Robert
Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize Winner, Author, and Screenwriter,
Good
Scent from a Strange Mountain
I
have long made crucial use of index cards in my writing,
both for novels and screenplays. I was thrilled to discover
Writer's Blocks. It is a brilliant software program,
not only taking over all that I'd previously done with
pen and card but actually opening up new and richly
productive possibilities. Writer's Blocks is now an
indispensable part of my creative process.
Congratulations
on your release of Writer's Blocks! It has refined an
already impressive tool that continues to make my life
a lot easier in the process of organizing, analyzing
and digesting scripts. Right now I'm using it in pre-production
on FIFTY VIOLINS [MUSIC OF THE HEART], a feature film
starring Madonna [Meryl Streep] which we will begin
shooting here in New York in a few weeks. I use Writer's
Blocks continuously while working with our writer. It
affords an easy way to refer to the script during discussions,
with jumping back and forth by scores of pages raising
no problem. Further, its color capacity allows me to
instantly see which scenes are related, either by character,
process or by time. It's visually elegant and also simply
a lot of fun to use. Thanks for the help!
What
a great tool for any writer! Using multicolored blocks
you can outline by chapter, move chapters around and
they automatically renumber, run blocks on characters,
locations, descriptions, options, etc., in different
colored blocks without interfering with the chapter
numbering, zoom in on the individual block and write
to your heart's content then zoom back out and get a
continuous picture of the work in progress or print
it out in color. [Ashley Software] has listened to writers
and made remarkable additions and changes to the original
program and still left options for the writer to customize
the program to fit his or her individual requirements.
I start my writing day by reviewing "The Block"
and end it by updating it. It has become as necessary
a part of my daily writing routine as my word processing
program. BRAVO!
Laurence Dworet, Screenwriter, Outbreak Throw away those pushpins. Writer's Blocks is a digital corkboard that lets you shuffle a hundred scene cards in minutes, then save the board in case later you change your mind. Add color coding for each character to see at a glance how they all interweave and you have a truly visual way to map out any story. Unlike any other product I've ever seen. Extremely useful. Howard M. Gould, Executive Producer, Cybill I've always been an index card guy, using different colors on a giant corkboard to beat out a story. Writer's Blocks helps me do everything I did with cards and much more, then lets me transfer the finished outline easily to my word processing program. I use it for everything from massive screenplay outlines to tiny scene restructurings. Plus it let me get rid of the corkboard and put up something nicer to look at. Jim Thomas, Producer/Co-Writer, Executive Decision, Predator In my opinion one of the greatest tools screenwriters can use to organize their ideas, acts, story points, gags, sequences, characters, backstory, et cetera, is the humble file card. WRITERS BLOCKS has electrified the file card. Ive found your program easy to install, simple to understand and for anyone familiar with a computer, really no more complicated to use than a file card and a pencil. Ive also discovered that Writers Blocks in its printed outline form is very effective and impressive in pitch and development meetings. On a final note, the electronic record of the notes, ideas, and development process of my screenplays is far easier to store, and find, than a stack of handwritten file cards, thanks to Writers Blocks. Beth Gutcheon, Author & Screenwriter, Without a Trace, Saying Grace, Five Fortunes I am using Writer's Blocks at present to structure a big complicated novel, and the more I use it the more use I find for it. I've used it for taking notes from research books that have to go back to the library. I have used it for what you would expect, to make the overall plot schema before I begin writing. And I am using it to create a scene list as I write, so 400 pages from now I will be able to find the chapter in which such-and-such happens, and of course, see by the color coding that the key characters' plot lines are balanced appropriately. Version 1.1 seems to do everything I want it to, with no bugs or problems, and you couldn't find better tech support. Neil Chesanow, Author/Editor, Where I Live, New Woman Magazine
I
just love Writer's Blocks. Here's why: Writer's Blocks
is the first serious application for professional writers
since the invention of the word processor. Word processors
automate part two of the writing process: the actual
writing. Now, at last, Writer's Blocks automates part
one of the writing process: the thinking, note scribbling,
list making, outlining and re-outlining that occurs
before the word processor gets cranked up. Writer's
Blocks let's you fill your monitor screen with resizable,
sequentially numbered electronic index cards, each a
mini-word processor that can hold an unlimited amount
of text. Block out a screenplay scene by scene, a book
chapter by chapter, a magazine article paragraph by
paragraph, even a speech section by section -- and do
it faster than ever before. Rearrange the blocks endlessly.
When dragged and dropped, their numbers automatically
re-sequence. Toggle between block and outline views
for two ways to see the logical progression of your
ideas. I love my word processor, but it forces me to
view documents sequentially, not concurrently, as my
real desktop permits me to do. Writer's Blocks lets
me see and rearrange 10, 20, 30 or more little notes
at once. ...I find that incredibly useful to be able
to do on my PC.
Bob Boris, Writer/Director of Oxford Blues, Writer/Director of Frank and Jesse I have used WRITERS BLOCKS for a few years now...and on quite a few movies. I can think of no better way to organize ideas, scenes, characters, and dialog lines. WRITERS BLOCKS allows me to shift the order of my material, restructure it....and still permits me to look at the entire movie in one large overall view. That's an invaluable tool for a writer. |