: Re: Do writers use highlighting to clarify ideas in their work in progress? In programming we often use syntax highlight in order to have a better picture of what the role of particular bits of

@Kevin153

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I've heard of a number of uses for colors:

Highlight each character's dialogue in a different color. This allows you to quickly read through each character's dialogue to see whether the character's voice is consistent (or perhaps whether it changes the way you want it to). It also allows you to read quickly through all of the dialogue in the story, to see whether it is vivid and compelling.

Highlight dialogue in one color, action in another, description in another, ... This can draw your attention to balances and imbalances among these elements of the story.

I suspect that these techniques are more useful when you're preparing to edit or rewrite. It would be horribly distracting to attend to this stuff while drafting.

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