Note from the editor

Writing a novel is an undertaking. Even if you're lucky enough to have a lot of time on your hands, it can take months or years. Most people go through several iterations of varying levels of completeness. It's not uncommon for writers to give up even after hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of words.photo by Matthew Hurst [https://www.flickr.com/photos/skewgee/4858837387/in/photolist-8pmP5p-4CNz6W-ahSai9-9bjdsh-c7MqJC-8dyQRM-5pcypn-fe6wpp-7ydQg-8c2deZ-4FBb25-nEQdmz-21PNkeU-Abbje3-nPyyZH-2njrkVF-czNThY-7aZ4QT-dQf5aB-c7MozJ-UyFm5X-ahSavm-5jiKY8-9R8mNj-8ydSVW-9R5t8T-b3gK7-bo5h5K-66aJL7-bo5kft-6mn5Hu-HDCd1-N334x-SQHRbM-bMiZw-Exwp1K-4w5Ugv-8KBgKH-azNY49-aSQNr-XddoQ-2bKK7A-Cnwi3M-6Uu4Rm-8dyQSr-eNeLHs-7uczX7-2bHtiW-dqjTqM-2qgCF5]Of course there are exceptions. I remember hearing that Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was written in 11 days or some such timeframe, although now that I'm trawling Wikipedia to refresh my memory I can't find mention of it anywhere. You could also fairly easily argue that that 11-day stretch merely constituted a drafting process, and much of the actual writing was done earlier, when he crafted the short story on which it was based. Ok, that's a bad example but still, people write at different speeds.My inaugural work is less than half finished and I've been at it for four years. I started writing it on my 2012 MacBook Air, using a markdown editor that attracted me because of its dark mode. Any of my fellow students or writing group people who workshopped my first few chapters would have seen me submitting PDFs to the workshops because PDF was the only binary file format the editor could export to. Sometimes the PDFs had dark backgrounds and were difficult to print out and scribble on. I never quite wrapped my head around the output settings of that editor.Like many people in many situations, I resisted change until well beyond the point I should have. One day I had to create a single document containing several excerpts and it absolutely drove me up the wall.image by Jemima Gibbons [https://www.flickr.com/photos/jemimagibbons/4546680208/in/photolist-7VLVC5-9Y68pd-92fVBf-ocMjQs-bD2b5q-2neQriP-8YrRT-9nxaGS-bxCHmn-bjHPLs-abygHV-92cM8r-6H9k7G-aXUwP2-8scwLr-2mzTJAc-8dyQSg-8rfzDR-2nePssi-2iqdiVK-8p9mo3-2mwdb9-9ZWoYU-egMMfs-dn26k2-QnED-egG26Z-aSQXN-cihLcs-axBGXx-pHk3XP-fpjh7a-5VhaNf-9sVrJo-2MLsS-f4M48i-jL27g2-bD2abW-bs1qoS-aiCK6J-6kxgLK-6yEQSf-aizWTr-2neJtQH-aSQMA-2neJxGa-2dmvbn9-aSR33-9xEKAS-bQydyX]Meanwhile, my son was writing copious amounts of fiction. He didn't have my nerdy bent for dark mode or a strong opinion about how workshops should be conducted or documents formatted. He didn't even have a printer! He used the tools that were in front of him, the Google Drive/Google Docs provided by his school. If he wanted me to read something he'd share it with my Google account and I'd read it zoomed in on my big screen which was probably more comfortable than reading it on paper. What was certainly more comfortable for him was that he didn't have to try to read my wretched handwritten scribbles when I had something to say about it, because I could comment and suggest and edit things right there in the document.One day we tried to format his first manuscript to send it somewhere—I think to enter it into a competition if memory serves. That's when we started to hit some snags. Changing the font on a hundred thousand words, for example, is non-trivial—especially if you're trying to do it inside a browser tab. The screen will freeze. You'll be afraid you pressed the wrong button and screwed it all up. You'd better hope you're on a more modern piece of hardware than a 2012 MacBook Air.photo by Mr Thinktank [https://www.flickr.com/photos/tahini/5852611600/in/photolist-9Vbawy-ar5bk-6gpZoR-grt1QB-2hh1zm9-9A2iAd-ayM6f-2nUUUUB-DcZUY-4f8JKf-dHvTn7-5WmSaK-fqU2QP-p9wKkY-kjnLr-2kuZ18p-QxeeHY-79FsQM-aA6mgw-ougXYa-grs8TN-5ZwXex-Q2MYKj-T6RbPc-6tKndn-79KxZU-2qwt4c-H85afe-79FRpg-79KmuC-dHqsRD-79G6YH-dc9z8p-9yydeN-79Fvrx-EfThz-79Kibu-79KwpC-7abzcu-79FKH4-79FQYT-wX6BP-79FJua-26V3Cb2-orjaiL-dp6ds8-79FWyc-KGGpWf-7a7YcD-qmQfpZ]Anyway, long story short: Manuscriptify was born out of these struggles, in order to save novelists from some of the painful technical bits that they really shouldn't have to deal with by themselves, so they can stay in their creative zone and focus on writing.