Where do you write and what do you use?

Started by Adam0199, March 19, 2003, 11:27:21 PM

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polkablues

Quote from: Sleepless on May 13, 2011, 05:32:07 PM
Oh, I definitely have forgotten more than most of it. I wonder if you could recommend a particular section which I should go back to which would convince me that the whole thing is worth another look? From what I recall it was all about the base formula, however layered and academic it was dressed up to be.

If I were to sell you on just one section of the book to convince you to give the rest of it another shot, I would say the chapter titled "Structure and Character".  It's directly applicable to what I've been talking about in my previous posts, and actually sums up very succinctly a problem with probably 95% of aspiring screenwriters (and a depressing number of established screenwriters as well), which is confusing characterization for character.  If there's any part of the book that I immediately grabbed onto and absorbed into how I think about my work, it's that section.

Quote from: wilderesque on May 13, 2011, 05:38:23 PM
Inside Story by Dara Marks is by far the best screenwriting book I've read, and is very much about this...plot being action and subplot being reaction. Her book is unpretentious and after reading it for the first time I felt like I'd finally been relieved of a terrible hangover - ideas I had about writing that were hazy and disconnected before finally fell into place. I highly recommend it to anyone having trouble with their script.

I'll have to pick that one up.  It sounds like it would be right up my alley.
My house, my rules, my coffee


Jeremy Blackman

^ People should know that's a fake story.

(Sorry.)

Reel

I need to write with no one around. I get really self conscious with other people there, because I prefer to use notebooks and with no laptop screen to hide behind, they know EXACTLY what you're doing. Either you're writing or not writing, whereas on a computer you could be doing any number of important things.

So I always write at home, but I think I need to get out sometime and hide in the corner of a library with no distractions- just cranking out pages. There's always some obligation or unfinished task I have to tend to around the house, and I feel like I do my best writing when I'm trapped, either physically or emotionally. I really romanticize the idea of being able to afford staying in a hotel to write a draft in a couple days, as I've heard many writers do.

I think it's important to have a set writing spot that's of really easy access to you. A cleared off table in private with a lamp and your writing utensils is all you need. I should carve out a little place in my house where I can play my music loud and smoke and just fuck off, because the biggest deterrent to my writing is always when I feel like I've dried out the well, so I go "okay, time for a smoke break!" and it gives me an excuse to vacate the premises, patting myself on the back for hours over all the good writing I did. Then I come back to it days later and I'm like "holy fuck! I only got this far?" then the cycle begins again.


There's my first writing of the day, time for a cigarette...

Pubrick

fuck writing by hand, what are we animals?

the only reason anyone should write by hand these days is if you can't type for shit.

typing is neater and a million times faster than handwriting.

the only time a person should write by hand is when writing a love letter. and even then, draft it on a computer!
under the paving stones.

Frederico Fellini

"I write longhand because you can't write poetry in a fucking computer.. MY PEN IS MY ANTENNA TO GOD!" - Quentin Tarantino


I used to write longhand at the beginning, I liked it because it kinda gave you this weird artistic freedom and tons of stuff sort of just spill outta you, I could never write fast enough. The problem is that it gets fucking tiresome when you have to type everything all over again in the computer.

That's why now I agree that typing is better, but that's just 'cuz I'm lazy. Shit, I've been writing on my Blackberry for the past 2 months and then I just transfer it to my laptop via USB. That's how lazy I've gotten.

Does anybody know if there's a writing software where you can just say things to your computer and the software will type it all down for you?  If there isn't, somebody needs to fucking invent it.
We fought against the day and we won... WE WON.

Cinema is something you do for a billion years... or not at all.

polkablues

Tarantino seems like the sort who has to type with just the middle finger of each hand, his face hovering six inches above the keyboard with the tip of his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth.


Quote from: Freddie on December 11, 2012, 01:35:13 PM
Does anybody know if there's a writing software where you can just say things to your computer and the software will type it all down for you?  If there isn't, somebody needs to fucking invent it.

I've heard good things about Dragon dictation software, but I've never used it myself.
My house, my rules, my coffee

Jeremy Blackman

I can't stand writing by hand. I'm a slow handwriter and a hundred times faster at typing. With handwriting, your brain gets so far ahead of your hand that you start interrupting yourself.

Frederico Fellini

Quote from: polkablues on December 11, 2012, 02:59:24 PM
Tarantino seems like the sort who has to type with just the middle finger of each hand, his face hovering six inches above the keyboard with the tip of his tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth.


HAHA... Tarantino seems like the type of guy who would be a Child molester/Serial killer if he wasn't a filmmaker. That creepy foot fucker.
We fought against the day and we won... WE WON.

Cinema is something you do for a billion years... or not at all.

