Write Faster, thanks to Geoff Hart!

Toiling for more than one master, many knowledge-workers give short shrift to their electronic interface. Besides wasting time, such a choice hastens data loss and repetitive stress injuries.

Wordsmith Geoff Hart has developed an answer to our prayers: a comprehensive and down-to-earth guide to harnessing the full powers of our workstations. The book is available in three formats: print, e-book, and PDF.

Based on Hart’s 30 years of teaching writers and editors, Write Faster builds on his Effective Onscreen Editing (4th edition, 2019). Hart offers nuanced answers for many of our nagging questions, including

• Where are my files?
• Why does my word processor hurt me? and
• Isn’t there a way to automate this action?

Though the new work overlaps with Onscreen, Write Faster updates its guidance through Microsoft Word 2019 (both Mac and PC editions). Hart notes that most of his tips apply to any operating system and word-processing software.

Write Faster takes both experts and newbies by the hand, thanks to its engaging style. Readers will appreciate Hart’s glossary, which offers authoritative definitions of terms such as antialiasing, macro virus, and non-breaking space. Perhaps most importantly, Hart clearly informs readers on issues dividing writers; rather than taking sides in the Apple vs. PC debate, he lays out the merits of each side. Hart speaks his mind on software’s nagging limitations and offers fixes for many of Word’s challenges.

The advice offered by this book will help maximize writers’ efficiency. As part of the Write Faster site, Hart includes a “Things Not to Do” section, an indispensable resource for those of us who apprenticed on typewriters. Two strategies Hart offers are (1) eliminating the vestigial carriage return (ENTER key) and (2) creating your own page-numbering style. Appendix I advises adopting the Dvorak keyboard scheme in place of the less efficient QWERTY. Appendix II, devoted to the health aspects of our work, advises on our choice of lighting and keyboard.

Both writers and editors will enjoy Hart’s proactive approach to exploiting what our computers can do, warding off writing-specific trauma, and keeping manuscripts safe from prying eyes. To ensure the safety of our data, Hart advises us to buy an uninterruptible power supply (UPS), which will secure our files even during blackouts.

Hart puts readers in touch with some of the best resources available. Hart’s hotlinks, provided in the electronic edition, point us to resources such as Eyesafe, a brand devoted to reducing the eyestrain of onscreen work, and StretchWare, a tool that regularly reminds us to limber up. Hart includes links to the work of peers such as Paul Beverley, author of Macros for Editors and Jack Lyon of Mastering Word for Publishing Professionals.­

Hart’s #1 tip? Create Word styles for every occasion. That way, you won’t spend your time, and that of your teammates, fiddling with your ruler or space bar every time you begin a new document.

Based on Hart’s broad coverage, nuanced discussion, and abundant links to complementary work, we recommend Write Faster to writers and editors seeking to work more efficiently.

 

Jon Hartmann copyedits academic, business, and literary work, specializing in writing by non-native speakers of English.

Geoff Hart’s Write Faster With Your Word Processor is a complete guide to using computer technology to increase both the ease and efficiency of the writing process. Hart takes a step-by-step approach to unravelling the incredibly extensive and complex features offered by Microsoft Word for both Windows and Macintosh to aid writers in personalizing their computers for faster, more consistent writing. (Hart notes that his focus on Microsoft Word does not preclude using this guide with similar word-processing programs.)

Each chapter provides a “working approach” to the topic covered, with a link to “on-line stuff,” allowing the reader to check for further explanations or updates. In addition, resources cited along the way offer further reading on specific chapter topics — all documented in an online, continuously updated bibliography. The title may seem a bit misleading, as a glance through the table of contents (TOC) shows this book covers more than the word processor. It also offers sections on choices of hardware, additional software, and backup strategies, as well as online research strategies and health and safety suggestions.

As a writer, I have used a word processor since I traded in my legal pads and pencils for a stand-alone Panasonic word processor in the late 1980s. Over the years I have moved through a series of computers and a variety of software until I finally met Microsoft Word on a Windows Millennium laptop. My current computer is a Windows 10 laptop with Office 365. As much as I am on a computer for my work, however, I am not particularly computer savvy, so I rarely attempt to adjust anything on my laptop or within Word. (And Mr. Hart makes many suggestions in his book that I will not have the courage to try.) My writing runs the gambit from fiction (novels, short stories, and plays) to scholarly nonfiction and everything in between. I also suffer from carpel tunnel in both hands and am ever in search of keyboard shortcuts to minimize my mouse time.

