AskHN: How do people write novels these days? | Hacker News Reader

AskHN: How do people write novels these days?

8 pointsdasmithii15 comments

I typically write on paper, with a wonderfully smooth, permanent pen. Oddly, having no option to erase or edit results in generally improved writings.

I suppose it's phycological. Without the the ability to backtrack and edit earlier paragraphs, there's no temptation to optimization preemptively, and I can focus on larger concepts, rather than minute details. However, it does result in grammatical hell, and I normally resort to MS Word-based refinement before distribution of any kind.

Graduation is next week, and I've decided on a potentially-indefinite gap instead of college. With newly available free time, I plan to continue hacking away, but also to write at greater length. There's a story that I've begun developing, which I'd love to put into full form.

At this point, I've done a large amount of writing, but most of my experience is in short (<10 page) journal entries. I seriously doubt triple-digit page-counts are handled on straight paper, or in MS Word for that matter. That said, how are novels written these days? Are there any GitHub-like services that specialize in prose?

I dunno. Thoughts?

I dunno, either, when has that ever stopped someone on the internet? Thoughts:

The critical efficiency issue in writing a novel is writing a novel. Selecting novel writing software is not writing a novel any more than selecting novel writing shoes is and if you're like me shoe shopping might be more fun.

Yet it [software shopping | shoe shopping, take your pick] is distinctly not writing a novel. On the other hand, pen and paper in hand, you could have fifteen or twenty wads of paper in the trashcan in a couple of hours and maybe one or two in...what's the best file folder for writing a novel? I best find the right file folders to properly keep the pages I haven't written once I write them and this box of 100 folders shows that I am serious about my writing even though they are all empty].

War and Peace was written without computers or Google. I once had a boss who wrote his business letters in Lotus 123. It was better than DOS edlin. Tolstoy might have killed to get vim but only because Org-mode had not been invented.

The serious point is that software has a learning curve, and learning novel writing software is not writing a novel either. What's the best HN comment writing software? Certainly not the browser on my touch screen phone, but sometimes I use it anyway. But not for this comment.

Consider turning on noprocrast.

Good luck, have fun.

If you're going to use a program, you need to be very familiar with it. You can't have to think about driving the program, so that you can think about the words you're trying to put together. If you have to shift your thoughts to "how do I do this in this program", you've broken your writing train of thought.

For the same reason, you also need to be a touch typist.

On the other hand, writing on paper... can you type faster than you can write longhand? Do you dislike having to write by hand? If that's breaking your train of thought, then it's not the answer either.

Use whatever you have to think about least, moment by moment, as you use it. Writing is hard enough without being distracted by your tools.

I have heard a lot of writers say good things about Scrivener: http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php

I have only just started using it myself, but i am liking it so far.

I'm a fan of Scrivener for organizing a novel. I collect snippets of prose, research, character studies, motifs, meta thoughts on where I'm going, the actual draft in Scrivener's binders and folders.

For actual writing, I find that my best prose comes from putting pen on paper and using the transcription as an excuse to edit. I've thought about this a lot, and I think the reason is that going analog removes so many temptations to get online to check some detail and then wasting 15 minutes by not writing.

With software, I think it is mandatory that you isolate yourself, out of WiFi range (or at least with WiFi turned off) and to stare at blank pages long enough to let the words flow.

I've heard good things about Leanpub[1], which recently announced Github integration[2] as an option alongside Dropbox and web-only.

[1] http://leanpub.com/

[2] http://blog.leanpub.com/2014/04/github-integration.html

There's also Gitbook[3] which encourages you to write in Markdown using the Git/GitHub workflow. They did a Show HN recently[4].

[3] http://www.gitbook.io/

[4] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7524956

I have written two novels (unpublished) and about to start a third.

These days I use a minimal writing app called iA Writer. The file is saved to DropBox automatically and I also push commits to GitHub everyday as a way to keep track of revision history. A nice clean system that provides backups and no distractions from the writing itself.

When I am working on a novel I do a few things that help me immensely to keep the momentum going, which is really important:

1) I don't revise anything as I go. 2) I have a min/max daily word quota. 3) I write at a specific time each night (for routine).

Before I discovered those practices I started so many writing projects I never completed.

Good luck to you!

George RR Martin uses Wordstar, a dos based word processor:

http://grrm.livejournal.com/198534.html?thread=12461446#t124...

Whatever works for writers...

In the 90s early 2000s I knew a couple who were pretty set on their Commodore 64/printer setup, one had a particular daisywheel printer she liked and asked me a couple times to help look for parts.

From reading many writers don’t like to change their writing medium, it could break their "flow" having to deal with new things to handle other than putting the right words out.

So even today, if a writer gets into their zone while plying on a 50s manual typewriter, there’s a good chance that typewriter will be under their hands for the rest of their career.

I think you are productive on pen and paper mostly because there is no internet connection. (Probably why GRRM is so productive on an old Wordstar).

Whatever you use, just disable wi-fi before starting.

Scrivener also focuses you on a process. You can think about characters, locations, events and how they fit together in word or notepad if you want.

I like Scrivener but tend to work in hand-written bursts of a few pages which then get typed up and re-arranged in software.

I always think the formatting should come way after the content is nailed down. Starting with a blank Word doc it's tempting to waste time trying to format whilst writing.

What is HM? hacker moose? :)

IMO writing varies widely among people, usually across different media and different categories. Regardless of purpose, feedback seems to help a lot. I've seen textbooks on Github but not novels. A google search reveals promising results.

Hacker's Musings.

i've developed a system. should be out "real soon now".

but if you want something that's been out for a while, and has been shaken down pretty well, try leanpub.com.

there's also pressbooks.com, and penflip.com, and more.

-bowerbird

I've had some success using Q10 on windows and leanpub.com on the web.

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