Within the phrases of comic and gamemaster Brennan Lee Mulligan pretending to be George R.R. Martin: “Have you ever ever tried to jot down? It’s the saddest, hardest, worst factor on the earth.” As a lot as I like his comedic chops, Mulligan is fallacious on this depend – I constantly discover that writing is fantastic and horrible in equal measure, whether or not I’m scribing some dunk on a tech firm’s most up-to-date mishap or engaged on my private initiatives.
Nevertheless, this 12 months introduced one thing of a personal victory for me: I completed the primary draft of the novel I’ve been engaged on for greater than three years. At near 110,000 phrases, it’s turn into one thing of an epic, which means I’m now getting into a reasonably ruthless enhancing phrase. Let me let you know – enhancing your individual work like that? Now that’s worse than writing.
However I genuinely appreciated writing that novel, as a lot as I would dread the looming technique of auditioning publishers (rejection letters, my previous good friend, come to taunt me as soon as once more). Writing was an escape for me throughout some exhausting instances, and the satisfaction that comes with finishing such an endeavor is nice and well-earned. And I didn’t use any fancy writing software program or intelligent methods right here: nope, I wrote the entire dang factor in a Google Doc on my laptop computer.
Being a author – of virtually any selection – nowadays, your two most easy choices are Microsoft Phrase and Google Docs. The latter is a little more light-weight than Microsoft’s Workplace package deal (together with Sheets and Slides, imitations of Microsoft’s Excel and PowerPoint), however on the finish of the day, they do the identical job: you may get phrases down on digital paper. I’m not right here to rag on Phrase; I simply used Docs as a result of it’s free, and a mishap with OneDrive a few years in the past that noticed numerous unfinished initiatives erased from the cloud has left me just a little cautious of Microsoft’s choices.
There are, in fact, extra specialised apps with regards to writing long-form artistic items. For those who’re within the novel-writing enterprise, you’ve little doubt encountered the likes of Scrivener, Atticus, and Dabble. Just about all of those apps are paid, be it a one-off buy or a month-to-month subscription.
I shelled out for Scrivener a number of years again, hoping it could give me the increase I wanted to begin – and full – a brand new novel. It’s a robust device, filled with helpful options geared particularly in the direction of novel writing. If there’s something Google Docs lacks, it’s this: a correct perform for organizing chapters could be very helpful, even setting apart the myriad different options it presents.
The issue I had with Scrivener, although, is that it nearly presents too a lot. A dense analysis device is constructed straight into the app, which some customers would possibly like, however I’m completely snug opening a brand new browser tab and researching unaided. The Scrivener web site notes that “the primary caveat for utilizing Scrivener is that you simply do need to put within the effort to study it”, and whereas I’ve by no means shied away from studying easy methods to use new software program, the quite a few on-line programs to show you easy methods to use this specific app are nothing if not daunting. Even as soon as I felt I had a deal with on it, Scrivener simply felt… cluttered.
What’s up, Doc?
Google Docs, in contrast, is gorgeous in its simplicity. I’m the form of one that desires minimal distractions when writing; I often don’t even hearken to music, and attempt to keep away from checking my telephone or leaving the doc web page in any respect. Docs lets me strip away a great chunk of all the interface with a fast keyboard shortcut, giving me nothing aside from what I want.
The essential options are nonetheless right here: grammar and spelling checks, a ample (however not exhaustive) vary of formatting choices, and a simple bookmarking system. Plus, it’s obtainable on Android – Scrivener is iOS-only exterior of pc working programs – and I like having the ability to entry my work anyplace, on any system, by way of Google Drive. My main draft Doc has a number of nested tabs full of helpful enhancing notes, analysis, and concepts for increasing the universe I’ve created. It’s not good, however it’s excellent for reducing out distractions and easily getting sentences down on the web page.
So whereas I shan’t choose anybody who makes use of a extra advanced device to form their artistic writing initiatives, I’ll be sticking with Google from right here on out. Because the previous adage goes: if it ain’t broke, don’t repair it.