My Writing Software Toolkit

Writing is a big part of my job - putting ideas, concepts and perspectives into words and phrases is what I get paid to do. But in thinking through the diversity of writing forms I output in print and online - blogs, essays, screenplays, course materials, script coverage and reviews - I became aware of the equally diverse range of software tools I use for that writing.

As regular readers may know, I’m a software slut. Many years of using, reviewing and abusing software tools for all manner of creative purposes has given me a particular honed skill in learning new software with speed and ease. As a result of this skill I am very much at ease with ditiching an old and trusted software tool in favour of a new one when I find it serves better. 

It long ago occured to me that this is quite a different perspective to that held by most folks who labour on with an outdated or dysnfunctional tool simply because the thought of having to change and undertake the long processes of learning a new tool fills them with dread. (I put virtually all users of Final Cut Pro in this category - outdated and dysfunctional and long ago supassed by Premiere Pro, Vegas and Media Composer 5; yet users too terrified to leave its cloistered confines)

I don’t have this problem so I swap and change tools consistently without being slowed down, searching for the elusive perfect functionality. Its here that I have come to some sort of rest recognising that there are 3 tools that sit as the core infrastructure of my writing and have hung around long enough as consistent performers that I thought it worth noting them down and, as a power-user, reccomending them. These 3 serve as a set that together can feed all the various outputs. The implication is that if I could find the one tool that could house the functionality of these 3 then I would be in writing software utopia. But until then my 3 are…

CELTX

I’ve long had an association with the development of Celtx but that association began when I contacted them share how much I loved what they were doing and where they were going with this holistic media writing and development platform.

I had long used Final Draft and Movie Magic screenwriting tools for professional work but these tools have no place in my world. Celtx is not an ‘open-source alternative’, its is a direct competitor that blows both away for sheer functionality and diversity. 

Celtx is the stalwart of all screen writing and development work I do - scripts, treatments, feedback + coverage, series bibles, synopses, outlines, storyboards, visual reference galleries and any kind of sketching of screen media ideas.

SCRIVINER

Away from screenplays and when my writing is more prose-based and complex Scriviner stands as profoundly well designed and highly functional for creative minds. My PhD thesis is written entirely in Scriviner and hard to imagine ever being able to finish it without this tool. Likewise academic articles and formal essays are very at home in Scriviner. On the creative side I couldn’t possibly fathom writing my sprawling novel in another tool. It brings order to narrative chaos.

EVERNOTE

On the surface it may seem a glorified bookmarking system but Evernote is a deceptively powerful writing tool for online blogging that keeps research, references and the post drafts themselves in a cohesive and unified space. That single Evernote space also syncs online and is availible anywhere. Most of the blog posts I write are a reaction to or inspired by other posts I’ve read or come out of current research I’m doing. In either case Evernote as my central research archive is a very natural place for blog writing.

What I get from these 3 tools is a toolkit that allows me a great deal of freedom to moved ideas around and select the features and functionality to match the output or outcome in a quite specific way. In lieu of not having The One App to Rule them All, these 3 have formed a neat quadrangle to write and develop ideas in.

But I remain a software slut so if you have reccomendations for tools I havn’t tried please drop a comment below. You might also want to check out my comprehensive list of the best free tools and apps I’ve come across all collated HERE.

Comments

[Robert Shaver]

Have you ever tried a speech-to-text program like Dragon Dictate?

My idea is that I can dictate the first draft of a scene without looking at the screen. This keeps me from premature editing. Then I'd print it out and mark it up and then dictate the whole thing again in a blank file. This would emulate the older style of writing with a typewriter. (I guess you could do this using the keyboard ... just turn the monitor off.)

[Mike Jones]

I havnt used speech to text software, Rob but its something I continually find myself contemplating - just as yet havnt tried. I writer very much out-loud, speaking an article out as I write it so may be it could cut out the middle man. The amount of typos I write with my two-finger typing it seems I may as well turn the monitor off sometimes :)

Mike