Hey writers ... What do you use?

I cannot wait for my new rMB to arrive! I had an 11" MBA, then switched to a 13" rMBP. Love the screen... But I miss the light weight of the MBA. The new 12" MacBook will take care of my needs: great retina screen and lighter than the 11" Air. I'll let you all know what I think once I finally get it.

Screenwriting machines and software

I am a big fan of grabbing the biggest screen available. 15" is swell by me. My thinking is that while I may be on a plane for a few hours, I am more likely to be working in a hotel room, or some other flat space. At that point, the screen is a lot more important to me than portability.

As to software. I use a legal pad (Levengers, Cornell lined) and a fountain pen when I need to really think about stuff. Once I know what I am doing I tend to write in Final Draft, MovieMagicScreenwriter 2000, or Slugline. I have had good luck with all of them. If I am working on a TV show, I use whatever the show is using. Because I have been doing it for a while, the software pretty quickly becomes invisible to me.

I will admit (this could have been posted by some else posing as me) that I have on occasion used Final Draft's excellent margin cheating abilities to get a script down to an acceptable length. It's always better to do the rewrite work initially, because once a script gets budgeted, you're going to have it there for all the world to see and you may not have the time to spend shortening it in the way that you really want.

One man's .02, YMMV, and all that.

Adam Rodman

happyslayer said:

I cannot wait for my new rMB to arrive! I had an 11" MBA, then switched to a 13" rMBP. Love the screen... But I miss the light weight of the MBA. The new 12" MacBook will take care of my needs: great retina screen and lighter than the 11" Air. I'll let you all know what I think once I finally get it.

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I bit the bullet and picked up a 1.1/256 yesterday. I shouldn't have, but man, it is an awesome machine. It runs Slugline, Scrivener, Evernote, and FadeIn like a champ and that's all I really wanted. Plus the Retina screen. Now I can't ever go back to using an Air. I recommend steering clear of the MB forums for now though. Apparently everyone is trying to compare this consumer-oriented device to a prosumer offering, and finding faults with its performance when doing so. YMMV.

Chad Brostorm said:

I bit the bullet and picked up a 1.1/256 yesterday. I shouldn't have, but man, it is an awesome machine. It runs Slugline, Scrivener, Evernote, and FadeIn like a champ and that's all I really wanted. Plus the Retina screen. Now I can't ever go back to using an Air. I recommend steering clear of the MB forums for now though. Apparently everyone is trying to compare this consumer-oriented device to a prosumer offering, and finding faults with its performance when doing so. YMMV.

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IMO the rMB is a great machine for writing. The rub comes in if you're a travel writer or other type of writer/photog and want to be able to process your pics on your travel machine.

People are looking for the triumvirate of features - powerful, lightweight, great screen. Right now, every machine Apple offers has two of the three. If the rMB line grows the way the MBA line did - becoming more powerful, getting more ports - it will go from being a great machine for straight writing and media consumption to a great-at-everything machine.

nightlong said:

Wondering how people coming from a bigger screen find the rMB 12" for writing?

I haven't yet seen it, none on display where I live.

I find iPad screens good for writing, but I have them on hoverbars at eye level, with a Bluetooth keyboard at a comfortable level, and sit closer to them than to computers.

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It's surprisingly comfortable, and I'm a glasses wearer with a bad case of astigmatism. I've got my resolution set to 1440x900 and typically read from 14-18 inches away. Haven't done any marathon writing sessions yet, but I don't think I'll get any eye strain from doing so. My other machines are the 15-inch rMBP and I have a 28-inch 4K rig for when I'm working at home, so I definitely like having a lot of working space.

I got it yesterday and have spent a good chunk of the last 28 hours getting it all setup/installed. So far I really like it. I haven't spent a lot of time actually writing on it (not counting email, texts and some forum posts) but what little I have done alleviates my fears about the new keyboard. It really is a great little machine for the things I do on it. And so far, doing lots of installs and setup and, admittedly, a little youtube watching, it is getting great battery life. Easily over 10 hours yesterday and still going strong tonight after using it most of the afternoon--shows over three hours still available.

nightlong said:

Wondering how people coming from a bigger screen find the rMB 12" for writing?

I haven't yet seen it, none on display where I live.

I find iPad screens good for writing, but I have them on hoverbars at eye level, with a Bluetooth keyboard at a comfortable level, and sit closer to them than to computers.

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I just got mine yesterday. Coming from a 13" rMBP. Totally loving it. Where as I thought the 11" Air display is too small, I have no complaints using the 12" rMBP after using the 13" rMBP for a long time. Will be selling my Pro soon.

I can't do writing on an iPad. OS X for me.

nightlong said:

how do you find the keyboard?

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It's great. I like it even better than the rMBP keyboard, and I can't go back. I thought I would need to adjust to it, but nope.

The keyboard on the MBr is ok, but the keyboard on my MBA 11 is better and less cramped. I'll just wait until the MBr is buyable for less than $1000 and closer to $800 (refurb from apple.) That's all the first version is worth in base form. I bought my brand new 2014 base mba 11 at BB for $720, and love it. also have mbp 15 (2010) and desktop mac mini. wife has 2014 mba 13 and desktop iMac. and we have a bunch of android tablets. BUT the 11 air has become my favorite.

