I think the following article addresses this point well: https://ia.net/topics/separate-writing-and-formatting
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Is anyone here experienced at using MacOS Pages to write a novel?
- Thread starter Sill
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Seriously. One of the things I like about Ulysses is that you *can’t* futz with the formatting while you’re writing. It’s just a distraction.
Maybe that's the way it works for you guys, but not for me. What would you say to the folks who need visual-centric writing apps like Squibler to get anything done? It's not my brand of bourbon but due to my organizational issues I can see where someone could really get the best use out of that one.
For instance, the novel I'm working on now is across two eras - mid 19th century London, and mid 1960s London. I only got so far with writing that in Text Edit, which has very little formatting available. Eventually I just saw a cloud of words and I kept losing my place. It goes from writing a book to looking at a stream of consciousness rambling on.
Then I imported that into the Edgy Novel template in MacOS Pages, and suddenly my brain turned on again. I stay organized and I don't lose my place. Like a fast glance at a chapter header lets me know instantly where I'm at in the story. I use a template, I feel like I'm writing a book.
Every once in a while I find a trick that opens up that spigot just a little more. Like when I started using full justification instead of Left Align. Getting rid of the ragged right edge helped me think. One big help was switching to period correct fonts. I found one similar to Boston 1851, but free, that I use for my historical flashbacks. It looks like a London newspaper as I'm typing, and the words just come to me with little effort.
If none of this mattered, I would just fire up Magic Window on my old Apple II (still works after 45 years) and forget the Mac.
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Yeah, nope. I went back and tried it again, exactly as you described, and followed along in the related support doc sections too. When I was done I had a wonderful set of page numbers starting at Part 1, Chapter 1, but then I had a bunch of page numbers for everything from the front cover of the book to the last page of the Prologue. Delete those, the page numbers that I want were deleted from the Section I created specifically to hold those numbers.
And I also tried changing from numbers to "i, ii, iii, iv" to see if I could apply non-standard page numbers to that opening section. I could, but then it changed the numerical numbering on my text body as well. No amount of selecting or deselecting of check boxes could correct this behavior. I'm sure I must be doing something wrong or else I'd be reading about these problems everywhere people talk about Pages.
Unfortunately, once I got past a few thousand words I wouldn't get anything else done, so Ulysses isn't for me. I'm glad you've found something that works for you.
It certainly illustrates that person's point of view. But it doesn't work the same way for everyone.
Unless I run into a problem with formatting - like the questions that started this thread - generally formatting takes me no time at all. It becomes part of my process. Since I started using Pages templates and formatting as I write, my writing productivity has exploded. (AI for research has also contributed quite a bit.)
Really guys, is it that much trouble for you to come up with a set of rules for your book and stick to it while you're writing? I break my novels into parts and name the parts. I break the parts into chapters, number the chapters, and give each one a dateline. If I further break the chapter into sections I use a continuous dash about 10-15 spaces wide, like a semicolon but for chapters. Fully justify my columns, use one or two fonts, and my formatting process is so automatic I barely notice it.
The alternative is that I use a text editor, I get about 3000 words into the book and suddenly I'm staring on the literary equivalent of a run-on sentence. Nothing to demarcate thoughts or progress of the characters. Nothing to show a cliff-hanger or a resolution or even a dramatic pause. It's the equivalent of living in a messy house, for me, and I don't want to do that.
If you go to View > Show Invisibles do you see this section break symbol as the last thing of the opening section, before the chapters start? If not, that can cause the behavior you describe.
Here are the exact steps that work for me on the default "Edgy Novel" template which already has the section break after the prologue:
- In the document inspector sidebar, turn on footers
- Click the footer on the "prologue" page and choose Insert Page Number, then choose a format (I chose the single number)
- With the "prologue" page still selected, go to the document sidebar, click Section, and then choose the format for the first group of pages (I chose lower case roman numerals)
- Move to the page that shows Chapter 1. On this page uncheck "Match previous section" in the Headers & Footers area of the side. The page numbers for this section should disappear, but the previous section still has the roman numerals
- Click the footer on the "Chapter 1" page and choose a format (I chose single number).
- under Page Numbering in the sidebar, select "Start at: ____" and choose what number you want (I chose 1)
BTW, my apologies for disappearing for a few days. I made a foray into AI help with my stories. Not to generate story ideas because those seem to fall out of my head unbidden, but with getting past things like timeline organization and middle act sticking points. (I'm very good with creating an entire world and also some pretty interesting climax/resolutions, but I hit speed bumps on the way there.)