If you look at the "Documents" folder of any serious writer, you will likely find a graveyard of file names like this:
novel_chapter1.docx
novel_chapter1_edits.docx
novel_chapter1_final.docx
novel_chapter1_FINAL_v2.docxWriters do this out of fear. When you are about to delete two paragraphs of prose that you aren't quite sure about, you don't want to lose them forever. So, you duplicate the entire file.
Software engineers solved this exact problem thirty years ago. The solution is called Version Control.
Why Git Fails with Word Processors
You cannot effectively use Git (or GitHub) with Microsoft Word or Apple Pages documents because those files are essentially zipped binary archives of XML and proprietary formatting. If you run a `git diff` on a `.docx` file, Git just sees unreadable binary garbage.
To use Version Control, you must write in plain text. Specifically, you must write in Markdown.
Treating Prose Like Code
When you draft your blog posts, essays, or novels as simple `.md` files in a local directory using an app like Thooval, your writing becomes instantly compatible with Git.
This completely changes the psychology of editing. You never have to duplicate a file again. If you want to rewrite a chapter from scratch while keeping the original just in case, you don't copy the file; you simply create a new Git branch:
git checkout -b experimental-rewriteIf the rewrite is a disaster, you can throw the branch away and revert to your `main` branch immediately. You have an absolute, mathematical guarantee that you will never lose a single sentence you've committed.
Line-by-Line Diffs for Writers
Because Markdown is plain text, `git diff` works perfectly on prose. You can see exactly which adjectives you removed, which sentences you added, and the exact timestamp of when the change was made.
If you collaborate with an editor, they don't need to leave messy comments inside a Google Doc. They can simply submit a Pull Request to your prose repository, and you can approve or reject individual line edits algorithmically.
Writing is engineering. Treat your words with the same respect developers treat their source code.