John August

Highland

My writing setup, 2016

Apps, Highland, Software, Tools, Workspace

In 2011, I wrote a post detailing my [writing setup](http://johnaugust.com/2011/my-daily-writing-routine). Over the past five years several things have changed, so I thought I’d give it an update.

Where applicable, I’ll include links. (Amazon links include my referral code, so you’ll help keep me stocked with pens.)

I work in an office built over my garage. My assistant Stuart works downstairs. Twice a week the rest of my staff (Nima and Dustin) comes in to work on app stuff and other projects. This year, we finally added a giant whiteboard. It’s been a godsend for planning and visual thinking.

I’m “in the office” from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., but I wander in and out of the house pretty freely.

I do a fair amount of my morning work — emails, listening to cuts of Scriptnotes — while walking on the treadmill. I MacGyvered an old film festival lanyard to hold my iPad, and use an Apple bluetooth keyboard. I find I can think coherently up to about 3.2 miles per hour. (Beyond that speed, it’s genuine cardio and I can only listen to podcasts and such.)

When I’m really writing — that is, buckling down on a specific draft of a specific movie — I do a lot of writing sprints. It’s one hour of focused writing with no distractions. If I do three of these a day, that’s a lot of pages written.

## Getting away

When I start a new screenplay, I generally go away for a few days. I find that barricading myself in a new hotel in a new city helps me break the back of a story. I hand-write pages, trying to plow through as much as possible; my record is 21 pages in a day. Writing by hand keeps me from editing and second-guessing. At the start, it’s crucial to generate a critical mass of pages.

Every morning, I send what I’ve written to my assistant to type up. The [Scannable](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/evernote-scannable/id883338188?mt=8) app is great for this.

I find I can generally get 40 decent pages out of a good barricading session. I won’t paste the scenes together until I’m more than halfway through a script.

## Hardware

When writing by hand, I like a white, lined, letter-sized writing pad with a very stiff back. It should barely bend. I’ve been using some generic Staples brand.

My preferred pen is the [black Pilot G2](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001GAOTSW/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B001GAOTSW&linkCode=as2&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkId=E3J46BX6H7ZXIPHR) (0.7mm size). It’s cheap; it writes consistently; I never worry about losing one. For proofreading, a colored felt-tip pen is key. I like the [Papermate Flairs](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BMBU4W/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B000BMBU4W&linkCode=as2&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkId=6BJZQUXW7IRJTBKC). Again, cheap and losable.

I alternate between index cards and whiteboards for mapping out stories. If you’re going to be working in television, get comfortable with the whiteboard, because you’re going to be spending a lot of time staring at one.

My main computer is a 27-inch iMac. I love it.

Overall, I print very little these days. Almost everything is PDFs. But last year we replaced our decade-old laser printer with the [Brother HL5470DW](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0081TYO72/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0081TYO72&linkCode=as2&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkId=YBPKB6L6HVOWUBX5). It’s crazy how cheap and fast it is, and it uses a lot less power.

Stuart uses the [DYMO LabelWriter 4XL thermal label printer](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002M1LGJ4/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002M1LGJ4&linkCode=as2&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkId=RFIH3OEBW6LM4BO7) for packages. It ends up being faster, better and cheaper than using laser printer labels.

Years ago, I had horrible carpal-tunnel problems, so I changed my setup significantly. I use the SafeType keyboard and an [Evoluent vertical mouse](http://www.evoluent.com/). The keyboard is great, but command-key combos are a bear with it, so I’ve mapped a [Logitech G13 gamepad](http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/product/g13-advanced-gameboard) to handle most of them. My desk raises so I can use it standing up. I try to be on my feet at least half the day.

For travel and kitchen duty, I have a 13-inch Macbook Pro. It’s good, but the screen is always getting overwhelmed with windows.

I used to talk on the phone a lot more, and found the [Plantronics S12 headset](http://www.plantronics.com/us/product/s12) essential. I still use it, but phone conversations are not nearly as important as they were just a few years ago.

We generally record Scriptnotes over Skype. I’m using the [Shure SM7B microphone](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002E4Z8M/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0002E4Z8M&linkCode=as2&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkId=XIZGNF2ZHO3F6XXJ) and [Sony MDR-7506 headphones](http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-MDR7506/). This combo has worked well enough for me, but everyone has different opinions and preferences.

For recording in the field, I use the [Zoom H5 four-track recorder](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KCXMBES/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00KCXMBES&linkCode=as2&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkId=MJYTCILEP242UXXB). I love it.

