Index cards in Celtx
Thursday, March 10, 2011

I will try Celtx index card function for my current project. I’ve never tried it before, but since I historically have had problems when I come to my third act, I thought I should try something new and actually do a rough sketch for each scene.

I’ve done my mind map with the structure and in normal cases I would start writing now, but even if I think I’ve done my work with the third act, my guess is I’ll be just as lost as usual when I get there.

Index cards might be the solution.

This demands that I keep up my concentration all the way, so I don’t rush it through in the end. If I don’t do the work properly it is of little use.

I’ve also thought of the idea to do the third act first.

With digital index card it is not as easy as with analogue cards though. I can’t move these around on the board leaving gaps. All I can do is switch places with others.

So I’ll do an index card for each scene in Celtx and then, as I get the basic structure at the same time in the script, I can then start writing on any scene I want. It is the first time I try this so I have no idea if it will work, but I think it has a fair chance to give a better result than my previous method.

My intention is to give each scene the same thought as if I was about to write it, but only write down what the scene will contain in raw notes. This may take its time but it ought to go faster than writing the actual script, since I don’t need to pay attention to the magic of words.

I also have an intention to work with the index card and their notes until I feel I have the structure right.

If this method works I ought to be able to write a script faster; total time, not only actual script writing time, because the magic with language and words and dialogs takes time. It would be rather sweet if rewriting consisted of trimming and polishing and not major reconstruction. But now I sell the chickens before they are hatched.

Let’s just try this out and see where the index cards take me.