What's your go-to medium or platform for writing material?

FF_Ninja · March 14, 2023, 11:07:53 PM

I'm finally at a point where I feel like I can sit down and do some work on a book (my first book, incidentally) and I'm trying to sort out what to use to actually write it. I'd prefer to start as I mean to go on, so.

My first thought is "World Anvil" but I don't know how well it works for writing an actual book. I want something that's more functional than a notepad, obviously, but I also don't want to create unnecessary work for myself.

What do y'all use when writing (for those of you who work on actual content books and such)?

David Johansen · March 15, 2023, 09:34:54 AM

I'm a Word Perfect guy, I suppose that goes with my game preferences.

Zelen · March 15, 2023, 03:03:40 PM

I like actually writing on paper. For software, I like organizing notes in Obsidian. For print, InDesign.

JackFS4 · March 20, 2023, 02:47:19 PM

I use XeTeX/LaTeX with RPG packages from CTAN for document construction. I write using vim. Spellcheck with aspell and version control everything with a local subversion server.

There are a surprising number of TeX packages for DnD, WoD, OSR, and the like. I modified the DnD on for 7th Sea Explorers' League.

Spinachcat · March 20, 2023, 06:42:43 PM

Blank paper journal for brainstorm sessions.
Note app on the phone for on the go.
Longer writing projects I do on GoogleDocs or LibreOffice.
I really like LibreOffice.
Gdocs is ok-ish, mostly for group projects.

Eirikrautha · March 20, 2023, 11:39:37 PM

Quote from: JackFS4 on March 20, 2023, 02:47:19 PM
I use XeTeX/LaTeX with RPG packages from CTAN for document construction. I write using vim. Spellcheck with aspell and version control everything with a local subversion server.

There are a surprising number of TeX packages for DnD, WoD, OSR, and the like. I modified the DnD on for 7th Sea Explorers' League.

There are so many packages on th CTAN site that I can't find anything. Is there a separate repository for game styles like you've listed?

JackFS4 · March 21, 2023, 09:43:39 AM

For OSR looking modules there's rpg-module from CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/rpg-module?lang=en

You'll need a version of the Souvenir font to make it look exactly like the old TSR modules. There are a few places to download it or buy it if you want the original ITC verion. (https://www.typewolf.com/itc-souvenir)

If you want a more 5e style this github site has a really neat class https://github.com/rpgtex/DND-5e-LaTeX-Template
This is the one I doctored for the Explorers' League to match up with 7th Sea using some of the assets in the explorers' league Word template from drivethrurpg.

Eirikrautha · March 21, 2023, 06:34:14 PM

Quote from: JackFS4 on March 21, 2023, 09:43:39 AM

For OSR looking modules there's rpg-module from CTAN: https://ctan.org/pkg/rpg-module?lang=en

You'll need a version of the Souvenir font to make it look exactly like the old TSR modules. There are a few places to download it or buy it if you want the original ITC verion. (https://www.typewolf.com/itc-souvenir)

If you want a more 5e style this github site has a really neat class https://github.com/rpgtex/DND-5e-LaTeX-Template
This is the one I doctored for the Explorers' League to match up with 7th Sea using some of the assets in the explorers' league Word template from drivethrurpg.

Thanks!

Vladar · March 22, 2023, 07:57:01 AM

gVim for quick notes and blog posts (with markdown highlighting)
gVim + vimwiki for local wiki, when it's needed
Markor or (rarely) DroidVim when I'm limited to my phone
LibreOffice Writer for quick and small releases, like Castle of GPT
TeXStudio for more serious and complex stuff, like ItDR
Git for version control
and Google Docs to share current homebrew/houserules with the players.

Fheredin · March 26, 2023, 04:51:57 PM

LibreOffice.

I have used a smattering of LaTex, Scribus, and Inkscape, but at this point over 95% of my workflow is LibreOffice.

saki · March 27, 2023, 05:28:28 PM

NotepadQQ for scratchpad stuff like quick notes or pre-session writeups. I'll often make a quick brain-dumped list of what I expect players to do before a session, or jot notes down for system design.
Zim for organized, hierarchical notes that have to be more permanent. I also use it for formal checklists and changelogs, such as noting to myself what changes I made and what changes I have yet to make.
Draw.io for anything that requires a digital diagram, scattered across my hard drive(s) in the individual folder corresponding to where they're normally relevant.
LibreOffice for all primary book writing, final staging, and other production/publishing matters. I used to use Word, but Microsoft really didn't want it to work on Linux ... so, I quit! LibreOffice is more functional anyways.

Jason Coplen · March 29, 2023, 09:11:35 AM

M$ Word with grammarly. Nothing fancy. I admire the folks who use the fancy pdf programs. My own stuff looks awful....so plain looking.

Tod13 · March 29, 2023, 02:06:26 PM

We use TextMaker - I forget what, but my wife didn't like something about Libre/Open Office. The SoftMaker Office suite (of which TextMaker is part of) has free and paid versions. We have the free.

TextMaker is nice - I recommend updating the dictionary if you use lots of words outside the normal standard deviation.

I do not like PlanMaker, which is SoftMaker's spreadsheet solution. It is too easy to create sheets that bog down a 24 core, 128GB of memory machine. I also had issues where something would bloat the size of the files - never did figure that out. If you just do simple spreadsheets and don't use references between tabs, it should be fine.