Words on a page

It's not the tool, it's the writer

Many of the people I know who write (or try to write) are obsessed with the tools of the trade. I can understand this sort of obsession if you're a technical writer -- you don't want to use Word to author and single-source publish lengthy guides. But for those who write fiction or articles, this obsession is pointless.

Why? Good writing is good writing, whether you're doing it on paper, in a text editor, or in a word processor. Your tool doesn't make your writing better. It's your ability with words. You just can't fire up MS Word and start writing a great novel, story, or essay.

And a lot of good writers don't use many of the popular tools. Take, for example, actor, blogger, and author Wil Wheaton. His first book, Dancing Barefoot was written using OpenOffice.org. And novelist and activist Cory Doctorow writes his books in a Mac text editor called BBEdit.

You'd be surprised at the number of writers who still use a DOS word processor called XyWrite. Why? Not because (as some people would have you believe) they're Luddites or afraid of new technology, but because they have a tool that works for them.

Remember, when writing its the words that matter. If you can't string those words together coherently and persuasively, then all the wizards and animated paper clips and fancy features aren't going to help you.