I don't regard myself as some kind of guru, and my rather long-winded and shambolic 'career path' is certainly no template for fame and riches! Nevertheless, as time passes more and more people ask my advice, normally in the form of samples, templates, recommendations, etc. This page collects what small amount of resources I can provide.
In general, anyone aspiring to a career as a writer—in any medium—should in my opinion remember just two golden rules: write what you are passionate about, and never give up. Everything else is just technique, personal style and not a small amount of luck.
— Antony
Sample scripts
JULIUS
Act I of the script for my graphic novel JULIUS, written in 2003. This script shows my original script format (JULIUS was written entirely in Final Draft—see below), and is a good example of how I direct an artist I've never worked with before.
WASTELAND #9
By comparison, this script for issue #9 of WASTELAND shows my more recent format (essentially the same but with some tweaks) and is much looser—by the time this was written, in late 2006, Chris and I had been working together for almost a year. The style and direction is therefore more casual.
Writing software
I use two main applications for writing. 95% of my working day is spent in these programs:
Scrivener is an outstanding writing application for the Mac that I use every day, to write everything except this web site. Specifically: comics and other scripts are plotted, outlined and written in Scrivener (before final formatting is done in Final Draft), and novels and other prose are written entirely in Scrivener from start to finish. If you are a writer on the Mac, I cannot recommend this application highly enough.
Final Draft is my preferred pure-scripting program. I've used it, in some form or another, for every comic I've written since CLOSER. I use a modified template, which Andy Diggle and I designed together for comics (though it's been tweaked a little more since then, so Andy's template differs slightly from mine). I now use FD only for final formatting after writing original drafts in Scrivener, but if for some reason you “can't get on” with Scrivener, Final Draft is my next highest recommendation.
Templates
N.B.: This template was originally designed for use with Final Draft v6.0, running on Mac OS X. It should run on other versions and platforms, but I can't guarantee that, and I can't support it in any way. The template is supplied as-is, with no warranty or indemnity given or implied. If Final Draft breaks or your computer blows up, it's not my fault. By downloading the template, you agree to this disclaimer.
Outliners, Mindmappers and Dramatic Structure generators
Avoid. I'm not joking.
I've tried many, if not most, of these programs, and not one of them is as intuitive, fast, or adaptable as a good pen and a nice thick pad of paper.
Damn sight cheaper than most of them, too...(“But you said in the FAQ that you sometimes use OmniOutliner Pro!” Yes I did, but only to formalise an outline that's already been written. The creation of the outline is all done manually.)
Getting Things Written
It's not unusual for me to be writing four or five different projects at once, with more on the horizon. Keeping track of each job's progress, and organising my time so I can give each one the attention it needs, is somewhat of an administrative minefield.
One of the ways I've made this process easier for myself is by implementing a modified form of the Getting Things Done system. A lot of people asked how I'd done this, and so in mid-2007 I wrote a piece called Getting Things Written to explain and illustrate. I expected maybe a few dozen people to bother reading it.
To my surprise, it was absurdly popular. Within six months the page had racked up almost 100,000 views. It has long since passed that milestone, and is still viewed hundreds of times every week. Clearly, there are more disorganised writers out there than anyone suspected!
Backup and syncing
Not strictly to do with writing, I know. But anyone who's ever experienced data loss will know that actually, this is really important. Don't think it can't happen to you, because it most assuredly can.
I have a 500GB external drive hooked up to my desktop Mac. Time Machine, which is built-in to OSX as of 10.5 “Leopard”, backs up everything I do automatically. I know others who use SuperDuper! and other such 'cloning' backup apps for the same purpose. (I assume there are similar apps out there for Windows.) The point is, make an external backup of some kind. It requires some initial expense, but the day you need to use it you'll realise the cost is nothing compared to the peace of mind it gives you.
External drives are great if your computer goes on the fritz, but what if your house burns down, or you get burgled? And how do you go about making sure you have the most current copies of your work files on all your machines?
I use DropBox, which automatically makes local copies of selected documents on every machine it's installed on, and keeps a copy 'in the cloud'. The best part is, it requires practically no thought whatsoever. (Like backup, the more you have to think about syncing, the less likely you are to use it.) Without getting too deep into hyperbole, DropBox is what you've always wanted Internet syncing to be. I thoroughly recommend it.
