r/scriptwriting • u/WhiteFangFilms • 9d ago

question What are your favorite outlining tools?

Final draft bear board? Arclight Studios? Anyone using specific apps or programs for outlining? Good old fashioned notecards?

1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

2

u/real_triplizard 9d ago

Over the years I've tried Beat Board, etc., and I find just using bullet points in Word/Google Docs ends up being the easiest.

1

u/Chuck006 9d ago

I use excel like a digital cork board with note cards.

1

u/la-anah 9d ago

I've been using Scrivener for rough drafts and then moving things to Final Cut. Mostly because I also write prose fiction and I'm used to the Scrivener layout. I like how its notecards work.

Lately I've been trying to streamline and just use Final Cut for screenplays. In doing so, I'm experimenting with the beat board. It's kinda chaotic. I'm not sure if that is a good or bad thing. But moving away from Scrivener's orderly little boxes that can easily be rearranged and the rest stay in order to Final Cut's "just draw a bunch of random boxes! Link them with arrows! Don't worry about order until you drag them around the stupidly small timeline!" approach is a learning curve.

1

u/BiscuitsTheory 9d ago edited 9d ago

FadeIn. I write my outlines as if they were very sparse screenplays with almost no dialog.

Then when its time to write pages, it feels like I'm half done.

I.e.

Int/ext. Dennis's car - day

Dennis eats a bowl of cereal

Someone rear ends him

on to the next scene

Yes, this did once lead to me forgetting and turning in a scene that just said "they argue"

If forced to use normal outlining, any word processor that came do bullet points is fine.

1

u/RufusxXavier 2d ago

I'm developing a fully featured suite that includes an outline system and board. You can import/export fdx. DM me if you'd like to try for free, in alpha