Books become unwieldy fast. Unlike a poem, essay, or short story, a book may generate thousands of pages by the time it’s revised down to three hundred and fifty. Most writers don’t realize or remember this when starting a new book. But after a few revisions, there’s just too much to keep track of.
I get this question in most of my classes: how do you organize your book-in-process?
I learned the hard way. My early manuscript were created in Word. I printed each version, read and marked up this hard copy, and input the corrections input. Rinse and repeat. Some books seemed endless, and I might end up with an entire file drawer of paper by the pub date. Not ideal on many levels, but it was the only way I knew.
About three books ago, I was introduced to Scrivener. It changed my writing life.
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