Why Writing Books Is More Than Processing Words

We’ve been writing with word processors for 40 years. What if we’ve been doing it wrong all this time?

First in a series exploring the workflow of noted authors and other creators.

For as long as I’ve been writing books, I’ve been in a constant battle with the design of word processing software.

Just the phrase “word processor” itself is soul-sucking. But the real problem lies in the common interface conventions almost all word processors share, locked in a framework that took shape in the early days of computing, when software was almost exclusively oriented around the business market. These tools are undoubtably well-engineered for producing an inter-office memo, or a short business plan that follows a conventional structure. But they are almost comically unsuited for long, complex, and structurally open-ended documents like non-fiction books or novels.

To understand why, you need to consider the entire the life cycle of a book, from the early ideas to the completed project.

In the initial stage, you have hunches and fragments: a hint of idea for a character, or an historical theme, a quote from a book you’ve read as early stage research. These fragments are often only tangentially related to…