Top 10 benefits of using a book writing software while co-authoring a novel

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Co-authoring a novel can be one of the most fulfilling yet frustrating experiences of your writing career. Collaborating with someone else will give you valuable insight into your writing process, along with helping to pick up tips from your co-author.

Writing can be a lonely endeavor, and collaborating with others can help you feel like you’re not alone and also remind you about why you became a writer in the first place.

If you’re co-authoring a novel, then you also need the right writing software. The writing software that you use can be the difference between a tedious experience and a fun experience.

Not every writing software offers collaboration features. Hence, you need to find one that does.

There are several benefits to using collaboration-friendly writing software, and here we’re going to discuss the top ten.

Easy Sharing of The Document

If you’re co-authoring a novel, you will need to send your draft back and forth countless times.

This is because you need to keep each other abreast of the work you’ve done and get each other’s feedback. Co-authoring a novel will mean that you are constantly reading and revising each other’s work.

You need a book writing software that helps you do just that.

Rather than using email to keep sending the draft back and forth, you should use a novel writing software that can be viewed and edited simultaneously. The process of sharing your work should be as easy as possible.

There are several writing software out there that make it very easy for you to share your draft. You don’t even have to do anything. The draft will be visible to your collaborator as and when you make changes on a live basis.

Commenting on the Document

When you’re co-authoring a novel or book, you will be commenting on each other’s work a lot. You will need to ensure that each of you is on the right track and the same page (quite literally). Using a writing software that does not have an in-built and easy-to-use commenting feature will be a pain.

Almost every script writing software out there offers you the ability to make comments on the document. You need to use such software to easily make comments and see the other person’s comments.

The comments feature on the software will highlight the specific portion of the document you are commenting on. This makes it much easier for your fellow author to understand what you’re talking about.

Editing the Document

You will be making a lot of edits. And each edit will need to meet the approval of both you and your collaborator. You will also be editing each other’s work.

Since there is a lot of editing involved in co-authoring a novel, doesn’t it make sense to use software that makes it easier for you to do just that?

A good novel writing software will allow you to see every change that has been made on the base version of the document. You will also be able to reject or accept the changes in one or two clicks.

Version Control

Version control helps you to keep track of the various versions of the document that have been made.

You will be creating lots of versions of the same document when collaborating with someone else (and also if you’re working on your own). Version control allows you to switch between each version of the document quickly.

Version control will also make it much easier for you to refer a version to your collaborator. You will also be able to cross-edit between two versions of the document.

Collaborating without Confusion

You should be able to keep track of who made which change easily. Without being able to keep proper track of which edits are being made, the process of collaboration can quickly descend into chaos.

The writing software will give you a timestamp for each edit and attribute the edit to a collaborator. If you have an editor on board or are collaborating with more than one person, you must use a novel writing software with such features.

Exporting the Document

Similar to sharing the document, you will also need to be able to export the document. For example, can you attach the document to your email? Can you share the document on the web?

Exiting the document easily will mean that you don’t have to use more than one software for the same work. It can save you hours in the long run.

Support for Markdown

You may need to use Markdown if you’re writing for the web. Markdown allows you to format your document and make it ready for the internet.

Depending on how you’re going to publish your work, having markdown support in your novel writing software can be a gamechanger.

Markdown is quite an essential tool these days for everyone looking to publish on the web. And seeing as the digital publication is becoming more common each day, you are likely to need it.

Saving the Document on the Cloud

Does your novel writing software allow you to save your work on the cloud quickly? The best example of this is Google Docs.

Google Docs allows you to save your work on the cloud automatically. You don’t have to save it manually.

And since the document is being automatically saved to the cloud, you don’t have to worry about accessing the latest file.

Both you and your collaborator can easily access the file through the cloud. You will also not need to keep sharing the file back and forth. Saving on the cloud is also safer than storing on a hard drive.

Easy Conversion into Other Formats

While writing a novel, you will need to share your work with several third-parties. This can include your agent, your publisher, your editor, beta readers, and more. Each of these third parties doesn’t need to have the same software that you do.

Hence, you should make sure that the work that you do on your software can easily be changed into other more common formats such as word documents.

Every Other Benefit

A novel writing software will give you all the benefits of a regular word processor that you need.

It will allow you to format your documents and edit your work easily. You will have the option of choosing between a range of fonts and sizes, along with other related features.

Hence, when you use novel writing software, you don’t lose any of the benefits that you are accustomed to with regular software.

Conclusion

Collaborating can be made much easier if you have the right software to guide you along.

There are several nitty-gritties and nuts and bolts to collaborating. You should worry about your core work and let the software take care of the rest.

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