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Navigating the Labyrinth: A Novelist’s Toolkit of Writing Apps
For authors seeking inspiration and efficiency in their creative process, the digital age offers a plethora of writing apps. While some writers adhere to rigid routines, like the celebrated novelist Haruki Murakami, who famously detailed his disciplined schedule of waking at 4 AM and working for five hours, others thrive on flexibility and diverse tools. This exploration delves into a unique approach to book writing, utilizing a suite of disconnected software to foster creativity and overcome workflow stagnation. Discover how embracing a non-harmonious system can be surprisingly effective in the journey of crafting a novel.
Contrary to the pursuit of seamless integration, this method champions the strategic use of disparate applications. The rationale is that shifting between various writing environments can spark fresh perspectives, much like changing physical locations. This journey through different software is less about specific tools and more about adapting one’s approach to the evolving needs of the work itself.
Harnessing Note-Taking Apps for Idea Generation
The initial phase of writing a book often involves gathering nascent ideas. This exhilarating stage is characterized by boundless potential, before the practical challenges of creation take hold. Inspiration can strike unexpectedly – while reading, observing, listening, commuting, or even during mundane meetings.
Dual Note Systems: Bear and Apple Notes
Numerous note-taking applications exist, each catering to different preferences and organizational styles. Interestingly, this author employs two distinct apps, each serving a specific purpose:
- Bear: Used for structured concepts, such as character outlines and thematic frameworks. Its tagging system facilitates organization.
- Apple Notes: Reserved for fleeting, unstructured thoughts, devoid of formatting or context. Despite a less favored aesthetic, its shared accessibility for household lists necessitates its use.
The significance lies not in the apps’ inherent superiority, but in having varied digital spaces to capture different types of ideas. One app encourages deliberate thought organization, while the other enables rapid idea capture. For immediate jots, even a simple text message to oneself suffices.
Crucially, these notes apps operate independently. Transferring valuable content requires manual copying and pasting to a central writing space. However, the advantage of these platforms is in consolidating scattered ideas into coherent building blocks for later use.
iA Writer: A Minimalist Sanctuary for Drafting
Note-taking persists throughout the writing process, intensifying as the narrative develops. However, the primary tool for focused, sustained writing was iA Writer, a minimalist word processor prioritizing distraction-free composition. This software became the dedicated space for the demanding task of novel drafting.
The Value of a Focused Writing Environment
Despite exploring alternative apps, iA Writer remained the preferred choice, even with its premium pricing structure. While seemingly exorbitant for a text editor, the extended hours spent in the application justified the cost, highlighting the importance of a comfortable and conducive writing environment. Numerous free alternatives exist, yet selecting one that fosters comfort is paramount, especially during the challenging first draft phase.
Drafting occurred primarily on a basic iPad with a keyboard attachment, intentionally chosen as a dedicated writing tool. Distractions were minimized by removing superfluous apps, leaving only essential tools like Kindle and PDF readers. This mirrored a previous experience using a slow Chromebook, underscoring the value of a focused device for writing.
Google Docs: Structuring and Revising the Narrative
Unlike linear writers, this author employs a more non-sequential approach to drafting. This necessitates a later focus on narrative structure. Upon reaching approximately 60,000 words, the text was migrated to Google Docs to facilitate scene and chapter organization. If iA Writer served as the drafting tool, Google Docs became the platform for shaping and refining the manuscript into a coherent story.
Familiarity and Collaborative Functionality of Google Docs
Google Docs, a widely familiar word processor, offered convenience and ease of use. Its daily use in professional settings at The Verge also lent a sense of purposeful work to the book writing process. Furthermore, Google Docs’ collaborative features are implicitly alluded to being helpful in later stages, although not explicitly detailed here.
The Role of AI in Creative Writing: A Cautious Perspective
The integration of AI in writing sparks considerable debate, with valid concerns. Many authors express outright rejection of AI writing tools. While not deemed inherently unethical, they are considered largely unhelpful for this author’s creative pursuits. Experimentation with AI for professional work at The Verge primarily reveals its utility in basic language translation.
