How Will You Physically Write It?
Issue #18
It’s perhaps your most basic technical consideration for setting the stage for a novel project: how physically will you write it? And lest you think that by this time in history, everyone’s using computers—think again.
Both Joyce Carol Oates and George R.R. Martin, among others, always write by hand.
And Stephen King and J.K. Rowling, among others, have sometimes done so.
Much good can come from avoiding the keyboard. According to Top Education Degrees.com, everything from memory to organizational abilities to increased creativity is improved. Hand-writing a novel in particular offers its own set of advantages. In his blog, Bryn Donovan suggests that the practice reduces strain, eliminates internet distraction and enforces a first round of revision and edits. Psychology Today lists even more benefits.
Personally? I’ve written many short stories and parts of novels in longhand. Do I do it now, or would I ever again, especially in light of all the advantages listed above? No! A picture will illustrate why not:
My individual style of writing involves a lot of revision, sentence and paragraph repositioning, plus the addition of many afterthoughts, even as I write that first draft. Also, my penmanship isn’t terribly legible—even to me. Not to mention that after a while it makes my hand ache.
Back in the day, I literally couldn’t wait to get a word-processor.
Pictured is Evelyn Berezin, credited with creating the first computerized word processor in the 1970’s. Thank you, Evelyn!
Me, I scored one of the early computers (a Kaypro, pictured above from Old Computers.com). It had a glowing green-on-black screen, required two floppy disks to run, and contained the rudimentary word-processing program Wordstar. Compared to dealing with my own chicken-scratching, I thought I’d died and gone to writer heaven.
Which brings us to Word.
By the mid 1990’s Word had taken over as the industry standard. It remains fine word-processing software today. I am using the program this very moment to create this issue. I won’t go into the tech aspects, since you are no doubt familiar with Word.
I’ve also used OpenOffice, similar software which is free (ultimately, I went back to Word, because the industry usually wants fiction submissions in .doc files which are more accurately saved in Word).
[As an aside, in my opinion, Microsoft goes overboard issuing new versions and updates. Word now has a plethora—or excess—of features, most of which I don’t use. There is such a thing as adding too many bells and whistles. But that may just be me.]
I have one more suggestion here in regards to the how of writing your novel. In a word (pardon the pun), let me say: Scrivener.
The following is neither a tutorial nor a promo piece, just a few positive points on Scrivener from my POV.
Take a look at this Scrivener screenshot of my novel The Suicide Killings, the second book in my Touch series. You’ll see that it allows you to have a lot onscreen all at once.
Chapters are listed on the left. Putting up one or more (or the entire manuscript at once) is as easy as clicking here.
The “live” chapter (highlighted) displays a synopsis field, where you can summarize each chapter, if desired. It also has an optional notes field, which I use for out-takes or to remind myself of sections or concepts I want to include in that chapter.
You can have two chapters at once up on the screen, as I do here. This is ideal if you want to be sure that the end of one chapter is transitioning nicely into the next. To demonstrate, here I have the end of chapter one and the beginning of chapter two.
This powerful program contains many other features ideally suited to writing long fiction. I will caution you on the big negative point: there is a significant learning curve. For me, it has been completely worth the time invested. If you’re serious about getting the best tool you can for novel-writing, I recommend it.
Your book is calling, and you’ve got choices. How will you record it: with old-school paper and pen, basic word-processing, or novel-writing software?
The word of the day is also calling. Here’s a hint: there are many reasons you should remember this one. But do you?
What is plethora?
Action Plan
Sink your teeth into my serial-length story about a haunted hunting lodge and the two out-of-towners who stumble across it. The Lodge at Fear Summit is available only on Kindle Vella. The first episodes are free.
Next up
#19) Where Will You Write? See you in two weeks!
Craig
I take extensive notes by hand. Then never use them. Why? Writing happens in real time, at the keyboard. The prepwork is only to prime the pump : )
By hand is my first draft preference also