Two on Plain Text

As always, Stu Maschwitz offers some highly considered wisdom on switching to a plain text workflow:

The point of this article is simple: Don’t take my word for it that working with plain text is the best thing that ever happened to you. Or this guy’s. Or this guy’s.

The best thing I can do is gently lay out some of the reasons I love it. Go ahead: reject them. Fight back. Argue with me. This is one of those ideas that’s worth it.

Then slowly discover plain text on your own.

Brilliant. Also noteworthy: Stu had only just learned Markdown when he conceived of Screenplay Markdown, which eventually became Fountain. That’s nuts.

John August responded to Stu with even more text wisdom:

If you’re fighting to get Final Draft to recognize a parenthetical, you’re no longer writing. You’re formatting. You’re a poet picking fonts. You’re a novelist worrying about hyphenation.

Plain text keeps you from worrying about the wrong things at the wrong time.

These are two very smart guys.