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.
Along with my work at The Verge, I write novels — my second one is out today — and whereas I like Murakami’s dedication to an immovable schedule, I’ve discovered that I produce my finest work after I’m always rethinking routines, processes, and, largely, how I’m writing. Within the trendy age, meaning what software program I’m utilizing.
What I’m about to explain shall 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 manner. Lots 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 unsure I consider that formidable artistic work is borne from a superbly environment friendly workflow.
That is, as a substitute, a journey of shifting the work by totally different items of software program, relying on what it wanted or how I wanted to interface with it. Simply as being in numerous areas can encourage or problem new concepts, shifting work by totally different writing environments could 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 the very least, that’s how it’s for me. Perhaps it is perhaps for you, too.
After I begin writing a guide, I have to fairly actually accumulate my ideas. It’s the enjoyable half — when the undertaking is all potential, earlier than the realities of how painful it is going to be to truly 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 generally in the midst of conferences.
Everybody has particular makes use of for his or her notes apps, and there are such a lot of out there. The marginally counterintuitive / deranged factor is that I exploit two totally different ones. Every serves a unique objective.
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 totally free ideas, I often paste issues into Notes and don’t fear about formatting, context, no matter — I simply know it’s saved someplace. (Really, I’ve a really adversarial response to how Notes seems to be, 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 objective. I simply have a unique atmosphere to open on my cellphone, relying on the kind of concept I want to save lots of. One I exploit after I’m being considerate, and one other after I have to get one thing down rapidly. And within the moments after I want to save lots of one thing tremendous quick, I received’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, ultimately, I must transfer any helpful textual content out of them. Each 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. That is, for me, the worth of notes apps: combining scraps of concepts, so that you could flip them into one thing helpful later.
I don’t cease taking notes after I’m writing — actually, that solely will increase because the guide begins to take form and actually stay in my mind. However the place I spent essentially the most time targeted on deliberate, precise writing was in iA Author, my minimal, zero-frills phrase processor of selection. This was the software program I opened after I sat all the way down to do the exhausting work of novel writing.
I’ve tried a handful of different apps, however that is the one I preserve returning to, although it prices $50 for cell and one other $50 if you would like the desktop model. Wanting again, it is a fairly ludicrous sum of money to spend simply because I just like the app’s default typeface. (Although, while 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’re feeling essentially the most snug. The primary draft is the toughest half, so something you are able to do to ease that course of is value it.
I drafted virtually totally 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 instrument. (I wrote my first guide on a Chromebook that was too sluggish to meaningfully browse the web; ultimately, I needed to ship it to the e-waste pickup when it was too sluggish to open Google Docs.) On the iPad, I eliminated a lot of the default apps, and the one different issues I put in had 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 somewhat 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 totally different Google Docs so I may begin to separate out scenes and chapters. If iA Author is for getting phrases on the web page, Docs is the place I end and start to revise a guide. That 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 guide in it additionally makes it really feel like work, which is an admission in a manner: that now, we have now to do work.
Using AI, particularly in relation to writing, is controversial for a myriad of excellent causes. I do know loads 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.)
Simply as Microsoft Phrase was designed for enterprise memos, the motivation of AI-generated writing is to supply copious quantities of banal net copy or cheery emails. I’m not concerned with 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 sequence of choices. The comfort of AI is that it makes choices for you. However then, actually, what’s the level of writing if you happen to let one thing else do it for you?
This was when issues obtained somewhat 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 guide 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 onerous as ending a primary draft, however it’s an organizational problem. On one hand, you must preserve balancing issues on a sentence, paragraph, and chapter stage; on the opposite, you possibly can’t lose sight of the guide’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 guide 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 best of software program up to now decade has been ease, Scrivener leans the opposite path 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 individual, and wrangling its eccentricities till the quirks really feel like second nature. Even the way in which Scrivener seems to be — the usage of a number of panes, inflexible group constructions, and excessive info density — appears like Home windows software program from the late ‘90s / early aughts.
I confess, I solely did mild customization (the very first thing I did was change all of the UI components 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 allows you to visualize your tasks, and seeing all the things laid out visually like index playing cards on a corkboard is extraordinarily useful while you’re making an attempt to weave collectively 5 plot traces. It actually helped me nail down the guide’s sequence and construction.
The factor is: I truly hate writing in Scrivener, so then I moved all the things again to Google Docs to complete (once more, scattered throughout a number of totally different Docs). I did one other spherical of revisions with my agent, after which despatched it off to my editor, exported as a Phrase doc.
As a lot as I discover Microsoft Phrase fairly clumsy, particularly on a Mac, it turned essential to ultimately transfer a full manuscript there. Phrase is the trade commonplace for the publishing trade, and I wasn’t about to ask my editor to accommodate my need for a much less ugly phrase processor. (It additionally looks like irrespective of how lengthy Google tries to resolve its interoperability with Phrase’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 Phrase, however then the guide’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 guide is in manufacturing, and then you definitely begin to have conferences about truly promoting the guide. That is my least favourite a part of the publishing course of, since I’m compelled to consider publicity and advertising, and I’m unsure 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, had 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 best 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 straightforward time staying on high of deadlines, and I’ve discovered it much less fidgety than comparable instruments like Notion.
So, if you happen to’ve been maintaining observe, the journey seems to be like this:
Bear / Apple Notes ➡️ iA Author ➡️ Google Docs ➡️ Scrivener ➡️ Google Docs ➡️ Microsoft Phrase ➡️ Adobe Acrobat
There are some things all these apps have in frequent. First, all of them have dependable cellphone and desktop variations. I don’t use each equally, however it’s good to have entry to the textual content irrespective of the place I’m working. Second, each bit of software program is constructed round a core power, moderately than making an attempt to be good at all the things. Scrivener is the one outlier right here, because it suffers from characteristic bloat, however you may as well actually make it be just right for you if you happen to put within the elbow grease. (There’s an entire subculture of Scrivener customers and tinkerers — a number of pals have beneficial Jaime Greene’s online courses.)
I’ve a 3rd guide underneath contract, which suggests I’m dedicated to doing this complete course of yet again. Nicely, not this course of, precisely — if I’ve realized something, it’s that I’ll need to reinvent the entire thing for myself as I write, and meaning making an attempt loads of new software program. Even when it was doable to create the proper app, one that might seize the journey of writing a guide from conception to publication, I’m nonetheless unsure I’d use it. The restrictions of every instrument compelled me to be considerate. The friction made me ask, at each flip: what does the guide want now?
A workflow is for getting issues executed effectively. Embracing mess is the way you write a guide.