There’s a well-known two-decade-old Paris Review interview with Haruki Murakami by which he, one of many world’s most celebrated novelists, particulars his day by day routine. He wakes up at 4AM, works for 5 hours, goes for a run, reads, goes to mattress, after which repeats it yet again. The rigor and repetition are the purpose.
I’m not Haruki Murakami.
In addition to my work at The Verge, I write novels — my second one is out right this moment — and whereas I love Murakami’s dedication to an immovable schedule, I’ve discovered that I produce my greatest work after I’m continually rethinking routines, processes, and, largely, how I’m writing. In the fashionable age, meaning what software program I’m utilizing.
What I’m about to explain can be a nightmare to anybody who likes all of their instruments to work harmoniously. All of those apps are disconnected and don’t interoperate with one another in any approach. Many of the issues they do are redundant and overlap. I suppose this course of is sort of the alternative of frictionless — however that’s exactly the purpose. I’m undecided I imagine that bold artistic work is borne from a superbly environment friendly workflow.
This is, as a substitute, a journey of transferring the work by way of completely different items of software program, relying on what it wanted or how I wanted to interface with it. Just as being in several places can encourage or problem new concepts, transferring work by way of completely different writing environments may be that shift to your textual content. What I’m about to element is much less in regards to the particular items of software program, and extra how one would possibly change their method relying on what the work wants.
At least, that’s how it’s for me. Maybe it could be for you, too.
When I begin writing a ebook, I must fairly actually accumulate my ideas. It’s the enjoyable half — when the mission is all potential, earlier than the realities of how painful it will likely be to really make it have set in. I’ll discover inspiration in issues I’m studying, watching, and listening to; concepts will come to me whereas I’m using the subway, after I can’t sleep at night time, and even typically in the course of conferences.
Everyone has particular makes use of for his or her notes apps, and there are such a lot of obtainable. The barely counterintuitive / deranged factor is that I exploit two completely different ones. Each serves a special goal.
I exploit Bear for structured concepts like character sketches or thematic ideas, and I make use of the app’s light-weight tagging system to remain organized. For completely free ideas, I often paste issues into Notes and don’t fear about formatting, context, no matter — I simply know it’s saved someplace. (Actually, I’ve a really opposed response to how Notes appears, however it’s the one the place my associate prefers to share grocery lists and streaming passwords, so I’m caught with it.)
The necessary factor right here isn’t that these apps are particularly good or tailor-made to any goal. I simply have a special atmosphere to open on my cellphone, relying on the kind of thought I want to avoid wasting. One I exploit after I’m being considerate, and one other after I must get one thing down rapidly. And within the moments after I want to avoid wasting one thing tremendous quick, I gained’t even use a notes app in any respect — I’ll simply textual content myself.
Nothing about Bear or Notes work together with one another, and, finally, I should transfer any helpful textual content out of them. Both of them sync fairly properly to desktop apps, so copying and pasting stuff to a brand new place is a reasonably painless, if not tedious, course of. This is, for me, the worth of notes apps: combining scraps of concepts, so as to flip them into one thing helpful later.
I don’t cease taking notes after I’m writing — in actual fact, that solely will increase because the ebook begins to take form and actually stay in my mind. But the place I spent essentially the most time targeted on deliberate, precise writing was in iA Writer, my minimal, zero-frills phrase processor of selection. This was the software program I opened after I sat right down to do the exhausting work of novel writing.
I’ve tried a handful of different apps, however that is the one I maintain returning to, despite the fact that it prices $50 for cellular and one other $50 if you need the desktop model. Looking again, this can be a fairly ludicrous sum of money to spend simply because I just like the app’s default typeface. (Though, whenever you’re going to spend over 100 hours one thing, $100 appears much less egregious.) There’s a sea of free apps that accomplish the very fundamental job of letting you sort, so discover the one which makes you are feeling essentially the most comfy. The first draft is the toughest half, so something you are able to do to ease that course of is value it.
I drafted virtually completely on an iPad — not any of the high-end fashions, however Apple’s entry-level one with the crummy keyboard attachment. I simply needed a tool devoted to being a writing device. (I wrote my first ebook on a Chromebook that was too gradual to meaningfully browse the web; finally, I needed to ship it to the e-waste pickup when it was too sluggish to open Google Docs.) On the iPad, I eliminated many of the default apps, and the one different issues I put in have been the Kindle app and a few PDF readers. No video games, no streaming providers.
I do know some writers that work from begin to end. I’m a little bit extra chaotic in that I write in completely no order. This turns into an issue later, since crucial a part of a story is construction. So at a sure level, after I had sufficient phrases written (often round 60,000 phrases), I moved issues into a number of completely different Google Docs so I might begin to separate out scenes and chapters. If iA Writer is for getting phrases on the web page, Docs is the place I end and start to revise a ebook. This is the place it turns into a legible story.
I don’t have an excessive amount of to say about Google Docs that you just don’t already know. It’s the phrase processor that I’ve used essentially the most all through my life, so it’s additionally essentially the most acquainted and most handy. We use Google Docs all day lengthy at The Verge, so writing a ebook in it additionally makes it really feel like work, which is an admission in a approach: that now, we now have to do work.
The use of AI, particularly in terms of writing, is controversial for a myriad of excellent causes. I do know a variety of authors that wholesale reject the usage of them. I don’t personally really feel that they’re immoral; I largely discover them fairly unhelpful. For my work at The Verge, I discover myself testing them considerably often simply to know what’s on the market. (I do suppose AI is sort of helpful for tough language translation.)
