Josiah Haynes (most call me TJ) is an author just getting started in the self-publishing game, ready to upgrade to traditional publishing any day now. One day, I hope to stop seeing Google Docs listed on every “Best Book Writing Software” list. Thanks for reading my ramblings as I impossibly try to get this critical information into the Google search results, despite Google’s inevitable meddling.
You know, typing - the very basis of a writer’s career. When I purchased Scrivener for a one-time fee (none of those monthly payments), I felt like I was treating myself simply because Scrivener never lags when I type. Microsoft Word (great if it’s already on your computer) Here are some great alternatives to Google Docs: However, if you’re writing a full-length novel (40k+ words), you will be miserable using Google Docs. That’s why I used it to write a book and a half. Yes, Google Docs is free, which is great. With a document that size, it takes forever just to adjust the orientation from portrait to landscape. Refreshing does help for a couple minutes, but refreshing also takes a very long timeĮditing a large block of text take a long time (like adjusting the font size for the whole document)įorget formatting your book while still in Google Docs. The cursor is misaligned on lines that contain multiple F’s With large-word count documents, Google Docs is not good for novel writing because:Ĭlicking different parts of your book in the outline is laggy Why isn’t Google Docs good for novel writing? More evidence it wasn’t just me: Months after the fact, I had multiple beta readers tell me they didn’t read my manuscript because the sheer size of the document made Google Docs laggy and therefore frustrating to simply navigate.
#BOOKS ON GOGOLE DOCS MAC#
But I didn’t think anything of it when I got a brand new Mac laptop for Christmas, and the Google Docs problems just got worse - along with the pit in my stomach. My desktop computer from which I was writing had to be six years old at that point. I thought these problems with Google Docs were only my problems. I just had to sip my coffee (or a stronger drink) and try to ignore how frustrating Google Docs was being. …frequent moments when the cursor didn’t line up with where I was typing on any lines that contained more than one “F” - I’m not kidding! …five seconds of frustration it took to insert a new paragraph break. …endless waiting it took to simply scroll through my document. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to make a fuss, so I gnash my teeth and hold my tongue. (Maybe that’s because I’m searching on Google, haha!) Mentions of these problems exist, but not many.
However, it is difficult to find much about these problems on forums or articles across the web. My personal experience seems to be common - that Google Docs experiences major latency problems at high word counts. My Personal Experience Writing a Novel on Google Docs But Google Docs struggles to handle documents of more than 15k-25k words. It is excellent for short-form content like blogging and collaborative projects like corporate documents. TLDR: Google Docs is not a good book writing software. The book clocked in around 111,000 words. Select the format you’ll use and click ADD BIBLIOGRAPHY TO DOC.I wrote my first book, The Heirs of History: A Nation From Nothing, on Google Docs. EasyBib searches for sources online and lists them. You select book, journal, or website, then put your information (like an ISBN or URL) into the search bar. Mostly for academic works, EasyBib applies a variety of styles to your bibliography. These are the Google Doc Add-ons for writing I use regularly. And for the best experience, you probably want to be using Google Chrome as your browser, though from my experience, Firefox and Safari both work fine too. Most add-ons will require access to your Google account to manage whatever feature they add to your Docs. That will open the Chrome web store where you can search just like any other app store. Just click Add-ons from the menu and select Get add-ons. I rarely worry as much about these options since I just enter text and images into Docs, then do my page layout on another program. Under Format, you’ll have a few options for your page and paragraph setup too. You can also Translate using Google translate for the contents of your Doc. From the Tools menu, we have options like Voice typing, which creates a passable speech to text document. Google supplies some features right in Docs. That’s where the Google Docs add-ons for writers come in. But on its own, Google Docs is a simple tool. I’ve gone into a lot of detail about why I like Google Docs for creative writers already. In fact, the vast majority of everything I write, both for Lulu and personally, is done in Docs.
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