I use FocusWriter, I believe it's exactly what you're describing. Its primary purpose is to provide a distraction-free writing environment (which I need--ADD makes it nearly impossible to get words down most times) but it also keeps track of your daily counts, your writing streaks, best days, etc.
Another tool that tries to be distraction free is FocusWriter, and I really like it.
It can be themed to be as distraction free as possible imho. It's also crossplatform.
https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/
(Though personally it's either gedit or vim for most of it, and I do my proofreading on pen and paper.)
Here's a similar question from last year that had a bunch of helpful answers.
Also, I was using FocusWriter(https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/) during the month. You can set a daily time/word count goal and it will track it over time. I'm not sure it would be as nice as the NaNo site, but it's a great program overall for low-distraction writing.
You might prefer FocusWriter which supports simple formatting like bold and italics (and text alignment) but not much else. It can open and save both Unicode text and Open Document Text files, and does smart quotes.
It has a very simple UI that is minimalistic, and a couple themes that are display-only, and might be a great way to give you a few of the niceties of a word processor without all the distraction. (It can also optionally track word count/writing goals.)
Plus it's free and compatible with LibreOffice.
Do you want to eliminate all potential distractions, or just have that distraction-free environment when you need it? If it's the second thing, you could install focuswriter. I'm using Linux Mint and it's one of the packages available through the package manager.
If you're really determined, maybe consider /r/freeDOS (not Linux, actually a continued development of a DOS-style OS) with USB extensions, which offers that kind of environment by default.
I don't technically listen to anything, but the writing software I use (FocusWriter) allows the option of typewriter sounds.
That, combined with my thick-keyed mechanical keyboard, creates an oddly soothing writing experience.
I not sure what you mean by "better than Word" but I'll throw FocusWriter out there.
It promotes distraction-free writing by hiding all the toolbars, has a built-in scene shelf and you can set a daily goal in the form of word count or time spent. As a non-english writer I also like the possibility to set which quotes will be used in documents as regular english quotes are considered wrong in my language.
Anyway these are the main features I like and use, you can read more about it and download it for free from the link.
Personally, I use Windows Notepad for the writing (absolutely no distractions to, well, distract me), and LibreOffice or OpenOffice for edits. (BOth are free/open source word processor programs similar to MS Word).
In a pinch I use Google Docs, but that's mostly when I'm on my android phone since it's free and I'm already logged into Google anyway.
There's also a free program called FocusWriter. It's a stripped down, customizable very lightweight word processor with basic spellcheck built in. You can't do much formatting, but it's very similar to ZenWriter. I used FW heavily back when I was stuck using a Cloudbook/Chromebook machine for a few years when my main laptop kept having issues.
As for posting, standard AO3, used to use FFN.
Boy do I have good news for you. (On the top you can see "print layout") But if you just want to write (without the organizing interface) you can use focus writer: full screen interface with only text and an image background. You can customize the size of the text area so that it is the same as on a page.
It probably works fine, but considering that the latest build is from 7 years ago I think it's fair to say that it's been abandoned.
A comparable program worth checking out instead might be FocusWriter -- as it's also free, cross-platfrom, and still being actively updated.
FocusWriter. It's a minimalist, distraction-free editor (fullscreen, just text, not toolbars) that lets you set writing goals. It's also free and open source, which is nice.
There's lots of great software out there that helps you waste time by writing character bios instead of writing your story, but a word processor like LibreOffice Writer, FocusWriter, or Word is basically the thing you're going to spend the most time in. Even in Scrivener, it's just words in a file.
If you're looking for something fresh, I recommend FocusWriter and yWriter. They're exceptional and they're free, so it costs you only time to try out. There's nothing wrong with Scrivener either, which gives you 30 days (non-consecutive!) to try it free. There's a NaNoWriMo discount if you win.
That said, I scribble notes in a notebook with a fountain pen because I like to use paper when I'm brainstorming, so software's distracting to me. Scrivener's tools are extremely useful for keeping track of things. There's nothing about the tools that make them more 'dangerous' of a distraction than my notepads.
