A quick writing tip, because I’ve just been in the situation: When you are about to finish for the day, try to break at a point where you know exactly what the next sentence is going to be. This way you can start your next session on a high energy level and get into the flow much more easily. That doesn’t mean that you can’t stop if you’re stuck though. In the contrary, sometimes taking a step back is the best way to beat the writer’s block. But if you’re on a roll, save a little bit for the beginning of your next session.
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Category: BlogThe internet never forgets. Some people have to learn this the hard way by trying to get rid of the drinking photos, the questionable comments, the personal information that have leaked onto the web and spread like an epidemic. But one man’s loss is another man’s gain and the connected writer will find that an always available gigantic online storage space can be just the right thing to organize thoughts and ideas, to look at them from a different perspective, and connect them in new ways.
Let me share with you some of the solutions I have used in the past, some of which I still use now:
Wridea came out of a two-year beta in 2008 with a major overhaul and is a service to store and categorize ideas. Basic ideas are quickly noted using the clean and uncluttered interface or can be mailed to a dedicated email address. Pages and categories are used to sort and categorize the content. The pages as well as individual ideas can be shared with and commented on by either a select group of contacts or the entire wridea community. The ‘idea rain’ tool lets ideas from a specific page fall past your screen like raindrops, recombining them in the process. It’s more of a gimmick than a feature but might help create unusual connections and spawn new ideas. And the programmers among us can create their own tools via their api to access ideas in any way imaginable. The service is free.
Evernote. On first glance Evernote looks like little more than a glorified note taking application. But a few unique features set it apart from the rest of the pack. One, not only can you enter text notes but also upload image files, audio files and about any other document format. You can also use a webclipper to clip parts of or entire webpages, including images, directly into your notebook. Two, Evernote indexes your notes and documents so they are easy to find. This does include PDF documents and even image files, their system recognizes text in images (even most of my handwriting) and adds it to the search index – pretty impressive. Once in the database, notes can be sorted into different notebooks, tagged, and manipulated in various ways to organize them effectively. Plus, the web based Evernote syncs with a freely available pc or mac desktop client and there is a free iPhone and WinMo app as well which allow you to add and manipulate notes on the road. Evernote is available in a free and paid version. They offer the same features but the free version limits uploads to 40 MB/month. The premium account ($5/month or $45/year) lets you upload 500 MB/month.
Google Docs. I have used Google Docs since back in the days when it still used to be a startup called Writely offering an online word processor with real time collaboration features. The basic function is still the same, with Google having added a few features here and there and a major cosmetic overhaul to adapt a more Word-like interface with drop down menus. And, basically, that’s all there is to it. However, having a word processor and all your documents available wherever you have web access is quite a luxury, and the realtime collaboration features come in pretty handy when working in a team. Revisions are saved automatically and you can always revert to an earlier draft. For those who are reluctant to save their work on Google’s data-hungry servers Zoho Writer is a good alternative with an equivalent feature set and the same price point: Both services are free.
Backpack is a bit different from all of the products I mentioned before because basically, it can be all of them, and more. Backpack is marketed by 37signals as small intranet solution for businesses but it’s equally valuable for the solitary web-loving writer, because simply said: Backpack is what you want it to be. From storing ideas to fleshing out texts to storing files to collaborating online, anything is possible. Backpack organizes your data in pages which can contain an unlimited amount of notes, to-do lists, image galleries, files, and writeboards. You can create multiple pages and add section headers to categorize your data and easily rearrange it via an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. Pages can be shared with other account users, via email or published on the web. The free version is limited to one user, five pages, and the basic features that do not use file storage. Paid accounts range from $7 to $149 per month and gradually increase user, page, and storage limits, add a group calendar, file storage and image galleries, and SSL security for your entire session.
Like I said before, I have used all of these services at some point in the past. Today I use a combination of Evernote for quick snapshots and webclips and a paid Backpack account for the rest. I have a general ‘ideas’ page where I jot down quick notes for anything that comes to mind, and whenever a project grows I create a dedicated page and simply move the content over to expand it from there. Until recently I used a program called Satchel to access Backpack from my Palm Treo and wrote entire presentations and half a novel on it during my commute but since I switched to an iPhone 3g when the Treo died on me I desperately await a dedicated app for Backpack. Though given their powerful api to access the data, I hope it’s only a matter of time.
But enough about me, how do you organize your thoughts and ideas?
While we writers mostly are of a breed that adapts slowly to change around us and draws comfort and creativity from rituals and habits, there is no denying that we now live in a digital world that knows the typewriter mostly through nostalgia websites. An abundance of information is readily available at our fingertips and with email, chat, voice over IP, forums, newsgroups, rss feeds all accessible on a multitude of devices, the internet has severely changed the way we communicate. But will it change the way we work? The way we write?
The world wide web offers as many possibilities for writers as it offers distractions. For seemingly every step of the process, from idea to polished script, there are tools that are supposed to help managing the work flow, organizing ideas or thoughts, and even correctly outlining your script. Some might be useful while others cost you more time to learn and use than you could possibly save.
For almost as long as I am a writer I have tried out software tools that are supposed to help with the process. Through the years the software has moved from floppy discs to CDs to internet downloads to residing entirely in the cloud, as they say today, running on a web server somewhere in the world for you to use wherever you have access to the world wide web.
In this blog, lovingly subtitled “Screenwriting 2.0″ by, well, me, I will share tips and tricks for the tools I use on a regular basis as well as review new services as they become available and I get a chance to try them out. The posts will most certainly be interspersed with observations on writing and/or the web in general to keep you and me entertained during webapp and writing dry spells.
Hopefully I can point you to a lifesaver or two, or at least save you some time in the process. Stay tuned…
This has nothing to do with writing but is far too amazing not to be posted. A super slow motion recording of a lightning, which is easily among the coolest things I have ever seen:
Cologne, Germany. In a move sure to surprise mostly myself, I just pushed the button and made my new website available to the general public. Here you’ll find everything I promised you on the RSS welcome post, and even a little more (A picture! A blogroll! More links!). If you didn’t get the welcome post, you aren’t subscribed to my newsfeed yet (see what you’re missing?) so if you’re still wondering what the hell you’re supposed to do on my page anyway, start with that. You may choose between the English and the German version of the feed (browser bar rss icon defaults to the English one but the direct links are in the sidebar), they both contain the respective version of the news and blog posts. Or just subscribe to both and see how much of me gets lost in translation.
Anyway, I’m glad this is finally up and I’m ready to roll, so let’s have it, people. Questions, comments, anything, bring it on. Oh, and if you know of a good blog or two about writing/screenwriting please let me know!
(Since this is the starting post I made it both a news and a blog post, expect different content for news and blog from now on.)
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