Search Results for: index cards

Who are you and what do you write?
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My name is Eric Heisserer, a screenwriter and (soon to be) director. I’ve worked with a number of studios on a variety of genre films, but the ones that have withstood the arduous trek to screen are all horror movies like [Final Destination 5](http://finaldestinationmovie.warnerbros.com/) and [The Thing (2011)](http://www.universalstudiosentertainment.com/thing-the-2011/).

I’m looking to break that streak by shooting a script I wrote based on the short story [Hours](http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/popcornfiction/stories/Hours_by_Eric_Heisserer.html), first published on Derek Haas’ anthology site [Popcorn Fiction](http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/popcornfiction/). We’re in pre-production now, aiming for an April 2012 shoot date.

I’ve written a few other stories for Popcorn Fiction this year, like [Last Vegas](http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/popcornfiction/stories/Last_Vegas_by_Eric_Heisserer.html) and [Simultaneous](http://www.mulhollandbooks.com/popcornfiction/stories/Simultaneous_by_Eric_Heisserer.html). I try to write in at least two different mediums each year because it helps me develop/maintain new creative muscles.

On Twitter, I’m [@writerspry](http://twitter.com/writerspry).

Where and when do you write?
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I’m a hallway commuter with a home office. I’ve been writing at home my whole career (and before then, too), so I’ve come to find a discipline in keeping a normal work schedule. Before this I was a cubicle monkey in the white-collar world, so my body is used to getting up and putting in eight hours every weekday (typically 9 – 6).

If I don’t write at least a little each day, I start to feel nervous and on edge, as if I were quitting caffeine cold turkey. My best hours are typically just before and after lunch. When I need to stop for a meeting or to eat, I try to break at a point where I know the next thing I want to write, because it makes getting back into the work so much easier when I return to the keyboard.

In my home office I have my computer desk, a reading chair, a TV, and a cork wall where active projects are tacked in the form of a hundred different index cards plus photos and magazine clippings as visual inspiration. The cork wall and a few of my magazine clippings are relatively new to my process, courtesy of my brilliant wife Christine Boylan ([@KitMoxie](http://www.twitter.com/kitmoxie)), whose home office is just across the hall from me. (Check out [her Workspace post](http://johnaugust.com/2011/workspace-christine-boylan).)

What hardware to you use?
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I’ve recently upgraded to a desktop iMac with a cinema display, but my last iMac was four or five years old. I also have a small MacBook I take with me to set or when I’m going out of town. Both Macs get the job done, but I get best results from my desktop.

I use a lot of 3×5 index cards. White ones. Colored ones. Lined and unlined. I use whatever I can get my paws on when I’m seized with a new thought.

The cards are the first form my projects take, and they fall in two categories: Story and Snippets. In the story structure side of things I’ll have cards like “[hero] states his goal” or “[villain] collides with [hero] for the first time.” These are basic milestones that form the frame of the thing I’m building.

The Snippets side of the cork wall is for all the flotsam and jetsam that comes to me for the project. Specific details. A line of dialogue. A character description. An illustration from a comic book. A photo of a setting.

Once I have a critical mass of cards on the board, I take them all down and Voltron them into a single document. I will scan visuals if I need to. Then I create a new set of cards, this time designed to look more professional, and I print them on my color printer.

This is probably the most important step for me, because it tricks my brain into believing it’s a real project and not some crazy collection of thoughts. I use photos of actors to cast the major roles, and I look for images and key words that evoke the tone of the project. The casting choices aren’t meant to be realistic options for the actual production, but they remind me I’m writing words for someone else to say. And if I can’t envision the actors delivering a convincing performance in a scene, I know I’ve strayed off-course.

I do this with every project, but where these cards are most helpful is in a pitch. Studio and network exes love visuals and they love structure. It helps that the movie or pilot is already pseudo-cast for them, because it reinforces the tone and the size of the story. Through trial and error I’ve come to learn not to put too many words on a card, otherwise the execs will read them instead of listening to the pitch, and sometimes the writing on the card spoils a reveal before you speak it.

Here’s an example: I adapted the Popcorn Fiction story Simultaneous into a TV series concept, and then built the pilot structure as a modified procedural. When I designed my cards for the polished version, I made a title card (at top), my major characters, their supporting characters, and then the guest stars for that episode (at bottom). My villain/crime for the pilot episode is the card placed in the center; the Ash Killer card.

The right-hand column offers a card with two films as my thematic or tonal touchstone for this project, and then three sample episodes that I had developed. This particular layout of cards resembles a Tarot spread; the Celtic Cross. That was intentional, as one of my characters reads Tarot.

