Writing: Fancy Software Is For Typesetting

No matter what software I use - whether its Final Draft, Movie Magic Screenwriter, or Microsoft Word - I find that it's best used for typesetting - that is, arranging the display of words ALREADY written.

The writing itself is better done in longhand, or in a basic text editor. The fancy software encourages me to aim for final-draft-quality output, which is crippling. And it also leads to a common fallacy of thought: because my words are visually formatted, they must be final. The simple tools, on the other hand, encourage me to sketch and mess around, without the pressure of feeling that my words are being chiseled into stone.

Once I've finished sketching out a scene, I then go to the software and lay out the words, which is small revision in itself, and a visual reward for finishing the work.