Just as Microsoft Word was designed for enterprise memos, the motivation of AI-generated writing is to provide copious quantities of banal internet copy or cheery emails. I’m not considering utilizing AI to generate any of my work as a result of, frankly, I like doing the work. Making artwork, as Ted Chiang has argued, is a collection of selections. The comfort of AI is that it makes choices for you. But then, actually, what’s the level of writing for those who let one thing else do it for you?
This was when issues received a little bit bizarre. Google Docs has a tough time with writing that goes over a sure size — that threshold, I’ve discovered, is round 15,000 phrases. So my ebook was separated into giant sections, and I created an index linked to all of the chapters, additionally as a Google Doc. By this level, I’m off the iPad and again on a laptop computer; my browser has tabs open to every of the seven separate Docs that comprise my draft.
For me, revising isn’t as laborious as ending a primary draft, however it’s an organizational problem. On one hand, you must maintain balancing issues on a sentence, paragraph, and chapter stage; on the opposite, you’ll be able to’t lose sight of the ebook’s complete construction. Having the manuscript unfold throughout so many various paperwork was proving cumbersome.
So I put in Scrivener, one of many few apps I do know that’s truly constructed with ebook writing in thoughts. (What does it say that almost all of the artistic writing we do is completed in software program designed for the office?) If the perfect of software program prior to now decade has been ease, Scrivener leans the opposite course by designing one thing for energy customers. It’s software program that you just get extra out of the extra effort you set into setting it up, making it your personal, and wrangling its eccentricities till the quirks really feel like second nature. Even the way in which Scrivener appears — the usage of a number of panes, inflexible group buildings, and excessive data density — seems like Windows software program from the late ‘90s / early aughts.
I confess, I solely did gentle customization (the very first thing I did was change all of the UI parts to a greater typeface). Even then, it was fairly worthwhile to make use of the app to prepare and reorganize chapters. With the customizable metadata fields, I used to be in a position to create labels to simply type chapters by characters’ factors of view and observe which sections wanted revisions. Scrivener additionally permits you to visualize your initiatives, and seeing every little thing laid out visually like index playing cards on a corkboard is extraordinarily useful whenever you’re attempting to weave collectively 5 plot traces. It actually helped me nail down the ebook’s sequence and construction.
The factor is: I truly hate writing in Scrivener, so then I moved every little thing again to Google Docs to complete (once more, scattered throughout a number of completely different Docs). I did one other spherical of revisions with my agent, after which despatched it off to my editor, exported as a Word doc.
As a lot as I discover Microsoft Word fairly clumsy, particularly on a Mac, it grew to become essential to finally transfer a full manuscript there. Word is the business customary for the publishing business, and I wasn’t about to ask my editor to accommodate my need for a much less ugly phrase processor. (It additionally looks like regardless of how lengthy Google tries to unravel its interoperability with Word’s observe adjustments, essential issues at all times find yourself getting misplaced in translation.)
After a pair rounds with my editor, we lastly felt just like the manuscript was good to go to manufacturing. First, it went to the copy editor. This began in Word, however then the ebook’s inside was laid out and I had to have a look at proofs in Adobe Acrobat, which has its personal gangly commenting system that I endured as a result of all authors are courageous.
A whole lot of time passes whereas a ebook is in manufacturing, and you then begin to have conferences about truly promoting the ebook. This is my least favourite a part of the publishing course of, since I’m pressured to consider publicity and advertising, and I’m undecided anybody chooses writing fiction as a result of their need is to “please a market.”
Anyway, one final app that I’ve been utilizing — at David Pierce’s advice — is Craft 3. The earlier variations of Craft, which I’d by no means used, have been full-featured productiveness apps. This third iteration pivots it to a writing atmosphere first, with plenty of productiveness bells and whistles second. This has been the perfect to handle all of my pre-publication commitments, which contain writing advertising copy, planning occasions, and scheduling interviews. With Craft, I’ve had a fairly simple time staying on high of deadlines, and I’ve discovered it much less fidgety than comparable instruments like Notion.
So, for those who’ve been maintaining observe, the journey appears like this:
Bear / Apple Notes ➡️ iA Writer ➡️ Google Docs ➡️ Scrivener ➡️ Google Docs ➡️ Microsoft Word ➡️ Adobe Acrobat
There are some things all these apps have in widespread. First, all of them have dependable cellphone and desktop variations. I don’t use every one equally, however it’s good to have entry to the textual content regardless of the place I’m working. Second, each bit of software program is constructed round a core power, slightly than attempting to be good at every little thing. Scrivener is the one outlier right here, because it suffers from function bloat, however you can too actually make it be just right for you for those who put within the elbow grease. (There’s an entire subculture of Scrivener customers and tinkerers — a number of buddies have really useful Jaime Greene’s on-line programs.)
I’ve a 3rd ebook beneath contract, which implies I’m dedicated to doing this complete course of yet again. Well, not this course of, precisely — if I’ve realized something, it’s that I’ll must reinvent the entire thing for myself as I write, and meaning attempting a variety of new software program. Even if it was potential to create the proper app, one that might seize the journey of writing a ebook from conception to publication, I’m nonetheless undecided I’d use it. The limitations of every device pressured me to be considerate. The friction made me ask, at each flip: what does the ebook want now?
A workflow is for getting issues accomplished effectively. Embracing mess is the way you write a ebook.
