My Plain Text Journey Continues!

Getting back with an old flame…

After many trials, as documented in previous posts, I decided to abandon plain text.

Perhaps I was throwing my toys out of the pram, but ironically, the simplest of document formats was causing me complicated issues.

Or perhaps it wasn’t the document type, but how to use it.

How I used it.
Was I overthinking?

Me?!

I was looking at what other people were doing and struggling to make their “systems” work for me.

I guess these days I’m eligible to be diagnosed with some kind of disorder.
You can’t be hip with the millennials and gen-Zs unless you’re on some kind of “spectrum”, right?

My wife’s psychotherapist cousin wrote an entire book about it: Drop the Disorder.

I digress…

Despite my issues (symptoms?) I do really like plain text.
It’s light, clean, simple, pure. You know all this.

Plain text is like that old flame.

Younger, fresher, more attractive, eneregetic young things come along, but they just don’t have that spark.

Yet still I was struggling to find a plain text “system” that worked for me.

(I keep putting the word “system” in quotes; maybe there’s a problem in itself…)

It got to the point where the benefits of plain text didn’t seem to be worth the effort of trying to find a solution.

Non-plain text apps — let’s call them standard apps — can be very convenient, and offer a whole lot of functionality.

A lot of plain text apps offer a whole lot of functionality, too.

Sometimes apps just offer too much functionality.
And that’s where I’ve determined my problem lies.

Note here that I say my problem.
It’s not necessarily your problem.

And certainly not any particular app’s problem.

I’ve realised that feature-rich apps are not good for me. 
Too many features are not conducive to my productivity.

And it turns out that too many features is not that many.

Many apps offer a lot of features to meet perceived value for money expectations.

• Linking
• Highlights and decorations
• Publishing tools
• Sharing options
• Libraries, plugins, stats
• Targets, goals
• Life coaching
• Relationship tips
• The answer to life, the universe and everything

A lot of people find these things very useful.
And they can help justify a subscription.

“For the price of a cup of coffee…”
No one drinks that much coffee.

I hate subscriptions.
Although I do have a couple.

So that’s another thing.

Me vs the internet!

Brace yourself, because I’m going to say this…

I don’t like Obsidian.

This would, if the internet is anything to go by, put me in the minority.
I may even be out on my own.

I don’t care.

In a similar way to how Cultured Code’s Things 3 really winds me up, Obsidian does my head in.

Its options overwhelm me. And its interface is shite.
I just opened it while writing this: I hate it.

Yes, I know it can be themed, that there are countless plugins and ways it can be tweaked and customised and it can be as simple or complicated as you want and it was a project two guys knocked up while marooned on a desert island or something…

T’aint for me, kids.

All those options is exactly my problem.
I don’t want that kind of thing.

They are a rabbit hole.
A maze.
A bottomless pit.
An eternal flame.

No, hang on, I’m thinking of that song by The Bangles.

Walk Like an Egyptian.

Anyway.
I don’t want all those options.

Because, given that we’ve acknowledged that I have some kind of condition, Obsidian is one big overwhelming distraction.

I have no interest in programming or coding or whatever you want to call it.

I don’t want to explore plugins and themes.

I don’t want to have to create a shortcut or app or script — the kind of thing that gets a geek’s knickers wagging.

I’m a writer.
I write.

I express my thoughts and feelings through words, and sometimes I use those words and sometimes I share those words.

I don’t even like markdown. 
I can see it’s useful, but it makes documents an ugly mess.

(Although I do sometimes use asterisks for emphasis on my typewriter…)

So why not just use rich text?
Well, I could, but it’s not plain text. And for some reason, that’s what I want.

I like vanilla ice cream too. Go figure.

Drafts seemed to offer the solution. 
And it is a great app.

But for this delicate writer, Drafts is just too much.
Drafts is quite a lot.

You might find Drafts’ features useful and appealing. But for me its multiple functions, workspaces and macros and menus are like getting smothered by an avalanche.

So I thought about it.
What did I want?

