Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Software – Celtx, Open Source Screenwriting Software

April 21st, 2005 Clint

I’ve kept an eye out for open source software for script writing and while there have been a few half hearted attempts at it, nothing has been good enough to make it past the cursory look. Now I’ve stumbled across celtx. Still beta at version 0.8.4, it looked pretty decent so I figured that I would give it a try.

celtx_new

It was a relatively small download at 8.6 MB and it installed without a hitch. I fired it up and resized the window for the first screen cap. I then went to size the window back where it was and the bottom right corner of the window started playing keep away. Whenever the curser hovered over the resize hash on the bottom corner the window would resize away from it.
Not a good sign when the first thing you do shows up a bug.
Oh well, it is a point eight and I don’t expect it to be bug free. So I resized by grabbing the side bars and then clicked on Create a New Project. This changed the window to a clean three pane layout with grayed out text in the larger pane saying Click here to create a slug line. It didn’t ask for a name or anything so I guessed that came with the first save.
Now, I believe that to test a program you really have to use it. So I am going to write “The Club” using this software. It is chancy, and it will be a pain if I have to abandon celtx and convert it into Final Draft format – but that is the nature of testing… especially beta software. Hell, have I mentioned that texo.ca is built on a beta service? I like to live dangerously no?
I also eschew the documentation at first as well. Something as straight forward as a word processor, even a specialized one, shouldn’t need a document reading to get started.
Anyway, I clicked on the Click Here and wrote out the first slugline. Once I hit enter, the slugline showed up in the left upper pane under the “Resources” heading and the cursor dropped down and into the action field. It won’t take long for the resources pane to fill up but it looks like it will be a nice feature as long as the most used resources bubble to the top and they implement auto complete for character names and sluglines… you get used to that in Final Draft.

celtx_page_one

It is a simple and straight forward process to move through the elements. Hitting enter from a Slugline element gets you to the Action element. Hitting enter from an Action element gets you to the Character element where you can enter the speakers name and hit enter to get to the Dialogue element – or hit TAB to get pushed back to an Action element. Hitting enter from the Dialogue element moves you into another Character element.
Parentheticals are a little tricky to put in there but since they aren’t really liked by a lot of readers, maybe that isn’t a bad thing.
I wrote out the first page and then saved. Hmmm? It didn’t ask for a name for the project so I’m left unsure if it actually saved or where it saved to. To be on the safe side I selected File–Export. This gave the one and only option of HTML but it is something… even if it produces about 60 lines of styles. Not as bad as MS Word but still not all that clean.
I selected File–Close to close the project and that quit the program despite there being a Quit on the list as well. I think that the Close is for the project but the program just got carried away and shut everything down. I started it back up to see what had become of my project and celtx now had the option of opening an (untitled) project and that was The Club. But how do I name the project? I can’t see it anywhere and so open the Help file. Hmmm, online help only eh?
It turns out that naming the project is down a level inside File–Properties where the only properties to set are Name and Description. It would make more sense to me if this popped up when you create a new project or at least when you go to save.

celtx_properties

So far, the writing aspect of it seems to be a little behind the dedicated commercial programs but a big step ahead of the MS Word + macros option. I had been thinking of writing a set of macros for Open Office but they would have been no better than those for MS Word and so this already seems like a better option than that. If a programmer where to get into the Open Office source and code in the functionality of Final Draft there would be a challenge but from what I see so far, it looks like we finally have a viable free script writing program.
And I haven’t even delved into the collaboration and production aspects of celtx yet. Despite the teething problems that come with the beta territory, this looks very promising. And for those with a patriotic bent, it is a Canadian outfit that is creating this. Good going guys.

Posted in Learning, Tools, Writing No Comments »

StoryView 2.0

April 10th, 2005 Clint

There are those writers who feel that writing isn’t something that you should plan, plot or structure. You can generally call these writers “unpublished” or “unreadable”. Few (by which I mean very few) people can pull that off but generally it tends towards a rambling and unfocused piece of… work. Now if that is what you are aiming for, then StoryView isn’t for you.

StoryView is a visual outliner that uses a timeline format combined with a user customizable “events”. The timeline can be page, line, frame or traditional time constructs like minute or week. Structured under these are events that can be set to anything from two line stanzas to the full 300 episode series of a television drama.

As an example, here is a StoryView document that I’m working on for a prospective television series called Brave New World disOrder.

storyview_screenshot

The timeline is in minutes since network television is very structured around the commercials. Even if you get a gig with HBO, they want to sell the show to the networks so it would be easier to structure it this way and simply drop in the commercials later rather than try to find breaks after the fact.

The top event in dark grey is the Episode event and there can be as many of those across as you want. In here I would write out exactly what I wanted to happen in this episode. What happens in the A and B story and if there will be a C story or not. (If things get that far, I can add another event above it for Seasons, enclosing six, thirteen or twenty-four Episode events underneath it.)

Nested underneath the Episode event are the Acts events, shown in light grey. Each show is slightly different but they all have a particular act structure. Mine is a half hour sitcom with a 1:30 teaser, two 9:30 acts and a 1:30 tag on the end. In here, I write exactly what needs to happen in the act.

The light green events underneath the Act events are the individual Scene events. While the Act events would be kept relatively rigid, the Scene events are as fluid and malleable as I want them to be. The Teaser and Tag have only one Scene event sitting in there right now but I could slam through nine scenes in that minute and a half if it was called for. The Scene events can be simple outlines of what needs to happen in the scene or it can have the scene written right out in full script format.

If I wanted to go all obsessive on it, I can have Character Arc events that run out over seasons, Story Arc events that run over multiple episodes or break each Scene event down into Beats events that could encompass only three seconds of the timeline.

You can be as loose and flowing or as tight and regimented as you desire with this. I feel that it is an invaluable tool that allows me to start with the big picture and keep tunneling down until I feel that the show, feature or novel is clear enough and well enough thought out that I won’t write myself into any dead ends.

Then I start to write.

After a script formatting word processor like Final Draft or MM Screenwriter, the next piece of writing software I would buy is StoryView. The only thing that keeps it from getting a 10 from me is that it is more complex than I think it needs to be and as such has a bit of a learning curve.

StoryView 2.0 gets a 9

Posted in Literature, Tools, Writing No Comments »
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