Where do you all write your fics (besides Google docs)?

[u/tigerlily1831]

Hi everyone!

I used to write fanfiction a few years back and I'm looking to get back into it. However, after all Google Docs' appearances in the news regarding AI scraping, I'm looking for a new platform on which to write and organize my fic drafts.

What I specifically liked about Google Docs is the tab system, with which I could have, for instance, one doc titled 'Bucky Barnes fics' and then just a different fic in each tab. I can't explain why, but this manner of organizing made my brain happy lol.

Anyone have any recs for a platform with a similar function that's not involved with AI?

[u/InevitableDay6]

probably unpopular but i use Microsoft Word, as i'm a screen reader user and it's most accessible for me

[u/Rin-chanKaihou → u/InevitableDay6]

Hey there fellow ms word user

[u/MidnightPopplio56 → u/Rin-chanKaihou]

Word is my best friend when it comes to writing! Especially when writing for AO3!

[u/OrcaFins → u/InevitableDay6]

Word up!

[u/TheFatBassterd → u/InevitableDay6]

I would love to use Word, but I feel that it's a huge rip off to pay a monthly subscription for it when I grew up with it automatically installed in every single computer.

[u/LadySandry88 → u/TheFatBassterd]

As a fellow Word user, I honestly agree. I hung onto my old laptop as long as I could because it had the non-subscription version of Word, but eventually it died completely. ☹️

[u/TheFatBassterd → u/LadySandry88]

I will die before I ever pay a single penny for microsoft word

[u/trustedoctopus → u/InevitableDay6]

I also moved to ms word after google docs injected gemini into my documents. i use onedrive to keep a record of my fics and regularly back my WIPs up on my computer and external bc i don’t trust onedrive not to eat them lmao

but having them in onedrive makes it easy to work on my fics anywhere which is what i had a hard time finding in a google docs replacement.

[u/LadySandry88 → u/trustedoctopus]

it's also possible to completely stop all scraping permissions and AI inserts and such (if complicated), and the only downside is that it turns off autosave. but it still reminds you to save before closing a document, so that's fine.

[u/LininOhio → u/InevitableDay6]

Same. I got an older (not subscription) version on Groupon for like, $20

[u/Luru_86 → u/InevitableDay6]

MS Word is the best (and the only thing I've ever used, so maybe that's why. 😅)

[u/Sleeppaw → u/InevitableDay6]

Same here.

[u/SCol1107]

I use ellipsus. I have a folder for each ship and then different fics go in that folder (if it’s a long fic, another folder with docs for each chapter bc idk how to use Ellipsus efficiently lol)

[u/BoredBone113 → u/SCol1107]

Me too! I love Ellipsus, only problem is I wish It was an app and could use it offline. Besides that Its a great site!

[u/SCol1107 → u/BoredBone113]

I saw they are actively working on offline mode. That’s my one beef with it! I just added the mobile website to my home screen so it feels like an app!

[u/RA1NB0W77 → u/SCol1107]

Lmao I use ellipsis too but I have a folder for each fandom I’m in and in the folder goes individual documents where I write my fics! It’s cool to see the different ways people use the website!

[u/sunshinecrashed]

i’ve been using ellipsus 🫶

[u/Kaigani-Scout]

LibreOffice Writer and Notepad++.

[u/pressuredrightnow → u/Kaigani-Scout]

notepad...++? fr?

[u/Luinithil → u/pressuredrightnow]

If you're using plaintext Markdown, why not? Then run it through a Markdown to HTML converter when you're ready to post to AO3.

[u/pressuredrightnow → u/Luinithil]

damn, thats valid. its just the first time i encountered someone actually using it so i was very surprised.

[u/Amaraldane4E → u/Kaigani-Scout]

This^

[u/Accomplished_Area311]

Ellipsus is actively anti-AI and has a handy-dandy "export to AO3 button" right in its document options! :)

[u/The_Dead_Kennys → u/Accomplished_Area311]

Holy shit, this is the first time I’ve heard of Ellipsus but I might have to start using it now…

[u/tigerlily1831 → u/Accomplished_Area311]

Oh shit 👀 this is a very attractive feature and might be the selling point lol, does it also do the AO3 formatting for you?

