> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.andrewboardman.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # How I Write this Newsletter - URL: https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/how-i-write-this-newsletter/ - Published: 2026-08-24T16:36:16.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-24T16:36:16.000Z - Description: My writing tech stack and a few tips - Author: Andrew Boardman - Tags: Newsletter Dear Designer, In my [last letter](https://www.andrewboardman.com/newsletter/please-write/), I wrote about how important it is for designers to write. One point of clarification. While I think designers can be natural writers, I don’t mean to say that writing comes naturally. I can confirm what every other practitioner says: writing is sometimes painful, always difficult, and usually lonely. Like most solitary sports, it is an act of promise but also real perseverance and persistence. However, one of the things that makes writing a bit easier, at least for me and other writing geeks, are the tools. I don’t know if I’ve ever publicly admitted it, but I *love* writing tools. I’ve tried and used dozens of them. Sometimes this is a means of procrastination. Other times it’s about experimentation. As an early adopter, I’ve used so many writing and publishing tools, that enumerating them here would not be helpful. I used Blogger.com (it still exists) when it first came out in 1999! I was also early to sign up for Medium when it emerged; I gave it up for a long while but I’m still posting [these letters there](https://medium.com/@andrew-boardman?ref=andrewboardman.com). *So what I do use to write this newsletter?* While there are many excellent writing tools out there — ballpoints, Moleskines, Leuchtturm1917, Google Docs, Ulysses, TextEdit, Reflect, Scrivener, and BBEdit to name a few — my writing stack consists of three tools these days. All of them share a few characteristics: they are beautifully designed, they are actively updated, and the developers care about their users. Here they are: 1. [Obsidian](https://obsidian.md/?ref=andrewboardman.com). I have stopped and started using Obsidian over the years but it remains a crucial part of how I write and think. I mostly use it to craft a daily note — what I’m thinking about, what I’m worried about, what I’m wanting to do. I also use it to track ideas and topics for this newsletter. I have one document in Obsidian called “!! Dear Designer Post Ideas” in folder called "Writing" with a checkable list. It's a one-stop shop that provides almost zero friction for managing past and future subject matter. Obsidian is free to download and use. And thanks to a huge community of developers, it allows for infinite typographic and dashboard customization. This is also a problem. Once, I spent almost an entire day customizing the platform and I felt like an idiot afterwards. Cross-device syncing can be done via iCloud or a paid Obsidian service. If you use the latter, you can decide which continent you’d like your encrypted data to reside. 2. [iA Writer](https://ia.net/writer?ref=andrewboardman.com). I was an early adopter of iA Writer, too. Most of my actual writing happens here. Like Obsidian, it uses markdown to make writing simpler: bold is two asterisks and italics is one while an h1 is a pound sign. Unlike other minimalist text editors, the beauty of iA Writer is that there is no real styling of content and very little tool customization. You have a choice of exactly *three* fonts — iA Writer Mono, Duo or Quattro. I’ve used all three extensively and Mono is my current preference as it is legible and effortlessly boring. If you are worried about obsessing with typeface minutia, iA Writer quietly tells you to cut that out. Unlike Ulysses and other writing tools, iA Writer is not subscription-based — pay once and it’s yours. 3. [Ghost](https://ghost.org/?ref=andrewboardman.com). Once I finish a draft of the newsletter, I read it through and make the larger edits. Then, I’ll wait an hour or a day or two days. I’ll then read it a couple of more times, make fine-tuned edits, throw up my hands and cross my arms. iA Writer has a nice feature which pushes your styled copy straight to Ghost. Once it’s imported, I make final tweaks inside the Ghost publishing panel, check that the various links and images work and do a final preview of the post as both a newsletter and a blog post. I then hit Publish and out it goes. Ghost is a non-profit, open source platform that thousands of people are moving to from Substack, beehiiv and Kit (and maybe Blogger lol). It’s also carbon neutral, a rarity for any platform. There is a free trial but using Ghost requires a paid subscription. That’s the stack. Obsidian for ideation. iA Writer for writing. Ghost for publishing. None of them are individually perfect but, together, they come as close to an efficient and designer-friendly self-publishing operation as I could ask. In all cases, the focus is on making the writing and editing experience as painless as possible. If you have any questions about writing tools and platforms, or how they work together, do let me know. I'd be happy to point you in the right direction. Wishing you a good start to the week, dear writer. Yours, ![andrew signature](https://www.andrewboardman.com/content/images/2026/07/ab-sign.png) P.S. My [introductory coaching package](https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching/#investment) is available for one more week. If you have any questions about how coaching might support you, please read my [coaching page](https://www.andrewboardman.com/coaching/) or reach out.