Just make sure you're not looking for an excuse to do the fun stuff like backstories and things instead of writing. That's the real trap. Good luck!
I write them all. The good and the bad. If it isn't meant to be it dies. If it is, I continue.
My writing program Focuswriter, which is the best writing app ever period BTW, allows me to manage my stories through sessions, allowing me to keep all the drafts organized for easy reference and rereading.
As for keeping track of ideas, well, if I have good ideas, I don't usually stop thinking about them long enough to lose track of them. I know that's not very helpful, but it's just how my brain works.
That, or I use one of these. Extremely helpful little organizer. (Protip, check out the ink and quills website for more awesome stuff like that. I&Q are awesome)
And if I'm really scared I'll loose the idea before I get a chance to write it down, I'll text it to my friend and tell him to text it back to me the next morning.
Oh, and as for keeping all my ideas organized, I just save them all in seperate folders, even the dead ones.
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was "Never delete a piece of writing. No matter how bad it is."
Undeniably, word processors target the printed page. As long as a supervisor, instructor, co-worker, editor, or proof-reader might require hard copy (or a pdf version) it will to stay that way as most users prefer a single, all-purpose tool.
As the author points out, there are tools for word smiths that are simple and get out of the way like Focused or FocusWriter (open-source, Win/OSX/Linux, recommended). But then you have to learn a different interface and accept barebones formatting and print capabilities. Or import your work into a "real" word processor for full featured printing.
I use Q10 most of the time. This is a free full screen editor with no distractions. It also has a timer and target counts.
Sometimes I use yWriter. It's great for checking stuff like how many scenes focus on a particular character .
FocusWriter is also another full-screen editor. It has customizable themes and daily goals.
Maybe have a look at Focus writer. It is a simple document editor, with bold, italic, underline, strikethrough options. Is easy on the machine, and pleasant for the eyes. I tried it out with a 100+ something file, it didn't have any problems with it. It also has some wordcount, character count-statistic; simple headings and align justify feature. You can also open multiple documents in it, as it has tabs.
<strong>focuswriter</strong> is one of the nicest writing programs I know of. It's free and open source. The clutter-free human interface coupled with its flexible theming makes it a total pleasure for distraction-free writing.
What trash. Just use FocusWriter which sets up a distraction free writing environment. I would call that person lazy but really they are just an asshole for buying that piece of shit.
My favourite minimalist word processor, FocusWriter, lets you open multiple documents in the same window and navigate between them using tabs. The tabs, like all other non-text elements, are hidden until you move your mouse to the bottom of the screen.
I use FocusWriter. It's a distraction-free editor (full screen, just text, no toolbars), that lets you set daily goals and alarms and whatnot. It's also free and open-source, which is nice. Highly recommended.
Have I got the software for you
E concordo, comunque. Appena apro qualsiasi programma di videoscrittura dedicato mi parte il fastidio, mentre con i programmini minimali scrivo con tranquillità. Fai conto che fino a un paio d'anni fa scrivevo così...
Go to some write-ins! Camaraderie and word wars do amazing things to your word count. My first year, I was like you. I could just barely make 1667 words in a day. Then I started going to write-ins and I can pound out 5k words in 45 minutes of non-consecutive 15-minute chunks.
Barring that, get a program like FocusWriter and turn on the typewriter sounds! They really help me get into the zone.
Using low-end hardware with open source software to make awesome stuff is about the coolest and most compelling kind of endeavour I can imagine. In my eyes, your music EP deserves to succeed simply because of the authenticity of the groundwork you're laying in order to bring something new and creative into the world---a narrative of one who makes narratives.