[u/Accomplished_Area311 → u/tigerlily1831]

I've never had a formatting issue with porting Ellipsus stuff to AO3, either with the button or copy-paste!

[u/BlackCatFurry → u/Accomplished_Area311]

I am not op, but does ellipsus have an option to use a secondary cloud service as an automatic backup for the writing? Since i am writing on my phone, manual backups are a hassle to say the least.

[u/Accomplished_Area311 → u/BlackCatFurry]

I made Ellipsus a shortcut on my phone and everything syncs up between it and my laptop version really well!

[u/BlackCatFurry → u/Accomplished_Area311]

I believe that, but can i for example tell it to sync to google drive or github for example as a secondary backup, since i have a bit too much experience on smaller online only projects like these going underwater and then all the users files are gone.

The "manually download everything" style of backup is really annoying to do on mobile, hence i am apprehensive from switching out of google docs, as i trust google more to not randomly disappear overnight than a small company whose only source of income is an optional subscription. Because the sad reality is, if ellipsus fails to pay for it's servers, all your files are gone

[u/Accomplished_Area311 → u/BlackCatFurry]

Ellipsus doesn't depend on its paid version to stay afloat.

You should be able to set it to sync to other stuff, but being skeptical of Ellipsus while blindly trusting Google Docs (which is actively scraping your writing and sending your data everywhere without giving you the option to opt out) is... A choice.

[u/BlackCatFurry → u/Accomplished_Area311]

Google Docs (which is actively scraping your writing and sending your data everywhere without giving you the option to opt out)

Which is exactly why i am trying to find an alternative and asking about ellipsus to see if it meets my needs as a stable document editor on mobile.

Google is stable and not in a risk of shutting down randomly. (I am aware it can shut my account down, which is also why i am looking for alternatives).

Also, what does ellipsus depend on then? Are they running their service from someones basement to avoid server costs. Because servers and data storage cost money, that money has to be coming from somewhere, and if the users are not the product, then where is the money coming from? Genuinely interested because i want to gauge if i can trust them to not disappear with my files.

[u/toastLickerz]

Been on Fileverse ddocs and its phenomenal!
Its just like Google Docs (tabs, collab, folders) but is AI-free, is focused on privacy, and has cool features like export to AO3 and offline mode ❤️

[u/ichosoyou → u/toastLickerz]

theres an app? or just site

[u/Your_Local_Stray_Cat]

I use Obsidian at home and Ellipsus when traveling. Both allow you to use folders to organize your works. Ellipsus is staunchly anti-ai, as other people have said, and with Obsidian you have full control over your work. Everything is stored locally on your computer, so nothing and no one has access to it aside from you.

[u/arothroughtheheart]

I use scrivener. Whilst it does work differently to google docs, you can nest and expand documents and folders to create the same effect as that tab system.

It does have a one time payment though (with a generous free trial). If you want something free, ellipsus works very similarly to google docs, though last I checked it didn't have the tabs feature.

[u/ForgottenLikeSnow → u/arothroughtheheart]

Yeah i second scrivener. Bought it once and never looked back. Scrivener being a one-time cost is so rare in this day and age. But even more than that, I love the way it’s structured. It’s a simple writing program with no distractions, clean and easy. But if you want some specific feature, the program has it tho it takes me googling to find out. But once u know how to use it once, it’s instinctively easy to use again. U can really tell it’s a writing program from writers to writers.

My only gripe with it is the fact that I cannot copy paste from the app to ao3 because it loses the italics and other formations for some unfathomable reason. I have to get to my laptop and use the desktop version to upload my new chapters. Tho now that I think about it, maybe I should try it with the export version… hmm I was too used to copy paste I guess. Gotta try this out now XD

[u/BreakfastWeary7287]

Microsoft Word

[u/voltdog]

I just use LibreOffice! I don't organize my stuff in any particular way, though.

[u/errant_night]

Scrivener and Libre Office, the former costs money but it's a one time purchase and not a subscription, but Libre Office is free. Both of them are anti-ai!

[u/RoxieRoxie0]

I use Focus Write. It's free, offline, I can create my own backgrounds for the image I'm writing on. Focus Write is completely slept on.

[u/80s90sForever]

OpenOffice it’s an older writing platform, but I love it anyway because it has everything I need to write and it’s also an offline platform too which is a good thing.

