints to the dates, add notes, elements of scene tension, and far more. Crucially, all of these events can be synced and tied to Ulysses or Scrivener. The meta-data associated with each of vent, character, and location, become notes in the side drawer in Ulysses.

Like Ulysses, Aeon timeline has a Mac, iPad, and iPhone version. All sync through the cloud, and again, the interface is fairly similar on each device.

Others. Those are the only two apps that I use these days that directly relate to writing. Of course, I use many others in an auxiliary function. My project and task manager is ToDoist, which I love after having used Things for many years and OmniFocus for many years before that. I use Ninox for database purposes, Plutio for tracking and invoicing my ghostwriting and editing clients, and Ferrite Recording Studio for recording and editing podcasts and audiobooks. Apple Notes is a place to keep general reference notes, and I use Apple Pages for word processing on the occasion when I need that beyond Ulysses (it exports and imports to Word files seamlessly, but is much more efficient and elegant).

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