Many people have an idea for a screenplay so they rush out to buy and start writing in a special screenwriting word processor right away. Trying to go from a rough idea to a polished screenplay is a near certain path to frustration. Don’t do it.
A far better solution is to create your story completely separate from your screenwriting word processor. Only when your story is completely polished as much as possible should you start formatting it as a screenplay. If you try to create your story and format it at the same time, you’ll likely create a mess trying to do two separate tasks at the same time.
When creating your story, many people use a word processor, but this requires making multiple documents and keeping them organized. As an alternative, consider using a specialized note-taking program instead. Some note-taking programs cost money but others are free.
One huge advantage of a note-taking program is that it lets you keep multiple notes grouped together in a single file. Plus note-taking programs let you store text, images, links, and other information at the same time. Without limitations to what you can store, note-taking programs let you store practically everything that you might find useful to create your story including text, graphics, PDF files, audio files, and video files.
The chaotic structure of a note-taking program makes it ideal for capturing and organizing your ideas for your story. Now instead of trying to search through multiple files, you can simply search through a single file created by a note-taking program.
If you’re not sure a note-taking program can help you or not, try a completely free program called Joplin. If you want to pay for a note-taking program, consider Microsoft OneNote, which runs on Windows and the Macintosh.
By using a note-taking program, you can go from a rough idea to a collection of organized information. By skimming through this organized information, you can then start writing the rough draft of your story (in the note-taking program itself).
Only when you feel your story is solid should you even consider formatting it in a special screenwriting word processor. In other words, using a screenwriting word processor should be the last thing you do, not the first. Using a note-taking program can be an intermediary step to make the process of creating a story and doing research so much simpler.
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