Emacs has a long history of being used for writing prose, blog posts, technical books, novels, and more. Here are some first-hand experiences you might find useful, whether you’re new to Emacs or just looking for ideas to customize your current Emacs configuration.
Pull requests welcome!
- Tips and Examples for Writing with Emacs
- Writing a book in Emacs
- Writing Technical and Scientific Documents in Emacs
- Writing a screenplay in Emacs
- Blogging with Emacs
- Emacs Modes and Configurations for Writers
- Emacs Writing Workflows
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| (Emacs+Org-Mode) Choosing The Best Writing And Publishing Software | Using LaTeX and Org-Mode to write and publish |
| Emacs for Writers: A video presentation by Jay Dixit | Jay Dixit, science writer, explains how he uses Emacs as a non-programmer for writing, editing, and research. |
| EmacsCast, Episode 8: Writing in Emacs and Org mode, part 1 | Podcast about writing short and long texts, blog posts and books in Emacs, including outlining, exporting and publishing. |
| Replacing Scrivener with Emacs and Vim | (Video) How-to by Vim Valley (Vim user-focused, but discusses Emacs too) |
| StackExchange: What options are there for writing better non-programming text in Emacs? | A novel writer explains some useful Emacs configuration choices he’s learned |
| Tony Ballantyne: My Emacs Writing Setup | Tony Ballantyne’s Emacs configuration and workflow for fiction writing |
| How I Write: My Writing Software | John Urquhart Ferguson’s discussion of how (and why) he uses Emacs for writing |
| Org Mode for Writers | Viktor Bengtsson’s discussion of the benefits and challenges of using Emacs and Org-Mode to write |
| Org-mode for Writing: Structure & Focus | A writer’s (brief) description of using Org-Mode to write a short story |
| Woodnotes Guide to Emacs for Writers | Randall Woods’ popular guide to using and configuring Emacs for writing text |
| Org As a Word Processor | Howard Abrams’ basic configuration choices to make Org-Mode look more like a ‘word processor’ |
| Options for writing prose with Emacs (Reddit thread) | Several detailed (Reddit) comments on useful Emacs workflow and configuration options |
| Linting prose in Emacs | Proselint, a project for ‘linting’ prose that focuses on logic and style (not spelling and grammar) |
| Consistent Technical Documents Using Emacs and Org-Mode | (Video) Using Org-Mode with org-babel to create well-formed technical documents |
| My Org Mode Workflow for Studies | Discussion of one person’s experience using Emacs and Org-Mode to keep class notes |
| Let’s Just Use Emacs (for editing prose) | One writer’s success (and frustrations) with using Emacs for writing |
| Make Emacs Like Ulysses | Discussion about how to make Emacs look/function more like the popular (MacOS/iOS only) writing app Ulysses |
| Distraction-Free Writing Gnu Style | Paul Bunkham’s description of how he configured Emacs to create a ‘distraction-free’ writing environment |
| Long form writing with Org Mode | Discussion of how a writer configured Emacs and Org-Mode to streamline longer-form (blog and journal) writing |
| Creative writing with Emacs | Jacob Moena describes how he went from a childhood with no PCs to Commodores, WordPerfect…and eventually to Emacs. |
| My Writing Setup | Bhalla Kunal’s straightforward Emacs writing setup, with monitor orientation and example screenshots. |
| Really Simple Scrivener Mode | Tony Ballantyne’s configuration to mimic the basic screen layout of Scrivener. |
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Mickey Petersen: How to Write a Book in Emacs | Description of how to write and output books using Emacs by Mickey Petersen, author of Mastering Emacs |
| Writing a Technical Book in Emacs and Org-Mode | K.P. Kaiser talks about how he wrote the book Make Art With Python using Emacs |
| Writing a Book in Org Mode | A few thoughts on using Org-Mode to write a book, focusing on the usefulness of LaTeX to create output |
| Writing a book with a little help from Emacs and friends | Oscar Perpiñán Lamigueiro discusses how he configured and used Emacs to write his technical book |
| Publishing a Book Using Org Mode | Lakshmi Narasimhan reflects on how he used Org-Mode to write and publish his book on Leanpub |
| How an Uber-Geeky Text Mode in a 40-Year-Old Editor Saved My Novel | A writer reflects on how he wrote a novel in Org-Mode, including formatting, revision, and other challenges |
| Getting Emacs Ready for Writin’, Part I | Josh Long describes how he initially configured Emacs to prepare for writing his book Reactive Spring |
| Link | Description |
| Writing a PhD thesis with Org Mode — Dani |
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Five Emacs libraries for writing screenplays | |
| Fountain mode | |
| Epic mode |
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Blogging with Emacs (only) | |
| Emacs Blogging For Fun and Profit (blogging with Emacs) | |
| Using Org to Blog with Jekyll | orgmode.org tutorial on combining Emacs Org-Mode with Jekyll to build a blog or static site |
| Link | Description |
|---|---|
| Doc-org: org-mode + latex + docker = pdf | Marco Ieni’s Doc-org, a command line utility to generate PDFs from Org-Mode+LaTeX |