[stylist] Writing Software (Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter)

[April Brown]

Hello Bridgit,

    I've never had any luck with screen readers, until I learned to use my braille display with VoiceOver. 

     Many new screen reader users complain about the issue of them getting stuck in writing programs - particularly Pages.  VoiceOver may not read beyond the first page.  Part of it may be a settings issue that is not apparent to new users.  I know it sticks on me as well.

     I've heard countless editors and agents comment on Twitter how Chapter 10 was in the document before Chapter 9.  And the writer responded that they kept each chapter separate, and copied and pasted it into a full document long after completing the novel.  It happens.  Agents and editors do tell writers to keep all of the document within the document, not as separate documents.  The only exception is a set of first three chapters to send to agents who ask for only that.  Otherwise, the writer is making more work for themselves, the editor, and the formatter.

    And um.  As for selecting all and changing font style, size, etc...  We aren't supposed to that anymore.  We are supposed to use style that either we create, or our program creates, so that inconsistencies don't occur.  Your screen reader may read the text as Arial 12, and it may say that on the screen, and yet, you can visibly tell it isn't.  Styles usage fix that problem.  If we use the inbuilt styles - it is supposed to make it easier for screen readers and  formatting programs to format for ebook properly.

       Most of my writer friends are literary as well, and have moved to Scrivener in the last few years.  Except the picture book writers of course.

       While still sighted, I could have nested folders within nested folders, within nested folders, and it worked well for me.  All my writing at my fingertips.

      Then, I needed help.  Scrivener gives me options to easily export to any file type I want.  I can have the chapters separated in the sidebar, and easily re-arrange them, using the "move-to" command in the menu if needed.  All research - webpages linked and viewable, cover photos, pictures, maps, and other things that tend to disappear if left in files are at the click of a button.  And within the project, some advocates have even begun keeping their marketing materials, marketing pages that include sales links, and ISNBs, as well as blog posts. All accessible in a table on the left hand side.   Neat and organized.

       I didn't want to spend the money on it.  I wouldn't have, if I hadn't lost my vision.  If I didn't have it, I would have had to give up writing, as I could find my files, no matter how well organized they wore - Microsoft kept changing the order I would save things in in folders.

       If your system works for you, that's fine.

       I wish I were still sighted enough that I didn't need it!

April Brown

Writing dramatic adventure novels uncovering the myths we hide behind.

aprilbrownshade at gmail.com

Website: https://sites.google.com/site/uncoveredmyths/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/UncoveredMyths
Google Plus:  https://plus.google.com/116003267969710767555/posts
> 

[stylist] Writing Software

Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter bkpollpeter at gmail.com  <mailto:stylist%40nfbnet.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5Bstylist%5D%20Writing%20Software&In-Reply-To=%3C00d701d1c721%24c69ea930%2453dbfb90%24%40gmail.com%3E>
Wed Jun 15 16:20:04 UTC 2016

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April,

What document programs don't work with screenreaders? Does this happen with
Scribner? Do you mean in general, or with large bodies of text?

Mistakes do happen, that's just a part of being human. And often, errors
occur even when we try our best, but I've yet to have a full manuscript be
submitted that was not consistent with formatting. Whether school, when I
was writing for the Omaha World Herald, PR work or personal writing I've
submitted. Not to say my work is never without errors, but I've never had
inconsistencies in the text and formatting, and I've definitely not had
sections out of order.

With Word, before sending a document to an editor, you can select all text
and change font, sentence and paragraph spacing, set margins, etc. And you
can double check all this throughout a document. There are commands and
features you can utilize to check all work.

When I was editing magazines, material wasn't always submitted in the same
font or formatting. I would automatically select all text, put it back to
default settings then change font and spacing or add headings, bold or
italicize, set margins, etc. as needed before placing into one large
document. It's the same for my personal work. And all the formatting and
text can be checked with Word and/or JAWS commands (I use JAWS).

When I worked with a PR firm, we all created documents in Word or Mac then
imported into Publisher for the final publication. Everyone was using a word
processor in the initial phases, and it was only when we were ready for
final drafts that we placed into Publisher (which I know is not the same,
but my point being we worked with word processors first).

In my opinion, if material is so inconsistent or has out of order sections,
the writer is either careless, not checking as well as they should before
submitting, or they need a good copyeditor to double check work.
Particularly with out of order sections. This seems incredible to me that if
one is carefully checking a manuscript they would miss this. I mean, shit
does happen when writing and editing, but before submitting, you should
really check and check again then check again to make sure errors like that
have not happened. All my friends who are published hired good story editors
and copyeditors to ensure their manuscripts were free of errors before
submitting. This is the recommended protocol even if self-publishing.

Most my writer friends are literary writers, so maybe that's a difference,
but I don't know any writers who use Scribner. Wait, I know one person, and
he's a screenplay writer. Several use the word processor on MAC, but not
programs like Scribner.

Clearly people use this program, and I'm not contesting its benefits, but I
don't necessarily see the argument that people using Word are more likely to
have errors. If you know what you're doing and double check work, it
shouldn't appear stitched together.

Bridgit