The Human Element in Art Creation
AI’s function, analogous to business-focused software like Microsoft Word memo templates, appears geared towards generating formulaic web content or routine communications. The core issue lies in AI’s decision-making capacity, automating choices inherent to the art of writing. The essence of creative writing, it’s argued, lies in the human act of making deliberate choices, a process diminished when outsourced to AI.
Scrivener: Mastering Manuscript Organization
As manuscript length increased, Google Docs encountered performance limitations around 15,000 words per document. The book was then divided into sections, navigated by a separate Google Doc index. The author transitioned from the iPad back to a laptop, managing multiple browser tabs for each document section.
Scrivener for Complex Narrative Structure
While revision was deemed less daunting than drafting, organizational complexities arose. Managing sentence-level edits, paragraph flow, chapter coherence, and overall book structure across numerous documents became cumbersome. Scrivener, specialized software designed for book writing, was then adopted to address these organizational challenges. Its feature-rich environment contrasts with the trend of simplified software, catering to power users willing to invest time in customization. Scrivener’s interface, reminiscent of older Windows software, emphasizes information density and structured organization.
Customization and Visual Project Management in Scrivener
Even with minimal customization, primarily typeface adjustments, Scrivener proved valuable for chapter organization and reorganization. Customizable metadata facilitated chapter sorting by character perspectives and revision status tracking. Scrivener’s visual project representation, akin to index cards on a corkboard, aided in managing interwoven plotlines and refining the book’s structure and sequence.
Returning to Familiar Ground: Google Docs and Word
Despite Scrivener’s organizational strengths, the author preferred not to write directly within the application. Content was then transferred back to Google Docs for finalization and subsequent revision rounds with an agent. The manuscript, ultimately exported as a Word document, was then submitted to an editor.
Microsoft Word: Industry Standard for Publishing
Despite perceived clumsiness, particularly on macOS, Microsoft Word became essential for manuscript submission. As the publishing industry standard, accommodating personal preferences for alternative word processors was impractical. Moreover, ongoing interoperability issues between Google Docs and Word, especially concerning track changes, further solidified Word’s necessity for professional manuscript exchange.
Adobe Acrobat: Navigating the Final Stages of Production
Following editorial revisions, the manuscript progressed to production stages, including copyediting. Initially handled in Word, the process transitioned to Adobe Acrobat for reviewing page proofs in the book’s layout. Adobe Acrobat’s commenting system, while acknowledged as unwieldy, was endured as a standard part of the author’s role in the publishing process.
Craft 3: Managing Pre-Publication Tasks
The period during book production involves marketing and publicity preparations, often less appealing to authors focused on the creative aspects of fiction writing. Craft 3, recommended for its evolved focus on writing and productivity, became a valuable tool for managing pre-publication commitments. It streamlined tasks such as marketing copy creation, event planning, and interview scheduling. Compared to tools like Notion, Craft 3 proved less cumbersome for deadline management and organization.
The Iterative Software Journey: A Summary
The writing process, as detailed, involved a distinct progression through various applications:
Bear / Apple Notes ➡️ iA Writer ➡️ Google Docs ➡️ Scrivener ➡️ Google Docs ➡️ Microsoft Word ➡️ Adobe Acrobat
Common Threads and Intentional Limitations
These diverse writing apps share key characteristics. Reliable phone and desktop versions ensure accessibility across locations. Each tool excels in a core function, rather than attempting universal competence. Scrivener, while feature-rich, benefits users willing to invest time in customization and learn its nuances. A dedicated community of Scrivener users and resources exists to support users in mastering the software’s capabilities.
Ultimately, embarking on a new book project implies embracing another iterative software journey. The author anticipates reinventing the process, exploring new tools, and adapting the workflow to the evolving needs of each project. Even if a perfect all-encompassing writing app existed, its adoption is uncertain. The inherent limitations of each chosen tool fostered mindful decision-making. Friction, in this context, served as a catalyst, prompting continuous evaluation of the book’s immediate requirements.
Efficiency is the aim of a workflow. Embracing the messy, iterative nature of creation is integral to novel writing.