Recently I decided to start writing a science fiction novel. I reserved a desk in my room for this purpose, I also picked up an old Thinkpad X200 on which I installed Lubuntu 24.04 and plugged in a gaming keyboard for night writing. I chose to install a minimum of applications in order to stay focused.
The first one was the 1/2 which just got a little messy and I didn’t enjoy it. It was my first major writing project and I just didn’t organize it well enough. I also grew out of the idea quickly and decided to stop and not waste more time.
My second book I managed to finish at 70k I believe (it’s been a while). Similarly I grew out of the idea by the end and it would have needed major revisions to push through editing.
My third and most recent one I really love, the first draft is complete and I am slowly editing it. Though editing seems to be my weakness it seems because it’s taking far longer than it should. This one I would love to actually clean up and eventually publish but yeah, going to take a while to get there!
I use Scrivener to write in and I highly recommend it! (you can usually find some discount codes for it as well). I like to use it to quickly draft the storyline and then expand each scene as I go. It also has some handy features for organizing research notes and pictures.
It’s packed with so many features so it’s a pretty popular writing app among writers in general.
You have a real commitment !
I hope to keep this motivation that is in me. I've heard good things about Scrivener. Unfortunately at the time there was no version for GNU/Linux... But I'll look at it again !