The old Dell Latitude E6500 laptop I'm using to type this has been running Manjaro Linux for a full year now. One of my primary uses for it is web development, but I've also been working on some fiction writing on it using the open source distraction-free writing software FocusWriter. (I've actually been using FocusWriter since before I had this Linux distro set up.) I use GIMP for image editing, Inkscape for logo design and other vector editing (mostly to produce SVGs for web design), and Pencil for making wireframes. I really like my setup, both for its unique quirks, for the customization that I put in it, and for what it enables me to create.
The tools that we use to create are part of the stories of how a thing was made, and those stories are special, in my opinion.
I'm a strong advocate for Sublime Text as a Notepad replacement, but it sounds like you're asking for the wrong thing. Since you're a writer, there are tools better suited towards your needs. It sounds like you want a minimalist word processing program. In that case, maybe you should check out these:
Gedit is what I use as well. Not a "coder" so I disable all the bells and whistles and just use it as a basic notepad, like you. I also recently discovered FocusWriter:
https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/
It's very pretty and simple. I use that for more long-term writing stuff.
The obvious answer is a terminal text editor, and I'm sure there will be plenty of people recommending their favourites. I'll just put a couple of other solutions here:
cat >> file.txt
(press Ctrl-D when finished). I wouldn't really recommend just catting to a file. It has many limitations compared to a real editor, like not being able to edit previous lines and not having any way to save other than by quitting. However, it is, I believe, the closest thing to what you literally asked for.
If you're not tied to using the terminal for this (and there are good reasons not to be, such as the ability to use a proportional font), then there are actually quite a few GUI text editors made with this exact thing in mind.
Here are just the ones I found with apt search distraction
on Debian:
https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/
https://support.google.com/docs/answer/6388102?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop
Here's a way to use Google docs offline
https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/
Another option would be Microsoft word you would have to pay for it but it has a dark mode feature
I was searching for the same thing and realised its pretty touch to find a good web based one.
I use Vim or focus writer and use github to back up/version control
No UI or you can turn it off for focus writer
I agree, it's a kind of satisfying progress of your project.
Once in a while I like to toggle the sounds on in one of the text editors I use.
In case anyone is interested, the one that has toggle-able sounds is Focus Writer
I felt really lonely the first month but it got gradually better. Have you tried journal writing? I use a program called Focus Writer pretty much every day and find it helps alot to express myself. You can download it here:
Fasting is a good thing to get into in my opinion. It helps you properly understand your relationship with food and gives your digestive organs a much needed rest.
I also do a lot of journaling on my laptop using a program called Focus Writer which blocks out all distractions so you can get things off your chest and de-stress
I almost never need to use let () =
and, when I do, I far prefer it to what I'd have to deal with if the language design were allowed to assume an IDE... or even just developing a "non-IDE language" in an IDE.
As I've mentioned before, I'm one of those people who configures Vim to be akin to a distraction-free writing tool, but for code. (eg. FocusWriter where everything except the page you type on is in auto-hide trays at the sides.)
I've been using FocusWriter for my last few projects and I really like it. Distraction-free and very lightweight. One thing you have to know is that formatting is done via the theme. I duplicate a theme, set up my preferred formatting in that and set the default file format to rtf. Manuscripts don't need anything else.
If you're looking for something with lots of plotting and character options, check out Wavemaker cards. There's also /r/wavemakercards/. It's a chrome app that syncs to your google drive. You can also write in it and have your notes and so forth right on the screen.
I just want to echo the other posters in saying journaling is a great way of exploring your emotions and finding out what is wrong. FocusWriter is a good tool for this if you don't want to use an old fashioned pen and paper. You can find out more / download it here:
Being in a similar situation, I went for a T420s with xubuntu installed on it. Keyboard on those is great for typing, it has a hardware wifi switch to break the internet, yet is still more than capable enough to keep everything I use running without hiccups. Biggest downside is that the screen aspect ratio is not ideal for text in fullscreen.
I use FocusWriter for distraction-free typing (I set it up with a retro-text-editing-look: black screen with green text, like my mother used to type), text formatting can be handled on a more advanced word processor after the typing has finished.
