Nearly every writer I know uses Microsoft Word. I didn’t always use it. Not sure what it was I did use when I gave up on pen and ink and began writing on an Amstrad word processor (oh the joy of delete and paste), but since then I have always used Word. Hard not to, when it is so ubiquitous and publishers, as often as not, request its use. A little bit of me always wants to break free and do something wild and rebellious, like using Google Docs or SmartEdit Writer instead, but I don’t because it would mean learning a whole new system and I’ve spent over quarter of a century learning Word.

I’m still learning, of course, but I have mastered quite a bit of it, including some of the frills that you don’t necessarily bother with if you just want to write, write…