When recording in the office with multiple guests, I use the [Mackie 802VLZ4 8-channel mixer](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00EDHWLFI/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00EDHWLFI&linkCode=as2&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkId=FSELAXNN4EMUR3KG) with a bunch of XLR mics and send the output directly into my MacBook with [this cable](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B6WZGHS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00B6WZGHS&linkCode=as2&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkId=UJPYTSNUAT6BPKS7).

After years of not using Time Machine, I just set up a one terabyte [Samsung T1 Portable SSD](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00RWXVRW8/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00RWXVRW8&linkCode=as2&tag=johnaugustcom-20&linkId=5V55JTFPXFEMNZCT) to use as a backup drive. (If you get it, follow the advice in the “Most Helpful” Amazon review to remove the extraneous software Samsung installs.)

## Software

I do all of my writing in the [Highland beta](https://quoteunquoteapps.com/highland-2-beta/). Highland was originally just for screenwriting, but version 2 adds robust Markdown support, so now it’s the only app I need for writing anything — including this blog post.

[Slack](http://slack.com) is absolutely transformative. Our team doesn’t use email anymore. Everything is in Slack, sorted in channels.

[Dropbox](http://dropbox.com) still seems like magic. In addition to storing my active projects, I keep a folder named Pending in the Dropbox with an alias on the desktop. Anything that would normally clutter up the desktop, I throw in Pending.

I still use [Evernote](http://evernote.com), but mostly for household things like the grocery list. Random links go to [Pinboard](http://pinboard.in) instead. (On iOS, I use the [Pinner](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pinner-for-pinboard/id591613202?mt=8) app.)

I’ve used a lot of GTD productivity apps over the years, including [OmniFocus](http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnifocus/) and [Things](http://culturedcode.com/things/). For the past few months, I’ve been using [2Do](http://www.2doapp.com), which works very well on both Mac and iOS.

For outlining and show notes, I love [WorkFlowy](https://workflowy.com). Because it’s web-based, we can all edit the same document.

I use both Mail and [Airmail](http://airmailapp.com), with some addresses going to Sparrow instead. ((Google discontinued Sparrow, but the Mac app still works for now.)) I use Google Calendar with [Fantastical 2](https://flexibits.com/fantastical).

I do all my RSS-reading on the iPad, using [Reeder](http://reederapp.com/ipad/).

## What I’d change

I’m pretty happy with my setup, but there’s definitely room for improvement.

My mail setup is a mess. The right combination of rules would probably allow me to sort out the wheat from the chaff, but I haven’t invested the energy. Plus, getting it to work properly in iOS would be a big challenge. Increasingly, the iPhone is where I’m doing email triage.

I’d like to push more of my email over to Slack, where it would be a better fit. An example is my D&D group. It’s six writers, so anytime there’s a conversation, it’s a chain of 20 emails, and you can never tell who is responding to what. In Slack, that thread would make a lot more sense.

Overall, the best thing that could happen to email would be to get rid of it.

Formatting a montage in Highland using Forced Action

Apps, Formatting, Fountain, Highland, Screenwriting Software

A friend was writing a montage today and couldn’t figure out how to get quite the formatting he wanted in Highland:

> If I’m moving quickly in a sequence I’ll frequently write IN THE GARAGE or BACK OUTSIDE or instead of a whole slug line. I want action to go on the next line, with no blank line in between.

> The problem is, it’s interpreting this as a character name, and formats it as such, and the action beneath it as dialogue.

He wrote something like this:
forced action screenshot
In Fountain syntax, that looks like three blocks of dialogue, so Highland was giving him this:

IN THE GARAGE

B.A. works on the van.

OUT BACK

Hannibal and Murdock rig the gatling gun.

IN THE BATHROOM

Face works on his old man makeup.

Fortunately, Fountain has ways to override defaults. In this case, the easiest way to get his desired format would be to force those intermediary sluglines (“IN THE GARAGE,” “OUT BACK,” etc.) to be treated as action.

To do that, start each of them with an exclamation point.
forced action screenshot 2
That keeps Highland from interpreting the uppercase lines as character names, leaving the lines neatly stacked up, just like my friend wanted.

In most cases, you’ll never need to do this, because you’ll generally want the blank line after the “IN THE GARAGE” or “OUT BACK.” Leaving a little more white space on the page helps the reader understand that you’re moving between multiple locations.

Here’s an example from Ted Griffin’s Ocean 11 screenplay:

And during the above rant by Benedict, we view...

MIRADOR SUITE

now empty, Livingston’s monitors still displaying the masked men in the vault.

WHITE VAN

navigating the streets of Las Vegas.

FIVE SEDANS

tailing the van, security goons piled into each, and maybe we NOTICE (or maybe not) the Rolls-Royce tailing them.

TESS

pacing in Benedict’s suite, biting her nails, debating whether to blow the whistle on Danny. ON TV: a newscast of the contentious aftermath of the prize fight.