Are you familiar with software called FocusWriter? It's available for Linux and wind'ohs - free! https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/
You can customize the screen and make it look like an old DOS screen with any font you have. I use courier for that typewriter look. AND, you can turn on typewriter sounds in its preference settings. It's very bare-bones but has spellchecking, saves in several different formats, like odt, plain text, etc., and some bells and whistles for keeping track of your writing output.
There are no visible distractions, just a screen of your text - everything else is hidden - unless you want it otherwise. It's very customizable. I use it everyday, all day. I even have the margins set to match my typewriter, making it simple to know when to do a carriage return and hyphenation (done manually) when copying to the typewriter.
My workflow is currently split between the Scrivener 3 Beta for Windows when working on my novel and FocusWriter for writing short stories. The former has a lot of great tools for tracking status of chapters/sections, taking notes, formatting, etc. Plus, the Scriv3 beta has a dark mode, which is a huge plus to me. I can't stand bright backgrounds, kills my eyes.
I will say FocusWriter is one of the best distraction-free writing environments I've tried in the last decade. Most are very simple to the point they lack even basic formatting options (e.g. italics, bold, strikethrough, etc.). FocusWriter saves in the Open Document Text format (odt), which is the same LibreOffice and OpenOffice use. Word is capable of handling them as well. It makes the format portable and convenient, and the theming system to tweak it to your liking has all the essentials that I could ask for at least. It even runs well on a dumpy, low-power netbook I resuscitated for long trips without access to power.
The problem is that there's no way that I know of to convert from HDMI to the 9-pin digital signal used by those monochrome monitors. Even composite to monochrome is going to be a problem if you go with an older rpi with composite output. They're also old, expensive (I bet that $100 doesn't include shipping) and often DOA, dying or otherwise faulty. I get it, they're great, but retrocomputing is fraught with complications that make this goal unrealistic if you want "relative ease."
It really sounds like you just want a machine for distraction free writing. Get yourself a Raspberry Pi or other small machine, and get a 16:9 monitor on a mount that allows it to be in portrait mode. This is really great for reading and writing, the tall aspect ratio really changes the whole feel. Then have it boot directly into FocusWriter, a no-frills word processor that hides everything and lets you type. Woodgrain not your thing? It can look like this if you want it to. I think the end result is what you're looking for even if you didn't get there in the way that you wanted.
If you have a typewriter, you would need to scan it (or take a photo of it) and then convert the image to text. I believe Google Docs can convert images to text for free.
If you use "backspace" a lot or like changing things after you type them, maybe buy an ultra-cheap laptop or table + Bluetooth keyboard instead of a typewriter. Then don't install any games on it. If possible, don't enter your wifi password into it and instead only transfer documents through USB and only connect to internet when you physically plug your new device into your router. It's easy to get that super-focus feel without buying a typwriter.
If you want (free) software that keeps you focus on writing and removes all distractions, try out FocusWriter ( https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/ ). If you've heard of Dark Room, this software is similar to that but also better.
Wow, that's quite an impressive number of offline activities.
Right now, I spend more time using tech than I'm comfortable with. I started living nomadically out of a backpack 6 months ago so the need for physical minimalism meant that I went back to tech for some activities, like taking notes and planning my day. Subscribing to a newspaper or magazine isn't an option for me right now, and with the pandemic I've not felt able to avoid the news altogether so I get it online.
For writing I use a minimalist word processor, FocusWriter.
You ask for additional advice. Are there any particular areas where you feel you are using tech too much for your health? It sounds like you have your tech usage under control, so maybe you don't need to push this philosophy to extremes.
The best way to create lore varies from person to person; I often do so while I'll creating a draft of the story. Experiment and see what works best for you.
I kept a file of notes seperate from the story where I can note down any important details I might to forget. When I'm editing a draft, I pay special attention to watch for contradictions and inconsistancies.
Pretty much any software that lets you type text will work; I've been using FocusWriter personally.
I use Apple's Pages for a few reasons, though mostly because it came with my laptop for free and there's no way I'm spending hundreds of dollars on Microsoft Word when I have a fine word processor right here. I also like the fact that Pages syncs to my tablet and phone, so I can add on to chapters and work on my projects almost anywhere. It also doesn't seem to drain as much battery life as other word processors like OpenOffice's Writer, but that's entirely anecdotal.
I also sometimes use a free app called Focus Writer when I want to write individual scenes and snippets. It doesn't really allow for complicated formatting, but that's kind of a blessing. It's designed so that you just set a background and a font, and that's it—you just write, distraction free. All of my final drafts are done in Pages so I can format them how I want, but for smaller scenes that will later be added to chapters, Focus works well.
I think it all comes down to what's best for you and the devices you have (Pages would probably not be a great choice if you don't own any Apple devices and don't have an iCloud account, for example.) The only word processor I can honestly say I don't like is Google Docs, partially because it requires an internet connection and is browser based, so it drains my laptop's battery quickly. It also seems to glitch out pretty frequently, especially when documents get larger. That's entirely anecdotal, though, and it could just be my terrible Internet connection and/or laptop.
I know the feeling. You need to start writing, daily. I voice "write" everything because my thoughts go too fast for my typing. Don't worry about punctuation, grammar, or anything. Just get it out. If you're actually typing, dont even worry about capitalization or paragraphs or anything. Just get it all out. Write in a basic text editor that saves the file as a ".TXT" file so you can take it anywhere and you wont get stuck thinking about the app. If/when I do type, I use FocusWriter. If you're concerned with the content you mention in your writing, you could also encrypt the files so nobody else can read them. Do anything and everything to get a space to get it all out of your head.
I usually can write about 3,000 words a day with complete garbage like "i need to take out the trash, last time i forgot and we had to ask a neighbor to use their bin, maybe my kid will help me remember, or i could just set a reminder, i think thats what ill do, i dont know why i dont use siri more, she even has location reminders, but then again i cant do that because i am already home when i need to take out the trash so i guess i should just set a regular interval alarm to go off and then i can go from there, yeah that shoud work. okay so anyway what else is in here..."
Read this about how writing is better than meditation too!
Good luck mate!
I use FocusWriter for everything these days. It's free, open source, has a distraction-free mode, supports basic text formatting (bold, italic, underline, multiple heading levels, etc). Supports the Big Three (Linux, Mac, Windows). Saves to TXT, RTF, ODT.
Want a papyrus theme? No problem, just find a papyrus image on Google and set that as your background for the editor. You can customise the colour scheme for the text, and there are a couple of preset themes included (from all right to really good looking, like the wooden desk theme).
As much as I love Scrivener, I also love FocusWriter. It's basically the most bare-bones distraction-free text editor I've found. It doesn't have the perks of Scrivener, and there are times that I find I prefer its simplicity over everything else.
I've been using FocusWriter as I'm working on a first draft. I have autosave on and my documents are in my Dropbox, so really all I need to do to work is fire it up and start typing.
Twenty-five years ago I owned an old Brother WP-75 or -80 word processor. You might be able to find one on eBay somewhere. It's horribly archaic by modern standards, but it might be close to what you're looking for.
I'd also look at "distraction-free" word processors, such as FocusWriter (https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/).
Koala Writer is a discontinued project. You might want to try another alternative.
http://alternativeto.net/software/ommwriter/?platform=linux
Focus Writer looks promising https://gottcode.org/focuswriter/
If you still like to try out Koala Writer though
You download the source files
Just extract at same location. Where you download it to.
Make sure you have these install.
sudo apt-get install build-essential qt4-dev-tools libphonon-dev
Now compile at the same location where the source codes are at after you extract the tar.gz file.
Do these commands
qmake
and then:
make
To run type: ./KoalaWriter
If you get any errors along the way. Just read the error. It usually explains well how to get pass the error message(s). If you need help come back.