March 10, 2009
Write by the numbers?
by Valerie Merians
Tired of slaving away on your manuscript? A post-er on the site TeleRead may have the answer for you. David Nygren proposes the idea of writing a novel in Excel. So, take one spread sheet of an Excel doc., handle thusly: Three columns. “Column A=action. Column B=dialog. Columns C-? for each character’s thoughts.”
I don’t know. You might need a few more columns….
Valerie Merians is the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.