Resources For Screenwriters

“A typewriter needs only paper; a camera uses film, requires subsidiary equipment by the truckload and Wellington several hundreds of technicians. That is always the central fact about the filmmakers opposed to any other artist: he can never afford his own tools.”
- Orson Welles

Resources for writers and filmmakers

Every artist, filmmaker, writer, or creative professional needs to constantly be learning! Becoming better at your craft will change your life, it will invite unseen opportunities, and it will bless the lives of those around you - and those who work with you or benefit from your creativity. Here are several resources to foster learning and growth.

Here are some suggested tools for screenwriters that you should be able to afford:

Books

These books should be on the shelf for quick reference, inspiration, the rules, and general reference.

THE SCREENWRITER'S BIBLE
The go to source for screenplay formatting, this is an invaluable book to have in your library. Want to know how to handle dual dialogue? Flashbacks? This book will make you an expert. Every serious screenwriter needs it in their arsenal. Here are some other, great resources:

SAVE THE CAT
THE FOUNDATIONS OF SCREENWRITING
YOUR SCREENPLAY SUCKS!      
THE ART OF DRAMATIC WRITING
THE WRITER'S JOURNEY       
ON DIRECTING      
​THE 101 HABITS OF HIGHLY SUCCESSFUL SCREENWRITERS

Blogs

These blogs are necessary for my writing and craft development. Follow them and you won't regret it.

BALLS OF STEEL
BEHIND THE LINES
STAGE 32
​GO INTO THE STORY

Tools for writing

Things that make my life as a writer and professor easier and bearable.

STORYIST
I'm not a disciple of the more trendy "Scrivener" software (although it is a great writing environment, with some excellent export options). But outside of screenwriting, I use Storyist. I love it's simplicity and organization. I love setting daily writing "targets" and watching my progress throughout the day. It's an all-around great writing tool that is similar to Scrivener in every way. It also has iOS apps that work well (especially the iPad app).

EVERNOTE
I mainly use this as an idea organizer. I love the cloud sync with all of my devices and I can easily access all of my thoughts and have them available at any time. I also use the web clipper tool quite a bit (it allows me to send a web page or article and immediately save it to a notebook of my choice).

MOVIE MAGIC SCREENWRITER
I am very aware that the industry standard is Final Draft. But Screenwriter just feels more like real software to me. It's archaic in it's own ways, but I love the outline feature and the ease of formatting on-the-fly by hitting Return or Tab. I realize that most screenwriting apps have the same tools and functionality, I just like this one better. It also exports directly into the EP Scheduling and Budgeting apps seamlessly (Final Draft has problems occasionally.

DAY ONE JOURNAL
Daily journaling is one of my better habits. I enjoy typing what's happened throughout the day. The interface is clean and easy to navigate. I'm not a big "markup" guy, but it's simple enough to get the basics down. The iOS apps work well and sync via Dropbox. The iCloud sync leaves a lot to be desired and I haven't figured it out yet - to be honest.

GOOGLE DRIVE
I'm fortunate enough to live in a city that has Google Fiber. One of the perks of signing up with Google TV, was a whopping 1TB of cloud drive storage. I use it for personal and for business. I store everything on the drive. Photos don't count against my storage limit, so I backup all of my photos (from my phone) onto Google Drive. I also use the documents and spreadsheets quite a bit (they also don't count against my storage plan). The iOS apps integrate well and overall I really like Google Drive. Because I store pretty much everything from my laptop onto Google Drive, it means that anywhere I go (as long as there's an internet connection) I will have access to all of my files, video clips, etc.

THINGS
I've had a bit of a hard time settling down with just one GTD app. I really like Wunderlist, but it's not quite robust enough yet. Things allows me to have projects with multiple layers of tasks inside of them - which I like. The only drawback to the app is that it doesn't have a calendar view. I'm a visual type - and I would really like to see a calendar with my projects spread across multiple days and my tasks populating the future days of the month. But, overall it's a great tool that I use each day to plan my writing and personal projects.

OMNI OUTLINER
There seem to be two types of writers. Those that just start writing (and see where the story takes them), and those, like me, who outline everything to death until it's just a matter of adding dialogue to the outline and calling it done. I strongly believe in a good outline. I want to figure the story out completely before I write it. Omnioutliner is probably a bit robust, but I'm liking it so far. It's very easy to add check boxes to each bullet point, and to add notes along side the outlined items. Good tool.

I'd love to hear what works for you and which tools you find useful. Please comment and let me know what you think. Thanks!

​-Stu