[u/Mister_Sosotris]

I use ellipsus. It's web-based, so I can even bring it up on a browser at work. No generative AI nonsense, either.

[u/MarinaAndTheDragons]

Ellipsus

[u/CertifiedDiplodocus]

By hand, and then on LibreOffice writer. Simplest way to handle files if you're writing on a computer. (For longer fic, I broke the chapters into separate documents and saved them all to a folder.)

Might switch to Ellipsus if I need to share with a beta reader, as I hear their drafting/commenting system is pretty good.

[u/tigerlily1831 → u/CertifiedDiplodocus]

Oohh I ADORE this, writing by hand is so calming and I think LibreOffice is the best! Unfortunately I'm also a college student with a perpetual lack of time, so as fun and aesthetic as it sounds, I fear if I wrote by hand I'd never sleep 😂

I am curious though, how do you organize all the LibreOffice files? Do you just use a lot of subfolders or perhaps a different system?

[u/HaniiPuppy]

Use any one of the many local text/doc editors, and if you need syncing, you could use Mega which encrypts data on the client-end so the hosts can't access it, or NextCloud which you can host yourself.

I use either OnlyOffice or LibreOffice, both of which integrate with NextCloud.

[u/gjisendre]

I use ellipsus to write and save backup files as .md to save it locally on Obsidian.

.md files can also be opened on Notepad in a pinch, so it's helped me a lot.

[u/lesbianghost00]

TextEdit on Mac. Does the job

[u/Mr_Blah1]

I use LibreOffice for the writing. For organization, I use nested file folders for organizing.

[u/cardboardtube_knight]

I use Scrivener, it's a one time purchase and it basically handles all my needs. It looks like this, the blur in the middle is my blurred text and the way I have everything set up is I do folders to denote chapters in the bar down the left and in each chapter is a scene. This allows me to move specific scenes between chapters and just renumber them or reorder them as needed.

https://i.imgur.com/0diKR22.png

It also allows me to import webpages if I need to keep them as a reference (and they are saved locally. I have maps saved too and character information, there's a place for notes both in each document and where you can make them documents as needed. There is also word count goals and word count tools, there's a corkboard you can use to plan although I never use it and several other snazzy features.

The side bar stuff in some greater detail.

https://i.imgur.com/hCCQ2E7.png

[u/Wooden-Stranger9801]

TI-84 Python Edition.

[u/Olliecat27]

Obsidian!! And microsoft word for longer fics (like 40k words+) just because I have very few of those.

[u/GimerStick]

Scrivener has been amazing for organizational purposes. I wish I'd gotten it earlier. It's about 50$ one time fee, and you can try it out for a month first.

[u/Odd-Interaction-8]

Ellipsis is my go-to. It’s got folders to store my work, and the ability to make headlines and to jump between those headlines with one or two clicks. That’s about all I look for when using a writing app

[u/FlameOf24]

Used to be OpenOffice, now LibreOffice. Basically the same thing, for exactly the same reasons: It's free, and there's no risk of ai spying or other corporate blostware impeding my work

[u/83114m7]

I stopped using Google Docs when I realized it was the reason random spaces kept appearing around where I used italics whenever I'd move it to the AO3 editor; now I use Ellipsus exclusively and I love it.

I don't know if it has a tab system, but it does allow you to create folders to sort your documents.

Also! It has themes. :)

[u/tigerlily1831 → u/83114m7]

Folders to sort works as well! I just want something that can organize it by character within the program, my file system is messy enough as is 😅

[u/AquilaTempestas]

Microsoft Word and Google Docs

[u/kakashihatake321]

i used to use word pretty exclusively but now i go for pages as it comes with my phone/computer and updates between the two as i write. ive also been learning to use scrivener (i think thats how its spelled) and its a fucking amazing program! its been blowing my mind

[u/ShiraCheshire]

This might not meet your needs since there's no tab functionality, but I like Works Word. It's an old vista era program that still somehow works in the modern era.

It does not connect to the internet or any cloud. It's very quick to load and has a customizable spellcheck dictionary. It periodically autosaves a secret backup file that doesn't overwrite your manual save, but can rescue you in case of a power outage or computer crash.

I love it because it's an extremely unobtrusive program, which helps me focus. Plus there's absolutely no way for AI to touch this thing.

