Ruth Symes

Writing Tools

I write my books and scripts on an Apple Mac computer, here are details of the software I use.

It's important to format film, TV and radio scripts correctly and to do this it is easiest to use some special software; but if you are using a word processor, there are several templates available on the internet.

For Film and TV scripts, I write using Final Draft which is the industry standard software - there are many alternatives and which one you is a matter of personal preference. It's possible to write film scripts using basic word processing software or a free application such as Celtx (which is available for most operating systems).

The BBC has some templates for formatting scripts using microsoft word, which you can find here.

Like a lot of writers, I find it useful to use an application called Scrivener whilst working on projects.

It comes with lots of templates for different sorts of projects (novels, screenplays, comics). It is quite cheap, but only available for the Mac, although the website has details of similar applications for windows such as PageFour.

For story writing, I use Word but any word processor will do; there are word processors writen especially for writing stories and even good free ones available on the internet.

I never know where I'll be when I get a good idea, so I always carry a notebook and pen where ever I go - It's probably the most useful tool of all.