Episode 94 - Linux for Writers

[Chess]

In this guest episode: Charles Olsen discusses various applications and tools for writers that are available in Linux.

http://www.linuxreality.com/podcast/episode-94-linux-for-writers/

[mjjzf]

Thank you for this episode, although it was just as much a presentation of why penniless people should use GNU/Linux.
Celtx is impressive, though. I read an article about it in the German LinuxUser.

[davijordan]

I really enjoyed this podcast. Not just because he was for me preaching to the choir so to speak. It was very insightful about how to make your linux investment be more worthwhile. No matter what system and software you have, you will invest a bit of time. It is important to make the most of it.
I have always liked to listen to the Lake Wobegon podcasts. I kind of grew up on them, but missed it for a few years. Thank goodness they are still around. I like Garrison Keillor's (sp?) style. I have always kind of wanted to do something like that. It is wonderful to know there are such wonderful tools for doing such a project. I am not a writer and not at all experienced in that area. I earned my sheepskin by learning to count beans, I even counted beans for a few years. Later, I got into machines that could not only count the beans for you, but make a bit of java.  Maybe now i can take the beans and the machine  to make an espresso expression of my thoughts.
Anyway, I was working on something else while listening to the podcast,  Now I need to listen to the podcast again to make sure about getting the tools he mentioned. Thanx for another great podcast. 

[Sebulba]

First off, fantastic episode. 

I've been looking for an eaiser way to try screenplays, having read several I keep seeing the same format style. I always assumed I'd have to set up an OO Writer template, so Celtx is a GREAT recommendation, I'll install it later on.

For organizing notes into some sort of order you mentioned a spreadsheet.....this sounds crazy to me, may I suggest an alternative which is much more variable. I was pointed to Basket which seems to be the best I've found at taking little snippets of things, partial screen captures of websites, notes, websites, music, video clips etc.

Basket is a KDE application, which was great for me until the other week when I converted to Gnome. I am now trying to find GTK equivalents for all my stuff. Basket has no equal so far unfortunately although NoteCase does a similar job......if you don't mind it crashing when you adjust any of the settings that is. It is also very limiting when placed next to Basket.

All I need to be 100% GTK is an alternate for Basket and SMPlayer.  Judging by the website and screen shots Celtx may just do everything I need Basket for, so that's possibly one down.

[Magus]

Funny you mention Basket. It sounds like a GTK app called Tomboy. I use KDE, and I found KNotes more appropriate for my purposes (simple sticky notes on my desktop).  Basket might help me though. Look into Tomboy and see if it's close to what you're looking for. 

Also, I think the gui that comes with regular Mplayer is gtk. I think there's also a way to make totem use Mplayer (apt-get install totem-mplayer?).

[Sebulba]

Tomboy is great for simple note taking but it kinda falls down for arranging notes into some sort of project.....this is where Basket really stands out. KNotes is the same sort of idea as Tomboy, along with several other "post it" style note takers. I am not bashing Tomboy here, I use it as a quickie access point for stuff like phone numbers.

On the MPlayer thing, I found a Gnome Mplayer......it's terrible, it was on my system.....note the use of the past tense in that statement lol. Totem is the best GTK I've found so far but it's not great. VLC is great as a back up player, when my primary preferred player struggles with a file for some reason VLC is usually a reliable stand in.

[jviscosi]

This was a good episode, and on a topic near to my writer's heart!  I've actually been periodically writing small articles on my blog in a "free software for writers" series, inspired by a poster who commented that he didn't have MS Word and so needed outside help to format his manuscripts.  I figured the only reason he thought he needed Word was because he had never heard of free software like OpenOffice.org.

So far I've covered OOo and Scribus (as a layout and promotional tool).  Celtx is going to be my next mention, but I could hardly improve on Charles's discussion of it.  Nicely done, Charles!

[CharlesO]

First off, fantastic episode. 

I've been looking for an eaiser way to try screenplays, having read several I keep seeing the same format style. I always assumed I'd have to set up an OO Writer template, so Celtx is a GREAT recommendation, I'll install it later on.

For organizing notes into some sort of order you mentioned a spreadsheet.....this sounds crazy to me, may I suggest an alternative which is much more variable. I was pointed to Basket which seems to be the best I've found at taking little snippets of things, partial screen captures of websites, notes, websites, music, video clips etc.

Basket is a KDE application, which was great for me until the other week when I converted to Gnome. I am now trying to find GTK equivalents for all my stuff. Basket has no equal so far unfortunately although NoteCase does a similar job......if you don't mind it crashing when you adjust any of the settings that is. It is also very limiting when placed next to Basket.

All I need to be 100% GTK is an alternate for Basket and SMPlayer.  Judging by the website and screen shots Celtx may just do everything I need Basket for, so that's possibly one down.

Thanks for the comments. About the idea of using a spreadsheet to organize notes sounding "crazy," that's one I actually learned from a working screenwriter, Philip Gladwin, in his ebook "Screenwriting Goldmine." Sounded a little strange to me at first, but it works quite well for me. But definitely, use whatever works for you.

I actually do use BasKet for miscellaneous notes, but it seems a little unwieldy to me in trying to track and organize enough entries to make up a screenplay or novel.

And I have used BasKet in both KDE and Gnome, it worked just as well in Gnome as KDE.

Charles

[CharlesO]

This was a good episode, and on a topic near to my writer's heart!  I've actually been periodically writing small articles on my blog in a "free software for writers" series, inspired by a poster who commented that he didn't have MS Word and so needed outside help to format his manuscripts.  I figured the only reason he thought he needed Word was because he had never heard of free software like OpenOffice.org.

So far I've covered OOo and Scribus (as a layout and promotional tool).  Celtx is going to be my next mention, but I could hardly improve on Charles's discussion of it.  Nicely done, Charles!

Thanks for the comments. And I'm glad you mentioned your blog, I just went to check it out. I like the way you're calling attention to software like OpenOffice and Scribus. Celtx certainly deserves a mention there, too.

The one flaw I see in Celtx right now is that it's only good for screenwriting -- it can't handle scripts for TV. There's no way to force a page break, which you must do between acts in a TV script. Implementing that one feature would allow Celtx to do TV writing.

I guess, though, if you're writing TV scripts you're using the program that the producers tell you to use, probably Movie Magic Screenwriter or Final Draft.

[Sebulba]

I've now installed Celtx and it seems very nice on first impression. Like anything else it'll take some time to really play with it.

[Kornberger]

After listening I downloaded zotero.  It's probably the best program I've found in organizing internet research.