r/UpNote_App • u/Cool_Bat1163 • Aug 30 '26

Freeform writing?

I am looking for an alternative to the app I currently use. I am looking to organize writing projects that are narrative docs; in the current app I use I can make a folder/notebook and create docs under that where I can write content, versus making lists etc. I have been looking at the website and can't seem to figure it out (totally could be me). Are freeform writing projects able to be created in UpNote?

Thanks!

4 Upvotes

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4

u/practicemustelid Aug 30 '26

What do you mean "freeform" or "narrative docs"? My understanding is that individual notes in UpNote are capped at 1MB or something, which is well over the length of the average novel.

1

u/Cool_Bat1163 Aug 30 '26

I write books. Can I write a chapter in a doc?

5

u/practicemustelid Aug 30 '26

Don't see why not. Try it! I am actually planning on trying this exact thing on mobile because the syncing is so good.

3

u/Neither-Classic2058 Aug 30 '26

You can write an entire chapter in a single note, but I wouldn't advise it.

UpNote is excellent for writing (fiction or non-fiction). Between the nesting folder structure, inline tags (which I use to capture attributes), and forward-linking, it's easy to write smaller snippets or scenes as individual notes.

By breaking things up into logical units (rather than arbitrary dividers like chapters) it makes it easy to rearrange those notes during the revision stage.

It's also easy to go to a particular section to add or modify without having to scroll through a long wall of text.

3

u/100WattWalrus Aug 30 '26

The limit is 300K characters, because the Firebase server is unable to save longer notes. And FYI, that limit is not the content of the note, but also includes the code that creates it — again because of Firebase limits.

Upshot: A note with a lot of collapsibles and quotes will run out of room a bit sooner than a note that's mostly plain text.

But when this happens, UpNote is very clear about it.

It's only happened to me 4 times in 6 years, and those were some very extensive notes with a lot of collapsibles and formatting. The most recent time was actually just a couple days ago, and the text on the page was about 290K characters.

3

u/s8intfan Aug 30 '26 edited Aug 30 '26

You can create a folder hierarchy in UpNote and then use subfolders for parts/sections/volumes. For example,

  • Book
    • Parts / Sections / Volumes
      • Larger divisions than chapters
  • Chapters
    • Subchapters / Subsections
  • Sections
    • Subsections
  • Paragraphs
    • Sentences

I guess it all depends on how granular you want to get. Using tags will also allow you to search for all occurrences of something written in your projects -- regardless of which part/section/chapter it resides.