Closing in on the Markdown Book

Since wrapping up my major Windows 11 Field Guide revision, I’ve spent my side-project time on the Markdown book, which may or may not be called Markdown: A Field Guide for Writers. Here’s a quick update.

This will be a short book, probably 50 to 100 pages at most.

It will be as inexpensive as possible for all kinds of reasons, the most obvious being that there are plenty of Markdown syntax references out there already. If I can configure it to be free, at least as an option, on Leanpub’s price slider, I will do so.

The cover image is temporary and will be updated, perhaps dramatically.

The book is divided into two sections, “Why” and How, though I haven’t added that structure to the book and its table of contents yet.

The “Why” section consists of four short chapters, at least for now:

• Introduction
• Why Markdown
• Word processing is not writing
• Multitasking is a lie

And the “How” section currently consists of four chapters as well:

• Markdown first steps
• Basic Markdown syntax
• Advanced Markdown syntax
• Choose a Markdown editor

The first section is just about done, though I repeat a few too many themes across those chapters and will winnow it down. And the first two chapters in the second section are likewise just about done. I may move the chapter about Markdown editors to a different place in the table of contents.

I had hoped to somehow finish this small book by the end of August, but looking at the calendar, I can see that I will fall short of that. I will publish at least an early version in the next few days, though, and then finish it up soon thereafter.

With this almost done, I will start working (more) on my September focus topic, which is tech nostalgia. I’ve already written bits of some articles and have one, about the Amiga, that’s nearly done but in need of some edits because I rewrote some of its contents for From the Editor’s Desk: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back ⭐. But it will basically pick up where the old (Premium) series ended.

More soon.