Composing Fiction & Scripts with Markdown

1. Purpose

This guide is intended to help writers future-proof their work by keeping files always readable and accessible without sacrificing usability and workflow. For those who can't afford Final Draft or Scrivener, or who don't want to get locked into a proprietary format, I hope you find this helpful.

This guide is targeted towards Windows users. All the programs listed here (Visual Studio Code, Pandoc, and MikTeX) are available for macOS and Linux, though settings and install commands will be different.

| 1.1 What is Markdown?

Markdown is a markup language like HTML. Markdown files are simply plain text files using the extension .md, or .markdown, instead of .txt. A Markdown viewer recognizes the Markdown syntax as format commands and outputs a finished document.

Being plain text, these files are future-proof and can always be opened by any reader capable of reading plain text, such as Notepad, Notepad++, VIM, etc. In fact, this document is written in Markdown and you see can see the raw text complete with Markdown syntax here.

You can find more about Markdown, including a style guide, at markdownguide.org.

| 1.2 Workflow

All the pieces laid out in this guide work together to produce the following workflow:

• Write in VS Code using Markdown ➟ Publish to DOCX or PDF

2. Getting Set Up

| 2.1. Installing winget

winget is a command line package manager for CMD or PowerShell, much like apt-get in Linux.

This step is optional, but it's a nice tool that makes some tasks, including application installations, much more convenient.

winget comes with Windows 11. If you are on Windows 10, you'll need to install the App Installer from the Microsoft Store first.

| 2.2. Installing Fonts & Templates

Download the latest release of this guide to get the pandoc templates and fonts you need. The included fonts are Courier Prime and iA Writer Duo. Fully install them both. We'll get to the pandoc template files in 2.4.1.

| 2.3. Visual Studio Code

Install Visual Studio Code

• With winget:
  • Hit the Windows key on the keyboard, type cmd and open a CMD window
  • In CMD, type winget install --id Microsoft.VisualStudioCode -s winget
  • Hit Enter
• Or download and install

Once inside of VS, go to View > Extensions. Search for, and install, the extensions below. I've also included some color themes I find easier to write with:

• Better Fountain
• Markdown Fiction Writing
• Markdown Preview Enhanced
• Spell Right
• Gruvbox Theme
• Gruvbox Material Icon Theme

Lastly, we need to change some information in VS Code's settings.json file.

1. Open Settings by clicking the gear icon in the bottom left of VS Code.
2. Once inside Settings you will see a small icon in the upper right of that window. It looks like a document with a an arrow curving around it. Click that.
3. That should open the settings.json file. The code below needs to replace what is currently in your file. Highlight and delete what is in your .json file. Next, copy the entirety of the code below (including the { and } at the beginning and end) and paste in. Save by hitting CTRL-S. You might need to restart VS Code.

{
    "[markdown]": {
    "editor.fontFamily": "\"IA Writer Duo S\", monospace",
    "editor.fontLigatures": true,
    "editor.fontSize": 14,
    "editor.lineHeight": 26,          
    "editor.wordWrap": "wordWrapColumn",
    "editor.wordWrapColumn": 64,        
    "zenMode.centerLayout": true,
    "editor.lineNumbers": "off",
    "editor.quickSuggestions": false,
    "markdown.PreviewFrontMatter": "show"
    },

    "editor.fontFamily": "Consolas, 'Courier Prime', monospace",
    "workbench.iconTheme": "gruvbox-material-icon-theme",
    "markdown-preview-enhanced.frontMatterRenderingOption": "code block",
    "markdown-fiction-writer.metadata.categories.summaryEnabled": true,
    "markdown-fiction-writer.edit.disableKeybindings": false,
    "markdown-fiction-writer.edit.easyParagraphCreation": "Shift+Enter",
    "markdown-preview-enhanced.enableTypographer": true,
    "workbench.colorTheme": "Gruvbox Dark Hard",
    "editor.minimap.enabled": false,
    "breadcrumbs.enabled": false,
    "editor.cursorStyle": "block",
    
}

| 2.4. Final Installations

| | 2.4.1. Install pandoc

Pandoc is what converts our MD documents into DOCX or PDF. It uses templates to format the MD into manuscript format.

• Install using winget:
  • In CMD, type winget install --name Pandoc -e -s winget
• Or download and install

Once installed, open Windows Explorer and traverse to C:\users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\ and create the folders \pandoc\templates if they do not exist.