Reel

^ low blow


but really, I think his head is just too big for both of his eyes to see the keyboard at the same time. Quentin's got a cinerama-dome

Garam

I like writing by hand cause there isn't a bright light drilling into your skull and giving you a massive headache and aching eyes. Also you don't need to be lugging a laptop with you everywhere you go to do it.


Typing's great. It's fast and perfect for editing. But I've never felt a focus with it like I have with handwriting. I enjoy the feeling of playing catch-up with your thoughts. You can also get ideas down in a much more scattershot/experimental way that I don't think lends itself well to word processors.

Reel

I'm typing a script right now in Appleworks 6, my friend said he'd get me a copy of Final Draft 8. Hey do you guys think that would work on my old ass emac computer? If not, what's a screenwriting program that would. This computer is old. I bought it in 2005.

If we're talking about writing for movies you're always gonna have to type it out, no one wants to read your chicken scratch, but in terms of just winging it and testing your ideas out on the page, I think every writer should have a relationship to the pad and the pen. Something about everything you write down being permanent makes you contemplate exactly what you put down more, and you turn out better pages. I filled two notebooks of ideas before I hit the keyboard for this script and when I look back at those pages, they're packed with some really good stuff.

but to each his own...

matt35mm

I've been using Celtx, which is good because I can use it online and access the script from any computer, and it's free. I haven't felt like it really mattered what I use to write the script, though--these programs all more or less offer the same ease in writing. The main thing is the "shareability" of the script. Anyone can download Celtx so I don't need to worry about compatibility, and I can work with a writing partner more easily. I'm sure Final Draft has sharing features, but you'd have to all have Final Draft.

I'm writing a feature now for the first time in 8 or 9 years, and using a whole new process and working with a writing partner. It's been fantastic. I haven't been alone on it, which is really great for creating new material quickly and having it be more interesting. It's mostly involved talking about it so much it exists really strongly in my mind (it feels like we're talking about real people when we're talking about the characters). A lot of detail is present already. We wrote a scene-by-scene treatment, which was helpful.

The thing I'm finding very valuable currently, as I'm on draft 1.5 of the script (wrote half the script, noticed some big problems and then started from scratch): INDEX CARDS.

The main value of index cards, for me, is that it probably takes about two hours to index card the whole movie. You're working at the speed in which it would take you to watch the movie, and you're thinking about the balance and rhythm of the whole thing. It makes some things clearer and the impact of moving a scene to earlier or later in the movie is less abstract.

It helps with trying to figure out how the whole movie is balanced. Then, that coupled with already having a deep knowledge of the world and characters and information, makes it easier to write in a scene-by-scene fashion, which is ultimately what it comes down to in scripting.

I also use colored index cards so I can see how much time we're spending in each location, so that the film won't be visually stagnant.

I've tried writing in various places. Really, the only thing that works for me is staying at home, BUT, acknowledging the reality that it's going to take 6 hours to get about 1 hour of work done. That's just me, because I can't focus. I can't pretend that I can sit down for an hour and write. I need to carve out a large chunk of time on a consistent basis.

Oh, I also had to quit Facebook while drafting the script. If I had that, it'd be about 10 hours to get 1 hour of work done. Actually I'd probably just spend 10 hours on the computer and not get any writing done.

I used to be able to write while listening to music. I can't do that anymore.

The Perineum Falcon

I like the note card application, Matt, and I may just use that once I finish the (very) detailed treatment i'm currently working on.
I use a pen and notebook, at least for this stage. I don't own a laptop, and it's frustrating enough to type this out on my phone that I cannot fathom working on it in this fashion, so the notebook has become invaluable. Plus, it's just nice to have real pages to flip through. Once I'm in full script mode, I'll update my technology.
Unfortunately, I don't have much time to myself during the day, and an hour's about all the time alone my wife will give me. I write at home, in the bedroom, with a single bedside lamp, Spotify in my earbuds, and a film on the tube. It's either classical or dirty beaches; anotonioni, Godard, or Resnais. I work on it alone through the week, and Friday's a friend and I will meet at Denny's and rehash it through the night. This process has worked pretty well thus far, though I do desire a more involved partnership for the script.

I'll probably share the script on its umpteenth draft.
We often went to the cinema, the screen would light up and we would tremble, but also, increasingly often, Madeleine and I were disappointed. The images had dated, they jittered, and Marilyn Monroe had gotten terribly old. We were sad, this wasn't the film we had dreamed of, this wasn't the total film that we all carried around inside us, this film that we would have wanted to make, or, more secretly, no doubt, that we would have wanted to live.

Pubrick

do you have kids? do you run a bed and breakfast from your home?

I'm not married, I've lived with a long term gf that's about it, so forgive my lack of perspective here, I just can't imagine why your wife can't leave you alone for more than ONE hour a day.

I hope the movie you're writing is about your predicament, it sounds interesting. you should call it Mrs Fritzl.
under the paving stones.