Behind the Scenes: Ulysses is the best app for writing historical fiction

As I have mentioned in other posts, my current work-in-progress is an historical novel about Steve “Desert Steve” Ragsdale, a preacher and cotton farmer who set out to found a town in the middle of the Colorado Desert, 50 miles (ca. 80 km) from any settlement.

For all my writing, I use Ulysses app. I’ve used many writing apps over the decades, but Ulysses is by far the best for how I work.

Ulysses organize writings in “groups” and “sheets.” Sheets are where you do the actual writing, and it is up to you how to organize them: each sheet can be a scene, a chapter, or a whole story or book. Sheets can be added to groups, which are really folders. Groups can be nested inside other groups. So, a group can be designated and named as a whole project, the manuscript, research notes, whatever you like. For example, you might have a group that is called “my book.” Inside it might be other groups for the manuscript, notes, ideas for a cover, etc.

You can designate some sheets as “material sheets,” which have a red line across the top at all views and are not exported (there are multiple options for export: Microsoft Word, PDF, RTF, WordPress, and many more).

Each sheet can be tagged with a keyword, which can be assigned a color. Recently, Ulysses added a new type of collection “folder” called “Project.” The difference from a group is that it stands alone from all the other writings in your Ulysses file. Importantly, a Project can have its own set of keywords does not show up anywhere outside the Project. Previously, any keywords you created would be available to any sheet anywhere in your Ulysses app, regardless of what you are working on. This limited the use of keywords because you could end off with hundreds of keywords, most of them not applicable to the current project you are working on.

For example, I might have a group at the highest level that represents an author’s book I am editing or a ghost-writing project. I don’t really need to make this a standalone Project because I’m not going to use many unique keywords or have need for many research or notes folders. (My standard keywords across all writings are things like “Need to write,” “in progress,” “first draft,” “first edit,” “Final Draft,” and so on).

However, my current novel resides in its own Project. Within the project is a folder called “manuscript”—the actual contents of the manuscript and relevant research notes (assigned as material sheets). Other groups/folders are for characters (each sheet is a separate character with all the information about that person), locations, research notes (designed as “material sheets”). I put research notes that will become part of actual scenes within the manuscript folder. More general research notes, such as the flora and fauna of the Colorado Desert, go in the separate research folder (outside the manuscript folder). Other non-manuscript groups/folders could be locations, unused scenes, blurbs, ideas for descriptions, and anything that doesn’t fit into the main manuscript.

Within the manuscript, I assign more groups/folders to each major historical section. Within that are the material sheets that I will use to write each scene directly, and then, of course, sheets for every scene. Eventually, the scene sheets may be collected into further groups that will become chapters within the larger historical sections.

Project view with material sheet and scenes

When I begin to write, I open up a material sheet (research notes) alongside a scene sheet and simply start writing. I can add highlighted notes, annotations, pictures, side notes, and more, which are contained in the sheet or a side window, but will not be part of the final manuscript when I export it.

Most important, though, is the use of unique keywords that only appear in this project. I use them to keep on top of all of my major topics, narrative flow, and consistency.

When you go to assign a keyword, Ulysses opens a window with all Project keywords I have created. They are organized in alphabetical order. (There may be a way to organize them manually, but I would rather not have to worry about that each time I create a new one). I create tags for three different major areas: Characters, Locations, and Subjects. Every Character keyword begins with an icon of a person. Each Location tag begins with a map marker icon, and Subject keywords begin with a dash (“-“). This puts all the same type of keyword together in alphabetical order.

I also color code the keywords, just to make them stand out ever more. When I am looking at a material sheet (research note) I can select multiple keywords to tag the scene, so that just by looking at the sheet preview, I know which characters, locations, and subject are contained therein. It also allows me later to go back and do a search for every sheet and research note or scene that mentions a Character, Location, or Subject. For example, if I search for “?PegLeg Smith,” I can see all notes and scenes containing information on this old prospector. This helps me to check for consistency, proper chronology, proper narrative flow, and to make sure I have made use of all relevant research notes.

Using this method, I don’t have to go shuffling around trying to find notes and make sure all the information I’ve researched over the last few years has been used properly. The system also makes researching, organizing, writing, and editing more engaging because I don’t wonder if I’ve missed something.

Kudos to Ulysses for such an excellent writing app. The addition of the projects category with its own set of keywords has taken the app to a whole new level for me, even better than it already was.

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