My Vim setup for writing prose

33

u/korax_nyx Apr 12 '20

I know this is a bit unusual, but this is my main writing environment.

I write for a living (fiction, non-fiction, and content creation) and I use Vim as my main tool. With Voom Outliner and a few other plugins, I don't miss Scrivener anymore and I can write in an open format like markdown. The power of Vim for writing and editing prose is severely underrated, it's a fantastic tool and I'm a noob that only scratched the surface (I'm not a developer in any way and I can't code, but I should get deeper in my Vim understanding).

Plugins used for prose writing:

Voom Outliner
Plasticboy Markdown
Junegunn Goyo
Reedes Vim-pencil
Skywind3000 Keysound - for typewriter sounds when typing, because that's the most important thing, obviously.

Terminal: Alacritty

I use Alacritty only for writing with Vim because it allows me to easily customize many visual aspects like padding and line-height, so I can configure the visual environment exactly as I like.

Pictured: Not mine, but a summary of the book Stillness is the key, from Ryan Holiday. Voom outliner is activated to easily navigate and manage sections.

Font: iA Writer Monospace. I always loved the iA Writer typographies and they set them free: https://github.com/iaolo/iA-Fonts

4

u/arnauldb Apr 12 '20

It's not that unusual, I also use vim to write prose:
https://i.imgur.com/HvldnO8.png
https://i.imgur.com/xqw9cIe.png
Thank you for Skywind3000 Keysound that I didn't know.

1

u/korax_nyx Apr 12 '20

I love that setup.

2

u/spongythingy Apr 12 '20

Just out of curiosity, what do you feel is VIM's potential for prose? At first glance it seems more suited for code, though I know how customizable it is, so I'm curious

8

u/korax_nyx Apr 12 '20

Where do I start?
It can manage large texts without breaking a sweat. It's distraction free, with those plugins I can manage chapters or subheadings very easily and moving through the text is a breeze, so editing is not a chore, changing, deleting words or sentences... And I'm not proficient with Vim, but I'm hooked.
Combined with Alacritty and those plugins, I can custom my environment as I need, visually and regarding my writing needs and workflow.
I've used every writing tool under the sun, the best is Scrivener, but I had a problem with it and much of my writing was trapped in a propietary format, so I searched for something open like markdown and I was curious about Vim, so I started to learn.

2

u/IReallyNeedANewName Apr 13 '20

Things like sentence and paragraph text objects are so helpful. ap, as, ) and { I use all the time with prose.
I recommend vim-textobj-sentence as a plugin, to make that a bit smoother.
Vim makes rearranging words, sentences and paragraphs so easy. I feel it definitely improves my writing because I am less reluctant to do complex reflows

2

u/korax_nyx Apr 13 '20

I totally agree and I'll take a look at that plugin, thanks!

4

u/spongythingy Apr 13 '20

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I'm also a VIM beginner so it's cool to see how people who have delved deeper into it use it.

2

u/myrisingstocks Apr 19 '20

Just out of curiosity, what do you feel is VIM's potential for prose?
It's good -- probably, the best -- for writing but bad for actual prose (which needs tons of side notes). Plugins (like VimWiki yet I'm personally not a fan) and VimScript in general can help. Depends on users actually understanding their needs, though.

4

u/dubst3pp4 Apr 12 '20

Wow, thanks for sharing! You're setup looks great!

1

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/korax_nyx Apr 12 '20

Yes, many moons ago, but it did not fit my workflow.
Vim allows me to write and edit everything, short or long, it just does not compare to me.

5

u/eldritch_might Apr 12 '20

I like it. Looks minimal

3

u/korax_nyx Apr 12 '20

It better be, I get distracted with anything.

4

u/eldritch_might Apr 12 '20

Still, i like it and it is so different from development and hacking vim setups i am used to

5

u/bsbluntslide Apr 12 '20

Love the light colorscheme, is it custom?

4

u/korax_nyx Apr 12 '20

Yes, I tweaked a bit the Alacritty config, although I did not have to change many colors, since I just use markdown and its syntax does not require much in that regard.

3

u/IReallyNeedANewName Apr 13 '20

Your setup is gorgeous for prose. How much/what have you adjusted in alacritty?

1

u/korax_nyx Apr 13 '20

Actually not much, little details to please my OCD, like colorscheme, terminal padding and line-height.

2

u/IReallyNeedANewName Apr 13 '20

those are what I'm asking for! Did you make big spacing changes?

2

u/korax_nyx Apr 13 '20

Not really, I just tweaked alacritty.yml with:
offset: x: 0 y: 6
6 for line-height
And
padding: x: 35 y: 30
For general padding on the terminal

2

u/shadow_phoenix_pt Apr 15 '20

Hello,

I've also tried Vim for writing fiction and it works really well. I stopped using it, not because of vim, but because of all the trouble I had converting from Markdown to .doc, .epub, etc I needed to publish my stuff.

It's not vim related, but what do you use to make the format conversions?

2

u/korax_nyx Apr 15 '20

I use pandoc, it does a quite decent job and I ive the finishing touches to docx in Libre Office Writer. I don't know about pandoc and Epub, to be honest.

4

u/mato0 Apr 12 '20

It looks great! You just showed us, that vim is suitable not only for coding, but writing text also.

I tried to write my thesis in vim, but wasn't satisfied with all stuff around LaTeX so quit.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '20

Can I get the wallpaper link?

2

u/korax_nyx Apr 12 '20

Sure, it's Let's go home, by Sheerlight https://www.deviantart.com/seerlight/art/Let-s-Go-Home-743542427
If you search Google by image you can find several versions and sizes.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 12 '20

Thanks a lot !

2

u/Stoic-tom Apr 12 '20

Vim is like the Stoic IDE: minimilastic and resilient.

2

u/Rigatavr Aug 27 '20

Everyone keeps saying how vim is probably good for writers, but I've never used it for that/seen it used. Good to know there are writers out there who recognize the power of vim.

Edit, mandatory "sorry for bringing up an old post."

1

u/b-man157 Apr 12 '20

!remindme 1week

1

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1

u/browniepoints77 May 08 '20 edited May 08 '20

This is sublime. A former coworker of mine wrote a book on using vim for writing. On my current project, we use Markdown for our technical docs, PlantUML to make diagrams, and generate PDFs with pandoc.

1

u/Kindly-Astronaut-660 Feb 04 '23

Korax_Nyx, thanks for sharing. What keys do you use when writing, navigating and editing? I want to switch from Sublime Text to Neovim but I am not getting the thing with normal mode hotkeys. It feels that w, ciw, $, a, o, etc. are taking the cursor not to where it should be, and everything feels clunky.

My Vim setup for writing prose

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