McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

One or many documents?

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Dom:
Silly little question...

For novels, do you guys put everything into one document/file, or do you have a new document/file for each part, or chapter, or whatever?

I ask because normally I have 1 document for each chapter, but this one thing I'm working on is 21,000 words long and all in one document (which is unusual for me).  No chapters yet, just scene breaks in the same file.

Just wondering how all of you do it, mainly because this story-without-chapters-yet is really writing itself, and I'm not sure if it's the story, or maybe if my chapters were hindering things in my other work somehow.  :D

Edit: Adding a poll...

Kalshane:
I do each chapter as a separate document. No particular reason, just the way I've always done it. Though I have heard that Word gets squirrely once a document starts getting too big.

Kiriath:
I use different documents for each chapters, a vague chapter summary and character profiles, among other things.

Valiar Marcus:

--- Quote from: Kalshane on August 21, 2006, 10:41:58 PM ---... I have heard that Word gets squirrely once a document starts getting too big.
--- End quote ---

Word's pretty squirrely just on general principles. ;)

Cathy Clamp:
I do a single document, but that might be because I come from a law background. There is NOTHING so embarrassing as preparing a massive legal agreement just to discover that you "forgot" to insert one section. I've also found it easier to find "consistency" errors when it's all together. A carpet that's red in one chapter can more easily wind up BLUE when they're in different files.

When I start writing each day, I also like to go back and read the previous two chapters to get back into the "flow" of the book, and it would be more difficult if I had to stop and open a new file, or even switch screens. If that makes sense...  ;)

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