Hugh Howey's designing a word processor

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Lima Bean

It's practice that helps me to write a better novel, not the word processor. I'd rather spend my time writing the next book than learning a new word processing program. For the time being, I'm sticking with Word.

It could be that Hugh has tried other word processors and found them not all that good for converting to an eBook and he wanted one that would work much better going from the document to an eBook. If that's the case, it's not about helping you be a better writer, but helping you create a better eBook from hat you do write.

[kennyc]

Or not.

[gmw]

Originally Posted by Lima Bean

It's practice that helps me to write a better novel, not the word processor. I'd rather spend my time writing the next book than learning a new word processing program. For the time being, I'm sticking with Word.

One of the problems with Word - and most other general word processors - is that they offer too much. They get the humble fiction writer into trouble. Besides the distraction of functions and features you not only do not want but should definitely not be using, there is the constant temptation to use things that seem useful but will only cause difficulties later.

The object of a modern dedicated fiction writers interface is, or should be, to keep the writer away from such distractions and to make it easier to use the result to produce publishable material when the time comes.

Of course there are counter arguments:

You already know Word, so why bother learning something else that simple does less?

When it comes to producing the final output you will be going over and over it anyway, so what harm is there in being forced, then, to clean up all the crud that crept in during creation. Even simply retyping it is not that big a deal, if it should come to that.

As always, writers will do what they feel most comfortable doing. And some will just enjoy the distraction of having yet another word processor they can try ... and blame it for their lack of progress.

[Pajamaman]

I like Atlantis. I can use any background/text color combination (I don't like staring at white screens), has a minimal UI and offers rich text formatting. It also saves to epub, but I've never used it.

[JSWolf]

The problem is that while a lot of writers think they know how to use Word, they don't when it comes to writing a book. They don't properly use styles. They just highlight and apply whatever they want. When they are done, what they get is a freaking mess and that does not always work as an eBook.

A writer's word processor should try to help the writer make a document that will convert will to an eBook. Word is not that word processor.