Whether you recognize my experience as similar to your own or are a whiz on a computer, this book will definitely help you speed up your writing process. The step-by-step instructions, provided in excruciating detail, do sometimes take a long time (for me) to implement, but as I carefully make a list of those things I have changed in Word so I can (a) remember how to use them the next time and (b) know how to undo something I decide I don’t like, this book promises to make a huge difference in my writing efficiency.

If you have been writing on a word processor for a long time, some of this content may seem like a refresher course. You will find some ideas that you already use (e.g., I always use style sheets). There may also be some strong recommendations you have already considered and rejected (e.g., I only rarely use detailed outlines and have never liked the “Outline” view in Word). You will likely, however, discover something you never knew about your software and rejoice at the simplicity of the cure for something that has always proven problematic (e.g., I can now create keyboard shortcuts for my fictional character names!). The highly detailed TOC and an index allow for easy navigation, and an extensive glossary helps the reader decipher the technical terms needed to understand what the author is talking about.

Some of the content may seem terribly simplistic to a seasoned writer. For example, Hart makes a firm point about organizing your files and makes suggestions on ways to do it. But then I remember a writer friend of mine with multiple books under his belt who still has no idea of where any of his files are saved on his computer, so even this discussion could prove germane to some writers using a word processor.

I do not recommend anyone attempt to read, digest, and implement this entire book all at once, but if you are like me, you can browse the TOC and appendices to find those shortcuts that look promising then take them for a test drive. Hart does not claim to have all the answers for all writers, and, in fact, his recommendation is to “learn what works best for you.” Fine advice, indeed, from someone who has written a work covering a whole universe of how-to advice on using electronic tools to help writers write more efficiently. But all writers, I dare say, will find a great many useful tools herein, though the complexity of the subject matter will require patience to implement them.

 

Laura A. Ewald is a former university librarian turned freelance writer and editor. A recent transplant to the Deep South, she shares her southern Mississippi home with her elderly parents and an ever-changing assortment of adopted stray cats.

Wicked Innocents

Author: S.H. Livernois

 

A young girl claims that her family has changed. Not in personality, but as if their bodies have been overtaken. Nelly Huggett does not feel loved by her mother, and people say she exaggerates a bit too much. Fellow classmates have ridiculed her, and her brother doesn’t even like her. So is Nelly telling the truth?

While her aunt takes Nelly in when she runs away from home on the night of Halloween, Aunt Emma believes Nelly is lying. However, it has been three days and no one has answered the phone at the Huggett house, not even a cellphone.

The Frontenac sisters, Hyla and Lizeth, are on the case. As supernatural sleuths, Hyla and Lizeth drive to the home of Aunt Emma at the bequest of a phone call from Nelly. After confronting Emma’s denial that anything is going on in Nelly’s house, the four of them drive to Nelly’s home in search of clues.

In Wicked Innocents, S.H. Livernois quickly builds suspense through the description of the emptiness and eeriness of the Huggett home. And then once the missing family members are discovered, the mystery evolves as the Frontenac sisters continue to investigate to determine if Nelly is telling the truth or filled with anger and lies.

While there is not an overwhelming number of characters, there are a handful of characters that are easily confused. The Frontenac sisters, Hyla and Lizeth, have different strengths, but their personalities are not different enough, making them easily confused. Emma and Gillian, Nelly’s aunt and mother, respectively, can easily be confused, leading to some interactions needing to be re-read. And Miles and Jack, Nelly’s father and brother, can be confused too, especially in a discussion about a dispute with a neighbor.

Though additional description of these characters could be added to further separate them from one another, and this lack of description causes some slowdown in the reading to completely understand a few scenes, this does not take away from the overall enjoyment of the book.

In reading this novel, it was obvious the book is still in need of a proofreader. There were errors in punctuation and a few developmental questions, such as an undifferentiated pronoun, making a sentence difficult to understand.

Overall, we enjoyed this novel. The author has a skill for writing mystery and suspense to capture the audience and involve the reader until the end.

