I want to use the word processing app Ulysses more. It’s just not quite working out.

Distraction-free writing is all the rage with sheets and groups and ebook outputs and “you can write a novel using Ulysses.” These are all fine and spiffy, but I just want a better word processor than MS Word (and I kinda like Word just fine…)

I want to like Ulysses, but I can’t seem to get the hang of writing in it, and I know the reason why: Markdown.

I don’t want to write in Markdown. Yes, yes, I know. It’s the greatest thing in the world for writers. You can just write and use these odd symbols to indicate all the things you want the text to do, and it just does it in the output. It’s supposed to help keep the natural flow of the writing and leave the format stuff to later. This is anathema to me, and I can’t tell if it’s because I’m loathe to try something new or my mind just doesn’t work that way after decades of writing in Word or Pages.

At the beginning of the year, Shawn Blanc at The Sweet Setup archived the site’s best articles, tips, tricks, etc. for Ulysses. I’ve read them all, and it just isn’t clicking for me, and I’m frustrated because this should be the ideal software for me.

Maybe I just need to dive in headfirst.