• Place reference.docx and references.odt inside of \Roaming\pandoc.
• Place story.latex inside \Roaming\pandoc\templates\

| | 2.4.2. Install MikTeX

MiKTeX is a LaTeX text setting system for Windows. It runs the modules pandoc needs.

• Install using winget:
  • In CMD, type winget install --name MiKTeX -e -s winget
• Or download and install

Once installed, run MiKTeX Console (you can find it in the Start Menu), check for updates and install them.

3. Using Visual Studio Code

1. You can open a file or a folder. The folder option is nice since all the documents you have in it will be available. This is helpful if you're writing many short stories or a book with chapters. When a folder is open it is called a workspace. You can even save a workspace out as a file for the future.

2. You an always preview the document you are currently working on by hitting CTRL-K V. Keep in mind, this notation means you hit CTRL-K, let go, then hit V (if the notation reads CTRL+K+V or CTRL-K-V then you hit them all together).

3. Go to Zen Mode by hitting CTRL-K Z.

4. Markdown Fiction Writing features a Writing Mode. It dims all your text except the paragraph you are currently working on. You toggle it on and off using the lightning bolt icon on the bottom bar of VSC.

| 3.1. Writing & Publishing a Script

Better Fountain is very easy to use for script writing. When starting a file, simply choose the language as Fountain. This extension even prints to PDF from inside VS Code in the proper format. Following the syntax examples on their website will give you a good start.

Make sure to give your script the proper Front Matter. This is information that exists at the very top of the document and provides metadata. The printing engine will use this for title pages, headers, etc. Here is some example Front Matter for Fountain:

Title: 
    _BIG PROJECT_
    Episode 1
    _"Say Stuff"_
Credit: Written by
Author: Jack Lance & Ken Hark
Revision: 
    DRAFT #5
    2/28/2022
BL: 
    (555) 222-2222
    444 Gunsmoke Rd..
    City, ST 00000
====

In Fountain syntax, theFront Matter begins on the first line of the document and ends with ===. Skip a line after === and begin writing your script.

| 3.2. Writing & Publishing Manuscripts

Writing prose in Markdown is easy. There is very little we need to format as all of that is done upon export. The Front Matter for a prose document is slightly different than for a script. Below is an example. Notice that it begins and ends with ---.

---
title: AWESOME TITLE
author: Jack Lance
runningtitle: AWESOME
forename: Jack
surname: Lance
date: 2/28/2022
wordcount: about 4,000
street: 444 Gunsmoke Rd.
location: City, ST 00000
phone: (555) 222-2222
email: example@email.com
revision: Fourth Draft
output: 
    pdf_document: 
        path: /Stories/Shorts/Awesome Title/at-test.pdf
        pdf_engine: xelatex
        template: story.latex
---

Some of the information here is for pandoc to use upon PDF render and some is for me (such as revision number).

| | 2.2.1. Publishing to PDF

The Markdown Preview Enhanced extension allows us to call pandoc without having to use a command line. Right clicking in the preview window shows output options. We'll be using the Pandoc option. We tell Pandoc what type of document to make in the Front Matter of our MD file.

Since you put story.latex in the \templates folder, we can tell Pandoc to use that as our PDF reference file. It is set up to use all the information in our Front Matter and inject it into the document where it needs to be. So, to print to a PDF we put this in our Front Matter

output: 
  pdf_document:
    pdf_engine: xeletex
    template: story.latex

Pandoc will output a PDF using that template to the same directory as your Workspace. In my case, I wanted the PDF to end up in the same directory as the story file itself, so I added a path argument to the Front Matter. When you first run a PDF print job, MiKTeX will download and install all the packages it needs, so be prepared for it to pop up a lot of windows needing your input.

This solution works nicely, but it has one small hiccup: I sometimes get widows and orphans upon export.

The only way I have found to solve this, if it happens, is to export to a DOCX file and then make the PDF from that inside of Word.

| | 2.2.2. Publishing to DOCX

Remember the reference.docx file you put inside of the Roaming\pandoc folder? Open it and change the header information on the title page to your information.

Next, change the output flag in the Front Matter of your .md file to the following:

output: word_document

Now, when you call Pandoc from the Markdown Preview Enhanced extension, it will generate a DOCX file. Go into the file, correct your word count, make sure everything is in Courier Prime, check the formatting situation, and change what needs changing. Output to PDF and you're done.

3. Links

• Better Fountain features
• Fountain syntax guide
• Markdown Fiction Writing guide