Cover to Cover: What First-Time Authors Need to Know about Editing

Author: Sandra Wendel

 

First-time authors make mistakes. The publishing process can be a challenge, especially knowing all of the steps and when they are to be completed to develop a best-selling book.

It used to be that a writer would pick up an agent who would then shop the manuscript to various publishers. The writer would then be contacted at various points by the agent or the publisher throughout the publishing process, and the entire process would be completed by professionals who publish books for a living.

Now, the writer can act as the publisher. But what is the process that the book should be taken through?

The writer who is looking to become a published author may be lost after the manuscript has grown and developed as much as possible through the advice given by the writer’s group members. Cover to Cover gives that writer the next-step process beginning with answering questions such as

• Why do I need an editor?
• What does (and doesn’t) an editor do?
• How do I find an editor?

In Cover to Cover, Sandra Wendel, a professional editor, helps first-time authors navigate the editing process. She defines the various types of editing (including book coaching, collaborative writing, and proofreading) from her perspective, as there is, unfortunately, no one set of definitions for these terms.

In addition to preparing authors for the editing budget, Wendel helps authors cut costs by informing them of how to prepare their manuscripts for an edit. In this section, she covers book sections, length, and formatting (including the bold and italics that authors love). She also includes a section on word usage.

To emphasize the importance of authors fine-tuning the manuscript before the editing process begins, Wendel also includes a checklist at the end of the book. While some of the items in the checklist are covered throughout the book, many writers enjoy working through checklists to feel a sense of accomplishment. The checklist is broken down into sections on words, format, parts of the book, punctuation, and graphics and illustrations, leading to a nicely detailed list of items for the author to complete before hiring the editor.

Wendel offers a brief introduction to Microsoft Word’s Track Changes and shows what the editing process will look like for when the author is ready to begin working with an editor.

Early in the book, Wendel delves into some reasons why an author should not depend on a self-edit. “Our brains are just wired to miss our own errors,” Wendel says, providing reasons why even she as an editor does not solely depend upon self-editing. She gives examples of corrections her editor made to Cover to Cover: inelegant phrasing, twisted logic, missing words, misplaced modifiers, and more.

Authors often have readers for the book before an editor is involved in the process, and many authors believe those readers can replace the editor. Wendel includes a section on how a professional editor is different from your English teacher. “We’re also not your high school English teacher, so we will actually make editorial changes for you and leave you kind notes in the margin.”

Even when authors know they need to work with an editor, finding one can seem like a big deal. While “there is no Angie’s List of editors,” Wendel provides some great resources for finding editors that may be a good fit for the manuscript.

Once an author has a list of potential editors, how does one go about selecting the one? Wendel has provided questions to ask during the interview process, and even questions the editor may ask of the author. Knowing what to expect on both sides of the conversation can help to prepare the author for what to expect from the type of editor they want to work with.

In a section on writer’s block, Wendel includes a description of the types of writers in an easy-to-relate-to format. While they are similar to the learning styles—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic—it was interesting to see how these learning styles can also relate to writing styles, leading to how best to overcome writer’s block.

In helping to prepare the author to work with the editor, Wendel offers etiquette suggestions. She calls out the Karen authors and provides reasons why no one should want to be that author—the one who isn’t the most enjoyable to work with. While this was a necessary section to include in the book, especially for those first-time authors, it was too short. So much more could have been said on this topic. While Wendel included some items for the author not to do, she could have included items for the author to do. As well, since most authors and editors communicate electronically or via phone, she could have provided some sample emails or telephone dialogues.

Early in the manuscript, Wendel discusses what the writer should do once the manuscript has been written. Forms of self-editing were discussed, but neither here nor anywhere else in the manuscript did the author discuss the benefits of working through a manuscript with a writer’s group or even a fellow author.

While Wendel discusses why she did not include an index for this book (because she has a descriptive table of contents), an index includes much more detail (and can affect whether a book is picked up by a library, for example).

Finally, while it is expected that the checklist at the end of the book would include some of the same items from within the book, it was a bit disconcerting that early in the book several items were repeated. Perhaps it was to emphasize the importance, but the closeness of the repeated sections made them noticeably stand out.

Overall, we recommend this book for first-time authors (or even for self-publishing authors) who want to create a professional-looking book that is well received by the community and by its readers. The book is well written by an expert editor, and Wendel offers a lot of great information in a relatable format.