Łukasz Drobnik’s blog

You might have heard of Markdown—it’s an easy way to create formatted documents in a plain text editor.

Markdown syntax is so intuitive you can write nicely formatted text without even thinking.

Unlike HTML or XML, Markdown is insanely easy to read. For instance, a heading is just a line of text with one or more hash signs before it:

# Heading level 1
## Heading level 2
### Heading level 3

No wonder then that Markdown has become widely popular among web writers and developers of software documentation.

But I argue it’s also a great tool for all kinds of creative writers. Unless your fiction, CNF, or poetry requires intricate formatting, you can simplify your writing process by switching to Markdown.

Basic Markdown syntax

Let’s start with the basics. You already know how to make headings in Markdown. What about paragraphs? It’s simple—all you need to do is add an empty line:

This is the first paragraph.

This is the second paragraph.

To make a phrase italic, place a single asterisk on each side, like that:

This is some *italic text*.

Bolding is as easy, but you need two asterisks on each side:

This is some **bold text**.

The rest of Markdown syntax is similarly straightforward. To learn more about it, read my quick guide.

Why use Markdown for your writing

Did you ever spend a good portion of your writing session fiddling with indentation or paragraph spacing?

Markdown takes such distractions out of your way. You can write first and worry about the formatting later.

What’s more, Markdown documents are essentially text files, so they’re extremely lightweight. This makes storage and back-ups much easier.

Markdown files are also great for version control. Solutions for programmers such as GitHub or Bitbucket let you track every single change made to your manuscript. This way you can easily go back to earlier versions of your text, for example to revive one of your killed darlings.

Choosing the right editor

You can create Markdown documents in any plain text editor, such as Notepad, but I encourage you to try more convenient options.

Windows users might enjoy ghostwriter. This free editor provides a live preview of your document and comes with built-in light and dark themes.

MacDown is a free tool for macOS. It allows highly customisable Markdown rendering and has some extra features, such as auto-completion.

My Markdown editor of choice, though, is Typora, available for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

What’s ground-breaking about Typora’s design is that it gets rid of the preview window. Instead, Markdown syntax symbols are seamlessly replaced with a preview of formatted text as you write, offering a distraction-free experience.

Note that Typora is a commercial product. The software costs $14.99 per licence and comes with a 15-day free trial.

Converting Markdown to rich text

Of course, at some point you will want to save your manuscript in a rich-text format, such as .doc or .docx.

As much as I love writing in Markdown, I much prefer doing revisions in Word. Not to mention that your prospective publisher wouldn’t be too happy about receiving a Markdown file.

Fortunately, tools such as Pandoc (available for Windows, macOS, and Linux) let you convert Markdown files into a variety of formats, and vice versa. Pandoc integrates with Typora, which makes exporting and importing files super easy.

Even if you prefer writing in a traditional word processor such as Microsoft Word, you can still make use of Markdown.

Export your manuscript as a Markdown file at the end of each writing session, and you’ll get the benefits of easy back-ups and version control with no revolutionary changes to your writing routine.

Conclusion

Although not ideal for all cases, Markdown can make your writing process easier and faster.

It may be especially good for procrastinators. Writing in Markdown is much more distraction-free than working with traditional word processors. Markdown files are also great for back-ups and version control.

Try writing your next poem, essay, or story in Markdown. Chances are you’ll make it one of your essential writing tools.