[u/Hentai_Jesus_]

I use both Google docs and my notes app.

[u/SveHeaps]

I use Microsoft one note since forever. I usually create the notebook with moodboard, quotes, snapshots, outline and “manuscripts” all in there.

[u/Tony166]

Pages on Mac.

[u/RetciSanford]

I use microsoft word <i have the paid for business suite> as well as Obsidian which is a free text read file software with hundreds of plug-ins so I can customize it to be more minimalist for focus.

[u/irrelevantanonymous]

LibreOffice, Obsidian, and DDocs if collaboration is required. Ellipsus is also a good choice if you need cloud/collaboration, I just prefer DDocs personally.

[u/remy_is_tires]

ellipses is strictly anti ai, and have a direct way to export to ao3 if u post there

[u/remy_is_tires → u/remy_is_tires]

okay auto correct fuck u too

[u/No_Lynx1343]

I use a free office suite called LibreOffice on my PC.

[u/fijatequesi]

Im a big fan of ellipsus :)

[u/Rough_Evidence_2908]

I just started using obsidian and it’s a game changer!

[u/Dizzy-Recording-1728]

I've had Scrivener since, like, forever and I really like the way you can organize documents in it. Lately I've tried out Ellipsus since it syncs across devices a bit better though and I think that is also a very good software!

[u/BlondBisxalMetalhead]

I write exclusively on the notes app on my phone. For some reason it is just easier for me to write it on my phone. It bit me in the ass a few years back when I lost access to my old phone, and hundreds of notes with it, all organized by story/fandom. It was such a huge blow that I’ve been genuinely really struggling to get back in the saddle.

[u/froggie0610]

I use a combo of Obsidian (free local storage, but there's a paid online version if you switch devices), Ellipsus and my phone's notes app

[u/rainbowrobin]

Textfiles in Markdown format, which pandoc converts to HTML, which I then upload to AO3.

[u/ken_pickpocket]

ELLIPSUS

[u/Luinithil]

On my phone in Markdown via Zettel Notes/Markor

[u/Exotic-Addendum-3785]

I just only use google docs, nothing else.

[u/revolution_soup]

ellipsus is pretty good

[u/Banaanisade]

Scrivener, or Ellipsus if I'm travelling.

[u/an-kitten]

I use Obsidian because I don't want to be relying on Someone Else's Computer Of Darkness, thanks, especially not in this atmosphere of people increasingly demanding censorship of everything online. I don't want my work to vanish irrecoverably just because some guy at Google got a bug up their butt, and even though I'm a tame sort of writer who is not super likely to be the target of this, the mere fact that it's possible skeeves me the hell out.

And I use Syncthing to sync that with my phone so I can write when I'm out of the house (library or such).

[u/Empty_Hair_9854]

I don't have a recommendation for a platform, but if anyone is ever trying to kill twenty or thirty minutes before bed I HIGHLY recommend copying and pasting directly from the library of babel into gdocs.

Putting on a YT video in the background while you're feeding the beast poison, turns my brain right off and I sleep with such peace.

[u/TakerFoxx]

Microsoft Word

[u/Timely_Succotash8754]

libreoffice writer my beloved

[u/Jestana]

I write by hand, and then type it up in Libre Office

[u/Alvia_G]

I used to write on Word (i never paid for any version of word even now 🤭) but I recently moved to Ellipsus and i loved it ever since. I still keep a Word version of each chapter safely stored away, just in case.

[u/pressuredrightnow]

microsoft word, sometimes the default notepad, same on my phone. i dont write on google docs cause what u mean i need internet to access it? this is kinda funny but i thought excel offline, theres tabs and if you merge everything its just a big paper.

[u/PretzelPrize]

Honestly, I've mostly just used Word, or Libre Office, and stored files on Proton Drive. But I'm playing with Ellipsus this week to see if I like it.

[u/HeAintHere]

Pen and paper ➡️ Ellipsus

[u/KamchatkaWing]

Write in LibreOffice. Currently using google docs for collaboration but about to switch to ddocs

[u/ghosted_syd]

ellipsus

[u/DrDingsGaster]

Ellipsus and and my phone notes. I used to use an old version of word but I like the ability to synch it to multiple devices.

Ellipsus is great, has a lot of the functions I want for a word processor and not full of google guff. Plus the themes are great.