It’s No-Shave November and National Novel Writing Month. I figured as long as we’re letting our body hair grow while toiling over literary masterpieces, I should probably make sure everyone has the best possible writing tools.

During November, Marked 2 will be 30% off ($9.99). No coupon needed, and the price applies to both the Mac App Store and Direct versions. Go get it while it’s hot!

Even if you’re not joining me in the Marked sale, do check out No-Shave November and help support cancer awareness and research.

Why Every Novel Writer Should Use Markdown

Whether you’re shaving or not, if you’re writing there’s good cause to get into Markdown. Here’s the number one reason: it’s just text.

You don’t have to learn a darn thing. If you’re most concerned about getting words on the page, using a text editor that relieves you of any considerations about formatting, images, and fonts means you focus on getting your ideas out.

Markdown is just plain text, you already know how to write it. You can learn more to add images, links, text emphasis, tables, etc., but for 99% of novel-writing, you don’t need those things anyway.

Marked can show you beautifully formatted versions of what you’re writing without you needing to touch a font palette at all. So pick a text editor, get Marked, and get to writing.

(Additionally, using Markdown and Marked 2 means you’re definitely not using a typewriter, so there’s zero chance for males of catching that beard you’re growing on a carriage return.)

But Is There Anything New?

The latest update (version 2.5.27) just went out. Since I last blogged about it, there have been several releases, including a plethora of improvements and fixes, so here are some highlights:

  • The URL Handler can add new Custom Styles directly from files. See StyleStealer, my recent bookmarklet for turning any web page into a Marked custom style.
  • A full set of Mojave Dark Mode improvements (including fixing the black-on-black “Report Issue” window)
  • Improvements for “Multi Column” mode (choose Multi-Column from the Style menu)
    • Multi-column theme page numbers
    • Multi-column theme document progress indicator
  • New Status bar icons
  • Offer suggestions for Use Alternate marks when highlighting (with default Plain English Campaign word list items only)
  • Highland/Fountain improvements
    • Handle Highland-specific text directives
    • Allow Highland files to be Markdown instead of Fountain
    • Option to process any document as Fountain, even without a Fountain extension
  • In-document search improvements
  • MindNode 5 integration handles both single file and package formats
  • There’s a new preference to syntax highlight only fenced code blocks which have a language specified

Fixes

  • Fixed various crashes
  • Handling of images linked to other images with inline syntax
  • Collapsing sections caused display errors with highlighted code blocks
  • Cmd-D and backtick will now both set a new bookmark at the first available bookmark index
  • IA Block syntax rendered inside fenced code blocks

If you’re not already a Marked-using Markdown lover, take advantage of the November pricing and grab your own copy of Marked 2!