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“It was a dark and stormy night.”

Having trouble getting further than that? Same here, mostly. Motivation and focus are my two biggest obstacles when it comes to completing writing projects. It’s quite easy for me to get started on a new novel or play, much more difficult to actually complete one.

But there are programs out there to help. The days of keeping track of everything in separate Microsoft Word documents are over, thank God. Are you using a generic word processer, for example, or are you using software formatted specifically for novel or script creation? Do you have programs to help you plot out the story and stay on track? When you get a brilliant idea or joke and are away from your computer, are you recording it on your iPhone? What online resources are you using for submission ideas?

In this column, I’m going to pull together and detail many of these programs and resources. The impetus is a play I need to have completed by the end of March. I started it over a year ago, and I’m only one scene in. Not good. I’ve got a long way to go and just a short time to get there, so I need to make sure I don’t get distracted along the way. Between the Macintosh, my iPhone, and a slew of tools for each, I’m gonna do what they said can’t be done. And so…

“It was a dark and stormy night.”

Prologue

• iTalk Recorder Premium (iPhone) - A very easy way to quickly record, organize and share every idea that pops into your head, no matter where you are.
• Contour (Macintosh) - The GPS of story development. If you tend to get lost somewhere in your projects, Contour will guide you through.
• MacJournal (Macintosh/iPhone) - Document, organize and blog your ideas and notes, and sync them up between your iPhone / iPod touch and multiple Macs.

Act I

• Storyist 2: Scene 1 - Organize your story’s elements and properly format your manuscript. Here, we take a look at initial set-up and character notes.