Mike King

using google docs to outline a screenplay

May 9, 2010 on 6:00 pm | In Writing | Comments Off

I’ve been working on a screenplay for my brother these past few months in my limited spare time. It’s been very slow going. I’ve been having a hard time finding a writing method that feels organic to me.

I had been using Scrivener to outline and keep notes. The process never got comfortable, and even with the index card mode, there wasn’t an intuitive way for me to see the Big Picture.

My personal stumbling block with any word processor is that there is a feeling of finality to typing that makes me want to fix things immediately after I write them. Then I get into the death spiral of self-editing that hinders me from making progress on the story as a whole.

I tried outlining on paper, but that didn’t let me change things easily enough. Mind mapping, whether on paper or the computer, was useful for brainstorming, but was difficult to apply to story structure.

Today I started using Google Docs and its new Drawing feature to create a virtual whiteboard for myself. Much better! I’ve got color-coded index cards and my structure laid out. The process feels a lot more natural and I can easily see how the pieces of my story relate.

Google Docs also has a collaborative editing feature and built-in chat, so it’s really convenient to work real-time with my brother when we need to.

I’m going to keep plugging away and see if the tool holds up for me as the story gets refined.

For today, I’m happy because I think I’ve finally found a way to approach my writing in a visual way with the computer. I feel like I can “sketch” a story now, just like I do when I’m painting.