Writing ✍️
Hello friends!
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Last week I wired up a technical proof of concept for my Serial Maker eBook. I needed to make sure I could build a site that layered React on top of Markdown pages, easily integrated a payment system like Stripe for some paid content, and allowed users to authenticate to access premium content from anywhere. Gatsby fits the bill, and I'll be moving forward with this tech stack.
Now I need to prepare myself to actually bear down and write my eBook.
Here's the plan of attack.
The writing environment
Thanks to years and years of programming in front of a keyboard and monitor, I can type at a respectable pace. As much as I love a good pen and some paper, writing a book is going to require some typing if I ever want to finish this project.
So I've been on the hunt for a writing app. Here are the requirements:
Distraction-free UI. I want to be able to focus on the task at hand without worrying about anything else.
Write-in/export to markdown. My eBook concept includes a set of markdown pages, so easily transferring my writing to markdown is a must.
Synchronize content across all my devices. When an idea comes at a moment when I don't have my computer in front of me, I want to be able to start writing on my phone before I forget about it.
You might be thinking, why not just write markdown directly in the codebase? Because a code editor is not an ideal writing environment. It's great for syntax highlighting and autocomplete, but I don't want the editor to get in the way.
I took a look at the basics: Pages, Google Docs, and Word. I can access these apps from anywhere. Unfortunately, these are full-fledged word processing apps and far from distraction-free. They can export to markdown, but only with some additional software.
So I checked out some of the new hot apps on the block. Namely Bear, Ghost, and Notion. All three have beautiful, distraction-free interfaces.
Bear writes directly in markdown, yay! But you need a paid subscription to sync your content across devices.
Ghost looks amazing! It accepts a large number of markdown commands. It doesn't have a free plan, and it doesn't export to markdown out of the box. You need to export to JSON and then run a script to transcribe to markdown. Oh well.
That leaves Notion.
Notion, although daunting at first, because of all the magical things it can do, is actually at its core a simplistic writing app. It synchronizes instantly to all devices. You don't even need to click a save button. You can export to markdown! And someday, I may even be able to automate this...
This looks promising.
Actually writing
Fortunately, I've drastically increased the amount of writing I've been doing over the past year both through this newsletter and my blog. But am I really ready to write a book? As in all things, I'm a big believer in just jumping in and figuring it out. And I'm certainly going to be doing that with this book. But I'd like to get some sort of guidance on how best to communicate ideas.
So I'm looking to David Perell for some writing instruction. His evergreen article, The Ultimate Guide to Writing Online, is a masterclass in writing. I'll be referring to that constantly as I edit my work.
I've also signed up for Perell's Monday Musings newsletter. Hopefully, this will help to not only improve my writing but get me over the inevitable writer's block.
Next week 📅
It's time to start writing. I'm hoping to get 1-3 chapters done by next week. I'll let you know how it goes!
Keep making, and thanks for reading! 🙌
Hit reply to tell me what you're making. I'm looking for anyone interested in talking about their own side-projects and maker journey, so speak up if you'd like to appear in Serial Maker. I'd also love to know what you thought of this issue, and what you want to hear about in the future. And don't forget to continue the conversation on Discord!
Until next week,
Craig