What are your favourite writing tools?

Kia ora,

How do you wrangle the tens of thousands of words that go into your book? It’s easy to manage a few pages, but when you start getting into chapters and you’re scrolling and scrolling to find the spot where you want to add a detail, the whole writing thing gets a little complicated.

A lot of writers use Google Docs. I use it for writing blog posts and this newsletter. (Editing in Google Docs is a whole other beast. Short version: I cannot use it for editing. Word is still my go-to.) It’s easy to use, it’s there on your phone or laptop, the document tabs mean you can group ideas into chapters and move them around.

Others use good old Word. It has online syncing and an app, which makes it just as portable as Google Docs.

A lot of my Mac friends swear by Scrivener. I hear it has great organisation capabilities and allows you to have pages for brain dumps, notes, research, and your actual writing. (I looked it up just now and see there’s now a Windows version. Amazing – I’ll have to check it out.)

And then there’s the original: paper and pen. Many travel writers keep a physical journal with them when they’re travelling. All the notes go into it – the itinerary, the day-to-day adventure, interesting observations, snippets of descriptions and conversations. That journal then forms the skeleton of their first draft.

When I was at uni, I used a mix of Word and actual, physical cutting and pasting. I’d type out as much as I could, then I’d print the essay, cut out the paragraphs, and move them around. That mix of digital and physical worked for me even if it meant taking up a whole table at the library (and probably looking a little unhinged in the process).

Embrace whatever works for you. There’s no right or wrong. What do you use? And what do you struggle with the most when it comes to wrangling your manuscript? I might not have the answer, but I can perhaps give you some ideas. And if I get enough replies, I can compile them so we can all get ideas from each other.

Cheers,

Deborah

PS: I walked the Banks Track! A group of us walked the three-day version before Easter. We had such a great time! Rain on the first day, sun and blue skies for the next two days. I’d never tramped a private track before, so I didn’t know what to expect. But (most of) the huts were amazing and they even had glorious hot showers. Luxury! I spend so much time around Otago that I forget flora such as nīkau palms grow as far south as Canterbury. And we walked through my favourite – beech forest.

Great views on the first day 😂 The highest point on the track – windy, rainy, but a lot of fun. I have better photos of me but this one makes me laugh the most.

📚 What I’m reading

The epic city: the world on the streets of Calcutta, by Kushanava Choudhry. I’ve only got a couple of chapters to go!

BUT while I was in Christchurch, I went to Scorpio Books and bought Empire Antarctica by Gavin Francis. I took that on the walk and got a good way through it.