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Version Control for Writing

Using version control for writing

For my day job, I develop computer games. I’ve been doing that for about four years now. I’ve enjoyed a couple of different roles in the game industry, including sound designer and writer. For both of those roles, I’ve needed to understand and use version control software. So as I was giving some thought to a few problems I’ve been having with managing my writing – switching back and forth between different computers (laptop, desktop), losing track of which draft I’m on, and worrying about saving backups – I thought of applying version control software to writing.

Sure, github (and other version control software)’s intended use is for software developers – projects that are being developed by multiple developers – so it might seem a bit over the top to use for writing. On the other hand, github is surprisingly easy to use even just for very basic versioning, and it works like a charm. So, why not use it for writing?

Here’s how I’ve been using it

I’m not going to give you a full-on tutorial. I will walk you through some of the basics, though, and give you a brief overview of how I’ve been using github.

First, you’ll need to set up your account. You can do this by visiting github.com and clicking the bright green “Sign up” button. Then just follow their instructions. Once you’re all set up, download the desktop software from here. Got it? Great. Install the software (obviously), and launch it.

Next up, create a repository for your writing. I’m using the Mac version of the software. The Windows version might look a little different.

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On the Mac, you just click the little + icon. Then you type the name for your repository, choose where you want it on your computer, and click “Create Repository.” This creates a folder on your computer at the location you chose. I called mine Dead London and stuck it on my desktop.

Then, after I saved my latest draft of Dead London in the folder, the files showed up under Uncommitted changes in github.

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I typed in a summary and description of my changes (“Added latest draft of Dead London”) and clicked Commit and Sync master.

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I then downloaded the github application on my laptop. Then I cloned the Dead London repository (File>Clone Repository). Then, after I finished working on my laptop, I committed and synced my changes in github.

Back on my desktop, all I had to do was sync, and I now had all the latest changes from my laptop. And I also had a backup on the cloud, plus a history of my changes.

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Past Lives

I don’t really believe in reincarnation.

Much as I am taken in by the romantic concept of reincarnation, I don’t really believe in it. It’s a nice idea, to think that we might have had past lives, that we might live on in some way after we’re gone, and I can easily imagine myself in some distant path, in another body but with the same soul. Sure, I like the idea, but do I truly believe? No, certainly not.

But then, earlier this year, I took a trip to London. I wanted to carry out a bit of research for the novel I’m working on (Dead London), and I also just needed to get away for a little while. I had been to London before, as a child, but surely that wasn’t the only reason that my trip to London felt more like a homecoming than a vacation. I felt a strange kinship with the city, the sense that I somehow belonged there. It was difficult to leave; I began forming plans to relocate, even while I was still there, and I gave it serious consideration when I returned to Vancouver. Later, when I looked at photos from my trip, I felt not merely sadness for my trip being over, but actual homesickness. I had never felt homesickness before – so why was I feeling that for a city that I had merely visited? Was it possible that in some distant past, London truly was the place I called home?

Perhaps, not so distant a past…

When I think of London, a city with a long history, I can’t help but associate it with a particular time period. Perhaps it’s just that I’ve watched too many movies or read too many books, but I tend to picture the city lit by gaslight. I think of Jack the Ripper stalking the streets, of Dickensian orphans working in factories or as chimney sweeps. I think of a city filled with fog and smoke. I think of gentlemen and ladies attending the opera or the ball, while the poor die of consumption. with slums and tenements only blocks away from the wealthy elite. I think of opium dens and absinthe. I think of Victorian London.

If I truly did have a past life, maybe it wasn’t so long ago. For all that it seems like the distant past, given how rapidly technology has changed in the past century or two, the Victorian era isn’t really that far in our past. Not, when you consider the long life that London has had. So, if I did happen to believe in reincarnation, I might be swept away by the notion that a past version of me once walked the streets of Victorian London. Perhaps he – or she, for that matter – once looked into the face of Jack the Ripper. He might have been a famous artist, or a humble factory worker, or an inmate at Newgate Prison, destined only for the hangman’s noose.

Perhaps that’s why I felt such a connection with London. Or maybe, just maybe, there’s a simpler explanation. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been writing and researching Dead London for several years now, and it’s become so ingrained in my imagination that it has begun to feel like home. One of the many curses of being a writer, after all, is that our characters can at times feel more real or more important to us than real people. A city like London is quite the character.

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Story Structure

Lately, I’ve been struggling to make progress with my draft of Dead London.