Again, at this stage there isn’t a lot of words on these cards, because all that content now lives in the Voltron document I built from my first round of index card collecting. These new cards go on my cork wall where I can see them as I write the script. They’re visual cues. They speak more to the characters’ motives than to story, because that can be my blind spot during scripting.

That was a terribly long tangent. Sorry. On to other hardware:

* **Sharpie pens.** For that first round of index cards. I like their fine-point retractable ones, but any will do as long as it’s black ink.

* **Office Depot 4×6 postcard sheets.** The fancy cards. There are other options; Avery makes some, but generic brand works just as well.

* **My Canon MP560 color printer.** For the fancy cards.

What software do you use?
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I use Photoshop and QuarkXPress for the card design process, because I worked in print design for many years, but they could just as easily be made in a word processing application. I’m just more familiar with Quark and Photoshop.

For the scriptwriting, I use Final Draft. I’ve worked in Movie Magic Screenwriter, too. Both get the job done.

What would you change?
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Not to cheat off [Phil Hay’s answer](http://johnaugust.com/2011/workspace-phil-hay), but: I would write more.

I tend to abandon ideas before giving them the proper attention. I have a bad habit of expecting a reader or studio response long before I get one, and I can talk myself out of a good idea like a pro. I need to be better about silencing the voice who discourages new ideas and new hope with my work, because it is painfully easy to say “This won’t sell” or “This won’t survive production.”

There is a town full of people ready to say “No” to my projects. I can’t be one of them.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I use [Evernote](http://evernote.com) as an all-purpose notebook for storing random ideas. Several readers mentioned that it was the first time they had ever heard of it, and wondered what other tools I was using.

So, in the spirit of [The Setup](http://usesthis.com/), I thought I’d give a breakdown of my daily work habits. In the weeks ahead, I’ll be asking other screenwriters to share their routines. I hope to make this a recurring feature.

Where and when do you write?
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I work in an office built over my garage. Until she was four, my daughter didn’t realize that I was approximately 100 feet away when I went “off to work.” She finally caught on, but we’ve been able to set pretty firm guidelines about when she is and isn’t allowed to interrupt me.

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.

For the past six months, I’ve been doing most of my “morning work” — reading and blog stuff, such as writing this post — while walking on the treadmill. I MacGyvered an old film festival lanyard to hold my iPad 2, 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 try to write five pages a day. Page counts tend to be a better measure of effort than time spent in front of the computer.

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. I used to fax pages, but on this last trip I just photographed the pages with my iPad and uploaded them to a shared folder in Dropbox. It’s simple, and guaranteed backup.

If I’m writing something specific to a place, I’ll go there. For Preacher, I went to San Antonio. For Lovecraft, I went to Providence. I could sit in the exact spot Lovecraft wrote his stories. That’s a rare luxury.

Otherwise, I’ll go to Vegas. If you’re not drinking or gambling, Las Vegas is a surprisingly good city for writing: when you get stir crazy, you can walk somewhere new. There are lots of restaurants, and no one looks at you strangely for being alone.

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.

What hardware do you use?
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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 (.38 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. 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 five-year old Mac Pro. It’s overkill for screenwriting, but I do a fair amount of video editing on it. I have an SSD for a boot drive, and big hard drives in the other three bays (including one for Time Machine). I’ll definitely get a new Mac Pro when the Thunderbolt version ships.

I love bare hard drives. They’re amazingly fast and cheap. The [Voyager Q](http://www.newertech.com/products/voyagerq.php) toaster-style dock works great for making drive clones for off-site backup.

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://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboard/devices/5123) to handle most of them. (I wrote in 2004 about my [keyboard setup](http://johnaugust.com/2004/my-new-keyboard-setup). It’s largely the same.)

I have a 30-inch monitor dating from 2004. I love it, but it’s easily overwhelmed with windows. I’m trying to use Mission Control on Lion to keep stuff sorted. I use Harman-Kardon [SoundSticks](http://www.harmanaudio.com/search_browse/product_detail.asp?urlMaterialNumber=SOUNDSTICKS3AM&status=) for speakers. I still use the original iSight camera, the one that looks like a stainless steel film canister.

For travel and kitchen duty, I have a 13-inch Macbook Air. It’s as great as everyone says.

I used to talk on the phone a lot more, and found a [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.

