Exporting Your Work From Writing Software

Every writing tool has an export command and almost nobody has used theirs. That is the gap this article is about: an export you haven't looked at tells you nothing, because the question is not whether the button works but what comes out when you press it.

What to export

Checking the export

1. Open it in something else. The test is whether another program can read it.
2. Check the word count against the project's total.
3. Check the chapter breaks are present.
4. Check the scene breaks, which are the most commonly lost.
5. Check italics and emphasis.
6. Check the notes came too, or export them separately.
7. Store it somewhere that isn't the tool.

Step two is the fastest check for a serious problem. A word count materially below the project's total means content was excluded, which is a silent and severe failure.

Verifying the text

The Novel Kit reads exported manuscripts and returns proper nouns and unusual terms with counts, which compared between two exports or against your expectation confirms the text came out whole. A term whose count is lower than it should be points at content that did not export.

It does not export anything itself; it verifies what you exported.

A practical next step

Export your current project now and check the word count against the project total. That one comparison catches the worst kind of export failure.

Sources checked

• Lock-in and how to avoid it
• File formats that outlive software
• Manuscript backup and version control

Frequently asked questions