Writing

I mostly do technical writing, with some creative writing on the side when I've got time (a rare commodity while I work on my PhD).

Generally I outline with pen on paper, because it's easier for me to sketch out the structure of a piece of writing by hand than trying to translate my thoughts to outline software. I like to draw trees and put things in boxes and stuff to figure out how ideas fit together, and there's just no real substitute for doing it by hand. More recently I've got an e-ink tablet, and sometimes I'll do my outlining on there instead of actual paper made from trees. Ends up working in exactly the same way, although it's a bit easier to erase / undo.

For the actual writing, I generally use latex via Overleaf. It's just so good for technical writing, nothing really compares for me. I can set my formatting up at the beginning and then put it out of mind and just write, and it's got lots of good tools for blocking in placeholders and todo notes.

For more creative writing where I don't need a bunch of figures and stuff I usually go for a simple markdown editor like Ghostwriter. Simple, no frills, but I can still add headings and stuff.

The other kind of writing I do sometimes is to prepare to run TTRPG games, and that planning usually happens in Google Docs, mainly because it's simple to access from wherever (including my phone) if I have an idea I want to jot down quickly, and since nobody but me will ever look at it I can be fairly free form with my formatting and just stick photo inspiration, links to evocative music, etc right inline with the rest of the text