RUGGLES99 said:

The keyboard on the MBr is ok, but the keyboard on my MBA 11 is better and less cramped. I'll just wait until the MBr is buyable for less than $1000 and closer to $800 (refurb from apple.) That's all the first version is worth in base form. I bought my brand new 2014 base mba 11 at BB for $720, and love it. also have mbp 15 (2010) and desktop mac mini. wife has 2014 mba 13 and desktop iMac. and we have a bunch of android tablets. BUT the 11 air has become my favorite.

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The 11" Air is insanely cramped. Personal preference, but I could never go back to that. Even the palm/wrist rest area is better on the 12" rMB.

PDFierro said:

The 11" Air is insanely cramped. Personal preference, but I could never go back to that. Even the palm/wrist rest area is better on the 12" rMB.

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Not sure how you can find the 11" MBA "insanely cramped" but be comfortable with a machine that is basically the same or smaller in every dimension.

motrek said:

Not sure how you can find the 11" MBA "insanely cramped" but be comfortable with a machine that is basically the same or smaller in every dimension.

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Yeah I'm not sure how, but I am. For one thing, the 12" display seems huge compared to the 11.6" one found in the Air. The rMB is just way more comfortable to me.

PDFierro said:

Yeah I'm not sure how, but I am. For one thing, the 12" display seems huge compared to the 11.6" one found in the Air. The rMB is just way more comfortable to me.

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It is a different aspect ratio so it's probably a bit of an optical illusion making you think the 12" screen is significantly bigger.

What Index Cards software do you use for plotting?

I love Scrivener, but now that I've got an Android tablet can't use Scrivener on that. I'm interested in something that will sync between Android and my iMac, and will work on Android OFFLINE on my work lunchbreak.

Any ideas? I'm after plot cards that can be moved around (and not necessarily attached to the actual writing as it is in Scrivener or Storyist).

For writers using iPad apps, I'd recommend using:

1. The iA Writer app
2. Pages
3. Werdsmith

There's a couple other apps listed for writers on the go here.

nightlong said:

iA Writer is excellent for iPad ... Simple, straightforward integration with Dropbox, and there is also a Mac version.

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I see that a 'pro' version is also offered...have you tried it/found it any better?

If you want to use a lightweight tablet for writing (and every other thing under the sun for which one would use a computer/laptop/tablet get the samsung note pro 12.2, a dream machine with a "retina" screen. It's what the fantasized iPad pro would be. PLUS the "note" in the name denotes that you can you write with it on the screen with the pen that comes with it. It's essentially the same size as the MBA 11". And very fast and powerful. It was just updated with android lolly pop. I have a 2014 base mba 11" that I find myself using more than any of my tablets now. BTW, the 12.2 note pro comes with the best ms office word clone Ive come across and have written book chapters on it using the samsung BT keyboard and BT mouse. If u haven't you should take a look at the 12.2. I think its coming down in price, but it costs about $500.

RUGGLES99 said:

If you want to use a lightweight tablet for writing (and every other thing under the sun for which one would use a computer/laptop/tablet get the samsung note pro 12.2, a dream machine with a "retina" screen. It's what the fantasized iPad pro would be. PLUS the "note" in the name denotes that you can you write with it on the screen with the pen that comes with it. It's essentially the same size as the MBA 11". And very fast and powerful. It was just updated with android lolly pop. I have a 2014 base mba 11" that I find myself using more than any of my tablets now. BTW, the 12.2 note pro comes with the best ms office word clone Ive come across and have written book chapters on it using the samsung BT keyboard and BT mouse. If u haven't you should take a look at the 12.2. I think its coming down in price, but it costs about $500.

Click to expand...

I do love the idea of a proper stylus - and seriously considered purchasing the Note 8 myself...but just could not justify the expense - particularly given the dearth of serious writing solutions (and associated reference apps) on the platform. Perhaps Word now makes this more of a compelling alternative to the iPad...but Until reference managers make their way to the platform, their uptake in academic circles will be limited. mendelay has made the jump...perhaps the rest will follow suit.

Just a report . . . my partner (a poet who, not surprisingly, usually writes poetry) has started working on a large fiction project, using the retina Macbook and Scrivener. She's going to rework an old manuscript with many chapters. As part of helping her import it into Scrivener, I showed her the 2-page view and she's been experimenting with it (with notes/other chapters/etc in the second window). She's found, not surprisingly, that the 12" is just too small to make that work. And yet she loves that view because it's so very useful. So I think we're going to find a 24" 4K monitor for her to use when she needs that capability.

I'm at work on a new novel that will draw material from an old (uncompleted one) and I, too, am routinely in the 2-page view -- old on the right, new on the left. I'm also happy with the way that Scrivener let me insert the entire 130 chapters of the old manuscript into the new one's binder, so I can go poking around in the old with with the greatest of ease. It's a really useful way to work. I'm using a 27" iMac, so I have plenty of screen real estate.

I use Word for letters, notes and planning. iA writer for getting ideas down. And I'm looking into Scrivener for larger projects. I'm planning a fiction book. I have 13 chapter titles and think I know where i'm going. At the minute I have about 4000 words in notes in Word. I like the new Word it's nice. I tried Typed, while it looks good I found it had a couple of errors when I typed, I'll stick with iA. I need to run through the Scrivener tutorial. I'm aiming at 160,000 words in about 15 chapters. It's going to be yet another dystopian book. But I'm aiming to make it worth reading. Gonna take a while.

I'm on a 2011 MBA now but I am looking at getting a MBPr 13 as I also work with Logic and I need the processing power. That is the only thing that is stopping me getting that lovely new MacBook....I do kinda lust after it. So nice.