Not all novels may benefit from management software designed to aid the drafting process. Though I think such tools are helpful for plot-driven novels, especially epics, they may not aid character-driven novels. To my mind they may saturate the writer’s characters with prescribed qualities and situations and therefore weaken or hide the unexpected discoveries the writer can make in the drafting process. I suppose, rightly or wrongly, that I have always considered the creation of character-driven novels to be something a kin to an unmapped journey. Perhaps that’s just the impression left on me from works that so often have vapory plots. Perhaps I’m really arguing for the converse but I don’t think so. I think there must be eureka moments in the drafting process that achieve their eureka-ness due to the absence of preconceived characteristics or trajectories held in the writer’s mind (or metal surrogate). A digital template seems an impediment to such moments.
Dec 092015