The writing record

How was this book written? Over months, a few hundred words at a time. The writing record shows it.

Writing Record… saves a PDF account of how the book grew, drawn from its history: when it was begun; the days it was worked on; its saved versions and sessions; the words added and cut, version by version, and the typical change between versions; its milestones; when each chapter was begun and how often it was revised; and every day’s work.

In a time of machine-made text, it’s a way to show the slow, human making of a book: an agent, a publisher or a prize can see it grow, a day at a time.

What it shows, and what it doesn’t

The record says plainly what it can show and what it can’t. It shows the history of the book’s files as Septangular saved them; it can’t show who was at the keyboard, and its dates come from the computer’s clock. It ends with the history’s fingerprints. Each version’s page in Versions shows its fingerprint too, so anyone with the project can check that a record matches it.