I have a thread going at HWA (for those who don't know what this is, it's Horror Writer's Association) about different ways in which we set up our chapters for novels within our word processing programs. I like to put chapters into separate files and then at the very end as I am getting ready to sent it to my agent put it all into a single file in order to calculate the wordage. The cover page has to include the agency name, the agent's name and the word count.

At this point the thread has just turned into a "hot topic" which means that there have been more than fifteen posts to the thread. No two have been alike, some have been similiar. It is all very interesting. It seems that authors are as diverse as the software allows them to be.

Some like to put the entire manuscript into a single file and others like to break it into chapters. I'm one of those who break it into chapters.

Yet even within those ranks there are variations. software, like word allows for things like document maps and master documents (I tried applying that to a pre-existing manuscript and lost a chapter, which fortunately I had backed up on cd). But there is so many variations that it becomes incredibe.

So much of what we do, even beyond the basics of creation is based up what works for us as individuals, that I think all of writing is indiosyncratic.

There is no right or wrong way in which to assemble our package of writing.

Since I have close friends reading my material online (it always helps to have someone read a manuscript before it goes either into subission or to the agent) I am well familiar with the wide array of possiblities for how we handle what we work with. Frank Menser recently asked me whether the fact that I sent him my novel to read reflected the way agents and editors wished to handle things. I had sent him the ms in sets of chapters. I save everything in separate chapters. He's working on his first novel and it looks very good to me. Everyone seems to do it differently.

Karen E. Taylor, author of the VAmprie Legacy series (which I firmly recommend to anyone interested in vampire literature) sets her manuscript in a single long file. Many people do otherwise, but what is important is what you , as a person, feel comfortable with.

There are no hard and fast rules to publishing. It is a hurry up and wait business. More tomorrow, I'm on a rant, forgive me.



Currently Reading: Perdido Street Station, China meiville; Path of Daggers, Robert Jordan ; Black Hawk down, Mark Bowden

Recommended Reading: Black Sun Rising, C. S. Friedman.