Mark Me Down, Scotty

Or should that be, Scrivvy? Or Pommy? No, wait. It definitely can't be Pommy, sorry Pomera, you'll need to sit this one out.

Scrivener has been my go-to desktop writing package for a while, mainly for it's ease of organising scenes and files, but also the very customisable interface/editor and - now that I use the Pomera so much - the Markdown features of Scrivener's compiler.

That said, it's actually... a bit much. For what I need. I do not need the vast span of formats, styles, handling of styles, layouts and so on that the Scrivener compiler offers. Let's be real here, if I wanted a nicely formatted text, I'd be using .css because it's online or putting it in Affinity Publisher because it's for print purposes. Neither require Scrivener.

But muh Markdown.

Well. There are other writing-focused programs that can handle Markdown, some of them perhaps with an implementation better suited for my Pomera-import-based purposes.

Typora is my current trial-run choice. Very customisable thanks to its Theme system, much like Scrivener, but its themes are just standard .css and not the strange, opaque approach Scrivvy takes. It has the same Outline/Binder sidepanel as Scrivener too! And still takes images etc. like Scriv. Typora uses Github-Format Markdown (GFM) and you type out the little marks and Typora then switches to displaying the formatted text without visible markers after a split second; but will still allow re-editing of the Markdown and copying the text with the markers back out of the editor, so it works well with my .txt-based workflow.

There are other equivalents, of course. iAWriter. Caret. Maybe even the renowned Obsidian (although this does a lot more than just handle Markdown).

Typora, though, is cheap (like $15, which is maybe 12 whole Sterling pounds?! Cheaper than a café lunch 'round here), uncomplicated by AI inclusions or superfluous functions, and the styling of the entire program (almost) is by .css, so I can have my dropcaps, and eat them too!

Which, did you know there's a whole .css variable for making raised/dropped caps? Initial-letter. I am so mad. I could have used that years ago for this site's stylesheet too, you know! Grumble, grumble, grumble.

UPDATE: the Firefox implementation of initial-letter is bugged, I'm stuck with my current drop caps for the site until/unless that is fixed. Much sadge.

Yes. More .css tinkering incoming. Please stop watching until I'm done changing the site's styles.

I'm still perfecting that Typora theme, I'm using Themable - Dark as a base and going from there to add my dropcaps, my font changes and so on, but it's working so far! I'll hopefully have the time, energy and inspiration to write some more soon and properly put the Pom>Typ>Publii process through its paces. Hopefully.

Well, we'll see how that goes. Life is rather hectic at the moment, I've not even once seriously thought about doing some form of novel writing month for this November. I sort of signed up to the PWA NovelNovember thing? But only to see what discounts were on offer; I'm still holding out for a Black Friday sale on Aeon Timelines - please, software gods hear my prayers!

(And if we're being honest: ProWritingAid grosses me out. Even 'assistive' AI of the sort they hawk for most of their services just strikes me as... gross. Training models, but also training human writers to write in the same LLM-edited styles as each other. It feels souless and like there's a fundamental creative, human element being removed from the creative process when you start to let an LLM tell you about what's cliché or stilted or incorrect.

Not to mention, the more you train these models, even non-generative ones, the more actual, human editors and proof-readers and publishing assistants can be replaced by a small monthly subscription AI service to save on salaries and timescales. Nope! Not for me, no uploads to PWA, and no NovNov. I'm halfway to disappointed that Scrivener's developers have sponsored PWA's NovNov but also aware there are no other vaguely large schemes stepping into the NaNo-sized hole in the writerscape this year.)

Either way, watch this space! I'm sure I'll be back here with some craft/words/games-related post at some point soon(-ish).

Maybe an update on the new site stylesheet and the final Typora look? Who knows. Not I.