Checking back in on the topic — my revised workflow is as follows:
I’m writing more than ever on the iPad (iPad + Apple Bluetooth Keyboard + Incase Origami), using the App Elements. I like Elements because it’s very Dropbox savvy, and gives me a lot of flexibility in how my documents appear (I can sort them by name, date of creation, whatever — some apps only sort by creation date, which mucks up the whole thing for me.)
In turn, I am synching my Scrivener project to that same dropbox folder. So when I open Elements, there is my “binder” waiting for me — a numbered (by Scrivener) sequence of text docs in dropbox, ready for work.
Everything is written in Fountain, as .txt files (though now I can use .fountain, I suppose!) Preview isn’t an issue for me because I just don’t do it while I’m drafting in Fountain — I actually find that not doing so frees me from even thinking about that kind of thing.
I can see how this all might seem kind of convoluted to someone who hasn’t tried it (or is intimidated by learning Scrivener + Dropbox + Elements + Fountain). It isn’t - in fact, it may be the least fiddly way I’ve ever worked.
Setting up Scrivener to work with Dropbox is trivial, thanks to Ioa’s insanely helpful documentation. Elements is similarly easy to set up. And the Fountain learning curve, as I’ve said before, is almost nonexistent.
The result is that all the software and all the hardware just goes away. I open Elements, and there’s my script, in chunks — on my iPad or my phone. When I synch in Scrivener, there it all is!
It’s reminded me of how amazingly flexible Scrivener is. Example: I thought of a nice exchange I wanted to add to the script. I was on the Metro in DC. Typed it into my phone as a new document in my “binder” in Elements — Fountain just lets me do that, with no formatting worries. When I got home, there it was, in beautiful chunk style in Scrivener. I just found a place for it in my script, copy pasted it to that section and I was done.
Because I’m so happy with this system, my lust for Scrivener iOS is severely muted — I’m already doing what I want to do on iOS!
I’m afraid that also means that I haven’t contributed much to the Scriv for iOS wish list, though. For me, if the iPad Scrivener does what I’ve outlined above + Fountain preview, that’s my suggestion for screenplay functionality on that app. I’m sure the general thought is to not require the Fountian syntax — to simply allow people to write in screenplay format everywhere. I get why people would want that, but I can honestly say that I don’t think I’d use it. I rather like plain text.
Anyway, thanks once again Keith et al. I’ve been using Scrivener for four and a half years now, and I continue to be amazed at how the original Scivener concept has allowed the software to become more and more valuable every year.
