Writing a short story in Word is possible.  Writing a novel or a book in Word leads to insanity.  You’ll end up with hundreds of small files with obscure names.  You need a writing program to control the writing process.  There are a number of programs that can do the job but I use Scrivener.

I write all my books in Scrivener.   With it, each story has a single file.  That file contains everything relating to the story.  Scenes, chapters, character sheets, notes, research, everything.

While you’re writing and can’t remember a detail about a character, that information is two clicks away with Scrivener.  With Word, it could be an hour-long search for the proper file.

In summary, you need a writing program.  It doesn’t have to be Scrivener, but you really should invest in a program.  You won’t regret it.

https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview