The unfinished novel is my own, Road Closed (the title will almost certainly be changed to something else, should the novel ever be finished). The prologue outlines the tragic summer and drink-to-forget beginnings of young Christian Warren, setting the stage for the five-year jump ahead as the story begins proper.
But the rest of the book–which is currently sitting at around 70,000+ words, is a bit of a mess. And it’s not the mess where you can just keep writing, then go back and fix the messy bits later. It needs serious surgery. But I kind of want to try, because that prologue still delights me today.
In order to do this, I’ve pondered ways to make it happen:
- As much of a distraction-free environment as possible. I could write it in Linux, where I am far less likely to suddenly decide I need to play Diablo 3 again RIGHT NOW.
- Choosing software. I am probably going to avoid Ulysses going forward. It’s good, but Mac-only and I’m culling pretty much anything that has a subscription attached. Other alternatives:
- Microsoft Word. Ew, no.
- Scrivener. Maybe, but I would save files locally and only work in either Linux or Windows, not both.
- noVelWriter. This is new, and is kind of a Scrivener-lite, but open source, free and a bit clunky, as one often expects of FOSS1Free Open Source Software software.
- The unnamed app the Scrivener team is releasing in 2025. It sounds like a pared-down Scrivener, which would delight me.
- Obsidian. I’m not super-keen on this, though I did write the original draft of Road Closed with WriteMonkey, which uses the same minimalist Markdown aesthetic as Obsidian.
- Something else I haven’t discovered yet.
- Writing out a revised version of the story before diving back in, so I have an actual path to follow. I can always veer from it later, but it’s still better than going into a dark room and bumping my knees on every piece of furniture.
I am in my Mulling and Pondering stage, also known as M&P. I will update if I move beyond this to Typing Actual Words.
