Writing process

[flurblewig]

When you work on long stories, do you have the whole thing in one document, or different docs for chapters/parts/notes? What software do you use

Comments

[rahirah]

Whole thing in one file. The only time I use separate files is when a certain part is giving me fits, and I'll sometimes copy it into its own file to really hack at it. (I don't know why I feel that helps.) I use WordPerfect.

[flurblewig]

Hee! I do that too, although I'm not sure why either. Punishment by solitary confinement, perhaps :-)

[counterfeitcoin]

I write all in one doc, but it gets confusing the more I jump around. I use Google Docs, which I like because I can continue writing from where I left off on any computer and if I crash my computer (which, granted, only happened once and I know what I did to make it happen, but you never know) my docs will be safe. Also it saves automatically every few minutes as you go, and you can just give someone access to the doc and they can read the changes as you make them.

[flurblewig]

Google docs looks good, thanks for the tip! Could make the beta process easier, too, if you just share the file rather than having to mail it back and forth.

[zeenell]

I use liquid story binder xe. Oh man - got it off of giveawayoftheday last year, and it is awesome. So. awesome.

I tend to do two things when writing. I'll write the narrative out from a to b in one continuous file, but if I get an idea for a scene that appears later, I write that in a separate document and connect it in later.

[flurblewig]

I've been wondering about a more specific 'story' type programme than just a word processor, and that one looks interesting. I'll check it out, thanks!

[dru_evilista]

I use Google Docs, I writer in one document until it gets so large google tells me "no! Nononono! Too big!" then have to split it off. For most fics it's ok in one doc, though it gets slow loading after like 20k words.

[flurblewig]

Google docs looks good, I'm impressed -- and I like the idea of not having to worry about losing anything through a hard drive crash, as I once did! It should be ok for my fanfic, at least -- I very rarely have anything over 20k!

Thanks for the tip :-)

[sol_se]

Open Office is the devil. We have that at my work. Mail merges grrrr.

[flurblewig]

I used to like it, but our relationship is definitely under strain lately *g*