Back from the holidays, we’re full of energy and eager to embark on new endeavours. If you want, come join us on the first trip in 2019: Become a beta tester and try the forthcoming new Ulysses features!
We’re working on our next major release, Ulysses 15. Here are some of the new features you may expect.
If you’re up to some bug hunting, join our beta program!
Matt Gemmell is a thriller writer from the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. He wrote his recent book, TOLL — which was published less than two weeks ago — using Ulysses. We invited him to share a few details of his writing process and how he uses several of the app’s features to help him. Last week, he covered his project structure, the manuscript’s organization, and the writing process; plus he explained his use of keywords and word count goals. In today’s post, Matt shares how he is going about reference and research related to his novel and treats the subjects of editing and export.
When I wrote my first novel, I didn’t fully plan it out beforehand, and I ended up having to do an enormous rewrite after the first draft. It was a horrible process, and it dented my confidence (and motivation). I learned my lesson! For the second book, I fully outlined the entire novel before I started working on the first scene, and the writing process was much, much easier because of it. Read …
Matt Gemmell is a thriller writer from the city of Edinburgh in Scotland. He wrote his recent book, TOLL — which is out this week — using Ulysses. We invited him to share a few details of his writing process and how he uses several of the app’s features to help him. In this post, he covers his project structure, the manuscript’s organization, and the writing process; plus he explains how he is making use of keywords and word count goals. In a second post, Matt will talk about how he is going about reference and research related to his novel, and treat the subjects of editing and export.
TOLL is the result of two years of work, and is the second book in my KESTREL series. It’s around 100,000 words long, and required a great deal of planning, research, and organisation. I used various tools for the planning stages, but ultimately I moved almost everything into Ulysses, to keep all my book-related material in one place and easy to access.
Here’s how I went about it. Read …
Sometimes, life takes unexpected turns. It was a severe riding accident that forced Jeanine Krock to change careers. That was fifteen years ago; today, Jeanine makes her livelihood as a novelist. She has published numerous books with various publishing houses and acts as a coach to aspiring writers of all ages.
A German version of this interview is available on the website Die Wortfinderinnen.
Please tell us something about you and what you are working on.
My name is Jeanine Krock. I’m a novelist. Most of what I write I publish under my name, but there are times when I’m using a pen name. Right now, for example, I’m writing as Kiri Johansson, and have just completed the first draft of a novel called Islandsommer (“A Summer in Iceland”), to be published by Heyne in May next year. It’s now with the editors, which, for me, is always a bit of an emotional roller coaster.
I trained as a costume designer, but have also worked as a scout and booker at a model agency, as a relocation consultant, waitress, cook, and in a call centre. At one point, I even ironed shirts for a living. Oh, and I’m a committed European.
Ulysses 14.4 for iOS is out now! The update adds support Apple’s new iPad Pro models and fixes a few annoying bugs. For details and download, visit the App Store.
Forget about long sleeve tops and hoodies; T-shirts are the new hot! Hiplength, short-sleeved, made from cotton or cotton blend, and garnished with a chest print created by designer Philip Ackermann, the new Ulysses shirts are must-haves for fashionable writers of all sexes.
Both T-shirts Ulysses Glyph and DNA are now available for pre-order with Cotton Bureau.
We were lucky to catch busy Philip at his desk, and asked him a couple of questions. Read …
As a consultant and trainer, Barbara Hoisl helps tech companies to turn innovations for the Internet of Things into successful products. The challenge for these companies isn’t merely technical; they also need to embrace the mindset, strategies and business models from the software world that greatly differ from their own industry. Barbara’s book “Produkte digital-first denken” (“Inventing products digital-first”) is based on her work with decision-makers on this subject. Writing it did not turn out to be as easy as she had hoped.
Please tell us something about you and what you are working on.
I’m a computer scientist by training and have been working in the software industry since the early nineties.
In 2010, I started my own consulting business, focused on strategy and business planning for software and Internet companies.
Since 2014, I’ve been doing more and more consulting in the Internet of Things (IoT) space. For example, I’m working with vendors of high-tech industrial products who are developing smart, connected products for the Internet of Things. I help them leverage the mindset, strategies and business models from the software and Internet industry to turn their innovations into successful products. Read …
Are you eager to reduce the time you lose with routine tasks? Then you should have a look at Apple’s Shortcuts app for iOS. You can use it to combine actions from many different apps into a single shortcut, accessible via a home screen icon, the shortcuts widget or a Siri voice command.
Let’s assume you keep a journal in Ulysses; every day you answer a number of predetermined questions. Your journal is represented by a Ulysses group, and every day you create a new sheet in that group. At the top of each entry, you’d like to include the current date and location. In our brand-new tutorial, we introduce the Shortcuts app and walk you through the creation of a sample shortcut that does all of the above for you!
You read about a subject and collect information about its essential aspects — that’s how many writing tasks begin. If the research is taking place on the web, the share extension is a helpful little tool to make it easier. It has been part of Ulysses for iPad and iPhone for some time; with Ulysses 14 we integrated it in the Mac app as well.
You can use the share extension to send text, links, and images from Safari and many different apps directly to Ulysses. It is easy as pie: Select the content you want to share, execute the Share command (via a toolbar button or a context menu), then choose Ulysses from the list of apps. This will open a share sheet where you can add notes or a description, or edit the text directly. Moreover, you can select the Ulysses group to which the content should be sent. Finally, click Send, and the content will be added to Ulysses as a new sheet. For a closer look at how to use the share extension precisely on your different devices, check out our new tutorial.
We’re excited to announce that Ulysses is now optimized for both iPhone XS Max and iPhone XR! Ulysses 14 on the super large super retina display of iPhone XS Max and XR – it’s a super-combo for your writing needs on the go.
The update is now available on the App Store – install it on your shiny new device and have fun!