UZI GUARDS,

bound and unarmed, unconscious to the activity within the vault.

RUSTY’S CELL PHONE

opened and unmanned.

BENEDICT

listens -- the line has gone dead. He hangs up.

The forced action trick can be useful in other cases where you want to override default behavior.

Perhaps you have a time bomb, and you’re using ellipses to indicate the countdown. You write:

screenshot

Highland reads that third tick as a forced scene header, because it starts with a single period. But you can force it back to action with an exclamation point:

illustration-

Both Highland and Fountain are sophisticated enough to catch most edge cases, but we’re always finding new situations in which writers are trying to do something that doesn’t quite match expected behavior. And that’s okay! The screenplay format is a set of shared assumptions, not a straightjacket. If you really need to include something unusual, do it. ((Both Fountain and Highland support extended character sets, including emoji. Final Draft doesn’t.))

You can find all of the possible forced elements in the [Syntax section](http://fountain.io/syntax) of Fountain.io, most of which are supported by the popular apps. (Forced Action wasn’t part of the original spec, so some early apps haven’t included it yet.)

As always, you can find Highland on the [Mac App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/highland/id499329572?mt=12).

Switching from Final Draft to Highland

Apps, Fountain, Highland, Screenwriting Software

The Other Sam Cooke writes about switching [from Final Draft to Highland](http://theothersamcooke.com/blog/2015/10/8/affordable-screenwriting):

> After about 10 months of using the application, I can honestly say that Highland is not merely an affordable screenwriting application; it’s actually my favorite screenwriting application.

Cooke likes that he can write on the go using any plain-text editor (he prefers [Editorial](http://omz-software.com/editorial/)). When he’s back on his Mac, Highland stays out of his way and lets him focus on the words:

> Most screenwriting apps, like Final Draft, have you build a document that looks like [the finished version] as you go along. So I constantly have to hit Tab a certain number of times, or Enter a certain number of times, or type in a little shortcut throughout the writing process to get my script to look like that, and because it requires such constant attention, I find myself devoting too much thought to the formatting of my document.

> It’s not particularly difficult to learn Final Draft, and I imagine plenty of people don’t find it as distracting as I do, but I feel like formatting should be an after-the-fact concern. I don’t want to have to think about it while I’m creating.

One other advantage Cooke cites: Final Draft is $250, while Highland is [$30 on the Mac App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/highland/id499329572?mt=12).

Responding to App Store reviews

Apps, Highland

At the start of the month, I wrote a post urging readers to [go ahead and send happy support emails](http://johnaugust.com/2015/go-ahead-and-send-happy-support-emails). Quite a few users took me up on the offer. Thanks to everyone who wrote in.

Emailing developers is a great way to let them know you like what they’re doing.

Leaving a review in the App Store helps pay it forward, letting potential buyers know that an app has fans. We get an alert in Slack whenever a new review is posted, and immediately take a look.

Here are the four most recent [Highland](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/highland/id499329572?mt=12) reviews: three raves, and one disappointed user.

This afternoon, pdx-j [wrote](https://launchkit.io/reviews/dsD3d2lLDlg):

> Of all the screenwriting apps I’ve tried, this is my favorite by far. Once you learn to write in Fountain (it’s really not that hard; I promise), writing in Highland becomes intuitive.

> I hate having to tab through different screenplay aspects and becoming distracted by how your writing appears on the screen. It hampers the creative flow. Most of the other screenwriting apps out there are so busy and complicated, filled with cumbersome extras in order to make it appear it’s worth the high price.

> With Highland, you can just write and write and then convert it all into screenplay format at the end of the day. Fantastic. And because you write in plain text, you can write in pretty much any word processor and easily paste it into Highland. I often write scenes in Evernote on my phone when I’m away from my computer, and then just paste it into Highland later. I’ve never had any problems with this process.

> And that’s just the writing portion of this app. The ability to convert files between PDFs, Final Draft, and Fountain plain text is amazing. Thanks for making a great app!

An MBA might say that Highland has good “market fit” with pdx-j. We’re an app that works the way he wants us to work. Both sides are happy.

As we go through reviews and support emails, we find at least half of the negative ones are from users who were expecting a different kind of app. We’re unlikely to be able to make them happy. That’s why we make our Mac App Store screenshots clear and straightforward. It’s also why we have a standard email that walks users through the process of getting a refund from Apple.

On Friday, ngonzale3 [wrote](https://launchkit.io/reviews/ZbdyTkR8rN4):

> It really is like magic how Highland works out the formatting so that the writer can go on writing. I have Final Draft 8 and instead of upgrading to 9, I upgraded to Highland.

> My only, constructive criticism is that it would be great to have the software remember some of the names that will repeat themselves somehow. This way we can save more time from setting up the names for Highland to format it properly.

> Again this is a minor, spoiled-bratty request from a truly grateful writer. This software actually makes me believe that I am, strangely as that sounds, rather than a programer trying to write a screenplay, the way Final Draft can.

Auto-completing character names is a completely reasonable request. Other screenwriting apps do it, and it doesn’t violate the spirit of Fountain or Highland.

The challenge comes in designing an interface for dealing with the list of character names. Do you let users see the list? Edit it? Export it? Each “yes” adds complexity, so it needs to be worth it.

In May, David Witus [wrote](https://launchkit.io/reviews/Y_ND1StTtSY):

> I really liked Highland for the first month or so that I used it. But then I started noticing two problems.

> 1) it would quit unexpectedly. This wasn’t a huge problem because it seemed like it could re-open easily enough without any lost (unsaved) work. That is, it seemed to just pick up right where it left off.

> But 2) the PDF output would drop text at the bottom on assorted pages. This was a much bigger problem.

> Dialogue that I knew did not follow other dialog appeared in the PDF saved version, but in the input version, it was there. I could not figure out why this was happening and noticed that if I added an action, it would go away. But it would come back up eventually somewhere else.

> When you are talking about a 120-page screenplay, this is a huge problem. In fact, I registered a script that had this problem before I realized it and had to get the Copyright Office to reset the link so that I could upload a corrected version. I chose a different application for the second try, and have not used Highland again.

David encountered bugs that made him lose his trust in an app that he really liked.

Highland is a pretty mature app, so why does it have bugs at all? I can think of a few reasons:

1. **It’s dealing with a lot of files it didn’t create.** While its native Fountain format is pretty much bulletproof, both PDF and Final Draft files can be incredibly strange. Importing and exporting these documents can be problematic. And each time a new app comes on the scene, its files may be weird in entirely new ways.

2. **Squashing bugs sometimes introduces new ones.** When Nima gets a support email, he often asks for a sample file so he can reproduce the problem. Once he fixes the issue with that file, how can he be sure it won’t mess something up with another document? The best answer is probably to run the new build through a large corpus of known files and look for anomalies, so we’ve started to do exactly that. But…

3. **We’re never quite sure what people are trying to do.** Because Highland is essentially a text editor, you can type anything into it. You can type a novel, a grocery list, or a 4,000 page manifesto with no white space. When you hit the preview button, it shouldn’t crash. But because the app is expecting Fountain format, it’s making guesses that may be very wrong. In the case of David’s screenplay, it sounds like Highland was miscounting page lines. Without seeing the file, Nima wouldn’t be able to figure out where the issue arose.

These are explanations, but not excuses. If I had David’s experience, I’d be frustrated too. Had he emailed us first, Nima might have been able to send him an interim build that fixed his issue. But I understand the instinct behind leaving the two-star review.

(As far as I know, David may still have Highland installed, so the most recent build may have already addressed his issues.)

On Wednesday, kencarell [wrote](https://launchkit.io/reviews/eVn6ziX3G3E):

> Love this app. I was using Adobe Story for a while but it was clunky and hard to use.

> It takes a little getting used to if you’re used to those auto-format screenwriting softwares but after some practice, it’s really easy to use. I like that you can switch the font you’re typing in around but it still shows up in Courier (or Courier New or Prime, depending on your settings) when you look at it in preview mode.

> My only critique with it is I would like to see some more added to it in future versions. I know it’s not meant to be a whole production software but add something as simple as scene numbers would be nice.

> A lock mode would be good too with revisions afterward (so it numbers pages with A/B, etc.). I know this is supposed to be very streamlined so it’s unlikely these things will be added but they would be a good bonus.

> Otherwise though, love how clean and smooth this software runs. Great stuff John!

Highland actually already has scene numbers. Simply put the number surrounded by hashtags after the scene header.

INT. HOUSE – DAY #32#

In the preview, that number will move to both the left and right margins.

I use Highland every day — in fact, I’m writing this post in it. A lot of what the app is today and will become in the future is driven by my needs.

Upcoming versions of Highland will be adding some remarkably useful things, but we’re not looking to become a Final Draft or Fade In killer. Each of these apps does a credible job with locked pages and other production drudgery. It’s simply not that interesting for us to try to do it better.

Rather, we want to create apps that make writing slightly more delightful. All four of the reviews above feel like they came from our ideal users: writers who want an app that gets out of the way and lets them focus on the words. So our goal is to keep those people extremely happy.

You can find Highland and all of its reviews on the [Mac App Store](https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/highland/id499329572?mt=12).