I had a solid beginning, but I couldn’t figure out how to get from beginning to end. I began to feel like I was never going to get anywhere. Eventually, I came to the conclusion that I was missing something crucial structurally. Without proper story structure, I could never hope to get anywhere. So I started digging through the internet to see what other writers had to say about story structure. That’s when I realised…

There was so much I didn’t know about story structure, I was like a skydiver, jumping without a parachute. No wonder my story kept plummeting.

Much to my surprise and delight, story structure can be broken down into different parts: these components even have names. I had heard of some of them. The Inciting Incident. The Climax. The Resolution. But there were other plot points that I didn’t know much about. Pinch Points. The First Plot Point. The Key Event.

The First Plot Point

Of the many websites I came across, this one was one of the best. And the author writes dieselpunk!

“The first plot point is the moment when the setup ends, and your character crosses his personal Rubicon. But this isn’t just an event that happens to him…This is an event that either incorporates or is directly followed by the character’s reacting in a strong and irrevocable way.”

The more I read up on the First Plot Point, the more I began to wonder what mine was. Not a good reaction to have. You would think that I would know my story so well that once I understood what the First Plot Point was, I would know immediately what mine was. I had to give it a lot of thought. Eventually, what I realised was that I’d put my First Plot Point too early. Much too early. The First Plot Point should occur around the 25% mark. Mine happened around the 3% mark. Again, way too early!

From the same website:

“If you’ve ever watched or read a poorly plotted story that skipped or postponed the first plot point, you probably instinctively sensed the story was dragging. Likely, you grew bored and got up to do something else without finishing the story. No first plot point means no turning point means the first act drags on too long—or, conversely, if the first plot point takes place too early, the second act drags on.”

Finally, I had figured out one of the major problems with my story structure. At last, I was ready to get back to writing. With a few changes to the first couple of scenes, I shifted my first act to avoid that First Plot Point from happening right away. Then it was just a matter of coming up with a new First Plot Point. I think I came up with a good one. Dead London is a zombie novel, so the First Plot Point had to have something to do with zombies. I won’t say more than that because spoilers. But what I will say is that after fixing the end of Act One with a solid First Plot Point, I finally feel like I’m on track to write the novel I initially set out to write.

Hopefully this helps someone else as much as it helped me! Now that I’ve got the First Plot Point down, I’ve got to nail the First Half of the Second Act. Then onward!

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Quick Guide to Smashwords

Recently, I helped publish Denizens of Steam on Smashwords. I thought I’d share what I learned.

First, let me just say that if you haven’t heard of Smashwords, it’s well worth checking out. Smashwords is a site for writers and readers. As an author, Smashwords can help you get your book out to the masses, and with no cost for their services, free ISBN’s, and distribution to Scribd, barnesandnoble.com, and a number of other sites, it’s definitely worth the time and effort.

That said, as a previously unpublished writer, there were a ton of things I didn’t know about publishing or formatting, and it was necessary to learn these things before publishing. Smashwords offers a Style Guide to help writers get started. It’s filled with useful information for writers with thoroughly detailed instructions for formatting for Smashwords. It’s also 117 pages long, and even after following the instructions, I still got errors that caused the conversion process to fail.

A number of key points

117 pages of instructions for formatting instructions proved to be more than I had patience for. A lot of the details in the guide could have been stripped down to the bare essentials. A couple of quick points:

  1. Smashwords allows writers to upload books in epub or Word doc format (doc, not docx). They do not allow you to upload mobi, html, or plain text formats, even though they distribute in these formats. Instead, they convert your book for you, taking your Word Doc and converting from that. So, don’t waste your time exporting mobi formatted books, like I did.
  2. Smashwords conversion software is a bit temperamental. Make sure you format your word doc correctly, or you’ll get errors. Quick formatting tip: Smashwords suggests avoiding “exotic fonts.” They suggest using Times New Roman, Arial, or Garamond. Do not use Garamond, as I did. It caused the conversion to fail.
  3. Font colour should be set to “Automatic.” Note that this is not the same as black, even if it looks black. Do this as your very last step. If you set up a table of contents for your book, you’ll be using hyperlinks, which tend to mess with the font colour. Be sure to change the font back to automatic after this step. This is very important, as skipping this step will cause conversion to fail.
  4. This one might be obvious, but in case it’s not, I’ll say it anyway. Don’t manually indent (by pressing the tab key). Instead, set up your alignment using the Ruler.
  5. Key points in the style guide: how to set up your table of contents. There are a number of ways to set up a TOC in Word, but make sure you follow the instructions in the Style Guide, or you may run into trouble.

If you want to grab yourself a (free) copy of Denizens of Steam, it’s now available in both mobi and epub formats, and you can get it at Smashwords, Scribd, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Be sure to leave a review!