For podcasting, I’m using the [AT2020 USB microphone](http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/wired_mics/a0933a662b5ed0e2/index.html) and [Sony MDR-7506 headphones](http://pro.sony.com/bbsc/ssr/product-MDR7506/). When in doubt, just use whatever [Dan Benjamin](http://hivelogic.com/articles/podcasting-equipment-software-guide-2011/) recommends.

I adore the [ScanSnap S1500M scanner](http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/peripherals/scanners/scansnap/scansnap-s1500m.html). It’s a monster that eats paper and makes pdfs. I’ve happily gotten rid of most of my physical files with it.

What software do you use?
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I do most of my “real” screenwriting in [Final Draft](http://finaldraft.com). I don’t love it. My greatest frustration is usually with its Smart Type Lists, which invariably want to insert extraneous bits of parenthetical detail after character names, so I end up having to type more letters just to get past its unhelpful suggestions.

I’ve also used [Movie Magic Screenwriter](http://www.screenplay.com/p-29-movie-magic-screenwriter-6.aspx), and found it to be approximately as frustrating in slightly different ways. So it’s a case of the devil you know.

In no way am I slamming these two apps; I’m grateful they exist and afraid they might go away. Over the years, I’ve tried out every new piece of screenwriting software that’s come along and found them lacking.

There are small but important details that you have to get right, such as handling dialogue across a page break. ((Dialogue should break at the end of a sentence. Final Draft and Movie Magic Screenwriter are the only applications I’ve seen get it right.)) I’ve played around with two or three different applications built atop Adobe Air, all of which had unacceptable typing lag.

For the current screenplay I’m writing, I’m trying out [Scrivener](http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php). It’s complex, but the underlying logic is consistent and smart and fits nicely with my workflow, since individual scenes can get stitched together quickly. I like that the developer keeps updating it.

On the other end of the complexity spectrum, [Freedom](http://macfreedom.com/) is a dirt-simple shell script that blocks your internet connection for a set period of time. It’s a lifesaver.

Other than screenplays, I write almost everything in [TextMate](http://macromates.com/). Yes, I’m worried it’s going to break one day and the developer won’t be around to fix it. Yes, I’ve tried all the alternatives. I’m so accustomed to how it works — and have set up so many macros and snippets — that the switching costs would just be too high right now.

[Dropbox](http://dropbox.com) 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.

[Evernote](http://evernote.com) has become my all-purpose inbox. If I come across something interesting that pertains to something I’m writing — or think I might one day write — I’ll throw it in there. Some of my friends use Evernote for their to-do lists, but I’ve found it too unwieldy.

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/). Right now I’m using [Todo](http://www.appigo.com/todo), which has really good integration between the desktop app and its iOS apps. Before I made the switch, I was using [Listary](http://byportmanteau.com/listary) for the iPhone, which is a smart and fast little app I never hear anyone talking about.

Because it’s included with system software, Preview doesn’t get the attention it deserves. You can easily rearrange or delete pages in a PDF with it, or combine multiple documents. It’s amazing and overlooked.

I use Mail, but recently switched my Gmail-hosted addresses over to [Sparrow](http://sparrowmailapp.com/), which I like a lot. I use Google Calendar instead of iCal. I’ve found it works better for sharing.

I do all my RSS-reading on the iPad now, using [Reeder](http://reederapp.com/ipad/). I use the official [Twitter client](https://twitter.com/#!/download/iphonecom) for Mac and iPhone, but [Twitterific](http://twitterrific.com/ipad/) on the iPad. [Birdhouse](http://birdhouseapp.com) keeps me from drunk-tweeting.

What would you change about how you write?
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When I first got started writing, I had a lot of bad habits. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve stopped being so judgmental, so now I just call them “habits.”

The life of a screenwriter can be a lot like that of a college freshman. You screw around a lot, then burn the midnight oil to finish that assignment. You don’t necessarily outgrow that.

Ideally, of course, you work a set number of hours every day and deliver your best material. I’m at my happiest as a writer when I feel myself doing that — excited to sit down and write that next scene. But that doesn’t always happen. It doesn’t *often* happen. A lot of times, writing is just a slog.

I’ve fully accepted that it won’t get easier or more fun. But it can stay interesting, and there’s a lot to be said for interesting.

I’m trying to challenge myself to write projects outside of my comfort zone, either in terms of subject or form (e.g. the Big Fish musical). I find writing prose fiction exhausting, but rewarding, so I’ll probably do more.

And while I’ve resisted collaborating, I’m getting better at it. Once Big Fish hits the stage, I’ll probably try another TV show if I’m not directing a movie. Basically, there’s a lot I want to do. Prioritizing what to write is probably my biggest issue at this point.