Software

I vowed to myself when I started this that I wouldn't talk about screenwriting software - what software should I use? is one of the most common and least important questions that beginning writers ask - but I stumbled across a really nifty thing today that seems like something I might actually use, rather than the kind I have on my hard drive and only ever open up when I feel like pretending to be the kind of writer who has a method rather than being the kind of writer who frightens himself into producing stuff through an excess of anxiety.

So, yes I use the antediluvian and arse-achingly awful in just about every respect Final Draft*, mainly because when I was starting out I got a free copy. It works as a basic script formatter, but on every other level is a disastrously misconceived piece of crap. I foolishly upgraded from FD5 through to FD7, but have gone back to FD5 since the only useful structuring tool available within it - the navigator, which shows your script as an outline using scene headers - was rendered useless in FD7 when they made it possible to view alongside your script, but impossible to shift scenes about using it. Morons.

The INSTANT the latest version of Write Brothers Screenwriter comes out, FD gets binned.

Glad to get that off my chest.

The only time you need these script formatting programmes is approaching production, when the script gets 'locked' in order to make it simpler to issue revised pages to the various production departments. Up till then, nobody gives a damn what you use as long as they can read it.**

The programmes that I find genuinely useful, particularly in the early stages of structuring, which is the difficult bit, are Word, Storyview***, and the absolutely terrific, and not just because it's free, Keynote, which is simple to use but infinitely customiseable and powerful once you get into it.****

And the nifty wee thing I found today? Bubble.us, a brain/mind mapping type thingy whose beauty lies in its simplicity and speed. I often do bubble maps (much prefer the idea of a bubble map to a mind map - bubbles are multicoloured and go pop in an enchanting way, whereas mind maps sound like an away day in a motel off the M25. With lukewarm milky coffee and stale biscuits.) when looking for scene/story ideas, because it doesn't feel like writing, and in the early stages I prefer to feel like it's all provisional and fluid and not really writing yet.


*I'm not linking to it because I don't want to be responsible for someone spending their money unnecessarily. I HATE that sodding programme.

**Word will do fine. Better than fine, because at least you can move headings about in outline view.

***rumour is Write Brothers are going to incorporate it into the next version of Screenwriter. Please please pleeeeease....

****check out the add-ons and plug-ins - some are very good indeed.