I wanted the equivalent of my typewriter. 
Something that just allows me to get the words down.

Thoughts and feelings are fragile things.
They need handling with care.

Not shoving through a processor.

In the very early stages of drafting something I am more “productive” with a notebook and my typewriter than I am with any app.

Productive?

Let’s replace “productive” with “creative”.
I’m a creative person.

The act of producing something that did not previously exist — even something like this post — is an act of creativity, not productivity.

Productivity can help us do something with the stuff we’ve created, but they are very different.

You can’t systematise creativity.
Creativity is not an efficient process.

It’s as messy and difficult as a three-year old.
Systems are for efficiency.

Your boss wants you to be efficient.
Us creative types need passion.

(See, I knew had a problem with “systems”.)

So, to replicate that offline, analogue, distraction-free typewriter feel, I reckoned I needed an app that does one thing well.

Like iA Writer used to be.

An app without a library or archive. 
An app with no bells or whistles.

Well, perhaps one little bell to let you know when lunch is ready.
But otherwise an app as quiet as you ever did encounter.

An app in which I type and the result is a single, solitary, beautiful, lightweight, simple text file that contains all my fragile thoughts and feelings sensitively massaged into words… and nothing else.

Like a sheet of paper rolled from my typewriter.

That was what I wanted.

I (re)read many articles on the internet about plain text.
One of them mentioned an app I used long ago but had forgotten about.

I sat up. A light bulb came on.
That’s what happens when you leave the Hue remote on the sofa.

The app’s name?

Byword.

Byword appeared in 2012.
It offers plain text and rich text.

I’d removed Byword from my Mac long since, but this was like getting a message from that old flame.

A message from someone who knows just what to say.
A message that gives you a right tingle in the thrumpet.

I downloaded the latest version of Byword and reacquainted myself.

Open the app. Type.
Roll paper into typewriter. Type.
 
Name the file something I’ll remember easily. Type.
Put the date at the top of the page. Type.

Leave it in the folder.
Stick it in a folder or just leave it on the desk.

The iOS version is slick. iCloud syncing is quick.
Carry the page from the studio to the house (optional).

The interface is intuitive — swipe left to delete a file.
Screw up the paper and toss it across the room.

There’s no subscription.
Uses no electricity.

The font’s customisable, but that’s about it.
Adjust the typing weight, but that’s about it.

For me it was either Courier or the imaginatively named “System Font”.
I went with the latter in a slightly smaller size than the default.

No font options on my typewriter.

You get a file in the Finder. Just a file. A .txt file.

You get words on paper. Just words, just paper.

So after much trial and error, looking at what other people do and trying to work out what works for me, I have what seems to be a functioning setup:

• Simple plain text files in Byword
• Project info, todos and notes in Taskpaper
• Zettelkasten library in The Archive
• TextEdit for quick notes and pulling reference files using Alfred

(I really like TextEdit. I wish there was an iOS version.)

I would have to admit that I’m not faithful: I do cheat on my plain text files a bit.

It doesn’t mean anything.
It’s purely digital.

For longer, more complex projects comprising multiple files, formatted scriptwriting, reports with multiple reference documents, I use Scrivener.

I’ve used Scrivener for years. It’s a wonderful, powerful rich text app that can export files to many formats, including plain text. For some tasks, nothing comes close (Ulysses stalwarts, feel free to disagree, but you’re wrong).

For long-term reference and quick capture, I use Apple Notes.

Apple Notes is one of my favourite apps.
It’s attractive, functional and has just the right amount of features to be really useful without being distracting.

Hookmark links everything together: plain text files, Apple Notes, Taskpaper documents, Scrivener files.

So is that it?
Is my plain text journey finally over?

Or is this just a fling?

Ask me in a month or so.

I wrote this in Byword; mainly on my Mac, but also a bit on my phone.
I didn’t even have to think about it.

I reckon me and this old flame still got a thing going on.

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I’m a published novelist, writer, editor and Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow with 30 years’ experience across business, fiction, other non-fiction, scriptwriting and education.

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