This is my contribution to month two of Greg Newman’s Emacs Carnival. The topic this month is “Writing Experience,” which is perfect, since I write in Emacs all the time. In fact, I am writing this blog post in Emacs right now!

Emacs Writing History

I do not know how long I have been writing in Emacs, but I have documents written in LaTeX from the early 2000s that were definitely written in Emacs, and I know those weren’t the first. I guess what is interesting about my writing experience in Emacs is how it has developed over the years. Where I originally wrote everything in plain text or LaTeX, over time I moved to org-mode and Markdown.

Writing LaTeX in Emacs taught me to view documents and writing the same way I view source code. Since all of my writing was in text formats, I could easily use version control software to store archives full of text. I began by using Concurrent Versions System (CVS), but eventually moved to Git. I have a few Git repositories with writing, but my biggest dates back to 2009. Those early commits are all LaTeX and plain text files.

commit c64500897e2509bc3316d252cda10a9119384933
Author: Erik L. Arneson <pXXX@XXX.XXX>
Date:   Sat Dec 5 10:51:06 2009 -0800

    Initial import of an old repository.

The oldest org-mode file in my writing repository dates to December 27th, 2010, and is titled “Beer and Pizza.” The commit message indicates that I pulled some writing over from another repository in this commit, so obviously I had been writing with org-mode for quite a while. I know, for instance, that “Beer and Pizza” was an article that I wrote for an early incarnation of Southern Oregon Magazine, and my notes are dated back to February of that year.

Org-mode Is A Life-changer

You have probably read other people’s experience with writing in org-mode in Emacs, so instead of sharing an exhausting list of all the life-changing, writing-improving things that it has brought me, here are a few bits that I really love about it.

It is fantastic at organizing writing projects. From being able to shift around headings and blocks of text, to combining to-do lists with writing projects, to being able to create macros and include different files—all of these things make org-mode perfect for working on medium and large projects. I write everything from blog posts to podcast scripts to books in org-mode, and it helps me stay organized.

I do not have to write in Word or Google Docs. The export functions in org-mode do a great job creating Word files, ODT files, HTML files, and all kinds of formats. If org-mode’s export abilities aren’t good enough, it can also interface with pandoc to cover all the other cases! This means I get to use all of my familiar tools and processes when writing, and I don’t have to worry about awful word processing software!

Everything I need to write can happen in org-mode! I have several websites that are built entirely out of org-mode. When I need to create slides for a lecture, I do it in org-mode. When I write adventures for Dungeons & Dragons, I do it in org-mode. When I need to whip up a spreadsheet to handle my household budget, I do it in org-mode. When I need to write a formal letter, I do it in org-mode. Frankly, it is so expressive and flexible, that I don’t need to use other tools for writing. It’s all Emacs and org-mode.

Emacs Can Be Distraction-Free

I have a hotkey connected to writeroom-mode, which plonks me right into a full-screen, distraction-free writing mode. Easy as pie! This means that when I really need to get down to business and get a lot of writing done, I don’t need to switch to a new app, leave my familiar tools behind, or go through any extra trouble. It’s just right here, built in.

No Going Back

I’ve been writing with Emacs for decades. It is my comfortable writing spot. I honestly cannot see myself abandoning it for another writing tool, because it works for me. I just used a couple of commands to check my three biggest writing repositories, and I have approximately 630,000 words written in org-mode between them. That’s a commitment!

I am aware that there are a lot of people out there using Emacs for writing, so I am excited to see what others share. I’m very pleased with Greg Newman’s choice for this second writing topic.

Edit: I realized that what I was calling my second biggest writing repository was actually my third biggest. I updated some numbers to reflect another 130,000 words of writing I found.