I described yesterday how I've moved this present project from Scrivener to the word processor Pages. In a little while, probably next month, I will finish the book there and export it as a Word document, which is what the publishing industry expects.

This export process is inevitable, but it's not the only reason I abandon Scrivener once the basic shape and feel of the book is in place. Working on the manuscript in a different format has its own advantages too. You get to see the thing differently for some reason, and that added perspective is enormously helpful in trying to extract the maximum from your work. As I often say, I view books as mosaics, and scenes as the individual pieces of the picture I'm trying to create. I've now reached the stage where I think each of those pieces is in the right place and has pretty much the correct complexion. What I'm concerned with now is working out how to make the picture better overall, and for that I need to focus on it, for the first time, as a single, discrete entity. <!--more-->

Let me give you a simple example. Very soon I will get the typeset galleys for <em>Death in Seville</em>, my backlist Spanish book which I've rewritten for republication in November. Here's one thing I can guarantee. I've been through this book with a fine toothcomb, on screen and as a manuscript printout on paper. When it comes back as typesetting, the way it will appear to the reader, I doubt I'll reach page three before I see something and screech, 'How the hell did I miss that?'

Words, sentences and paragraphs all change appearance according to the way in which you see them. I don't know why. I just know they do.

In Scrivener I write in <a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-04-at-18-14-371.png2009/03/30/picking-a-font-for-writing/" target="_self">P22</a>, a typewriter font. It suits the way I think at that moment. I'm writing a book, not a letter to the bank manager. Having that fake, damaged typewriter look on the screen puts me into a private, creative state of mind (hopefully).

I don't need that by this stage. I normally deliver manuscripts electronically in Optima, an easy font to work with on screen. So when I export to Pages I switch to that. And things look different. I see typos and missing words I never picked up before, even without printing out the pages.

Oh yes, and when I print them out I can do something spiffy. Instead of printing them out as A4 Optima 12pt with, say 1.5, line spacing, I can turn them into book-style pages, side-by-side, much as they will appear to the reader one day.

You can print out the same manuscript A4, double spaced 12pt, then churn it out single spaced as small 9 or 10pt pages. And yes, they will look different. Just try.

What I'm after at this stage is perspective. Being able to see my work the way a reader will one day. That's not really possible for a writer, but it's certainly worth a try.

What does revision look like? Depends what you want to see. Below is the maximum view page. It shows you what's been deleted and what's been added, and tells you the details in the sidebar. No one wants to see all this when they're writing or revising, of course. So it's a doddle to turn it all off so that it looks as if I'm editing an ordinary document, changing and replacing words as I go. Except Pages is keeping track and will allow me to change, accept or reject those edits at a later stage.

Very powerful stuff it is too. But let me emphasise again -- what you see below is a view I'd only use if I wanted to retrieve something I've 'deleted' earlier. For general work I choose something much simpler.

<a href="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-04-at-18-14-371.png"><img class="alignnone size-large wp-image-3680" title="Screen shot 2010-04-04 at 18.14.37" src="http://davidhewson.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/screen-shot-2010-04-04-at-18-14-371.png?w=600" alt="" width="600" height="616" /></a>