Saving Multiple Drafts of Your Writing
And using the "Heading" Styles in Microsoft Word for organization.
Hey Story Crafters,
When I was in undergrad, there was a book and a poem I studied (in different classes) that introduced me to the idea of being a professional editor: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby and T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland. The works themselves were intriguing to read and study, but it was the behind-the-scenes part of the creation process for these works that caught my interest. When I learned about Maxwell Perkins’s contributions to Gatsby (for example, his suggestion to reorder a couple of chapters and his reasoning for it), it was the first time I truly recognized that:
Authors keep multiple drafts of their work.
A good editor can help an author’s writing shine.
When I learned about Ezra Pound’s contributions to The Wasteland, I realized it was possible to be both an author and an editor. And that writers keep several drafts of their work.
I’ve gotten into the habit of keeping multiple drafts, too. I use Microsoft Word for writing and editing, so I can’t speak to other programs like Scrivener. I prefer not to use Track Changes while editing my own writing, which means when I make big changes—like reordering entire paragraphs, or deleting them completely—I need to save multiple drafts in addition to the version I’m tweaking, just in case I need to retrieve a paragraph that I, in fact, did need.
A writing tool I think gets overlooked a lot is Word’s “Heading” Styles on the “Home” tab ribbon. (This includes me. It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize the benefits of using headers.) It’s incredibly useful for working with long manuscripts (while writing or editing), or when trying to save multiple drafts of chapters.
Using “Heading 1” and “Heading 2” makes navigating longer documents a little easier. The heading titles will show up in the “Navigation” bar when you search the document (PC: Ctrl + F | Mac: Command + F) and click on the “Headings” tab. So if the chapter numbers (or names) are listed as “Heading 1,” the different drafts can be listed as “Heading 2,” and sorted under the appropriate chapter.
Also, each heading (both Heading 1 and Heading 2) comes with a nifty black arrow to the left side which, when clicked, retracts all the text sorted under the heading. The subheadings are still visible in the navigation bar.
Example:
The heading styles are useful for worldbuilding, too. If you’re creating a story world from scratch, the worldbuilding notes can end up being as long as a book, depending on how detailed you get. Keeping your notes organized in a single document using headings can make it easier to navigate your notes, same as with navigating different chapters in long manuscripts.
For example, your notes may look like:
What tools do you find helpful when you write or edit? Feel free to share in the comments!
To tie off the Gatsby and Wasteland thread, by studying the behind-the-scenes process of both works, I also learned the author-editor relationship isn’t about the editor “correcting” the author. It’s about the editor pointing out areas of the manuscript that could be made stronger, and offering potential solutions to the author. It’s a collaborative effort, a relationship that only works if the author trusts the editor’s feedback.
Until next time!
Best,
Leah
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